Part II: DC The Brain Supreme: Whoomp (There It Is) The 20-Year Litigation…

Was, “Whoomp (There It Is) a gift and a curse for the group, Tag Team?

Often when an artist or group produces a hit and somewhat seems to vanish as quick as their hit stormed the airways, there are more questions than answers as to the whereabouts of that artist or group. Some hits can be a gift and a curse. Some hits are simply too big for the listening audience to wrap their minds around any other music coming from that artist or group. Unfortunately, we never got to see what else, Tag Team had to offer because their hit was so big, everyone wanted a piece of it, literally everyone. The hit, “Whoomp (There It Is)” was tied up in litigation for 20-years. Forcing the group to fight with 2-record labels over the single. It’s the unfortunate side of the music industry when you get into the game at a young age and sign on a dotted line that you probably never fully understood.

In this last installment of my interview with, Tag Team group member, DC The Brain Supreme, he tackles the pros and cons of their hit, recalls seeing it on YO MTV Raps for the first time and opens up about his future endeavors.

So, now you’re the head DJ. Then what?

DC The Brain Supreme: Everybody wanted the approval of being real hip-hop. That’s what it was back in the day because New York was on their shit. Anybody outside of New York, they weren’t really fucking with you. That’s why they were always beef and shit. I was like, we gotta make some up-tempo shit. We just went back to the roots. Our bass… our infrastructure and everything we do is going to be Planet Rock and Egyptian Lover. We just made songs, man. We used samples. Everybody used samples and we made songs.

Steve made an up-tempo beat, the girls were in the club chanting, “Whoomp, there it is.” Somehow that shit stuck. On Friday nights they used to do that shit. I don’t know where they got it from, but when they were doing that shit, that shit was just bangin. I was like, “Shit, we going to make a song called, “Whoomp (There It Is),” right. Once we did it, we used the Kano sample, put that shit together and it was just another song. When I went to work after we mixed it. I think it was like, August of ’92. I played that shit and to this day, it’s still the biggest response to any record I’ve ever played. At least 10 niggaz ran to the DJ booth and said, “Man, what the fuck is that?” Girls ran to the booth, “What the hell is that?” I’m playing the record and then it kind of fades and it was all good. I just started working on other music. Around the beginning of the year, one of the girls were like, “How come you don’t play that, “Whoomp (There It Is) shit?” I was like, “Oh, you wanna hear it?” And I only had it on a cassette tape. I hadn’t played it in maybe 3-months. Played it again, same reaction. They running to the DJ booth. That’s why I started playing it again.

Ed Lover showed a lot of love in the video. How did you guys link with him?

DC The Brain Supreme: Ed Lover used to come down there and fuck with me. Ed Lover came down. He is the reason. He came down and was like, “What the fuck is that shit, DC?” Because they all knew me because I used to break records back then. All the records reps knew me, everybody knew me because I was in the number one club in the country, Magic City. The best kept secret in the world. Everybody that go to Atlanta gotta go to Magic City. All the record cats brought me all the records first. I used to break records for them. Shit, they would bring the artists by. I knew the artists before anyone else would. Everybody knew who I was. And then I showed love to everybody. I was like, “I got you dawg.” It’s not like what it is now where niggaz really be pressuring a DJ to play their shit. People just wanted to come to the club. They knew that it was beneficial to have artists come through and let the artists hear their record in the strip club because it was like the fucking 8^th Wonder of the World. Everybody used to come down there. Me and Dre became real good friends. He didn’t even know I did that shit. We were friends before he even knew I could rap.

That’s crazy.

DC The Brain Supreme: So, when he heard it, he was like, “Who is that?” I said, “That’s my shit, man.” he was like, “Man, why didn’t you tell me? You gotta give me that shit, man.” I was like, “I only got it on cassette.” He said, “Man, you gotta get me some vinyl on that shit.” And then it was Freaknik ’93. I was about to give up. I gave every label a chance for that shit. And they were like, “We hear the record, but we don’t know what to do with it.” They just didn’t know what to do with it. “The connotation of the bass music is Luke.” They gave me every excuse in the world.

I was about to give up and then Lisa McCall, she is Kandi Burruss’ manager now. She used to work at the record label’s back in the day as a rep. She was like, “You need to talk to Al Bell.” And Al Bell owned Stax Records back in the day. He’s the one that put out, “Daisy Dukes.” “Daisy Dukes” was a hot record the year before. So, I call Al Bell and I’m like, “Hey man, I got a hit record. I need to holla at you.” And it took him about to week to call me back and when he called me back, I was like, “Look man, I do this. I got a record, every time I play it…” I just told him the whole story. And he was like, “Cool, lets do it.” And I’m like, “You never heard the record.” And he was like, “Man, I hear it in your spirit. Let’s agree to agree.” And shit that was it, dude. Maybe two weeks later, I took a leap of faith, stop working at Magic City and within a month to a month and a half, we were platinum. It was that fast (laughing).

Do you remember hearing it on the radio for the first time?

DC The Brain Supreme: I don’t remember the first time because Ryan Cameron… V-103 back in the day, right… they didn’t play hip-hop. So, Ryan used to use the instrumental of the song. When he used to play to play the instrumental, people would call in and ask, what’s that record? Play that record. And they put pressure on the radio station, and they ended up playing the record. I don’t remember where I was the first time, I heard it, but I remember the most significant thing I remember is when, Ed [Lover] came and got the vinyl, I finally got some vinyl. He took it back to New York and they played that shit on Yo MTV Raps! A combination of it playing on Yo MTV Raps, a combination of it playing when Michael Jordan and the Bulls won their second championship, them yelling it in Grant Park for the whole sports world to hear… after that it was over. We were gone. I knew it would be a big record, but shit.

So, what happened after the hit went major?

DC The Brain Supreme: You know, as young kids, nigga signed a fucked-up contract. And shit, we paid for it for 20-years, dude. We were in litigation for that record for 20-years. But we won. But it’s like war, you may win, but you gonna come back fucked up; lost a leg, lost an arm or can’t hear. You got a little post-traumatic stress disorder. I think we went through it way worst than most because there were two record companies fighting over it. They were at war and they were trying to use us as chess pieces to get what they want and then the losers were trying to take what we had. It was like, Hell nah.” And that’s when a nigga had to fight. I made that mistake early of trying to fight the record company. All they do is just bleed you. They bleed you with legal fees and shit. So, I got bled and then I had to go back to what I knew, which was DJing.

But it worked out because I had the biggest clubs in Atlanta. It was almost like making show money. I made a career out of DJing. And I would still go do shows here and there. But I couldn’t even make music because if I tried to make music, we would have always been in litigation. People were like, “You could’ve got a better lawyer.” I’m like, “Dude, you don’t even understand what was happening.” It’s different to fight one record company, but to fight two? I know I can make hit records, but it was like, if I make a hit record, then here come the vultures. I wasn’t with that shit, man. our careers got stymied, but the record was so big, we always got to do shows on it, we always got to make money on it, and we will always get our royalties off of it. So, basically was a retirement plan and now it’s a pension and I’m good. But not as good as I should be, but I’m good (laughing).

And I’m not done because right now I’m an actor. It’s just like when I was a kid, DJing was my passion. And I used to fuck off parties and all kinds of shit. It took me awhile to get good as a DJ. Same thing with acting. It’s going to take me a minute. That’s something I can do the rest of my life; I just have to get good at the craft. Once I get good at the craft, I still can make music. Then I have an avenue to make music where everything ain’t ridin’ on music. I am free, but I ain’t about to be no old ass nigga trying to make a record. It don’t work like that. it just doesn’t. But I can make a record and submit that shit to all the ad agencies. And then somebody uses it as a song in their commercial. You know how the NBA have those certain tunes when the playoffs come around. It’s always a certain tune or beat that sticks in your head because they played it so much in the playoffs. If I can pull some shit off like that, you good. You pull some shit off where your shit is in a commercial or a movie soundtrack, that’s where you can still make music and still make it like you used to make it because people always going to dance to funky shit. People always gonna party. It don’t necessarily gotta be bass, it just gotta be some shit that everybody can sing along to and it’s gotta be catchy. But if you trying to make songs for the general public, you gonna be short because right now, that ain’t what it is. Everybody is on the shit that they’re on and you not going to change that. even if you don’t approve of it. You’re not going to be able to change it. and ad executives are all my age. So, that just makes total sense trying to do that shit. Making jingles for ad agencies, that’s $250-$300 grand a pop. All you need is one.

I appreciate the time, best of luck with the acting career and we will definitely be in contact. Anything else before I let you go?

DC The Brain Supreme: I’ve been through a lot in this game and all my stories are pretty positive still. They have a good moral to the story. I can spit game all day.