DJ Baby Yu’s 2008 move to and subsequent ascent through the Atlanta ranks has been the stuff of legend. Born Yuta Nakayama, DJ Baby Yu was a staple for eight years in Toronto’s burgeoning DJ culture: wherever he went, an entire generation of club goers followed. Whereas most DJs are only local celebrities, DJ Baby Yu always found a way to take it to another level. Nakayama, backed by a solid management team, connected with and opened for all the red-hot urban artists of the day. His mixtures were hosted by Ludacris, Lupe Fiasco, and a then-fresh-on-the-scene Kanye West. He was a media darling.
Then, in a grand move, he announced his relocation to the Dirty South, home to many big names in the music industry. His vanishing act from the Toronto scene left a lot of questions, but in the time away, he grew into a much larger profile. Exclusively for WRG, DJ Baby Yu fills the gap about his time in Atlanta and staying true to his identity.
As one who seldom drinks, DJ Baby Yu didn’t miss the irony of how the idea of moving was formally pitched to him. “It was New Year’s Day a few years ago. I was doing a party out here and my management team flew down from Toronto. My manager Neil came in the booth, drunk as hell, looked me dead in the face, and said ‘Would you consider moving out here?’ Five months later, I was in Atlanta.”The road to prosperity was not so smoothly paved, and DJ Baby Yu hit many speed bumps early on. “When the [Great Recession] hit, it hit my main crowd first. People would tell me about the house they had to foreclose and the jobs they lost. It rippled onto me.”
On top of this economic pressure, cultural integration was an obstacle in Baby Yu’s path to success despite Georgia becoming more lax in terms of social acceptance. “Certain club nights would be designated ‘all black nights’ or ‘urban nights.’ You’d probably see a sprinkle of Caucasian folks and then I’d be the only Asian guy in the whole club. People would walk past the DJ booth like they had just seen a ghost. The bouncers would give me a hard time and wouldn’t let me in because they didn’t believe I was DJ’ing.”
But Baby Yu tapped his inner resolve to persevere in the face of adversity. “Patience is a hard thing to have. It’s human nature to be impatient. But the industry built me, so patience is something to understand.”
Patience carried Baby Yu into a serendipitous opportunity he quickly pounced on. “The BET Hip-Hop Awards were in town. I usually played the small room of Club Compound, but the main DJ was late. There was already 2,000 people in the club at 11:30. The promoters needed me in the main room asap. I played for an hour, and luckily, a lot of industry people were in the room including the program director of V103, the big radio station in town. I was just playing the way I used to back home: moving around genres, remixing, not being one dimensional. It got me noticed.”
It was only a matter of time before the outcast got his turn in the limelight. “In Atlanta, the mash-up scene was not big at all. I took advantage of that: I’d be mixing Taylor Swift with Migos and crazy stuff like that. This stuff was blowing people’s minds. So I made my main goal reinventing the way people in Atlanta listen to music.”
Baby Yu stands true to that goal. His Saturday mixshow, Midday Motivational Mix, attains some of the highest ratings on the V103 FM station. His parties are lined with A-listers, and his touring schedule criss-crosses time zones on a regular basis.
A lesser DJ would be gassed by these accomplishments, but Nakayama sees the big picture. “I started DJ’ing because it was a cool hobby. I had to learn everything on my own, and I enjoyed doing that. Nothing’s really changed in that regard. I love music so much, I just concentrate on that. Things happen organically from there. If such and such artist wants to work together, dope. In the long run, I just want to be a positive influence on people. I know I have the power to do that, especially with the outlets I have now. The bigger the brand gets, the more people I can reach out to.”
Among his goals are sharpening his production skills—something he prioritizes more and more—and writing a book to promote healthy living. “When you have goals like that,” he explains, “you don’t really think about how famous you want to become. I personally don’t believe I’m even halfway to where I want to be.”
Even though it is one of North America’s biggest cities, Toronto did not afford Baby Yu the luxury of being in close proximity to the talent that Atlanta offered. Upon being ingratiated into the Atlanta social scene, Nakayama’s name rang and ultimately landed him the job of being the show DJ for one of the city’s heavy hitters, Young Jeezy. Again, right place, right time: “Three days before his tour began, his tour DJ quit on him. The idea was pitched of using me. The next day I was in Charlotte. I got to the city at midnight. Went to his tour bus for a whole rehearsal. We got to the venue at 3am and performed. After that, we went on tour for four months.”
Baby Yu’s aptitude for stepping up his game spreads out to those around him. Within days of meeting him, Yuta had reinvented Jeezy’s entire stage repertoire, to rave results. Word spread, and soon he found himself consulting with the biggest name out there. “Kanye West flew me out to check out the Watch The Throne tour in Atlanta. We had a conversation where the whole time I thought he wasn’t going to listen to me. He asked, ‘What do I need to do to make this concert better?’ I started to ask him questions about his shows to which he replied, ‘I don’t want to you to know what I think. I want to know what you think.'”
Baby Yu cites DJ luminaries as his peers in the game, for very unselfish reasons. “Guys like Jazzy Jeff or Green Lantern or DJ Vice just love music, and they’ll talk to you like it’s an everyday thing. I don’t care how good you are. If you’re humble, that’s the best thing.”
He further expands on the new niche Green Lantern has carved for himself: “He embraced another genre than hip-hop, from where his history is deep, but he didn’t abandon it. He just adopted something else to make his brand different.”
His EDM production team Sato Goldschlag, formed with another Toronto expat DJ Swivel, is Nakayama’s transition away from the urban scene. “One has to sit and think about what’s most important, and if production is my main goal, I have to give priority to that. I started to realize it’s impossible to do everything at once by yourself. I had to focus on what is important to me.”
So, with one successful migration under his belt, how will Baby Yu fare with his future endeavors? The inspiration derives from his formative years in Toronto. “I’ll never forget the crazy things I did to make sure I was being heard: the mix tapes, handing out flyers, the streetwork on cold nights. That’s what you have to do to excel: you have to create new opportunities for yourself.”
The thought of the unknown is not alien to him, but Baby Yu is convinced he writes his own destiny. “It’s scary to not know but exciting to feel the motivation I have to put on myself and hustle again. At the end of the day, I’m just known as a DJ, but there’s more to life than that.”
DJ Baby Yu's 2008 move to and subsequent ascent through the Atlanta ranks has been the stuff of legend. Born Yuta Nakayama, DJ Baby Yu was a staple for eight years in Toronto's burgeoning DJ culture: wherever he went, an entire generation of club goers followed. Whereas most DJs are only local celebrities, DJ Baby Yu always found a way to take it to another level. Nakayama, backed by a solid management team, connected with and opened for all the red-hot urban artists of the day. His mixtures were hosted by Ludacris, Lupe Fiasco, and a then-fresh-on-the-scene Kanye West. He was a media darling.
Then, in a grand move, he announced his relocation to the Dirty South, home to many big names in the music industry. His vanishing act from the Toronto scene left a lot of questions, but in the time away, he grew into a much larger profile. Exclusively for WRG, DJ Baby Yu fills the gap about his time in Atlanta and staying true to his identity.
As one who seldom drinks, DJ Baby Yu didn’t miss the irony of how the idea of moving was formally pitched to him. "It was New Year's Day a few years ago. I was doing a party out here and my management team flew down from Toronto. My manager Neil came in the booth, drunk as hell, looked me dead in the face, and said 'Would you consider moving out here?' Five months later, I was in Atlanta."The road to prosperity was not so smoothly paved, and DJ Baby Yu hit many speed bumps early on. "When the [Great Recession] hit, it hit my main crowd first. People would tell me about the house they had to foreclose and the jobs they lost. It rippled onto me."
On top of this economic pressure, cultural integration was an obstacle in Baby Yu's path to success despite Georgia becoming more lax in terms of social acceptance. "Certain club nights would be designated ‘all black nights’ or ‘urban nights.’ You'd probably see a sprinkle of Caucasian folks and then I'd be the only Asian guy in the whole club. People would walk past the DJ booth like they had just seen a ghost. The bouncers would give me a hard time and wouldn't let me in because they didn't believe I was DJ’ing."
But Baby Yu tapped his inner resolve to persevere in the face of adversity. "Patience is a hard thing to have. It's human nature to be impatient. But the industry built me, so patience is something to understand."
Patience carried Baby Yu into a serendipitous opportunity he quickly pounced on. "The BET Hip-Hop Awards were in town. I usually played the small room of Club Compound, but the main DJ was late. There was already 2,000 people in the club at 11:30. The promoters needed me in the main room asap. I played for an hour, and luckily, a lot of industry people were in the room including the program director of V103, the big radio station in town. I was just playing the way I used to back home: moving around genres, remixing, not being one dimensional. It got me noticed."
I'd be the only Asian guy in the whole club. People would walk past the DJ booth like they had just seen a ghost.It was only a matter of time before the outcast got his turn in the limelight. “In Atlanta, the mash-up scene was not big at all. I took advantage of that: I'd be mixing Taylor Swift with Migos and crazy stuff like that. This stuff was blowing people's minds. So I made my main goal reinventing the way people in Atlanta listen to music."
Baby Yu stands true to that goal. His Saturday mixshow, Midday Motivational Mix, attains some of the highest ratings on the V103 FM station. His parties are lined with A-listers, and his touring schedule criss-crosses time zones on a regular basis.
A lesser DJ would be gassed by these accomplishments, but Nakayama sees the big picture. "I started DJ'ing because it was a cool hobby. I had to learn everything on my own, and I enjoyed doing that. Nothing's really changed in that regard. I love music so much, I just concentrate on that. Things happen organically from there. If such and such artist wants to work together, dope. In the long run, I just want to be a positive influence on people. I know I have the power to do that, especially with the outlets I have now. The bigger the brand gets, the more people I can reach out to."
Among his goals are sharpening his production skills—something he prioritizes more and more—and writing a book to promote healthy living. "When you have goals like that," he explains, "you don't really think about how famous you want to become. I personally don't believe I'm even halfway to where I want to be.”
Even though it is one of North America's biggest cities, Toronto did not afford Baby Yu the luxury of being in close proximity to the talent that Atlanta offered. Upon being ingratiated into the Atlanta social scene, Nakayama's name rang and ultimately landed him the job of being the show DJ for one of the city's heavy hitters, Young Jeezy. Again, right place, right time: "Three days before his tour began, his tour DJ quit on him. The idea was pitched of using me. The next day I was in Charlotte. I got to the city at midnight. Went to his tour bus for a whole rehearsal. We got to the venue at 3am and performed. After that, we went on tour for four months."
Baby Yu's aptitude for stepping up his game spreads out to those around him. Within days of meeting him, Yuta had reinvented Jeezy's entire stage repertoire, to rave results. Word spread, and soon he found himself consulting with the biggest name out there. "Kanye West flew me out to check out the Watch The Throne tour in Atlanta. We had a conversation where the whole time I thought he wasn't going to listen to me. He asked, ‘What do I need to do to make this concert better?’ I started to ask him questions about his shows to which he replied, 'I don't want to you to know what I think. I want to know what you think.'"
Baby Yu cites DJ luminaries as his peers in the game, for very unselfish reasons. "Guys like Jazzy Jeff or Green Lantern or DJ Vice just love music, and they'll talk to you like it's an everyday thing. I don't care how good you are. If you're humble, that's the best thing."
He further expands on the new niche Green Lantern has carved for himself: "He embraced another genre than hip-hop, from where his history is deep, but he didn't abandon it. He just adopted something else to make his brand different."
His EDM production team Sato Goldschlag, formed with another Toronto expat DJ Swivel, is Nakayama's transition away from the urban scene. "One has to sit and think about what's most important, and if production is my main goal, I have to give priority to that. I started to realize it's impossible to do everything at once by yourself. I had to focus on what is important to me."
So, with one successful migration under his belt, how will Baby Yu fare with his future endeavors? The inspiration derives from his formative years in Toronto. "I'll never forget the crazy things I did to make sure I was being heard: the mix tapes, handing out flyers, the streetwork on cold nights. That's what you have to do to excel: you have to create new opportunities for yourself."
The thought of the unknown is not alien to him, but Baby Yu is convinced he writes his own destiny. "It's scary to not know but exciting to feel the motivation I have to put on myself and hustle again. At the end of the day, I'm just known as a DJ, but there's more to life than that."