What happens when 40-something suburban dads are the DJs. |
JASON “DJ BURB” RODGERS, FROM LEFT, MARCUS “MISTA GOODBAR” BLACK AND GREG “DJ NIMBUS” STEVENS
It’s very difficult getting the men who are behind Paid in Full (aka A Paid in Full Jam Called Saturdays), the long-running day party at Faces Ultra Lounge devoted to old-school hip-hop, together in one setting. After all, not only do they have busy schedules — all are married fathers with day jobs — they don’t exactly live in the city of Houston. (The interview for this piece had to be done via a conference call, BTW.)
Jason “DJ Burb” Rodgers, 45, a software designer, resides in Missouri City. Greg “DJ Nimbus” Stevens, 45 who owns a hometheater company, lives in Cypress. Meanwhile, host and hype man Marcus “Mista GoodBar” Black, 45, a corporate-account rep for a quality-management systems company, calls Katy home.
But on the second Saturday of every month, the trio convenes at the Houston club to make Paid in Full happen. And they’ve been doing that for 14 years.
“It started out as house parties,” says Burb, remembering the days when he and Nimbus would organize birthday parties and other little get-togethers either in their homes or other abodes. “Nimbus had a party at his house, and it got a little out of hand. People were spilling drinks on the floor and all that kind of stuff.”
“And other stuff,” Nimbus enigmatically adds.
Continues Burb, “So we decided to move it out of the house and into the club scene.”
Nimbus eventually approached a friend who had just opened a club, the defunct Pi Bar & Lounge on Franklin. “I approached him as a friend and was like, ‘You know, I’d like to have your birthday party
at your place,’ ” he says, “and he was cool with it.”
Moving from club to club
Originally known as Don’t Bump the Turntables (an oft-used line by Martin Lawrence’s DJ in the 1990 comedy “House Party”), the night featuring music from the likes of Ice Cube, 2-Pac, Big Mello, Slick Rick and A Tribe Called Quest didn’t become Paid in Full until they moved over to Deco — another long-gone downtown spot — two years later. For Burb and Nimbus, not only were they paying tribute to Eric B. and Rakim’s legendary song and debut album, they were reminding patrons that the party was on them. “Basically, we came up with the title because it was a free event, and it spoke to the old-school hip-hop,” Burb says. “It was kind of a clever play on words. That song was an iconic hiphop song.”
Over the years, Paid in Full has moved from spot to spot — usually going down on Fridays or Saturdays — for a number of reasons, from clubs shutting down to management telling them to kick rocks after firing the guy who brought them there. When they were at the Cellar Bar on Richmond in the late-aughts, longtime patron GoodBar joined the party. Their union began at a house party Burb and Nimbus were DJing. “I actually had an accident and broke my foot,” GoodBar recalls. “I was sitting next to the DJ booth, and I grabbed the microphone and was just
messing around, and people actually thought that was part of the, you know, whole night, to where they were congratulating us. So, the guys were gracious enough to invite me to come to Paid in Full and do the same thing.”
The general theme of Paid in Full is classic hip-hop, a club night for all the boys and girls who used to listen to “Kidz Jamm” every Saturday morning on KTSU and remember when mixtapes were actually on cassette. These people also include many members of the Houston DJ community (DJ Supastar,
Flash Gordon Parks, DJ Comp-1, members of the Waxaholics) as well as visiting spinners such as San Diego’s DJ Artistic who’ve come by and done sets. “Our era of hip-hop is ’90s — late ’80s and ’90s, youknowhamsayin,” says Burb.
“The golden era,” Nimbus chimes in.
“The golden era — so that’s our style, you know,” agrees Burb. “When we were all in college, the music that we heard in college was iconic, youknowhaimean. So, we want to keep that alive and bring it to the people who’ll appreciate it, you know.”
Memories make a movement
Throughout its decadeplus history, Paid in Full has been a gathering the men proudly claim has turned into a full-fledged movement. According to them, the throwback Paid in Full has done everything from inspire future DJs to make lasting love connections.
However, as much as they enjoy doing this monthly, drama-free, hip-hop-fueled love-in, it makes one wonder how long these guys can keep this going. Apart from the aforementioned financial and family duties, Burb and Nimbus have individual DJ gigs — either locally or abroad — that they do on a weekly basis.
GoodBar has also got his hands full with “The Remedy,” an alt-soulmusic show that airs twice a week on KPFT-FM (90.1) and KPFT HD-2. Even people who have helped with promoting the show over the years, such as the folks behind “Got Soul Sessions Radio,” have stopped attending because of more pressing obligations.
If, one day, Paid in Full has to finally pack up its gear and tell everyone the party’s over, these guys believe they’ve created something that can exist far beyond a simple soiree environment.
“I think as long as any of us three is still breathing,” Nimbus says, “the movement and the music is still going to continue whether an event lives or dies.”