Radio Imaging Archives - Dane Reid Media

My Last DMX Hip Hop Radio Commercial

About Voice Over, audio, Black Sounding Voiceover, Demos, Radio Imaging, Uncategorized, Vlogging, voiceover, Voiceover Career

Click here to listen to my last DMX Hip Hop Radio Commercial

DMX Hip Hop Radio Commercial

Hip Hop was crushed recently when a giant laid to rest. I remember when DMX introduced himself to the world. The hip hop world was looking for a new set of heroes after the death of Tupac followed by Biggie. Ja Rule was rising. Jay-Z seemed to be the front runner. And Nas was still a serious contender. There were a lot of rappers, especially coming from my hometown of New York, who were all great acts but all seemed to have a hint of the same element. Even Jigga used a similar formula as his late Bed Stuy friend Christopher Wallace.

A New Urban/ Hip Hop Voice

But someone else came out of hip hop. Earl Simmons aka DMX. I wondered many things when he first debuted. “Who is this guy?” “Where did he get his style and his energy?” And that voice? Wow! That grimy hip hop texture to this voice. I was used to the melodic storyteller flow of so many east coast rappers but this guy was something different. He was a guy from NY but he was like from his own planet in New York. He had this raw edge.

At first, while I was captured by his presence, I thought his style was a gimmick. So many people had tried different rap styles to set themselves apart from the pack, but ultimately failed. In my naivete, I thought that you had to be Jay, Nas or BIG to make it in music. But he was neither. And he wasn’t a gimmick. He told a story but he told it in a different way because he was telling his story and not someone else’s. He was telling Dark Man X’s story.

I didn’t get it at first because I wasn’t living that story. But it caught on with me when he released “And Then there was X”. It was his second album with songs that made me “Lose My Mind Up In Here, Up In Here.” His single “Party Up” was a raw kind of chant that was the perfect song to get rowdy and dance to in the club. I remember throwing my body at other clubbers who threw theirs back at me and we celebrated life and freedom to this song. I was in my 3rd year of college then. Then he came back with “X Gone Give It to You” with more of the same. But the song over the years that really got me being a fan of X’s music was “What These Bitches Want”

Everyone Had A Favorite DMX Song Or Line

I would’ve been canceled in 2021 for admitting that I was a huge fan of his misogynistic collaboration with Sisqo. But I played the song over and over, comparing the list of women that DMX named with those who I had personally had a history with.

” There was Brenda, LaTisha (uh), Linda, Felicia (okay)
Dawn, LeShaun, Ines, and Alicia (ooh)
Theresa, Monica, Sharron, Nicki (uh-huh)
Lisa, Veronica, Karen, Vicky (damn)
Cookies, well I met her in a ice cream parlor (aight?)
Tonya, Dianne, Lori and Carla (okay)
Marina (uh) Selena (uh) Katrina (uh) Sabrina (uh)
About three Kim’s (what?) Latoya, and Tina (woo)
Shelley, Bridget, Cathy, Rasheeda (uh-huh)
Kelly, Nicole, Angel, Juanita (damn)
Stacy, Tracy, Rohna, and Ronda (what?)
Donna, Yolanda (what?) Tawana, and Wanda (what?)”

But my favorite line that X raps about in his experiences dealing with the opposite sex is one so many men relate to. He says ” I think about when a dawg didn’t have. And a dawg told a joke, and the “women” didn’t laugh.” It’s a line that makes me laugh every time.

As the 90’s drew to a close, some rappers emerged to have long term careers and some remained legends but seemingly less active. DMX was one of those legends. He changed hip hop, but I hadn’t heard much about him except for the trouble that he had been in. The headlines of Billboard success were replaced with troubles with the law, drug use and a failed attempt by Iyanla Vanzant to fix his life. So when the pandemic hit and a friend asked me to produce an hip hop radio commercial for the rap icon, I was surprised. I looked him up and saw images of a guy who seemed unrecognizable. He had gained what we often call “Grown Man Weight” was noticeably older than last I had seen him. But while he had changed, his classics remained timeless.

The Making of The Radio Commercial

I often ask clients what songs they want to hear in their hip hop radio commercial. But there are some artist that I never ask the client about their songs. Crafting this commercial for DMX was like a walk down Memory Lane. It wasn’t a question of if there were enough hits to put in the ad. It was a question of whether a 60 second commercial would be long enough for all the hit songs that X had made. It of course wasn’t but I think I still captured the essence of what Earl Simmons had created.

The New Hip Hop Radio Imaging Voice of KZBT

About Voice Over, audio, Demos, Radio Imaging, Testimonials, Vlogging, voiceover, Voiceover Career, voices

As a voiceover talent, I do a lot of voices. And I do a lot of voiceover for different genres of voiceover. But as I have expressed before, being a radio imaging voice is one of my favorites. I have nailed a bunch of commercial voiceover auditions and it is really satisfying to book them, but nothing like booking a radio station. Recently I booked KZBT. I’m super excited about this station for several reasons. For One thing, I’ll be their Hip Hop Radio Imaging Voice

Most of the stations that I do radio imaging for are R&B or Gospel stations. I love that work. At 40 plus years of age, I have a grown person’s voice and I actually listen to the music from those stations. But when I entered into voiceover, I was in my twenties and hip hop was everything to me. I did thousands of commercials over the years for hip hop nightclubs. I enjoy that work so much that I go back and listen to my old commercials. So when KZBT called me, I was super excited.

I don’t do as much current Hip Hop anymore. I do a lot of Throwback stations. I enjoy that too but there is a difference from hip hop stations. Hip Hop stations allow me to be wild. I can adlib things in a very unpredictable way on hip hop stations that I can’t on old school or throwback or gospel stations. That’s the difference. That’s what young people like.

The talent who did the voice for the station is one who I respect greatly. He inspired me to get into radio imaging and voiceover in general. But, like myself, he has a huge commanding voice. He makes you pay attention. But there is a new generation of hip hop radio station listeners and they hear things differently. They don’t want to hear a booming voice. They feel that voice may not be talking to them on their level. So many stations are switching to a younger sounding urban voice.

Luckily for me, I can also change to a younger sounding voice as well. If you’d like to book me for your station, leave me a message here on the site and I’ll get back to you.

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Radio Imaging- Setting Up A New Radio Station

Uncategorized

Radio Imaging IS the reason I started doing voiceover. I absolutely love it. Especially Hip Hop and Urban AC Radio Imaging. I admired the big voice guys I would hear on Atlanta radio who would break out of character and say funny and outrageous stuff. As a recent college graduate at the time, I knew I could do what they did. I had the big voice. I had the humor. I could tell great stories. Years later, I’m a talent, accumulating more and more stations. 2019 was a very successful year for me in Imaging with the help of being signed to the Mix Group. But I’m always humbled by new stations regardless of where they are in the world or how large or small they are.

Transcript

I’m working on a brand new radio station. I am setting up a radio station and so I want to talk a little bit about getting started with a brand new radio station I’m Dane Reid the voice-over guy check me out.

So my agent hit me up and said okay Dane we got this new radio station for you I’m always excited about a new station I love radio imaging so this is a really great opportunity for me once all the paperwork was signed they take care of all that stuff on the back end I immediately got in contact with the program director I wanted to know a couple of things I wanted to know.

What their old sound was like? I wanted to know the format of the station. I wanted to know what the morning show and evening drive was like, because all of those things are gonna play into the way that I image the station. I am the official voice and I’m the branding voice for that station and so it was very important that I get what they want right and so I asked a bunch of questions. I asked what they liked most about my demo and what the program director told me was that he really liked the energy that I put in. I had smile, things like that, right.

So I listened back to my own demo and I try to mimic what I’m copying myself to make sure that I captured the true essence of what they wanted what they saw on what they expect for the imaging so they send you a packet and the packet has like 15 pages attached to it and so I’ve been working on that all weekend because I’m about to go out of town and I want to make sure that I get it right to make sure that you get it right you want to make sure that you read the lines multiple times in multiple ways unless it’s a line that I just know that I absolutely nailed it. So I may say “let’s keep it moving” right? “let’s keep it moving” or “let’s keep it moving” (all said differently), right? So they have different vibes to them. And I also look to see what section so they may be you know talking to consumers some of it requires voice acting some of it just requires the big voice.

Some of it just all depends. I’m not gonna give the same kind of energy to “here’s a slow jam” and to “here’s the quiet storm” as I’m gonna give to “the Saturday night party” you know saying so you just have to be very thoughtful about those kinds of things when you are setting up or a station additionally I listen to the station because that’s also very important again it’s all about a vibe about capturing that vibe and recreating it and sending it back to the station because for a year two years three years and hopefully many more years to come I’ll be the voice of this station so I just wanted to give a quick video about radio imaging and I’m Dane Reid the voice-over guy. Subscribe to my blog subscribe to my youtube and I’ll check you guys out later. I’m Dane Reid. I’m gone peace

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Wanna Hear Some of What I Do?

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If you’re interested in booking me, hit up Omar at the Mix Group (786) 286-4003 or omar@themixgroup.com or hit me up and I’ll introduce you to him.

One On One With Zurek (Rick Party) The Founder Of Voiceover Universe

About Voice Over, Interviews & Insight

Recently while in Miami I had a chance to hang out with South Florida’s Number One Radio Personality and one of voiceovers best known names, Zurek. I’ve known Zurek for many years and he has been a talent that I’ve modeled my own career after.

Watch The Interview

It was 1998 when I first heard this bold radio personality on V-103 in Atlanta. I was a college student studying to be a radio personality myself when I tuned in to a fresh voice and fun take on afternoon radio on an otherwise bland station. At the time, metro Atlanta wasn’t known for racy radio or a personality that took chances. And they weren’t ready for Rick Party who brought his brass, in your face, no holds barred style from Chicago to the South. But his time in Atlanta was short and it would be years before I heard of this voice again.

Fast forward to 2006, I was with my mentor “Postman“. We were watching BET in Postmans studio while working on commercials when I heard that voice again. Not realizing that it was the same voice that had breathed life into V-103’s afternoon drive 8 years earlier, I asked Postman “who is that?” He replied “Thats Rick Party. Thats my man. I used to work with him too.” When I found out that Zurek was in Miami, a place that I frequented, I asked Postman to introduce me to him.

Postman Speaks On Encouraging Zurek To Do Voiceover

I met Zurek for the first time that year in Miami over breakfast. He was extremely cool and down to earth, humble but confident. We talked about his journey to perfect his craft. He taught me about the art of using my inner voice and even shared with me some equipment advice which I took. We even talked about some very personal things like family and challenges. The words that he shared with me on his relationship with his oldest son hit home as I battled with having been laid off from my day job and trying to gain a footing in voiceover as a full time profession. I never forgot how he shared with me his never ending support for his children as they found their paths in life. My parents were the same way.

But thats the thing. Whether you know him as Zurek or Rick Party, you know him as a genuine, hard working and inspiring personality. What he says is what he really feels. And those qualities are the same qualities that he uses everyday in both his personal and professional lives to connect with other people. Zurek went on to connect the Voiceover community in 2008 when he founded Voiceover Universe. It was a Facebook for voiceover where talent, from the most seasoned like Don LaFontaine and Joe Cipriano to newbies could network and post demos. Zurek also started groups on Facebook and Linked In for talent to chat and share ideas.

In 2013, after years of solely doing voiceover and imaging, Zurek went back to radio in South Florida and introduced a more conscious version of the Rick Party Show. This time he was out to share his message of family, health and hope while still bringing that same fun feeling that he had when I first heard him back in ’98. Within a year he has been named South Florida’s #1 Radio Personality by the Miami New Times.

I shared with Zurek and his co-hosts some of my past struggles dealing with depression and anxiety. He encouraged me to share with all of South Florida this inspirational message: