#Exclusive The Hype Magazine speaks with Shawn Prez, founder of the Global Spin Awards | @GlobalSpinAward

It's so dope as a music journalist to get the opportunity to shine some light on positive events that expand the knowledge base on segments of the industry which often go unnoticed or unappreciated. The Global Spin Awards is one such event, long in the making and long overdue. The Global Spin Awards is a platform which gives much needed recognition to the one element of the music industry nobody can do without, the DJs. November 18, 2013, brings us the 2nd Annual Global Spin Awards, founded by former Bad Boy Records executive Shawn Prez, and hosted by radio and television personality Sway Calloway. This event will be held in New York, in the New York Times Center and streamed live via http://globalspinawards.com for those who aren't lucky enough to be able to attend.

Shawn Prez

The Hype Magazine got to speak with event founder and business man Shawn Prez, who began his own marketing company PowerMoves, Inc., and is still responsible for all of the Sean Combs branded ventures as well as many other Fortune 500 companies looking to capture market share in the urban community. Prez as he is called, is a humble man, quick to give credit to God for his blessings and success as well as giving credit to his mentors who have guided him to this point and to whom he still looks up to. What a great conversation…enjoy!

So let's talk about Shawn Prez, who you are and lets jump into the Global Spin Awards!

Real quick, the brief version, I guess my claim to fame would be to helping build BadBoy from the early days and definitely when BadBoy was on top of the world, so I come from that whole era. I transitioned into more of a marketing expert, I launched a company called PowerMoves, Inc., and we are responsible for being behind all of the Sean Combs business ventures whether that's Sean John clothing, Justin's Restaurant, the colognes, Revolt Network and Ciroc Vodka. That in addition to many other clients that we have.

So I am looking at your site and see some of the client list like BET Awards, you are heavy!

No, no, no, God has definitely blessed us. We really have been able to work with a lot of Fortune 500 brands and bring our style of unique marketing to Corporate America, so I have really been blessed, thank God.

Quickly, how did you prep yourself on the business side to move into this arena?

That was easy, I have had the opportunity, the privilege, however you want to look at it, to be in the mix of really successful people, like right there in the midst of them, sitting in the meetings, sitting quietly, watched the way they move. Like I said, Sean Combs, a big brother to myself, also a mentor, Andre Harrell, the Russell Simmons of the world, people who I really look up to and had the opportunity to just sit next to them and just watch them take this thing that was just music, an art form started in a park, called Hip Hop and spread it out into global brands. So when it was my turn, I'd had on the job training for so many years and it just really comes natural to me because I've been prepped for it by these guys who I really look up to.

We see the Global Spin Awards as the Grammy's for the DJs, similar to the Justo's being the Grammy's for Mixtapes, we can see it 20 years down the road being one of those major network shows. How did this awards show come to fruition for you?

I guess in short, I worked with the DJs for many years. Having a background in the music industry, the DJs were always on the front line, that's how we broke our music. They were the one's who took our records from zero to sixty, they are the pulse of the streets. They [DJs] let us know if we have a hit or didn't have a hit. With that being said, I always looked around and wondered why were they never recognized. There's not a record label out there or an artist out there, that's not pushing their records to the DJs first.

It's unfortunate they were never recognized on a platform in front of their peers, in front of the music and entertainment industry at large. So, many years ago, I said to myself I wanted to do this type of award show. This was the seed that was planted in myself I would say for at LEAST the last ten to twelve years. But it's all about timing and at the time I was running, I was traveling the world, I was doing so many different things; I was starting my marketing company and so I really didn't have the time to focus on it at that time. You know, Justo Faison, God bless the dead, he was doing his mixtape awards, and he was out there really pushing the culture forward, people like Ricky Lee on the West Coast was really pushing the culture forward, Renee McQueen, these were all guys who were doing their thing with the DJs. So, I had a chance to learn from them, what works, what doesn't work, what I would do differently, what I thought was special and I wanted to incorporate into this Global Spin Awards. Now, the timing is just right, I think that my name just by itself in this industry, it adds a certain authenticity and credibility to the event and that's why so many of the DJs and industry heads were willing to be involved from year one. So it was really a function of time and now is just the right time to do it.

So the 2013 Global Spin Awards hits November 18, 2013, in New York City at the New York Times Center, what can we expect from this show?

I think you can expect what you saw last year to be taken to another level. If you weren't there last year, this show is the Grammy's, it is the Oscar's, the Academy Awards for DJs. First and foremost, this is an upscale event, this is an event that is black tie. This is not an event that you bring your side piece to, you bring your wife to this event [laughs]. Everybody knows that DJs don't really dress up and it was great for me to see [at last year's event] DJ Red Alert in a suit, Funkmaster Flex in a suit; everybody came suited and booted because it's a red carpet event. More importantly, what they can expect is to see their favorite DJs all under one roof, to see industry heads and artist coming out to acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishments of the DJs and that just has never ever been done.

You always see artist driven award shows where the artist is the one who is front and center; that's not this awards show; the DJs are the stars for this evening and the artists will be in the audience giving THEM a standing ovation or up on the stage presenting awards to the DJs who help break their music.

Definitely overdue, we want to applaud you for pulling this together! So, the host is Sway?!!!

Yessir, Yessir, Sway Calloway! Music and television personality Sway Calloway is back for year two. Sway Calloway told me when I asked him, he didn't give me any problems like literally when this was just an idea, I met Sway up in Harlem and we went to the Red Rooster and I asked him, I said, “I have this concept, I want to do an awards show for the DJs.” He stopped me in my tracks and said, “Prez! I'm in but I will only do it under one condition”; I was like aww da*mn, he wants a check, he's gonna have some crazy rider for me and he said, “The one condition is, if I do it this year, you have to bring me back for year two because this is needed and it's gonna be huge” and I said “You got my word.”

Man with the impact Sway has had on the industry and culture over the years, it's only appropriate to have someone of his caliber hosting this show. Kid Capri is great too, it was awesome to see Kid Capri in a suit last year!!!

Absolutely, and Kid Capri is getting our “Lifetime Achievement Award” this year, Marly Marl is getting our “Legendary DJ Award” this year, so both of them will be in the building. Shout out to Kid Capri the world famous, shout out to a good friend of mine Marly Marl, I think this is well deserved for these guys. Long overdue!!

So who else is participating this year? I saw something about MC Lyte!

I like to keep it kind of quiet because I want people to come into the building but yes, MC Lyte is going to be in the building. She's going to be the presenter to the “Female DJ of the Year Award” and I just think her name and what she means to the culture; having her in the building and how she has developed, just adds something so special. I go back to the days when Lyte was rapping, like kinda the young girl from Brooklyn and to see the way her career has gone from then to now, it's really an honor to have her in the building.

We know that you want to keep it quiet but our readership is global so we wanted to just give them a bit of a teaser as to who is going to be in the house!!!

I'll throw a couple names out, but for the people who cannot make it, we are live streaming this event on http://GlobalSpinAwards.com beginning at 6pm EST, that's the red carpet, so please tune in on Monday November 18, 2013, it is a live stream, it's going to be very heavy. This is for people who really are into the DJ culture, who really respect the DJ and even if you are just a person who goes out once in a while, the DJ's are the masters of the evening; they are the one's who dictate the good times, so really tune in, your favorite DJ will most likely be in the building that night.

We do have a live performance by DJ 8Track, very honored to have him on stage that night, we are going to have a lot of the legends like DJ Premier, DMC from Run DMC, there are so many names and going off the top of my head I can't remember them all!!! That's just a few that will definitely be in the building that night.

Is there anything else that you want to cover that I might have missed?

Well, I think it's important to remind everybody that we will be live streaming from GlobalSpinAwards.com, please tune in, I think it shows a lot of support to the DJs. In terms of the industry, the who's who, a lot of people that you have heard about behind the scenes and a lot of the entertainers that you cheer for everyday and are fans of will definitely be in the building.

As we closed out with this interview we go some bonus wisdom from Shawn Prez, check this out:

“I started as an intern making $40 a week, when they decided to pay me that $40 a week [laughs], and that's just the God honest truth. I did not get that $40 a week [on a regular basis], I might have gotten it once a month, but it was very important to me to get into this business and learn my craft and get around some of the people who inspired me from afar and really learn from them. For anybody who has bigger dreams than doing what you are doing at the current time, its alright to work for free. I listen to a lot of people now and on Twitter, everybody wants to be paid for every little thing that they do, every service they provide. Sometimes, it's about a bigger picture, sometimes it's not about TODAY, but it's about ten years from now. So really, the plan is to have a career and not just a job. The plan is definitely to have money in your pocket for life and not just today.”

That's a million dollar education right there, there are a lot of cats who like you said want to get paid for everything, they don't want to give away anything and join the Free-Phi-Free Fraternity, but sometimes its necessary to lay those bricks for your foundation so you can have a career and have a house that will last forever.

Shawn Prez continued, “I look at a lot of the younger generation, and you know, everybody feels as though they are more special than the next person and their talent, and their craft is so much more special and they should be paid. Naw, pay your dues! This is how we all got to where we are. When you see people on top, people who do magnificent things in this lifetime, nobody handed anything to them. More times than not, it's really about hustle and muscle and no sleep, believing in God and believing in yourself and [being] willing to put in the work. I have a son and I really try to preach these same things to him, its alright to work for free, its alright to learn your craft. I just want to put that out there because I remember when I was coming up and I was trying to take in as much knowledge as I possibly could, certain things stood out to me when I heard people speak. I just think that it's a real travesty these days that everybody thinks that they could or should just jump the line, and there is no easy way to success, it just really comes through hard work.”

We closed out with Shawn Prez agreeing to come on every once in a while to do a guest column for The Hype Magazine which is quite exciting. He will share knowledge on the business side of the entertainment business and whatever he might feel the need to share with us and our readers…stay tuned!!!

Make sure to tune into the live stream of the 2nd Annual Global Spin Awards, if you can't make it to the venue on Monday November 18, 2013, via http://globalspinawards.com beginning with the red carpet ceremonies kicking off at 6pm EST and you can follow them on Twitter @GlobalSpinAward.

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About the Author

Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.