Hot365 Radio is the new way for local St. Louis artists to showcase their talent. With music being an everlasting craft, there needs to be platforms for the artists to showcase their music and Hot 365 is one of those platforms. The creator of the station DJ 7Duece believes that “If I can provide an avenue to help somebody, so be it.”
With Hot365 being a station that you can access through an app and online, they provide different shows throughout the week; one of them being New Heat. I had the opportunity to sit in on that Monday night show which is hosted by DJ CU. During his show, he talks about the trending topics that have been going on in the past few days and asks his co-host DJ Speed, DJ Durtty, and the Lady Kave DJ sheBEATZ, artist manager Malorie Stewart, Motivational Speaker/Blogger Mona Michele their opinion on the topics. They have a segment where they play a song from an upcoming artist for their listeners to listen to which also gives artists more exposure because Hot365 has a big following of 200,000 plus listeners, including overseas due to DJ 7Duece being a Navy Veteran and having military discounts, says DJ CU.
The crew of Hot 365 Radio. Red Hat at the top left is Dj 7Duece, below him is Monae Michelle (co-host in the lady Kave for New Heat Show), to the right in pink hoodie is Malorie Stewart (Artist manager and co-host in the lady Kave for New Heat Show), top tight is DJ Speed (co-host of New Heat Show), to his right is DJ sheBEATZ in White top (co-host in the lady Kave for New Heat Show), bottom in black and red plaid shirt is Dj Durrty Burrd (cohost of New Heat Show)
DELUX had the chance to sit down with both the creator of the station DJ 7Duece and the creator of show Heat 365 to see what inspired the idea and to get a feel for what more should we expect in the future
DELUX: What made you want to come up with the idea of HOT365?
DJ 7DEUCE: It was actually a spinoff of a company of a DJ Coalition called Unified Sound DJ with me and another DJ. Me and him built that up but eventually me and the DJ had a disagreement and I left Unified Sound DJs but I had already been paying for the station, so I told them in advance “look I’m about to end this but I’m taking the station with me because I’m the only one paying for it”. I hooked up with DJ and he does Southern Soul. We got this going and then we had the Kave Podcast going and that grew into more ideas and we thought that we could stream the podcast live. Then we thought “what more can we do?” So, we gathered more DJs then we got the Sheryl Underwood radio show, we picked up Murphy Lee and Big Wills Podcast down in Atlanta. So now “the sky is the limit, now what?” With Malorie bringing in the A&R studio, the concept kept growing. Then with DJ CU specializing in the independent artists, it’s more than what I thought it was. [speaking of independent artists] It’s so much money out here for everybody to eat so let them eat. If I can provide an avenue to help somebody, so be it. I tell people when they send me their music, make sure it’s on point because you never know who’s listening.
DJ CU: When HOT365 radio first started, it was pretty much creating your own lane, and being entrepreneurs and showing love. So, doing a radio station and having so many different genres, the biggest thing in hip hop is how can we show love to people. It all about showing love to our people and bringing people farther along than what their reach is, so we try to show those people love.
DELUX: What was the inspiration behind the show New Heat?
DJ CU: It was mutual between me and DJ 7Duece. When we started the show, we wanted to showcase independent artists but in the midst of it, DJs and artist go hand in hand, so when we extended the show from 1 hour to 2 hours, we found time to add in 30 mins of the DJ going in for two different segments.
DELUX: What other services and opportunities do you provide?
DJ CU: When artists get in my rotation, we pretty much try to build a bridge to other cities for independent artists. Different things we have to offer, for instance for myself, I’m in three spots a week, one each night from Thursdays to Sundays, plus other gigs like birthday parties, weddings and any artist that want to get spun, it cost money. But that is a way I help upcoming artists, by playing their music in the club.
DELUX: DJ 7Duece, I was on your website and I seen that you’ve been DJing for 20 years. you’re from here, then you went to the navy, and was DJing in there, then you spent some time in Virginia, could you tell the difference between Virginia DJs and music and St. Louis DJs?
DJ 7DUECE: WOOO YES!! But there are DJs here in St. Louis that have DJed outside of St. Louis, so they know how to do a different feel and style. But you can definitely tell. I got in it [DJing] when I was young but didn’t appreciate it that much until I was in the Navy. Then my last ship I was on, people would ask if I could DJ events when they sponsor dignitaries and I said Yes. Once you touch them 1200s, it’s so hard not to go back. I’ve switched out turn tables to 100% digital, but I always go back to my turn tables. I have a passion for it, but I really got into the passion while in Navy and started looking back like “oh man, I went through Biggie, Pac, NWA, 2 Live Crew, all these big things that’s happened in hip hop and I grew up right in the middle of it. When I got in the Navy, I respected it more.
One of my biggest challenges when I came back to St. Louis as a recruiter in 07. I didn’t know what they were listening to and that’s the last thing you wanna do is go in there unprepared and ain’t ready to cater to what’s going on in the club, so I waited for a while and got with the Allstar DJs like DJ Sir Thurl, him and a couple other DJs helped me a ton. And I told them that I been in the VA for 20 years, so I missed the whole 2000s vibe.
DELUX: What are y’all plans for the future as far as the show and station?
DJ 7DUECE: It came to my realization that, I can fight this battle by myself or I can fight this battle with a strong team. With it being a strong team, everyone on the team has something special that they can do. All of us can do it but there’s specialty. I want them with their specialty to take it and go to the moon with it. But as you’re bringing yourself up, you’re bringing the platform up. Everybody is lifting everyone at the same time and with that you have a strong foundation and where that foundation goes, I ain’t gon stop it. As long as it’s doing something positive, like someone listening to the station and saying that’s where they heard a certain artist and now that artist is big, mannn that’s a big deal to me.
DJ CU: Another next step is growth between advertisements and our different shows. We have the Sheryl Underwood Show, The Murphy Lee Show, and we have bigger things coming to Hot365 radio that’s helping the brand. As for NEW HEAT, I’m excited about season 3. It’s going be estatic. We’re going to have different rating systems for music, different games, so that the viewers/listeners can be more involved. We’re bringing back the online chat where you comment and hashtag #HOT365 and it’ll come across our feed.
Thank you so much for letting me sit in on your show. I’m excited to see what new things you have coming!
Make sure you all download the app HOT365 and follow them on Instagram @hot36radio
Follow DJ 7Duece @dj7duece on Instagram
Follow DJ CU @dj_cu and his show @newheat365 on Instagram
Follow the rest of the co-host on Instagram: DJ sheBEATz @djshebeatz; DJ Speed @soopaman23; Dj Durrty Burrd @djdurrtyburd,; Malorie Stewart @highlyfe1000; and Monae Michele @MonaeMichele
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Yes Bri, this is dope af.