Questions with DJ Shawty Slim

I was inspired by foodrepublic.com's DJ week interviews with DJs around the world about food. Since I am a DJ myself as well as a food lover, I figured I'd talk to some of my favorite DJs about their food experiences. My first interview of the kind is with DJ Shatwy Slim.

Shawty Slim is the tour DJ for Grammy Award nominated Hip-Hop artist B.o.B. He was born and raised in Atlanta, went to college at Fort Valley State University, and now lives in downtown Macon, Georgia. He's a regular at The Rookery when he's in town. You can usually find him on the left side of the bar with an Allman Burger. He has been able to stop by Dovetail once since it's been open and he left us a nice comment on Foursquare.

What's your earliest cooking memory as a child?

Grits! I was 6 and my dad said, "Today you become a man!" I thought he was teaching me to cook grits but he was really conning me into cooking breakfast in the future. Every Saturday morning he was like, "Hey, why don't you cook me some of them grits." After about three years of that I was like, "Hey man! You ain't made no grits in like three years!"

Do you have any pre-show eating advice?

Don't eat anything that will give you the bubble guts because you have to be on stage for an hour and the show's not gonna stop because the DJ has to go somewhere. I wish B.o.B. would turn around like, "Hey! ... Where did he go?" That's how you get fired, man.

Don't you go nowhere, Slim!

I don't drink before the show, at all. Maybe I'll eat some chips and lightly eat the fruit. Because fruit will take it's toll on you too. Like grapes will run through you, man.

What's the best thing your mom makes?

My mama hates to cook!  The best thing my mom makes is my auntie's cooking.

So if your mom comes home with your aunt's cooking?

Yeah! She hates to cook. But if there has to be one thing she cooks good, it's squash casserole, that I don't eat because I hate squash. But everybody be like, "Yo! Your mom makes the best squash casserole!" And I'm like, it looks like mush. ... Hi mom!

What's the best meal you cook? Still grits?

I could say grits. I have this special concoction I made up called "PASTA PA-YOW" -why you laughing?- This is what I do. Get you a whole box of fettuccine noodles and you boil them. And also get you one of those huge bags of steamed vegetables with the broccoli, cauliflower, and all that and get that going. Then I get a chicken breast and grill it on the Foreman. Then I cut it up. Then I get another skillet and get some shrimp and put it in there. So when the chicken's done and the shrimp's done, I put it all in a big bowl and put some Cajun seasoning and Italian seasoning and shake it up. Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake it up. By that time, the pasta's done. I got one of those huge skillets. I put the noodles in that and all the vegetables and all the meat, I put a whole jar of Alfredo sauce in there, and shake it up a few times and stir up a couple of times, PASTA PA-YOW!
That sound so bootleg don't it? It's good. It take about an hour to do it. It looks nice on a plate.
"You made this?"
"Yeah girl."


Who do you think parties harder, DJs or chefs?

DJs because we get paid to party so the average party don't make us move. When we go off, we go out.


Have you ever partied with a chef?

No. I'd be like, "This party's awesome!"
"Yeah!"
"Go make me some eggs!"
"Ok!"

What are the three things that are always in your refrigerator?

So in the real world  the only thing in my refrigerator is stuff that doesn't go bad like ketchup...  .... that's all I got in there, ketchup, butter, ...That's it.

You don't even have three things, you have two!

Ok, I got a can of skunked beer in there.
Three things I'd like to have in my refrigerator is cheese, cuz I love cheese and cheese goes with everything. A bag of grits. And a random slice of pizza. That sounds so terrible. I should be dead eating all this stuff.

What's backstage at the show when you all do a show?

A nice meat and cheese plate. Some bread. Some nachos. One show we had Chik-fil-A chicken nuggets so we ignored everything else that was there. We murdered the chicken nuggets. But I try not to eat all heavy because after the show we're gonna go party and we be like, "We just rocked the show!" and I'm sweating chicken nugget juice.
I try to eat healthy because on the road you move around so much and party so late, you come back like I did. Man, I'm 10lbs heavier.

Is there anybody in your crew who's really into food?

Spicy crab from Temple St street vendor

B.o.B.'s manager T.J. is the biggest foodie I know. We tell him to write a food blog and he says he doesn't feel like it. But like we just came back from Hong Kong and he's like, I didn't come all the way over here to eat at McDonald's. He took us to a real street market and we had spicy crab on Temple St. They actually take the crab out the water and cook it right there on the sidewalk. Beat it up, cook it, throw the spices in there and bring it to you. They do it right there on the street with the cars going by and a million people were walking by.
But, yeah, everywhere we go he finds some food place off with the people.

Do you have any strange dietary habits?

Yeah, I have the worst eating habits of anybody I know and I haven't been sick in two years. I don't really eat candy and I'm not big on sodas. But if you give me a gallon of apple juice, it will be gone tomorrow. I'm a juice head - not steroids.

**Full disclosure. Two days after the interview, my twitter feed was filled with Slim talking about a bad cold he had caught and how to get himself better before he left town again. There were lots of references to orange juice and chicken soup. As I was typing this he was on his way to New York.**

DJs Shawty Slim, Wet Paint, and myself (Roger Riddle) will be playing The Rookery, 543 Cherry St, downtown Macon. On Dec 22nd.

Hope to see you there.
Roger