Article Last Updated:11/05/2006 07:16:37 AM PST
DALY CITY - DJ Rick Lee "The Dragon" didn't have to go looking for a career in the music business. The business came looking for him.
That's not to say the 37-year-old disc-jockey, who spins every evening rush hour on hip hop and R&B station KMEL, didn't work hard to get his plum gig. He just got so hot that the radio station didn't wait for a resume. It sent people into the streets to locate the top dogs in the DJ game and found Lee getting bodies moving in a local club.
"For a good 10 years, I made a lot of mixtapes," said Lee, who landed the KMEL job in 1995 and DJs in clubs seven nights a week. "I constantly put out demos. It got around, into the right hands."
Lee, a Chinese American and native of Daly City, is a key player in the local "hyphy" music trend, whose most recent public face is Vallejo rapper E-40, a Lee comrade. Lee gave a break to such rising rap stars as Oakland's Mistah FAB and East Palo Alto's Dem Hoodstarz through his popular mixtapes — thematic compilations of hip hop singles — long before the artists wound up in regular radio rotation.
"FAB just got signed to Atlantic records. I helped spark his career," Lee said from his three-bedroom home near Skyline Boulevard, which he shares with his 12-year-old son, R.J. "Hoodstarz is another perfect example. Nobody knew who the hell these people were. I'm kind of like the voice of it all."
Scoot, one-half of Dem Hoodstarz, said Lee's enthusiasm two years ago for theduo's single "Can't Leave Rap Alone" is one of the reasons his career, which includes a CD-DVD set out in September and more tracks on the way, is taking off. "He was the first one that took a chance on the Hoodstarz," said Scoot, who grew up in Midtown. "He believed in us."
His partner, Band-Aide, who hails from Bellhaven in east Menlo Park, called Lee his "go-to guy" who got the hyphy hype rolling.
"He's a DJ nerd; he just non-stop works," Band-Aide said. "He's got the radio and he's got the streets. He's like Joe Montana: It didn't matter if you were a Raider fan or what, he brought the fame to the Bay Area."
That's the business
Lee, a Westmoor High School grad, got things going for himself in the early 1980s by borrowing his parents' record players and tape decks and concocting an amateur mixing studio. Eventually he replaced the set-up with Technics turntables and other professional gear, but things started slow.
"I was a bedroom DJ," Lee said with a chuckle. "I didn't have money at the time, I had to make do with what I could. By the time I wrecked it all, I learned you need industry-standard equipment."
To get it, he needed a job, so he started earning dollars as a general contractor with his father, who worked in construction. That enabled Lee to bulk up on blank tapes that he used to show off his growing knowledge and skills. After all, this was the era before PCs with CD burners.
"It was actually cassette tapes," said Lee, who brought crates of vinyl LPs to his club gigs until 1999, when he started transferring his collection to digital. "I would go to Costco and buy bulk-rate. It cost me a lot of money to be in the game. DJ'ing couldn't pay the bills."
At least not yet. Lee's first mixtape, circa 1985, was distributed on 500 cassettes. By the time he was spinning each Wednesday at the South of Market club City Nights, he was putting out 10,000 copies and filling the dance floor. That got the attention of KMEL's reps.
"They said, 'Wow man. You rocked a crowd of like 2,000 people on an off night. We want to get you on our team,'" Lee said.
Lee had taken classes at Skyline College in San Bruno, where he figured he'd learn about running audio equipment and doing public speaking. He didn't end up with a degree, though.
"That's what I thought you had to do, was complete a college course," he said. "I wound up getting in without the credentials. If they like you, you get on."
His parents, who now live in South San Francisco, were a tougher sell before Lee got his music career in high gear.
"Like every mom and dad, they want you to go and complete college and become a doctor or something of that nature. Music-wise, very few people make it," he said. "I've learned to prove to them and show them that I can make it and now they're in full support."
He tried to get his 35-year-old brother, Steve, involved in music, but the fellow Daly City resident wound up a real estate broker.
"It just wasn't him," Lee said. "He went his way and I went my way, doing our thing. He wears a suit everyday and I get to play music. I get to wear a T-shirt and sandals."
Mix master
Lee's mixtapes — now CDs — were essential to his success. He said they now number 15,000 to 20,000 copies and sell for $7.99.
His next will be "Makaveli Tupac and Mac Dre," a homage to the two late legends of Bay Area hip hop with new verses by hyphy stars Big Rich of the Fillmore and E-40 collaborator Keak da Sneak, among others.
"I have relationships with a lot of the artists in the Bay Area," Lee said, adding that he doesn't pay royalties for songs because record companies see his compilations as free promotion. "By letting you just use it for a mixtape, as a DJ you're sucking up all the costs to like print it up and everything."
Lee's job at KMEL 106.1 FM, whose studio near the Giants stadium is in the same building as fellow Clear Channel stations KBLX and KYLD, gives him up to 380,000 listeners a day. But the brief set is only part of his business affairs.
"My job consists of 45 minutes a day," said Lee, who goes on the air at 5 p.m. "I get paid for the entire day. I don't think there's any other jobs like that."
He also has a stable of disc-jockeys working for his company, Style Beyond Compare DJs, and he spins every Monday at Classic Bowling Center in Daly City. Other nights he's at clubs in Hayward, Palo Alto and San Jose or freelancing Friday and Saturday.
So does he ever get to take a vacation?
"Not really," Lee said with a laugh. "Money's good, though. It's really hard for a DJ to DJ seven days a week."
He expects to continue the pace for three to five years, then shift into making his own hip hop tunes.
"Eventually I want to produce radio hits," he said, adding that his home studio is ready to roll. "The only problem is finding time."
On the Web: SBC DJs, http://www.sbcdjs.com/
DJ Rick Lee "The Dragon," http://www.myspace.com/djricklee
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_4607242
By Todd R. Brown, STAFF WRITER