Below is the unedited conversation (as transcribed by Dica from the recordings), that took place between Matt Massive and DJ Bad Boy Bill at his Chicago loft in December of 1998.  DJ Phil Free Art was also invited to participate but was not able to attend.  A few others present dropped in questions as well.

MATT MASSIVE VS. BAD BOY BILL -- THE INTERVIEW as transcribed by dica -- 12/24/98.

Matt Massive:  this is weird because i was expecting phil to break out with something right off the bat

Bad Boy Bill:  yeah, he provides comic relief!

MM:  did you ever get a chance to pick up the free art zine?  phil hasn't done one in a couple years, but when parties started going on down here he was handing out his zines, every weekend, just hilarious.  and this guy, he's 28 now, but he's a big kid!  funniest person you will probably meet...  the stuff he writes is just right on, and i would have loved to have had him here..

BBB:  haha.

MM:   the most recent thing that you've done with richard 'humpty' vision..  if you could give us a little background on that, meeting him and what not...  he's from LA, right?

BBB:  yeah... the cd we just put out is number two.. volume one we did about a year and a half ago.  umm, and it basically was an idea that me and richard had.  i had met richard back in.. it was like '92, he was in a group called The Movement, and we got him out to do a show in chicago, and it was huge.  it was actually at the o'hare expo center, which can hold like 10,000 people.  like 200 showed up, so we had a lot of time to chat (laughs)...  we talked a lot about music and it seemed like we had a lot of common interests, and he was tellin' me about his radio show out there that he did called 'power tools'...  and he said 'yeah, gimme a tape, i'll play it on the show'.

so i gave him one of my mixtapes and he started playin it on the radio out there.  and then about a year later i went out, i was in a group called Reality, and i went out there to perform... and he said 'bring some records, you can dj at my club!'... and he gave me like a half hour set.  after that they kept bringing me out... so every 4 or 5 months i'd drop in to dj, and we just became friends like that.  and then we had an idea...  he was gonna do his own mixtape and i was gonna do my own mixtape and then we both said, well, once we establish ourselves, why don't we do a tape together and then kinda cross-promote it to each of our markets.  and he said yeah, that'd be a good idea!  so that's how the whole house connection idea was born.  and opposed to me doing side a and he doing side b, or vice versa, he said 'well, why don't we just do the tape together kinda like a collaboration, on four turntables, and that way the whole tape will have your influences and my influences on it...'

MM:  that's one thing i was wondering about... when i was listening to it, four turntables, two guys obviously.. you've got your style and he's got his.. so how do you cooperate up there?  since i'm not a dj, it might be easier than it seems, but you're both there, giving all you can.  how do you avoid getting in each others' way?

BBB:  it's a give and take.  i mean, there's certain things that you want to do and... we figure it out, you know.. we sit down and we talk and we figure out who's gonna do what, and then we talk about records that we wanna play or don't wanna play.  we just both have an understanding for listenability... he comes from doing a lot of mixtapes and so do i... so we try to make it interesting, but yet still keep it fresh and keep it new, so there's a lot of things that come into play.  but we kinda have similar styles and similar thoughts on music and what we like... so he might have one idea and then i build on top of that, or i have an idea and he comes up with something and says 'yo, let's do it this way...'  it's a big collaboration, and it seems to work.

MM:  yeah, you had mass amounts of (unclear)

BBB:  yeah, that's what being in the money...  i mean, it's expensive!  a lot of people didn't want to talk to me, so i would have to pay advances, $2000 - $3000 for a song up front.  because they didn't...  i guess they didn't wanna bust anybody, you know?  so i mean, at that point, a lot of these labels wouldn't license to me, and some of them would... i dunno, i mean... cuz i have record labels also that i run, and i like these records going to all the djs that do mix compilations... and we don't get royalties taken, and we don't get paid.. cuz we're supposed to.  and, it's upsetting!  because you know, i'm sitting here doing mix compilations and i'm paying the royalties.  every six months, i guarantee you... you know, you used to work with cajual/relief, and ask anybody... they always get a statement from Mix Connection on all of my cds, bangin the box 1/2/3.. and that's something i pride myself on!  i like to say that i'm paying and i like to do things the right way.  and if you can and have the means, i would say, you know, try to license everything.  but i know a lot of guys are just starting out and they're doing two, three, four, five hundred tapes, a thousand tapes... and really can't afford to do it a legal way.  i dunno what to say about that, i guess.

MM:  another side to it though... a lot of tracks that are out there get well known because of... you know, this is an industry based on kids not being able to hear it on the radio, in many places anyway.. so many songs that got their first exposure..  i guess a good example would be daft punk with terry mullan's tape, you know?  there was a time before a lot of people knew who the artist was... there was just that 'oh, that's that track on the terry mullan tape.'

BBB:  so you're saying that djs buy the tape, and then end up buying the record when it comes out?

MM:  well, more the mass exposure:  the amount of people who are exposed to a certain song because it's put out there on mixtape at a very minimal profit for most djs...

BBB:  yeah... it's not... the bottom line is that a lot of these record labels don't have a full length album that they put out like daft punk... for daft punk, it helps them because like you're saying, the consumer can go out and buy the full length cd.  but if you're just a company that can just put out 12"s, and people just take those home and put 'em on cd... the consumer is not going to go out and buy an album if you're not offered an album or a cassette.  it really doesn't help.  unless the DJs that happen to listen to those tapes go out and buy that album, then it would help.  that's the bottom line.

MM:  so in the position you're in with running the label, have you pursued anything legally with someone who is obviously...  not like the little guys who pop out a couple hundred tapes, but something where it's.... i know there's a professional standard that if something's out on tape, it's just out on tape.  but if someone has a cd, then it raises it to another level...

BBB:  yeah, if somebody owes you enough money you can take it to the legal route, or you just can do what i do... which is 'you'll never license anything from us again.'  you know what i'm saying?  i mean that's the bottom line.. if they didn't pay you the first time, they never call me to get another record.  and they kinda screw themselves... the more labels they do that to, the less records they have on the next cd.

BBB:  there was one party that i was at, in the worst parts of indiana... and it was on halloween.  and there was like 50 people at the party.  and i said to one of my friends, i said 'i can't keep doing this.  this is ridiculous.  there's people out there spinning right now for 2000 or 3000 people, and i'm spinning for 50 people at this shithole in indiana!  this ain't gonna happen anymore, and i swear to god this is it...'  and luckily, this guy patrick of phato, from syracuse, was like 'yo, i got this rave going that you can spin at... you know'  and i don't remember what my price was at the time, but it was a lot more than he was offering me.  and i was like 'well, you know, i charge a lot more than that...' and he was like 'well, yeah, but this is a whole new market for you and i really can't pay you more than that... but i wanna have you out.'  so i was like 'well.. allright.. send me the tickets, send me the deposit.'  and i went out there, and i think they put me on at midnight, which was a really early set, but there were people there who liked my set.. a lot of people liked it, and word of mouth spread.. and i started doing more parties than that, so i guess that was one of the first turning points.  so I LOVE YOU PHATO, IF YOU'RE READING THIS!  haha.

ANDRE:  yeah i remember, my roommate Vernon George went out there...

BBB:  [unclear]

MM:  yeah, that's one thing i did notice.  about a year and a half ago... it almost seemed marketed that you were kinda pushing in...  probably because you had been on lineups earlier, and kids would come down here and eat it up!  you know, not like you were never here before.. but was that an active decision to, you know...

BBB:  it wasn't really an active decision, i was just sick of doing the parties i was doing..  and i had been saying that there would be another place i would like to spin.  i mean, i'd spin anywhere, but..  it was just, i guess it was just fate or something.  i really don't know what caused it.. and it's not like i planned it or anything, it just happened.

MM:   cool.   he [Patrick from Phato] sounds like that kind of guy, cuz he called us for an ad, and he was out there and we're here, you know...  he really wanted to appeal to midwest kids to get out to the east coast.   and there are people like that around the US, they're always looking out on the horizon.

BBB:  he's always been a big supporter of chicago.  he's had mike dearborn out, a lot of guys from chicago.  he gives us a lot of love.

MM:  the first time i saw you spin... obviously we had heard the tapes before and i know i told you this... it was me, kurt from drop bass, and people that were involved in the rave thing in milwaukee.  you were spinning in some kind of club, it was right next to red carpet lanes in milwaukee... some strip mall location.  and we showed up, and it was really not our crowd.  we're here, a bunch of kids in big clothes, all sitting there.  we all kind of had to hustle in the corner, we didn't know any of these kids.  it was a predominantly hispanic south side milwaukee crowd.  we came up just to see you, but we also had to behave ourselves, because we were visitors.   i guess after seeing that, that was kind of the environment i had pictured you in down here.. not to pigeonhole you!  but you know.. when you started picking up and i was seeing you on more and more party flyers, i was wondering.. it was like, hmm maybe he's bored with that and maybe he's moving in...

BBB:  i'm not into that anyways... i mean, i grew up in a scene where people are multiculturally mixed, you know what i mean?  it's a good pigeonhole but it's a more ethnic genre, you know what i mean?  i don't really like doing clubs like that..  i like to do parties where you have black , white, everything.  where i grew up, i grew up in Bellevue, which is mixed.  it's mixed from all types of races... and those are the parties i like to do.  i think in different parts of the country you'll find that.  but it's.. that's when i have the most fun.

MM:  right.. i'd say that some of the disappointment or a failure of the scene... it used to attract all crowds in.. but now it's like 95% suburban white kids.  LA's different, but you know..

BBB:  yeah, i see more hip hop djs playing out, like different djs... i think it could definitely appeal, it just takes time for that... i don't know what it is.

MM:  yeah, and part of the scene respects that.  a guy that used to do parties in milwaukee is working on bringing in Run DMC, but he brought in De La Soul.  it's cool that it's finally getting back to that, but it also seems that it's not abnormal for the time where someone like puff daddy, who's sampling all these guys from back in the day and bringing it forward.. it seems like something that should have happened a long time ago already.  any opinions?  these are the kids you're talking to, i mean massive, techno, rave magazine.

BBB:  yeah... i don't know what to think.  i'm cool with people having a good time.  i'm not cool with people sitting down during my set.  hahaha... well anyways.. that's the thing.  have a good time.  if you're going to go to a party and spend $20-30, dance, you know?

MM:  that reminds me.  i saw you a few months back, down at one of those things at Dolton...  and we were freakin' out.. you were spinning tracks from like 92, 93.  old school stuff... there's a lot of people that are real pure about having just the new stuff in their sets... and then we hear you and we're like 'it's been years since i heard that!'

BBB:  well it's funny... i played with derrick may a couple weeks ago down in cincinatti and the first record he starts with is little louis 'blackout'...  and some guy goes to me 'dude.. is that a new record?  what is that?!?'  and i'm like 'cmon, bro!'  cuz in LA, when that record came out, he was playing who knows what... rock or something, i dunno.. that kind of music.  but just for him to start out with that record was amazing, it totally brought me back.

MM:  hey, we're at a point where there's so many young kids involved right now that you could probably put together a set of pre-94 stuff, and they'd be like 'oh my god! what's this new track?'  for us, it was really sad at that dolton party, so many kids sitting around.  it was me, johnny, and john..  and we were all in the speakers.  we looked around and we were like 'what is wrong with these people?'   maybe it was the space with that low white ceiling.

BBB:  i don't even think i want to do another party like that.  i mean, how many times has a party been there?

ANDRE:  it's a backup venue.. you lose your venue, you move there.

MM:  you know, backup venue basically means they called somewhere else and halfheartedly got the okay... and then a week beforehand the guy that owns the place figures out what's going on.  and you didn't call them back because you're afraid by talking he'd actually figure out what was going on.  so that's what the backup is.  but umm.. maybe we should try to cover some other places here.  we should start with where you started...  what age did you start spinning?

BBB:  i started when i was 14, in highschool.  like a freshman.

MM:  how old are you now?

BBB:  ... too old!  haha.  no, i'm young, young... 20-something.

MM:  ah..

BBB:  and i've been djing for about 15 years, you can figure it out.  haha.  yeah, i started out djing after school at kids' houses.  i had about 10 records, and we'd all bring all of our records over to somebody's house who had turntables.  we'd mix in and out of each other's records... basically a neighborhood party, like basement parties, stuff like that.  like the guy trying to get on.. [in amusing voice] 'man you've been on too long!  get off!'  you know, shit like that.  trying to get some time to dj on somebody's turntables because we couldn't afford our own...

MM:  what kind of stuff did you start out spinning?

BBB:  mostly the stuff i heard on BMX, anything they would play.  so i'd play what Farley would play, which was more like deep house...  first choice, main line... i'd play stuff like Ralphie Rosario was playing, Nicky Oliver... i played the whole spectrum.  but when i first first started out, i was doing west side parties at manors..  real deep underground house like "It's Not Over"...  and then i got off course into all the chicago stuff.. i originally liked 80s like "Jack Your Body".. stuff like that.

ANDRE:  you did a lot of DMC stuff back then, a lot of DJ contests... haha [more talking unclear about the DMCs]

MM:  was it _the_ DMCs, or just a buildup to it?

BBB:  naw... yeah, they used to have it divided like American Finals, and then the Midwest Finals were in Chicago, and there were the East Coast and the West Coast Finals.  i think one year i placed first in the midwest and Mike Hitman Wilson, he came in second.  so we both flew out to san diego for the US finals.. Cash Money actually won that year, then went on to win the whole thing... see i was spinning hip hop as well then, like "Rock The Bells", you know, stuff like that.

[talking about growing up]

BBB:  yeah, i grew up with Kiss, i grew up with Rush.  i have that mixture too.  and that, mixed in with The Gap Band, Stevie Wonder, stuff like that... so i had it all, the whole spectrum of it.  but i was already into different styles from the BMX days.  all the different styles of house... that was what everybody played, and it seems that after a while... i dunno.  i couldn't explain.

[progresses to talking about the party he played at in rockford... Candyland?]

that was like the first [rave] party i did in chicago, and i really wanted to make a good impression.  all i heard was talking shit, like 'oh bill, what are you trying to do, get into the rave scene... stay with the commercial heads, you fucker' and all this negative shit.  and i was like 'isn't the rave scene supposed to be about positivity and unity and stuff like that?'  so i went out there, and it was like i had to prove something to somebody... and i think i surprised a lot of people.  

MM:  you say with the 'commercial' stuff...  sometimes the underground mentality can defeat itself..  when people lose track, it's like why are they doing this?  are they going to try to do something real serious that nobody's ever heard before, or are they just out to have a good time?  and a lot of people will not allow themselves to go out to a club and hear something that you may be able to see on mtv at the time.  not that it's at that level completely, but there are sounds tailored for a mass appeal.  people who are just out to have a good time, and there are other sounds that are tailored for the heads.

BBB:  i think you should be open to everything!  don't close yourself off to anything..  don't close yourself out just because 'Rockafeller Skank' got on mtv.  i still think that song is awesome and that Fatboy Slim is the shit!  just because it got on tv off the box, so what?  make sure you're open to everything, whether it's on the tv or some new innovative type of sound.. be open to it all!  hip hop, r&b, reggae... i don't care what it is!  and i'll drop it in my set, too.. i don't care what it is.  if i hear somethin, all of the sudden i start playing some jungle track, that's because Natural Born Chillers to me was the shit.  and i play it, i don't care!  if it's got a jungle beat, i don't give a fuck.

ANDRE:  and maybe that goes back to the late 80s... where djs played anything!

BBB:  yeah!  why limit yourself?  i'll play a hip hop track, i'll play (Beastie Boys') Intergalactic... i've been known to end with that, when that first came out, i thought it was the shit!  and the Beasties are all over... you can say it's commercial, but fuck you!  i'll play from that to some french import that you don't know what the fuck it is..

MM:  will you have a little fun.. drop something that might be corny, but at that time the crowd may be like 'that's crazy that this is on, at this point.'

BBB:  if it sounds good!  i mean, i still don't like the 'Holiday', regardless... to me that is ridiculous, corny as all fuck, and just sounded like shit.  if it's corny and it sounds bad, don't play it.  but if it's something that people have heard that may cause some hysteria, and if it's done right, i'll play it.

MM:  are you still planning to do a lot of parties then?  or do you still do clubs?

BBB:  i do those once in a while.. but my price is getting so high now, that they don't want to pay that.  but i do college things... it's more or less..  i really don't spin here too often.  on the radio..  i have an open invitation to do it whenever i want.  i did probably one tape in the last 6 months..  with my studio production, travelling, etc.. it takes a lot out of you and when i get back home, gotta rush through the day.

MM:  did you raise your rates to thin out the crowd and keep it more serious?  so that way, if you're gonna travel and go through all the stuff that we talk about, all the not-so-glamorous lifestyle.

BBB:  no... i think it's a combination.. it's just a matter of some of the promoters are outbidding each other, you know... it gets to that level.  where i can only go into a market once every 3 or 4 months.  and my guys in new york, they wanna bring me out every month, and i don't wanna burn myself out, you know what i mean?  so, they'll be bidding against each other and raising the price that way, combined with what you said.  i'd rather do less parties a month and make more than do a bunch of parties and make the same amount of money.  i'd rather be able to take a weekend off out of the month!  instead of working 8 weekends out of the month!

MM:  yeah, you might wanna enjoy a saturday or sunday in town.  actually, something .. i've heard that when you do spin, you do it by increment.  like you're booked for a 45 minute or an hour set.  and someone's seen you once and you got to your hour or whatever and said 'okay, i'm done'... and they weren't prepared to have another dj on.. tell me about that.

BBB:  i mean, i dunno... i would rarely do that, i don't think i've ever done that.  what i would do though, if i'm scheduled to play an hour, i'll tell the person to get the next dj.  but i wouldn't take off the record, i would hope that the next guy would come.  but my normal set is two hours... sometimes an hour and a half.  but now they have so many djs booked.. like i played in cincinatti, derrick may wanted to do a 3 hour set, so they cut all of our sets down to 45 minutes each.  i mean, if they cut me down to 45 minutes, i don't have a problem with that.  i don't really like playing 45 minutes, but my set is so fast-paced, i can shove it all in there anyways, and just enhance it even more.

MM:  that's actually something i wanted to ask, cuz your set is so fast-paced and you're just droppin things on people quickly.  a lot of djs say they would love to have a four hour set at a party and why would you want to spin a 45 minute set?  where's the fun in that?'  but you did your thing.. kinda like you were able to make the impact in that 45 that maybe another guy would do in 4 hours.

BBB:  yeah, i like to spin.. maybe not 4 hours!  but i like to spin maybe 2-3 hours, build up the night.  it's just.. i would need more records.  cuz i still get bored listening to a song that plays too long.  like i can let a song play 3 and a half, maybe 4 minutes... but that's pushing it for me.  i need to make something happen... i dunno, i need to play more records, i need to be doing something.  for me to sit back and watch a record play or tweak the EQs, i get bored.  so, i dunno what the hell it is!

MM:  what kind of sets have you done overseas?

BBB:  i've spun in germany... when i spin in germany, it's mostly all vocal house and groovier house.  definitely not hard house.  and they let their records play... the djs after me will let their records play 4 or 5 minutes each, and they don't have a problem with that.. for me it's never been about trying to outdo myself.  like 'i played 75 records in 40 minutes!'  haha.  i'm kinda like... i do it just to keep the whole energy going.

[talking about Bill having a raw food diet]

BBB:  we have a debate going that vinegar is made from horse coats, or distilled in horse coats!  we still don't know.  so if anyone knows and is reading this, please email me and let me know:  how do you make vinegar?  cuz i still don't know.  hahaha.

[more...]

MM:  talk about MCM...

BBB:  well, Mix Connection is the parent company of the House Connection CD and the Bangin the Box CDs that we put out...  under them we have subsidiary labels of Contaminated, IHR, Moody, Canvas, and Feelin Groovy.  those are the five labels that we have now, and each label does a specific genre of music that they cater to..

MM:  you say 'them,' with MCM.

BBB:  i treat MCM as its own company, you know what i mean?  i may be the primary shareholder or whatever, but it's still, it's definitely its own entity.  it's off and running, and really treated that way.  and we've got a lot of good friends... we've got a lot of artists we signed in 1998, a lot of interesting things for 99, we've redesigned all of our labels.. it's really tight and we're really excited about the year.

MM:  you signed 3d, danny the wildchild, angel alanis...

BBB:  haha i don't wanna start mentioning people cuz i know i'll forget somebody and then that person will never let me live it down!  call MCM and get a list of everybody they have..

MM:  i guess we can talk about growing up in chicago a little bit... how you got into radio, BMX

BBB:  they were my inspiration... those were the guys i looked up to.  i used to tape their shows, just like every other kid growing up, and just studying, learning.  and i think that chicago is one of the best, as far as skill level, for djs in the country.  those guys had phenomenal skills, and they each had their own special skill.  farley had scratching, ralphie rosario just had the smoothest style, mickie alvarez.  i think that growing up here just totally set up the stage for level of mixing.  i mean, i've seen better djs in chicago that dj better than other djs i've seen in big clubs around the world.. it's amazing.  with detroit, it kinda went hand in hand.  cuz i know a lot of djs in detroit came down here a lot, and i've spun up there and i know the skill level in detroit is amazing too.. you've got T-1000.. just a whole arsenal.. DJ Bone, all those guys.  but those guys were just my big influence, that whole style.

?:  [unclear]

BBB:  mmm.. i dunno.  i like different djs for different reasons..   DJ Q-Bert, or Mixmaster Mike for scratching, battling, tricks.  maybe Carl Cox on three turntables (even though i've never seen him live, i've just heard that he's phenomenal).

MM:  we brought him in for a party, and we didn't know until the day we booked him..  i mean, this was back in 94 we just didn't know who he was yet..  we booked lenny dee, and he said 'you know.. i'll come if you bring my friend carl out with... carl cox!'  and at the time he was noted as like the highest paid dj in the world...

BBB:  that's the title i'm goin for!  (laughs)

MM:  (laughing)  well, we went over by kurt's' house.. at the time he was throwing all the parties in milwaukee, and for us to do one was gonna be weird, so we were real covert about it..  like 'who's this carl cox guy?'  and he was like 'oh yeah!  carl cox!'  and pulling out these records for us and stuff... So only on the night of the party Lenny told us that he completely would just blow your brain if he were on 3 or 4 turntables.  and i wish now.. we had 3 soundsystems at the party, and i wish now that we had shut down the smallest room and brought the tables into the main room just to see that... just to say that he did it here.  but oh well....

?:  he's amazing with 3 tables and a sampler.  he has the 3 going and brings in samples...

MM:  i think the first time i ever saw something like that was paul johnson... he had a 303 with him, and we're like 'what the hell is he going to do with that?'  that was at one of the first parties at that Photon... anyways, any up and coming djs that you're impressed with?  probably would make someone's day!

BBB:  there's just so many good ones!  i mean like CZR... there's so many good ones just from chicago... angel alanis.  just too many to name!  like i say, if i list 'em i'll forget someone and they'll kill me!  they know that they're worthy of it...

?:  ever seen jeff mills play?

BBB:  i heard him on the radio..  on The Wizard, but i haven't heard him in a long time.

?:  haha it's like watching you spin, he's just playing one record after another after another and just stackin' em up there.. how many copies of records do you have?

BBB:  i have multiple copies.. but it sucks now cuz so many records go out of print so quick!  i have a couple of records that i play now that i know i can't replace...  so i just play em scratched!  and i know it's going to skip, and i'm just like 'oh well!'  hahahaha...

MM:  seeing stuff from the beginning... did you ever picture anything coming this far along or watching it branch out...

?:  did you think you'd be in it for this long?  or did you have something else planned?

MM:  great question!  yeah, a career path?

BBB:  no.. not at all...

MM:  you didn't have anything in mind that you were going to do?

BBB:  yeah!  i was going to go to college, i mean, that was my thing.  i was in high school, i was all set...  i was on the radio at the time, and i had my record label IHR, i was doing that... so i said 'lemme just really focus on music, i can always go to school!'  that was my thing...

MM:  did you go at all?  were you signed up and then decided to hold off?

BBB:  naw, i didn't even sign up!  i just took the SATs and i sent them the applications... i was all ready and all set to go, and... i dunno.  when i first started, i had no idea.  i mean, i didn't even know you could make money djing... i thought it was just something you did as a hobby.

MM:  it's great to be involved in something that's fun, and make a living off of it...

BBB:  i mean, it's not like work... it's amazing that it's gone this far where djs are travelling around the country or around the world for that matter, and getting paid tons of money just to play.  more than bands make!

MM:  for school, did you have anything in mind?

BBB:  yeah, i was interested in computers... i was gonna do something with computers, business management, stuff like that.

MM:  did you stay on with computers?

BBB:  everything that we do is computer-based.... editing is done on computers, recording, editing, multimedia...  i mean, even for our company, all that stuff is on our PCs, the company stuff that we run a lot.  the PC is more for business, the Mac is more for music and art...

MM:  i can relate though.. like if you're on the radio and you're getting the fame at the end of high school.... i did one semester of college and then i went to winnipeg and hung out with timothy leary for a weekend..  i came back and thought "i'm 18, i might as well try this out."  you've got your young life to try it out.

?:  people rely on you.  they need people like you...

MM:  my concern is we're doing something for a specific sector of society...

BBB:  i don't really get into one scene too much, you know what i mean?  i was never really in one clique... so i'm not really stuck in one genre, you know what i'm sayin?  i read a lot of books, everything from waking up in the morning and watching CNBC to see what stocks are up... all types of stuff i'm into, so i'm not into just one thing, i try to keep my eyes open for what's going on in all different genres and all peoples.

MM:  do you have a hand in business like that?

BBB:  oh yeah!  i'm a stock market freak!  that's all i do!  that's my thing, i love picking what stocks are up and coming... i bought Macromedia finally a couple months ago, a really cool internet thing.  i'm like 'this company is gonna blow up!' and their stock was at $12, it was just flat, stuck at 12.  so i bought the stock, and in 3 months i've already tripled my money!  it's at 30-something right now... so you can't beat that, it's so much fun for me.  that's a company i believe in...

MM:  where did you begin in that?

BBB:  well, i was at a seminar... a whole yearlong seminar and this woman taught financial mastery... and she had all of these different speakers, and they talked about how to invest your money and look to the future.  so i learned a lot about stocks and options... i didn't know this, but a lot of people put their money in mutual funds.  yet, 75% of mutual fund managers can't even beat what the actual S&P500 is making on a yearly basis.  so i mean, at that point you could just basically buy the S&P500 stock, and you'd be outperforming three-quarters of the mutual funds that are out there right now.  and a lot of people don't know that, the people just put their money in mutual funds and the managers just buy stocks that they have to.  cuz they have so much money coming in, they have to buy stocks.  whereas if you're a decent investor, like me or you, you can pick your companies.  you know which companies are going to blow up, that's what i do.  i pick companies i believe in, like Yahoo and, whatever companies i believe are going to be here for the long haul, that's what i get into.  and i've learned a lot from books... a lot of investing books, and i'm still reading books.

MM:   i want to invest money safely, but on the other hand i've had good luck putting my money into my own projects..  i've done well with clothing.  so it's like gee, i have X amount that i can wrap up in a mutual fund or stocks, or i can take that money and double it.  any point where you were better with your own money than giving it to someone else?

BBB:  yeah, totally.  i barely started getting into stocks about a year ago.. before that, all my money was holed up in my company.  after a while, the company's running on its own, and you have money you want to invest in your future, for the long term.  the way i look at it is, i like to pick companies that'll be around 10, 20 years from now.  i'm not trying to make money with that money and then pull it out...  like if you put in $1000 and get out $2000, and then you have more money to spend on your vittles or whatever you spend it on.  to me, those are long term investments.

MM:  have you set up an IRA?

BBB:  yeah.

MM:  that's probably the one place where i've found some comfort... something where if you put a little away all the time, it won't hurt.

BBB:  that's something that a lot of people don't realize... if you put $50 or $100 a month away, and you put it into a company like Dell or AOL... 6 years from now, when that stock has tripled and quadrupled and went tenfold... those $100 keep compounding themselves, and 5-10 years from now, that might be $50-100 grand... just from those $100s.  20-30 years from now it could be a million, who knows?  but yeah, take that money that you just blow and are spending on bullshit... you just gotta have the discipline to put it away.

MM:  a lot of people are taking a shot in the dark to see it do well..  it seems like the bottom could fall out at any time.

BBB:  yeah, but if you're in it for the long term and you've bought companies of the internet that you believe in, you'll have no problem.  but yeah, there's a bunch of people on the internet bandwagon right now that are just buying anything specific internet stock.  and definitely, all those companies aren't going to be successful.  and guess what, if you own a lot of money in those, you're gonna be screwed.

[more stock talk]

MM:  what do you think of djs that are notorious for not showing up for gigs?

BBB:  i can count the number of gigs i've missed in vivid detail on one hand... i mean, it's usually a really good excuse, problem in my family or something major.  but i try to do whatever i can to avoid missing a gig... i mean if i'm sick, whatever i gotta do, i don't care.  i'll go do it, worry about it later.  yeah, i took a conflicting gig and didn't make any money.  this is when i didn't have an agent, or had two booking agents... i dunno.  this was when i had a booking agent and i was booking my stuff... this guy in germany booked me for a saturday, and the day before you have to travel.  it's like 7 hours ahead, so you have to leave friday at 5 to get there by saturday morning.  and somehow i got booked by my booking agent on friday night in new hampshire.  so i was like... wow!  the guy had all this magazine publicity in germany, had flyers out, couldn't change the date... so he was like 'you're going to have to cancel new hampshire.'  so i was like all right, we'll cancel new hampshire.  new hampshire's like 'dude, we have 30,000 flyers out!  there's no way you can do it?'  and i was like oh, c'mon, there's gotta be... so i worked on the east coast, and i was like.. what if i flew out first flight in the morning, made it to london, and then caught a jumbo to germany, maybe i could make it to germany by like 11 at night!  and the only way i could do it was to fly on a concorde to JFK.. i had to fly boston to JFK, connect to JFK, go JFK to london, connect.  and they had to do an illegal connecting, cuz when you go to london you have to have an hour and a half between flights, because the airport is so spread out.  they had to do an illegal 45 minute connection.  so i had 45 minutes to make it from landing to the flight.  so i'm like man, if i miss the connection, i'm stuck here in london overnight, there's nothing i can do.  so i gotta risk it though.  so flew the concord, the promoter in germany paid for it, i was like just take my fee and pay for the ticket.  don't worry about it, i'll just do it free.  and, luckily i made it!  i got there at 11:30, went on at midnight.

MM:  how was the concorde?

BBB:  it was weird... there were all these sheiks.  you could tell that these guys were multi-millionaires... i was a bum, i didn't even get a chance to shower after the party in new hampshire, my clothes are all smelling like smoke!  it was like 3 and a half hours to london...

[talking more about the concorde and plane crashes and furthur]

MM:  any plans for new years 2000?

BBB:  not aboard a jet, man!

MM:  would you take a booking or are you thinking of doing something crazy?

BBB:  i dunno... i dunno what to do yet.