In the words of Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies and African and Latin American Studies Aaron Dial, Colgate University met “a real deal hip hop legend” on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 20. Wally Sparks, a DJ from Chattanooga, Tenn., who toured internationally with rapper Big K.R.I.T and has DJ’d for CeeLo Green, Nelly Furtado and MC Lyte, donned an Outkast T-shirt and brought his DJ set “TWANKLE & GLISTEN” to Little Hall’s Golden Auditorium.
During a discussion with Dial, Sparks set a scene for the audience: dancing at a party in middle school, loud music, laughing and having fun. But who was at the center of it all? Sparks retold the fascination he felt when he realized the power of the DJ for the first time.
“He had the music,” Sparks said. “I wanted the music. He was controlling the environment — I wanted to be the guy that did that. If it made me dance, I wanted it to make you dance.”
His first experience behind the speakers was an accident. Sparks was on his way to a high school Sunday social when he remembered the boombox and cassette tapes he had left at home. After his mom had retrieved both, he was ready: he played his favorite songs for the group and watched in awe as the scene transformed.
“It totally shifted the energy of the room,” Sparks said. “Everyone started having fun, everyone started dancing. I didn’t even realize I was DJ-ing at the time.”
He never considered its potential as a career until he was studying at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and asked the leader of a sorority if he could DJ at one of their parties.
“She came back to me, decided she was going to give me an opportunity,” Sparks said. “And she asked the question that sent me on the path that got me on this trip: ‘How much do you want to get paid?’ And I said, ‘What do you mean, get paid? You’re going to pay me to DJ?’ […] I’ve been rolling ever since, man.”
His passion led him to an apprenticeship with the man he calls his “primary OG,” DJ Mixx. Sparks had a modest start, carrying crates filled with vinyl to and from the stage for DJ Mixx, setting up his turntables, running errands for him — anything he called on Sparks for, but he did it happily.
“I just wanted to be around him,” Sparks said. “This was my way to learn. He was the man that I aspired to be, and he was giving me access.”
Sparks’ attitude and authenticity inspired listeners in the audience like first-year Laika Khan.
“The conversation at the beginning was really interesting: getting to know someone who grew up in a specific music scene, [being able to] tell he was immensely proud of his background,” Khan said. “I loved how real DJ Sparks was. I found him super genuine and honest.”
Sparks would go on to use the skills he learned from Big Mixx to start DJ-ing on his own and then tour the globe with Big Krit, a young artist whose music he heard and immediately resonated with and whom he would reach out to and make a mixtape with.
“We did 32 shows in 45 days, and then had to travel to Europe and do 12 more shows in 14 days,” Sparks said. “Then, [we] had to come back and finish the other leg of the tour, and did another 20 shows in 30 days. […] When you go through an experience like that, the people you go through it with become your family.”
On his return to DJ-ing for parties rather than touring, he found a new obstacle in his career. This audience was different, both in the sense that they wanted different music than he had gotten used to playing, and in the years that had passed since he started DJ-ing, the dynamics of the party scene had changed. He had to learn to adjust to the new party scene in order to keep them dancing.
Among all of this dedication and love for music that Sparks has carried with him throughout his DJ-ing career, the genre that has stood true to him is Southern rap.
“It’s the soul of hip hop that doesn’t necessarily get recognized,” Sparks said. “Everything, culturally, is in Southern music.”
This aspect of Sparks’ career appealed to the audience in Golden Auditorium. First-year Jordan Gonzalez felt connected to the Southern representation.
“I was enthusiastic that a piece of my Southern culture was coming to a place that doesn’t quite have the ear for the Southern sound,” Gonzalez said. “In [Sparks’] own words, ‘The dirty South sound is medicine — you might not like it, but it’s good for you.’”
Sparks ended his talk with an important idea: that even amid a crowd of people with different tastes, even when you feel the responsibility to entertain each one, it is always most important to stay true to yourself.
“I just do me. Just do you,” Sparks said. “The people that will gravitate to what you do will find you. Be good at what you do, do it with passion, love what you do, stay true to yourself. The people who are supposed to find you? They’ll find you.”
