DJ Kaos: Black club owners need to figure it out

On April 15, the Vital VOICE sat down with “Big Sexy Kool” DJ Kaos to discuss the African-American club scene. Known as “king of the St. Louis hip hop club scene and the hottest hip-hop radio personality in St. Louis,” Kaos hosts a very popular show on HOT 104.1 and has been St. Louis’ most controversial and outspoken DJ.

Vital VOICE: What places did you like to go when you first started to going to clubs and are African-American owned clubs more prevalent now?

DJ Kaos: When I was 13, I was in 18 and over clubs deejaying. When I was 15, I was deejaying in 21 and over clubs. So, I’ve seen it all from Cloud 9 and Club Hollywood to the Maxx and the Terrace, 24/7 (before it was Club Casino), the Broadway, the original St. Louis Nights, Ricky’s, Rivers, the Wax Factory, Down Under (when it became the Doghouse), and Teen Express—which was in Wellston and lasted maybe two months before Blood (gang) sets ran it down.

Now you have more clubs open at any given time than you did back in the day—there’s Onyx, the Loft, Club Casino, Spruill’s, Knockout, The Main Ingredient, T. Billy’s, (adult clubs) the Pink Slip, Bottoms Up, and Soft Touch—plus there are more clubs I just can’t recall right now. The big difference now is the DJ’s and the music. Back in the day, when the DJ’s played a record, you got on the dance floor no matter what and partied. Now it is so selective, people don’t want to dance unless it’s their cut. If it’s too early, people are too ashamed to get on the dance floor.

VV: Is the club scene more diverse now than it used to be?

DJK: It depends on where you go. I don’t know any large groups of African-Americans that are going to go to the Monkey Bar (in St. Charles) on a Saturday night. I don’t know any Latinos or Caucasians that are going to go down to Spruill’s off Jefferson, well, ever. Concert venues are the same way. Let’s take an artist in the middle like Lil’ Wayne. If he came to the Spotlight (in Baden Plaza), would a lot of white folks come? No. If you brought him to the Monkey Bar, would the people that saw him at the Spotlight come to see him at the Monkey Bar? No. If you brought him to the Pageant, both races would be there. The problem with promoters who bring big rap concerts to the Scottrade Center is that it is too big of a venue to sellout. That same show at the Pageant would be sold-out, diverse, and the promoter would make more money. They don’t do this because they think the downtown scene will attract more people, but this is not true.

A lot of African-Americans don’t like to go downtown because they think they will be ticketed, towed, bothered and rushed by the police who don’t want black folks down there in the first place. White folks will go downtown in much larger numbers. The Pageant and the new Chaifetz Arena by Saint Louis University are in central locations to both races, and will be sold out more consistently.

VV: Upscale places that cater to African-Americans tend to have stricter dress codes and higher cover charges. Why the need for dress codes when they typically don’t exist in other bars?

DJK: In my opinion, many of those places don’t last for very long for the simple fact that they want to make a quick buck. They know there are people out there that want to go to an upscale African-American club, but instead of using email promotions, creating a network and slowly building up an attractive clientele base, they will go for radio spots, or Black Entertainment Television spots, which might not reach the right audience. Upscale African-American clubs can work, but they don’t stick to the dress code, and they don’t stick with the high covers because no one comes in big numbers quickly enough. The thing is…It takes time. Word can get out, and with enough networking events, St. Louis’ elite will show up, both black and white, at African-American owned clubs, but the clubs are not consistent enough.

After many African-American club owners don’t see big bankrolls coming right away, they go against the grain and immediately turn to two-dollar this and two-dollar that. Or, you get these drug dealers dressed in athletic gear that come to the door and say “I gotta go home and change clothes?” Well, a policy that states “no athletic gear” should always mean “no athletic gear.” Those drug dealers can break the dress code and get in if they give the owner or bouncer enough money, like $200 dollars. Well, what about the other 40-50 people that are there that see this dude getting in? That (athletic gear) is what they are trying to get away from. So now they are uncomfortable and owners lose those people because they took a quick buck. Almost no one stays consistent. It’s all about fast money.

VV: Where do you like to go out? Are there any unknown lounges, spots or clubs that need to get more exposure?

DJK: I really don’t go out. Give me a blockbuster card, and I’m cool. The Main Ingredient is new, it’s down on Vandeventer. But, people already know the spots. A lot of people complain in St. Louis that there’s really no place to go, but there really is. Go to Memphis or Kansas City, and you will appreciate St. Louis. We have over thirty African-American clubs or spots to go to, but people want to go where everybody hangs out. There are only so many places where “everybody” goes to. Atlanta isn’t that much different. There are only a couple of places where everybody goes to be seen. The problem is that black club owners recycle the same places, just change the names, throw up some new paint, maybe some lights and that’s it. They will reopen a place like Society (behind Union Station) that has been seven or eight clubs over the years. It has been Utopia, Club Candela, Liquid, etc, etc.

The club scene is so dull because people are doing the same old thing. Some black owners chase a “two dollar-dream” because they can’t get anybody in their club for 10 or 15 dollars. Why? No one wants to pay that for the same old thing. These owners aren’t bringing anything new to the table. People think “Why pay $15 when I can go to a little spot and drink all night long for cheap?” But, there are a lot of (elite) people who don’t want to go the cheap spots and lounges because of the rougher crowd.

That leaves it wide open for somebody like me to come in the business and charge $25.00 to get in the door. A lot of people would say “We’ll who gonna be here?” Well, we gonna be there…the elite. A lot of people would say “I ain’t payin’ no mu-****in $20 dollars to get in the club.” Well…we don’t want your kind. There are a lot of people that would pay $25 to get in a club if they know their car is not going to get broken into because the police and security are out patrolling and if they ain’t gotta worry about thundercats (trouble-makers) steppin’ on shoes, spillin drinks, and are then, ready to kill somebody.

VV: St. Louis has its racial problems. Do you think St. Louis is too segregated when it comes to going out? Do black and white people go out together enough?

DJK: That’s hardly anywhere, outside of L.A., New York, Miami or maybe Chicago. I don’t see that in Atlanta, Houston, Philly or Indianapolis. It is “us” and “them.” A lot of St. Charles’ clubgoers don’t come to the city and vice-versa. It is ridiculous.

VV: Do you think “negative” hip-hop blared at clubs and even on the radio is having a negative effect on black kids?

DJK: I think there needs to be more positive rap because parents now are different. There is no discipline and kids just hear anything they want. A lot of parents think it is cool to smoke weed with their child, some will have different men in and out of the house, and there is no father figure. Kids grow up and just see single parent families. They think well. “If it’s okay for my mother to talk bad about my daddy, it’s okay for me to talk about my baby’s daddy.” There was some music I couldn’t listen to because my mom wouldn’t let me. In the white community, parents can monitor social activity because computers are easy to monitor. That doesn’t happen in our neighborhoods, you gotta watch ole’ boy down the street or boys at school. A lot of (our) parents tend to have the school system and teachers raise their kids. Half of the kids curse at their mothers and call them by their first names. That’s not all parents, but a lot of parents.

Everything doesn’t have to be about sex, money, murder and drugs. There are no positive messages in the songs outside of Common and Kanye. Back in the day, there was a lot of positive rap, and I think all this negativity has had a bad effect on the community.

Just after Kaos’ point about bad parenting, a woman calls in to the radio show to say she has five different babies by five different “babby daddies” and brags about how she gave them all their first kids.

Kaos shakes his head.

Perhaps he has a point.