About Me
Antoine Carraby went on to become the least vocal but longest-lasting member of the controversial rap group known as N.W.A. Calling himself DJ Yella (from the Tom Tom Club's "Mr. Yellow"), he was the sole member of the group to stay loyal to Eazy-E while the other members threw around accusations of missing money and bad business deals. Maintaining a quiet dignity about the situation, he remained the one member to not choose sides and avoided any of their solo attacks on one another. Born and raised in Compton, CA, DJ Yella grew up listening to funk music and learned to play the drums. DJing in Los Angeles clubs as a teenager, he soon met Dr. Dre and the two became fast friends. Influenced by Grandmaster Flash, Dre and Yella formed the World Class Wreckin' Cru in the early '80s to try and capitalize on the new form of music. After watching Run-D.M.C. perform in California for the first time, the two DJs were amazed to see them on-stage with nothing more than a DJ scratching records. They attempted to make a few records with the World Class Wreckin' Cru, but financial problems resulted in Dre contacting high school friend Eazy-E about starting a group. Eazy-E was a successful drug dealer who had money to burn and an enthusiastic mind for business, and the two soon left Yella back in the Wreckin' Cru. Dre brought Yella into the group when a track they had produced and written for another group, "Boyz in the Hood," was turned down by the rappers who were originally going to do it. They convinced Eazy-E to rap it and suddenly they had their first single. MC Ren came into the picture soon after and Wreckin' Cru associate/lyricist Ice Cube was also drafted into the situation. They called themselves N.W.A. and crafted a hard-edged, angry sound that was highly influenced by Public Enemy, among others. Between their original singles and the recording of the classic Straight Outta Compton album, DJ Yella and the others worked on the single-promotions angle of the group while Ice Cube attended college. Dre and Yella also worked on beats together, while they continued to try and convince Eazy-E to keep rapping because they liked his image. When Straight Outta Compton came out, the following media explosion planted the seeds of dissent in the group. Ice Cube asked Yella about working on a solo album with him, but when the group decided to concentrate on Eazy-E's solo album first, Cube left the group and began accusing them of financial misgivings in the press. As of now Dj Yella is the owner of a lucrative adult film company named “DJ YELLA ENTERTAINMENT†based out of Compton Ca.Long before Snoop Dogg opened the doors of adult entertainment for hip-hop artists with the release of Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle by Hustler Video, DJ Yella of N.W.A fame was in the porn trenches – directing, shooting and editing his own titles for release by companies such as Fat Dogg and Midnight, learning how the adult industry operates. Now with more than 250 videos to his credit over an eight-year span, DJ Yella feels like he’s earned his chops and has launched his own company to produce and distribute his work. "I’ve been around so long now – I've seen how it works. I’ve seen what not to do. I know what to do – now I just have to do it and I’ll take it to the top," In a matter of years, DJ Yella hopes to have established DJ Yella Entertainment as one of the top distributors in adult."The key is to take it to the music side. That’s where Snoop Dogg’s stuff really sold. It wasn’t the porn market – porn has a limit. The music market is much, much bigger," said Yella.Not that DJ Yella plans on releasing videos like Snoop Dogg, Digital Underground, Mystikal, Kid Frost, Too Short and Ice T have – adult videos that have hip-hop personas as hosts, but little else."I’m 100 percent porn. I’m in it. They don’t actually do porn – they’re just kinda there to help it sell. I’m in the trenches – I know the game and I’m here to do it up right," DJ Yella said.Yella spent most of his career in adult as Tha Kidd, working with his former bodyguard Big Man who was actually responsible for bringing Yella into adult."He originally brought it to Eazy E, but he didn’t jump on it. So then he brought it to me and I felt like it was something I could do well in," Yella said.Flush with cash from the success of N.W.A and the solo releases of Eazy E, which Yella has production credits on, Yella went out and bought everything he needed to shoot and edit adult videos. He didn’t use his music handle because he felt that the name had value – and that no one was willing to pay him enough for the value of his name. Finally, just before Snoop Dogg arrived on the scene, Yella disclosed his musical background and started working under the name he used while producing.
"I approached it like I approached music production – as a business. From the very beginning I knew it wasn’t about hanging around with the women, but about making a product and making money," Yella said. Economics is why Yella still directs, shoots, edits and creates the soundtrack for each of his videos.Yella notes that one of the advantages of working for yourself in adult is being able to make videos the way you want make them."I want more girls than anybody else has. Not like a gangbang – but I want more women on each tape because that’s more excitement. When people pick up my tapes, I want them to know there’s a lot of women on them," Yella said.To that end Bangin’ in LA, his first release for DJ Yella Entertainment, will feature 15 girls in nine sex scenes – and it’s not a girl/girl tape. Written by Big Man, the gonzo tape follows Yella around the hood as he searches for women in the "ghetto" who take part in threesomes and girl/girl action.While Bangin’ in LA features black women, Yella doesn’t intend to limit himself when casting women in his videos. "I’ll use any type of girl. I’ll use a green Martian or a purple whatever if she’s hot," Yella said, noting that his next project is White Chicks Gone Black, an interracial video.Yella, who plans on releasing one video a month through Yella Entertainment, hopes to have even more women on the planned sequel – Bangin’ in Vegas. "I’d like to get 30 women on that one. We’ll see," he said.
Bangin’ in LA, the DVD version of which will be three hours long, will be released next month to both adult retailers and music stores. Future series by DJ Yella Entertainment included Black Cheerleaders Gone Wild and the re-release and the re-launching of Yella’s girl/girl series Girl Talk.
