The Mark Ronson Interview with Throwing Fits

Summary

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Throwing Fits: The Mark Ronson Interview

Date: September 29, 2025
Host: Throwing Fits
Guest: Mark Ronson

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Episode Overview

Throwing Fits sits down with Mark Ronson—celebrated DJ, producer, and author—to celebrate his new book Night People and dive deep into his early days in 1990s New York clubland. The conversation ranges from the DIY realities of pre-social media DJ culture, obsessive record hunting, the shifting landscape of nightlife, the psychology behind the profession, celebrity DJ culture, and both the glories and pitfalls of being a modern music icon.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Introductions, Accolades & Internet Truths

• [01:33–03:30]:
  Mark Ronson receives a characteristically irreverent intro: "Might just be the most interesting man in music."
• Clarifying the Grammys Count:
  Mark confirms he has nine Grammys.
  • "The Grammy number is nine." (02:17, Ronson)
  • Mark admits—breaking news!—he once updated his own Wikipedia:
    "I updated it from 8 to 9 for the Grammys because it’s just been a slow year for me." (03:02, Ronson)

2. Personal Style & Gearhead Talk

• [03:52–07:14]:
  Ronson’s podcast fit:
  • George Clinton/Parliament vintage shirt (his wife's—buttons on the “wrong side”)
  • Black jeans from The Row
  • Gucci x Adidas Gazelles from DJing gigs
  • Always Calvin Klein underwear:
    "Always Calvin... At this point in my life—yeah, habit." (07:19, Ronson)
  • AP (Audemars Piguet) Royal Oak watch but never checks the time:
    "I don't know what time—that's not why I wear this." (06:23, Ronson)

3. The DJ’s Psyche: Chasing Validation

• [07:25–10:35]:
  The hosts dig in on the roots of DJ motivation:
  • "Did you ever find that external adulation that felt truly and fully validating?" (07:46, Host 1)
  • Ronson’s frank answer:
    "I don’t think that hole in your soul ever gets fully filled. But as you get older, you do therapy or whatever. Of course, that thing is at the root of what drives a lot of us." (07:46, Ronson)
  • On the high of moving a crowd:
    "...it wasn’t me always connecting to the crowd. It was like, look what I can do to you… It was a high." (08:21, Ronson)

4. Night People—Writing About the 90s

• [10:39–13:47]:
  • Genesis: The book was inspired by the passing of DJ friends and Gen Z's curiosity about '90s NYC.
    "All these fucking Gen Z people were coming to me going, like, you were in New York in the '90s? What the fuck was that like?" (11:07, Ronson)
  • Why not a superstar DJ memoir:
    "I wanted to write a book about a real gigging DJ... five nights a week playing sports bars." (12:14, Ronson)
  • Shout-out to Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential as a literary influence.

5. The Hard-Knock DJ Life

• [13:31–16:02]:
  • Physical grind: lugging crates, monthly chiropractor visits, no health insurance, writing expenses off (if you’re lucky).
  • Earning battle scars in every sense:
    "When you're that young, your cells regenerate at this clip. You can get up. You can do all that to your body and take the beatings..." (13:13, Ronson)

6. Dance Floor Mythologies: Tough Crowds & Savior Records

• [14:00–17:49]:
  • Hardest groups to crack? The “Supreme kids” (cool skater kids), fashion girls, finance bros, etc.
  • "It's like a puzzle…what’s going to be the record that cracks these people?” (14:39, Ronson)
  • The “Savior Ass crate”:
    "Legendary DJ K. Slay... he called it the Savior Ass crate—you know, like when all else fails." (15:44, Ronson)
  • Go-to records: Michael Jackson, Jackson 5, Busta Rhymes, “900 Number,” “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See.”

7. From Bedroom to Big Leagues: First Wins & Iconic Moves

• [20:14–23:15]:
  • “I made it” moment: Dropping ACDC’s “Back In Black” at the hip-hop party Cheetah after hearing it work in a rock club—risking career suicide, winning the room.
    "I dropped it on beat and no one could stop dancing. There was no time for judgment.” (22:24, Ronson)
  • This boundary-blurring set him apart and made his name.

8. Fashion History & Nepotism Tours

• [25:14–28:40]:
  • Outfitted in Aniche, Triple Five Soul, Supreme, Tommy Hilfiger.
  • Early gig: Tommy Hilfiger mall tour with a “Nepo tour” of celebrity kids.
    "I remember all these people lined up in Texas at this thing to get autographs. And this lady just looked at us and goes, 'Y' all should have brought your parents.'" (27:47, Ronson)

9. The DJ’s Adaptive Mindset

• [29:15–31:43]:
  • Gigged everywhere, from cop weddings (disastrous first-dance story: “The Long Run” by Eagles) to gigantic parties.
  • Forgot to book a DJ for his own wedding—
    "I actually forgot to get a DJ for my first one... Luckily there were 80 DJs there." (30:01–30:07, Ronson)

10. Social Media & Celebrity DJ Era

• [31:49–33:59]:
  • Would Mark have been good at modern clout-chasing DJ life? “Way better than I am now.”
  • The skillset has changed:
    "You really have to be presenting... and yeah, you need to be presenting that life." (32:31, Ronson)

11. Then and Now: Club Culture, Vinyl, and New York’s Changing Scene

• [33:59–36:09]:

  • Choosing vinyl over digital: “My back is fucked up again.”
  • Carrying your own records = respect for the roots:
    "Because of how I started, I just can't be a different dude in the city I came up in." (35:44, Ronson)

• [46:04–48:20]:

  • NYC lost something with the advent of bottle service: "The VIP section did not exist for a long time…then club owners realized they could make so much money selling these quintuply overpriced bottles…” (46:21, Ronson)
  • "New York is always just gonna be the most inspiring place to come and make art and do it." (47:43, Ronson)

12. Adapting to Modern Crowds

• [56:27–58:42]:
  • “Selfie-taking influencers at a corporate brand activation” are tougher than '90s club kids or drug dealers.
  • But the DJ’s payoff is timeless:
    "I still love the high from that thing at the end of the night when you've wrestled with a crowd that didn't want to dance..." (58:42, Ronson)

13. On Night People and Defining Himself

• [59:11–60:55]:
  • The book deliberately skips over much of the Winehouse/Bruno Mars/celebrity production years.
    "DJing was never something I wanted to do… I failed at being a guitar player and accidentally ended up in this DJing thing..." (59:44, Ronson)

14. Music Discovery, Nostalgia, and Dad Life

• [63:36–64:35]:
  • These days, his young daughter's musical taste shapes the house playlist: Jack Black, Joanie Mitchell, Scenario, Bobby Caldwell.

15. Record Collecting Obsessed

• [64:35–70:59]:
  • Gave away “so many records” when moving; lifetime spent between $500,000 and $1M on vinyl.
  • The hunt continues for specific records—sometimes finds himself reaching for albums he no longer owns:
    "Where’s Missy ‘Get Your Freak On’? God dammit." (70:13, Ronson)

16. Embarrassing Themselves With Legends

• [65:46–69:46]:
  • Awkward moments with Q-Tip ("I don’t know..." when Ronson boasted a rare sample find) and Jay-Z ("I play all your songs" as he’s swept by the crowd—recounted with self-deprecation and humility).
  • Takeaway: “I’ll always be a fan, even if I do know these people..."

17. DJ Health Hazards and Aging Outfits

• [74:10–78:05]:
  • Developed “DJ foot” (a form of arthritis), and used to take off shoes behind the booth.
  • Trying to figure out “how to dress” as an aging DJ (“How do you do, fellow kids?”).

18. Best DJs, Fashion, and Modern Habits

• [75:10–78:59]:
  • Personal DJ “Mount Rushmore”: Stretch Armstrong, AM (RIP), Kid Capri, Funkmaster Flex, and Clark Kent.
  • Splurges these days: vintage synths for scoring films, pricey modular gear.
  • Fashion: loves Stofa, The Row; still appreciates vintage streetwear but is wary of “trend trap” (big-sole sneakers as the "I get off the bus" moment).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I don’t think that hole in your soul ever gets fully filled.” – Mark Ronson [07:46]
• “I could hear Busta Rhymes ‘Put Your Hands...’ and just smell the inside of Rebar on a Tuesday night.” – Mark Ronson [16:29]
• “When you're that young, your cells regenerate at this clip...you can get up. You can do all that to your body and take the beatings.” – Mark Ronson [13:13]
• “My idea of dressing up, like, on a big night was a cool new T-shirt from Supreme.” – Mark Ronson [25:24]
• “I became really a DJ so I wouldn’t ever have to dance.” – Mark Ronson [30:40]
• “It's a puzzle…what’s going to be the record that cracks these people?” – Mark Ronson [14:39]
• On old vs. new club scenes:
  “Now I’m playing fashion gigs and opening with Barbie into Uptown Funk so people can take videos…that’s not real DJing.” – Mark Ronson [49:09]
• “You'll never fill that hole. You just figure out how to manage it.” – Mark Ronson [07:46, paraphrased]
• On DJ celebrities:
  “I'm losing gigs to Real Housewives left and right.” – Mark Ronson [51:42]
• On milestone awkwardness:
  “I play all your songs… [Jay-Z’s bodyguard] goes, ‘Nothing, man, just a fan.’ And I heard those words echoing in my head as I got swept by.” – Mark Ronson [66:06]

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Time-stamped Highlights

• [03:02] – Mark admits to self-editing his Wikipedia page.
• [07:25] – Dissects the “hole in your soul” driving performers.
• [11:07] – Why a '90s NYC memoir? “What the fuck was that like?”
• [14:39] – The DJ as social hacker: learning to “crack” any crowd.
• [22:24] – The ACDC “Back In Black” set that made his reputation.
• [30:01] – Forgot to book a DJ for his own wedding; recovered with a crowd full of DJs.
• [35:44] – “I just can’t be a different dude in the city I came up in.”
• [46:21] – “VIP didn’t exist,” then bottle service changed everything.
• [56:44] – “Instagram influencers at a paid gig terrify me way more than '90s clubland.”
• [64:35] – Vinyl addiction: "$500,000 to $1 million" lifetime spend.
• [69:46] – “I’ll always be a fan, even if I know these people…”
• [74:32] – Learns he’s developed “DJ foot”—arthritis from years on stage.

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:00–01:33 – Ads/Introductions (skip)
• 01:33–07:14 – Ronson’s intro, fashion, watches
• 07:25–10:35 – Psychology of DJing, validation, and power
• 10:39–13:47 – Writing Night People: why the '90s?
• 14:00–26:55 – DJing clubland, scene politics, fashion history
• 26:55–31:43 – Outlandish gigs, weddings, and personal rituals
• 31:49–36:09 – Social media, modern DJ culture, vinyl comeback
• 46:04–48:20 – Clubland’s evolution, bottle service, and New York changing
• 56:27–58:42 – Modern crowd psychology (“brand activation” gigs)
• 59:11–63:34 – Night People, personal evolution, family, and music taste
• 64:35–70:13 – Records, collecting, awkward moments with Q-Tip, Jay-Z
• 74:10–78:05 – Health aftermath, aging, and fashion anxieties

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Closing Thoughts

The episode is a love letter to 1990s NYC nightlife, a meditation on the egos and compulsions of performers, and a lived blueprint for surviving and thriving within—and well beyond—the golden era of club culture. Ronson offers nostalgia threaded with honesty, humor, and humility, embracing both the glory and the awkwardness of his formative years.

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Plug:
Night People: How to Be a DJ in 90s New York City is out now. There’s an accompanying playlist via QR code in the book.
Instagram: @iammarkronson

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“You have to take chances as a DJ… if you’re not, they could’ve just played a playlist with auto-mix and called it a night.” (57:54, Ronson)

Transcript

[Host 1]

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[Mark Ronson]

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[Host 1]

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[Mark Ronson]

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[Mark Ronson]

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[Host 1]

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[Sponsor Voice]

This podcast is supported by the RealReal. Meet Christine. She loves shopping and this is the sound of fashion overload. Too many fabulous things, not enough space. So Christine started selling with the RealReal.

[Mark Ronson]

I've always loved collecting designer pieces, Gucci bags, Prada heels. But my style keeps evolving. Selling with the RealReal game changer. I earn more. And they do everything.

[Sponsor Voice]

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[Mark Ronson]

And I get peace of mind knowing I earn more selling with the RealReal than anywhere else.

[Sponsor Voice]

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[Host 1]

Might just be the most interesting man in music. And he's stepping out the booth and into the stew with Jamie Winehouse and Bruno bars to tell us about something that's actually cooler than partying with models and doing drugs with celebrities. Reading his book Fresh off the ones and twos, like potty training. His journey has spanned from uptown rich kid to uptown funk, from Tommy and sniffle up a bag to Emmys and Oscars. And now from the decks to the page to the podcast.

[Mark Ronson]

Here to chat.

[Host 1]

Beefing with other DJs, getting drug dealers to dance, and the evolution in New York City's club culture. Seven or eight or nine time Grammy winner and only one time Oscar winner and author of the book Night People, which is on shelves now. Mark Ronson. Mark, how the hell are you?

[Mark Ronson]

Hey. Good. That was an incredible introduction. That's the best one ever. Thank you.

[Host 2]

Can you clarify the Grammy number online? It's like confusing online.

[Mark Ronson]

The Grammy number is nine. Okay.

[Host 1]

Wikipedia, you're on notice.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, I know. Like actually, one of the funniest things that Lily Allen it's is a very, very funny, very smart person. And, you know, when we won the Grammy for record of the year, I think I disappeared for a second of the party we're having, like, after I probably to go to the bathroom and take drugs and. And somebody came over to the crew because I'd just been saying. I was like, where's. Where's Mark? Just like, Grammy. And I just want. You guys probably went to update his Wikipedia page. And now whenever I see somebody, like an award thing, like on their phone, like Spike Lee, I'm like, updating his Wikipedia page. But you don't have people to do that for you. No. And I've had.

[Host 1]

Have you. Have you ever updated your Wikipedia page?

[Mark Ronson]

I am going to say this for the first time right here. I was really. I updated it from 8 to 9 for the Grammys because it's just been a slow year for me. I've been a little bit out of the news, so nobody was really checking me. Like, he did win for that Sabrina Carpenter remix. So I went on, and it's actually kind of hard, like, to get into the coding of it. To update your Wikipedia page, you have to, like, make sure you do the. Yeah. Anyway, thank you, Jimmy Wales.

[Host 1]

Wow. You.

[Mark Ronson]

All right?

[Host 2]

Breaking news. A narcissist.

[Host 1]

No, no. You know what? He does it all.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

He DJs, he produces, he models, he writes, and he updates his own Wikipedia page. You got to be your own biggest supporter.

[Mark Ronson]

I could do. I could do anybody. If you guys need help, we don't have a Wikipedia. You know, I could change that. Yeah.

[Host 2]

All right, we're going to hold you to that. Mark, thank you for joining us. Real quick, the first thing you want to do is a little f check. What did you wear today to podcast Today?

[Mark Ronson]

I'm wearing a shirt. George Clinton, Parliament Funkadelic kind of old vintage shirt. I am wearing some black jeans and a shirt from the Row. Okay.

[Host 1]

May I. May I touch.

[Host 2]

Yeah. We want to get a little tactile.

[Mark Ronson]

Oh, it's actually. It's my wife's shirt. And I didn't realize this till I put on my wife's shirt for the first time that ladies shirts button the other way.

[Host 2]

Yes, they do.

[Mark Ronson]

And I've never felt so clumsy. Like, how the.

[Host 1]

Do you like.

[Mark Ronson]

It's like to actually. After 45 years of doing buttons a certain way. Right? Yeah.

[Host 2]

An old dog, new tricks.

[Host 1]

What are the jeans? You know, the brand.

[Mark Ronson]

The jeans are just row. Jeans, row. And then these shoes.

[Host 1]

Women's. Women's jeans.

[Mark Ronson]

No, they're the men's. I have a hard time fitting. I have a hard time fitting into my own jeans. You and I both brother stars.

[Host 2]

They're just like us.

[Mark Ronson]

I bought these socks because I went to LA to work and I forgot to take underwear with me. So I went into undefeated and bought some socks last week. Okay.

[Host 1]

Did you also buy underwear?

[Host 2]

Yeah. For a week.

[Mark Ronson]

I can't remember. Okay, rather not say. And then. And then. These are some shoes. I've done a lot of DJing work for Gucci over the years. These shoes are Gucci Adidas Collab, the Gucci Gazelles.

[Host 2]

And then let's talk about that nice little AP on the wristicle. What is that right?

[Mark Ronson]

Yes, this is. So I've been kind of lucky enough to be the ambassador for, for ap for like their music stuff and helped them for a good like five or six years. And actually I discovered AP once because like 20 years ago I was in some cool hipster bar some in Paris and I saw the coolest looking French dude that I've ever seen. And that says a lot because all French dudes are impossibly cool looking, looking like Serge Gansburg standing by the bar and I saw this watch. And I don't know a lot about watches like that. And it was a AP Royal Oak. And I went up and I was like, what is that watch? And he was like, yeah. And then I started wearing this vintage one about, you know, 12 years ago. And five or six years ago, Francois, the head of AP, said like, you know, I want you to come and help us do some music. It was super cool. So one of the really nice things is I get, I get a, you know, occasionally get a really special watch.

[Host 1]

How does it work? Do they give you like a new one?

[Mark Ronson]

Is it a loaner or, you know, this is. This was the Matthew Williams? Yes.

[Host 1]

Oh, this is the Elite.

[Mark Ronson]

This is the Elites. The Matthew Williams. I guess. No numbers on 1017 and. Yeah, I don't know what time. That's not why I wear this.

[Host 1]

There's no numbers on it except for it's always 10:17 o'. Clock.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, exactly. It's 5:25. But I actually.

[Host 1]

Wait, your watch is wildly.

[Host 2]

It's so wrong.

[Host 1]

It is 11:45am and your watch says.

[Host 2]

It'S 5:25 form, no function. For Mr. Ronson, for Ron Selino.

[Mark Ronson]

I. I don't wear them out.

[Host 1]

Were you recently traveling in a time zone that was six hours and 20 minutes ahead?

[Mark Ronson]

I think, I think that I just probably put this on. I Was like, oh, I'm gonna go on throwing fits. I should make it look like I made an effort to get dressed.

[Host 2]

Yeah, you look great.

[Mark Ronson]

Because usually I would just wear whatever the. So, yes, this watch has not been set in a little while.

[Host 1]

Whatever. You got a phone?

[Host 2]

Oh, we gotta ask about the underwear. What panties did you actually wear? Hopefully you're wearing some. Or maybe not.

[Mark Ronson]

I guess it's up to you.

[Host 1]

No problem.

[Mark Ronson]

Always Calvin.

[Host 2]

Oh, yeah. Hell, yeah.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. All right. This point in my life. Yeah. Habit.

[Host 1]

All right, let's get into the meat and pitos of the only podcast matters. Mark. We're going to start with a softball question. Puff piece shit. You started DJing as a teenager, desperately seeking attention and approval from strangers and from your parents. Did you ever find that external adulation that felt truly and fully validating. Are you still on the hunt against softball?

[Mark Ronson]

As I don't think that that hole in your soul ever gets fully filled. But I think as you get older, you do therapy or whatever. Like, yes, of course. I don't, like, don't search for every bit of adulation when going out and playing shows with people or putting out records and wanting people to love it or whatever it is. But of course, that thing is at the root of what drives a lot of us.

[Host 1]

That's like the start of the book is how you got into it and. And having control over a crowd and over a room.

[Mark Ronson]

Yes.

[Host 1]

And having people, like, look at you and see you. Do you mainly get that through DJing? Did you get that through producing? Do you get that through this book?

[Mark Ronson]

I started off from DJing, so, like, I actually started off writing this book and I was talking. I was actually talking to. My therapist is sort of like hardcore, like boot camp type guy. Like, not the woman fuzzy type. And he's like, so what do you. What are you working on? I was like, well, I'm working on this book. You know, it's. And it's a lot about DJing and stuff. And like, kind of like, you know, connection. He's like, kind of raises an eyebrow like with you, connection. It's like more like maybe compulsion. And I was like, that was a strong take. It was like, I. Of course, different people. Everybody has gets into DJing for different things. Some people just love music. You want to be the center of the party. You. Yeah, Yep. And. And so you're Arab, though. Excuse me? And I was like, I did love this feeling. I mean, once I got good enough at it to feel like I could like, lift the crowd and like, with each song adding this new peak that like, it wasn't me always connecting to the crowd. It was like this power, like, look what I can do to you. And then the more I would get them high, the more I would almost like. Like shooting up or something. I would go even more internally and get this kind of wild feeling of both power and it was a high. And it was like, you know, you'd finish these gigs and 4am and you just like, have this crazy energy and you look around and wait. Fudge, the room's empty. 400 people. Where did everybody. And then you, like, need to go somewhere and you go the after party. You'll get fucked up. But you need to keep that sort of thing going. I mean, it's not like that for everybody, obviously. And there were nights, of course, I loved the crowd. I love the people. You saw the same people every week. You. They became friends that you didn't even know their names. But a lot of it was this. It kind of was this feeling of power. And I had to be a little honest about that. A little honest about that. In the book.

[Host 1]

Did writing the book and dredging up these feelings all. Did it. Did it give you a little taste?

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, I. I think, I think, you know, I don't think all of that ever you asked, like, it. Was it more from DJing, that feeling of adulation or making records or writing this book? I think a thread of it goes through everything. I think as you get older, hopefully you get a little bit more like, comfortable with who you are. Maybe you don't chase those things as much. Right. But yes, I totally forgot the question.

[Host 1]

It was some. Okay, but tell us, tell us about the book.

[Host 2]

We got what we wanted.

[Host 1]

Tell us about the book Night People.

[Mark Ronson]

Okay, what?

[Host 1]

But yeah, maybe like, why. Why do you decide to frame it in the 90s at a specific moment and place in time?

[Mark Ronson]

Very good question. Okay, so I thinking about writing a book for a while that this amazing literary agent, David Kuhn, was. Would always ask me. I was like, I feel definitely too young to write a memoir and I don't really care enough about it. Like, I don't know. I don't have one idea that would galvanize me to write a book. And then a really good friend of mine, this DJ named Blue Gems, passed away and he was this incredible DJ and was like, play at Lebanon and all these things. And like I was going to DJ with Ellie Escobar his. A party that was. Would have celebrated his birthday even though he had passed a few Years before. And I started to think about all these memories in the 90s, people that passed or records that were important, that just a moment of nostalgia. And then all these fucking Gen Z people were coming to me going like, you were in New York in the 90s. Like, what the fuck was that? Was that like. And I. We were just like, what in the 90s? We were just the Roxy in the 80s and Studio 54 in the 70s was cool. But I understand it was this time in New York where New York was arguably still the center of the musical universe. You had Wu Tang, Biggie, Jay Z. Obviously Puff. You can't cut him out of it, no matter how fucking awkward it is now. Little Kim. And then you had like Missy and Pharrell and Aaliyah all coming here to make their records. And they were all out in the clubs and they. And there was no vip. Everybody was in the clubs fucking together. Was no bottle service. There was no camera phones. It was kind of special for those reasons. And then the main other reason that I wanted to write a book about not a superstar dj, not a Calvin Harris or Marshmallow. I love Calvin. I didn't mean like Calvin, but I just wanted to write a book about a real gigging dj. Like five nights a week playing sports bars. Yeah.

[Host 2]

Gym rat.

[Mark Ronson]

Exactly. And I could only write about that before I was famous, like in. In. And that was only the 90s when I. What that was like. And I'm obsessed, of course, with Kitchen Confidential and Anthony Bourdain and the way that he wrote about New York and kitchens and nightlife with this visceral energy. I mean, he's the goat. He's one of the greatest authors ever. I don't. Not saying I'm anywhere near on that level, but I had something about New York and nighttime and the lunacy of being in a nighttime industry and loving what you do. But getting beat the up, dude.

[Host 1]

I was gonna say you got treated like.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host 2]

You were no hierarchy in the club.

[Host 1]

It couldn't keep you down.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. And because when you love it and you're that young and you have the blinders on, it's. That's it.

[Host 2]

So it's called being naive.

[Mark Ronson]

Being naive. Yeah. Being naive and being a glutton for punishment and all of it. And. And also like when you're that young, your cells regenerate at this clip. Like you can get up. You can do all that to your body and take the beatings. So that is a very long winded.

[Host 1]

And haul your records town.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

All your records and up the five flight walkouts.

[Mark Ronson]

A lot of flights, flights of stairs. I mean, I would still have to go to the emergency chirop for like maybe once a month. Like I would just wake up and then just like, I can't move my neck.

[Host 2]

It's a business expense, dude. That's cool.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

What you say it's a business expense.

[Mark Ronson]

It's a business expense.

[Host 1]

You didn't have healthcare as a dj.

[Mark Ronson]

I didn't have healthcare. It was not writing off. I think every DJ had a shoe box, like very. Nobody had a bank account.

[Host 1]

Back in the 90s, what was the hardest group to get going on the dance floor? Was it this? The skaters, the fashion girlies, the drug dealers, the American Psycho finance bros. Like it's actually funny.

[Mark Ronson]

I mean it was always like, I love the idea of walking into a room and like even playing some weird like buttoned up cocktail party for some like suits. By the end of the 90s, like, at least that's how I was getting paid. Playing parties for Martha Stewart or something. Sick. Oh, and a lot of my, A lot of my friends DJs who I was playing in the hip hop clubs with would have turned their nose up and been like, oh, that's this sellout commercial gig or whatever. But I love the idea of going to any room. I mean like, what's going to be the record that cracks these people?

[Host 1]

It's like a puzzle.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah. And. But it's funny that you said, was it the cool skater kids? Because it's true. Like there I'd be playing, there was this great hip hop party on a Monday night called Cheetah. And at that time that was where like Mike Tyson, Aaliyah, Missy Mace, like it was the biggest, one of the biggest parties downtown. And the Supreme Kids would all go to those parties and they were kind of like, you know, the fucking cool kids and the dirty hair and whatever it was. And they would never usually go on the dance floor till the hip hop because the first two hours you play the old school funk and soul and some, you know, like R B classics. And I would always be like, if I was having a good night, the Supreme Kids would come onto the dance floor during like the disco shit. Damn.

[Host 2]

So impressing the world famous Supreme Team, even to this day, that's what it's all about.

[Mark Ronson]

Exactly.

[Host 2]

Interesting.

[Host 1]

Was there like one record that at your, at your prime in the 90s, without fail would get the, the people moving that you could always rely on, like no matter what the room or what the maybe your. Your go to formula wasn't working.

[Host 2]

Break in case of emergency.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, that's. There was a really legendary dj, rest in peace named K. Slay, who was of course drama King Hot 97.

[Host 2]

Come on.

[Mark Ronson]

And he. We would have. We had to talk about it one time he called it the Savior Ass crate. You know, like. Like when all else.

[Host 2]

He had a full crateful.

[Mark Ronson]

He had a full crate. And I would say like. So we talked about what those records were and I mean, Obviously by the mid-90s it was the Benjamins and there was. There were records from that time, but.

[Host 1]

It was like 160 swiftly.

[Mark Ronson]

Yes. The 900 number was a huge one. I don't know if you remember that. That's a dinner.

[Host 1]

Oh, of course.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Classic Jackson 5. Obviously. I want you back. Michael Jackson. Those are the ones. But then, you know, Buster. Put your hands on my eyes could see, you know, there were like so many in that era.

[Host 1]

Yeah, Skinny Buster, not Swole Ass.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host 2]

Not Ninja Turtle.

[Host 1]

Buster.

[Mark Ronson]

That record was so crazy. I don't think that there was. That was the same summer's Uptown, baby. And like, you know, obviously I've done a lot of damage to my brain since the 90s. Yeah, you don't say. Luckily, having those records. I can hear Buster rhymes with your hands and just hear. I mean I can smell the inside of a club called Rebar on a Tuesday night. Like the way that records help me for this.

[Host 1]

Remember the time machines, they transport you back.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host 1]

Was there. Not to bring up bad memories, but was there an absolute brick of a night you remember from your early days?

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, I mean I definitely. There were nights when it bricked or like, you know, 16 people showed up to a party. But in the early. In the first year, yes, I. I kind of sucked. But what I had was like wild ambition. I would play anything. Like, like no fee was too small, no room was too small. And like I remember playing at Club usa, this club in midtown that was owned by Peter Gation, who was this like lord of clubs who owned the Tunnel and Limelight, Palladium and all these places. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no right to be get. I swindled my way into this gig somehow because he lived in my building and you know, like just playing for all these drug ravaged lunatics.

[Host 1]

It's like the party people crowd.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host 1]

Or Party Monster crowd.

[Mark Ronson]

Party party. Yeah. Club kids. Party monster. Yeah, exactly.

[Host 2]

Shout Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green. Yeah, true.

[Mark Ronson]

But the next day I went to rock and soul. The record store. And I was like, yo, I only played hip hop. And these kids obviously just want some, like, insane techno. Give me the five biggest techno records. And then he did. And then the next week I was good. So I was like, always willing to adapt. Figure it out. But I think that, yeah, I loved it so much and I was so dedicated. Like, I just. I was overachieving probably.

[Host 1]

At most levels, you put in your 10,000 hours.

[Host 2]

Without a doubt.

[Host 1]

Yeah, that's kind of like the first or like middle act of the book. I feel like it's just you doing whatever it took.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. And we talked about it. Weirdly, the mug. The nightclub at Vassar was.

[Host 1]

The nightclub at Vassar was a nightclub. It was a. It was a hole.

[Mark Ronson]

It's crazy call it night. It's a black box in a basement. But it was so cool.

[Host 1]

The walls would be sweating at the end of the night.

[Mark Ronson]

And asbestos, like cuz the. Yeah, Kingsley, who was the manager when I went, this Jamaica manager. Like, if you played any dance hall, you know, Jamaicans show their enthusiasm for dance all by no bang on the wall, like Sister Nancy and asbestos would rain down from the fucking ceiling. Yeah. And it was. It was sort of. It was sort of crazy that, like, it was just allowed to happen. You told me it doesn't exist anymore.

[Host 1]

I think it. I think my year, which was also your wife's year, was one of the last. I think like the last of the Mohicans. Whatever.

[Host 2]

Dying breed.

[Mark Ronson]

It was good. Like, I just started to make my name in New York City and I went to Vassa and I think the ability to fall on my face. But play nightclubs and campus parties and all that things for the year and a half I was there was like. When I came back to the city, I was. It was like the minor leagues.

[Host 2]

That was the dojo, right? You're like in the dojo getting reps in the dojo.

[Host 1]

It was harder getting like, Diddy and Jay Z to fuck with your. Your. You in the booth or like college kids, frat boys.

[Mark Ronson]

College kids was like, yeah, like soft boys. Yeah, but I guess. I guess both. Both the. Yeah, they. I was the youngest there, so of course kids were like, you know, wanted to like, sun me a little bit, but it was. Yeah, it was.

[Host 1]

I don't know, on the flip side of having an absolute L of A night. What about, like, was there a night where it kind of clicked and you're like, oh, shit. I kind of maybe know what I'm doing. I've arrived.

[Mark Ronson]

There were. There were definitely nights along the way. Like when I got to this party on Tuesday night called Sweet Thing, which is. Was this place on Canal and West Broadway, which I think is currently the palace, but it seems to close every year and become a new place. Yeah, that was the first party where like, I felt like I'd arrived. I'd been opening up for Stretch Armstrong and Funk Master Flex and these other people. And then I started this small party that really blew up and Biggie and Fat Joe and Big Pun and all these heroes and luminaries were coming down. But the night really that set me apart, that really carved me my own identity as a dj, was the night that I dropped ACDC back in black at this club, at the party Cheetah, which was the biggest hip hop party at the time. And I'd gone to this club a week before called Spy Bar. Spy Bar was like this legendary place on Green street, one of the first, like super vip like lounges in Soho. Like, they would turn away Trump and Mariah Carey at the door like it was like crazy. I'm sure they let them in sometimes.

[Host 2]

Trump and Mariah going together or.

[Mark Ronson]

No, I don't even know. And I would.

[Host 1]

She's a little old.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, I. I would only even get in half of the time. Like as I was 21 years old and this guy King stood at the door and like a fucking Roman sentinel. And one night I got in and the DJs were not really great there. They kind of like these messy, like rock and roll dudes, but they played incredible. Like the Ramones and the Dead Boys and you didn't hear out in New York. And one time he dropped back in black and I just saw it make all these fucking drunk white people, like, reenact the Fall of Rome, like dancing on the couches. It was so crazy. And I started to think like, oh my God, I wonder if I could play this for like a hip hop crowd at Cheetah, like watching everyone go crazy and just how fucking incredible AC DC back, Back in Black sounds. So that week I worked on this routine and I was sure it could be like career suicide. But I was like, I'm gon ACDC cheating even if it gets a bottle thrown in my face at the booth. And I found out, yeah, I played the Benjamins into this, like kind of corny rock remix of the Benjamins. At the time I was like, no one's gonna stop dancing with Biggie over these rap metal guitars.

[Host 2]

Is it the Rob Zombie remix? The Rock remix.

[Mark Ronson]

It might have been. It might have wrote the classic one. Yeah. And it has like these really tinny guitars and. But I'm like right on Biggie's verse go into the rock version. No one's gonna stop dancing. And then right when Biggie goes squeeze off to empty all about the Benji. And there was like this split second when I did it that the whole room, or maybe it felt like the room just froze but like, because I dropped it on beat and no one could stop dancing. There was no time for judgment. And by the time it comes around to like the second round, everyone just lose their mind. And it was like this thing like, holy, we've broken this rule of what a DJ should be playing here. And it was before the mashup era and I was gonna say yeah, all this and am like did a similar thing on the west coast, but it was really unusual for New York. And then I became that guy. Like in, in New York I have my own sort of identity.

[Host 1]

Do that thing with acd.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, exactly.

[Host 2]

Like, and then Mark Robson was born in that moment.

[Mark Ronson]

Like and, and some, some nights I would do that trick and like, you know, you feel someone tap you on the shoulder in the ground, there was just like this seven foot drug dealer like, yo, what the are you playing right boy? Like, and you'd have to realize it wasn't always. Yeah, sure.

[Host 2]

But it's hard to be universally.

[Mark Ronson]

But that that was a thing. And from that point on, you know, it's so crazy to think now that it was ever original to play. I love rock and roll in a club, but I remember dropping that the first time and seeing little Kim and Method man like dancing on a booth like losing their minds.

[Host 1]

You mentioned Stretch and kind of before you created your own identity and. And aura did Stretch Armstrong. I forget exactly what it's about, but did he ever confront you for ripping his.

[Mark Ronson]

I think like he just knew that I was a super fan. But at some point like, like it's very annoying to have like a puppy like constantly like yapping at your thing and just telling you little bro had such a big fan and then like going. And yes. Stealing your mixes as well. I was, I so hero worshiped him because like he was the other best club dj. Found out he went to my school representation. Yep. And I just. Yeah, but I thought that there was just. Yeah, I thought I would hear him do these amazing mix and just bite them and think that that was okay. Which now I totally realize it's. It wasn't.

[Host 1]

But did he ever.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, I just found out back because I got. I kind of got frozen out of the scene. I think partly because of that, because he was like the dude I got. I had a little run of one summer where I was like opening for him and other big DJs. And then I just kind of was like, my name was like a little. Became Dirt. And I had to sort of like, it took a couple years, like, work my way back in.

[Host 1]

You're Ronan?

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

You got banished?

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, no. Master Stretch was an og. And here's this dude, like, just coming. Who does he think he is? Like, buying a mixer. So I think even if she didn't care. Yeah. Yeah. I'm the tall. I'm the tall guy.

[Host 1]

Walk us through the fits you were wearing when you're DJing in the 90s. Like, what percentage of every fit was Echo Unlimited by. By Mark Echo.

[Mark Ronson]

There was a lot of aniche.

[Host 2]

Okay.

[Host 1]

Hell yeah.

[Mark Ronson]

And each day I worked at a. I had a really short time of working at this hip hop clothing company on the Upper west side that my friend started, which obviously, like, in the land of like Zabars and Harry Florsheim shoes, there was not a big need for a Triple five Soul and Right. And Echo. But my friend Gideon started this story. He wanted to have the uptown version of Union. Right? And it was. It was cool. I mean, honestly, we just turned the place into a delinquent clubhouse. But I was very into it because hip hop and streetwear was so interlinked at that time. You had headhunters and like I said Triple five and these brands. So I was kind of wearing all that. My idea of dressing up like on a big night was like a cool new T shirt from Supreme. Like just some right deep or it was even.

[Host 2]

It could have been worse.

[Mark Ronson]

Could have been worse before 10 deep even. And then hill figure. I became their kind of like dj. And there's a lot of Hill figure at the time.

[Host 1]

Was that your first time, like touring when you went on the Tommy Hilfiger mall tour?

[Mark Ronson]

Yes. Yeah, yeah. Was.

[Host 1]

That's sick.

[Mark Ronson]

Like, it was. It was incredible. I mean, it seems as well, like another thing that there's no way it could happen today. Like a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds going on a tour bus around America to like DJ and malls. And it was like Kate Hudson and you know. Yeah, Leah, right? Yeah, yeah. Basically unchaperone children. But yeah, that was. It was also super fun how much.

[Host 1]

You get paid to model for Tommy hilfiger in the 90s or was meeting Aaliyah just enough to make it worth it?

[Mark Ronson]

I. I bet you it wasn't a lot of money, I think, but I think it felt like.

[Host 2]

You can't remember. It wasn't a lot.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Honestly, $2700. But, like, that was rent for two months.

[Host 1]

Did middle America, like, was it receptive to what you guys were doing with, like, the Tommy tour?

[Mark Ronson]

I mean, it was so crazy. Now play more acd. Yeah, yeah. No, we were just going to these malls, and obviously Valia showed up, and it was like a mall in Atlanta. People were fucking psych. But I do remember we were at a mall in. In. In somewhere in Texas, and all these people had lined up. And I remember thinking, like, because this is like, before Kardashian era and all this stuff, thinking, like, it's so weird that people care to meet us, because it was mostly kids of famous people. Right? It was like Steven Seagal's son. And the Nepo tour, it was just a full on Nepo creating Nepo.

[Host 1]

What was Steven Seagal's son doing?

[Mark Ronson]

Like, judo? Like, he was just, like. He was like, administration. Definitely. Like, a black was, like. His name was Kentaro. Lovely. He just kind of like sat, like, you know, silent. Always had this, like, Zen wisdom about him. And, like, he. He was. Yeah, one of the Nepo. The Nepo crew. And I remember, like, somebody. All these people line up in Texas at this thing to, like, get these autographs, and I can't remember who it was. I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but, like, somebody was, like, a little bit in a bad mood that day and, like, was, like, a little snippy to somebody waiting online. And this one lady just looked at us and goes, you know what? Y' all should have brought your parents. I totally. I totally empathize with it, but it was also. It was so much fun. Listen, like, if there was anywhere that I could go DJ and playing music loud to people, I was down.

[Host 1]

What was like, the grimiest, dirtiest gig you ever took? Where even Eager Beaver Mark was like, oh, I.

[Mark Ronson]

This is. Yeah, I think there were a lot. I. I wish I could remember specific one, but I really was, like, I was all right to be playing anywhere. Like, if they like the music that I liked. I mean, I definitely. Let me think.

[Host 2]

You're just happy to be there, right?

[Mark Ronson]

I was just happy to be there. I'm sure there's something. Like, I remember playing, like, a really weird, like, cop wedding in a bank banquet hall in Chinatown.

[Host 1]

Okay.

[Mark Ronson]

And, like, I didn't realize, like, nobody had told me that I was gonna have to play, like, the song, right? When they were like, you're married. Like, the next song.

[Host 2]

Right? The first dance.

[Mark Ronson]

The first dance. And. And I quickly looked through all my things and I was just like, oh, my God, like, Black Moon, like, whatever the. I can't play any of these things. And the only thing I had was, for some reason, I had an Eagle's Greatest Hits with me. Because this was back when you had the records. You could only play what you had with you. And I played the Long Run. And I don't know if you know that song, but it's like, we can make it together in the long run. It's the most unromantic. Like, it's such like. And I think they were just looking at each other and, like, they were just all these cops looking at me like, you get what you pay for, dude. Yeah. Yeah.

[Host 1]

Arrest this. Cool.

[Host 2]

Who did you trust to DJ your own wedding?

[Mark Ronson]

I actually forgot to get a dj. What? For my first. For my first one.

[Host 2]

You had one job, Mark.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, Exactly. I think DJs are either, like, you'd get like the all the dream lineup or you just totally forget because your whole life has been DJing. Wedding. I remember the band performed and then there was just like dead silence in between the bands, and I was like, oh, my God, I forgot. Like, luckily there were 80, 000. Well, no, there were 80 DJs there. Right, right. But no stretch.

[Host 1]

Get up there.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah. But my second wedding was really, really small and it was beautiful, but I didn't.

[Host 1]

Was it our first song?

[Mark Ronson]

I'm such a bad dancer. I became really DJ so I wouldn't ever have.

[Host 2]

Great call.

[Host 1]

You don't have rhythm.

[Host 2]

Rhythm.

[Mark Ronson]

I have rhythm with the hands, but not the legs, you know?

[Host 1]

No rhythm in the hips.

[Mark Ronson]

No rhythm in the hips.

[Host 2]

You're a jazz hands guy.

[Mark Ronson]

Jazz hands. I can. Oh, yeah. I know.

[Host 2]

You mean all the ones and twos.

[Mark Ronson]

Okay, got it. I mean the ones and twos. But that would be amazing though, just to like. I own. They dance with my hands. Yeah.

[Host 2]

When you see footage of yourself in the booth, like, emoting or whatever, like, are you. Is it cringe inducing or are you like.

[Mark Ronson]

A little bit. I looked at some footage from a gig I did last night, and I think it was like, it wasn't the livest gig. So I have a tendency to, like, if the crowd's not going for it, I kind of looking down the turntables and I make more to do with my hand. So I don't.

[Host 1]

That's like the equivalent of us looking at the weather app when instead of talking to girls.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, totally.

[Host 2]

Just got to stay busy, got to look busy.

[Mark Ronson]

So I saw myself and I was like, oh, man, I could be doing a better job. But, like, because you do get caught on Instagram most of the time these days, that's. That's where you basically end up swimming and just like looking like this, like, hunched over, like, just like old Jew at the turntables, like playing with yourself. Yeah, yeah.

[Host 1]

Looking for your Eagles record.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. It's nice to see, like a guy is just like. Even if they're fake.

[Host 1]

Do you think, like, if you had been a DJ in the modern era when it is so intertwined with social media and. And clout and followers celebrities, do you think you would have been good at building a social media following and cloud chasing and like ironically mixing in tick tock sounds into sick drops? Would you kind of maybe pioneered with that acdc, to be honest?

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, I think that I would have been way better at it than I am now. Like, I. I try my best, but, like, I definitely admire, like, the hustle of like, John Summit. Yeah. James Hype, Zach Beer. Like, people that are just really, really good, really good DJs and really good at that because you really have to be.

[Host 2]

It's a whole new skill set. Right. That, like.

[Mark Ronson]

Yes.

[Host 2]

For the times.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Dj. With this kid the other night, this amazing hip hop DJ from. I think he's from Switzerland called Cruise. And I just went on his Instagram before I did the gig to just say, I wonder what this kid's about. And like, every picture is like, Sandra Pay Drake's in the booth, like, and. And Travis Scott. And you're like, yeah. I don't know if that's every night of his life or that's like a greatest hits, but this dude's living the life. And yeah, you need to be presenting.

[Host 1]

That, you know, Instagram is an accurate reflection of reality.

[Mark Ronson]

Totally. It is.

[Host 2]

It's one for one usually.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Host 1]

What do you think of modern DJ culture where it is kind of like, like a super glitzy. I mean, everyone's trying to be Diplo.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

Everyone's trying to be like, in Ibiza.

[Mark Ronson]

I think that Ibita. I think that I. I don't get into it too much in the book because I really wanted to keep the book really diaristic about the 90s, even to the point where, like, thank you.

[Host 2]

By the way, for that.

[Mark Ronson]

I was like, I didn't want to be like, years later I would go on to play the Coachella stage or something. So. But in the epilogue, I did without being like the grumpy old guy I did want to address. Because the epilogue is like. And it's, it's a real day in the life of me and my little daughter strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn, walking around downtown, seeing all the. Where the clubs used to be. And I do get into a little bit of, you know, I still DJ out. I still love djing most of the time. Now I'm playing vinyl again because the book has made me like, put me on this path where it's fun, but I've been playing Serato the last 20 years and it is such a different type of DJing and it's for better or for worse where shit is going.

[Host 1]

But vinyl back in demand.

[Mark Ronson]

You know what, when I. I have like some DJs from that era who were just the best at cutting and scratching, like, man, you can keep that vinyl. You. I don't want to be carrying my putting my back out again at, you know, whatever 45. But there is something I notice when I play. And look, I'm not a track. I'm not right am do like crazy skills and routines, but just even the like throwing records on and off and speed mixing. I see kids like in the, you know, 22 year old, like watching me like I'm. It's mind.

[Host 1]

David Blaine.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah. And magician in the booth. This kid came out to the other day. I was like, yo, I can't believe the vinyl set. Because usually when I think of vinyl set, I'm thinking like, oh, this is going to be boring or low energy. Which is not true. But this was his take on it. And you were playing hits. Like somebody's like, whoa, you can get Kia my neck my back on vinyl. I was like, yeah, how the fuck do you think we were all spinning this in 1997?

[Host 2]

Like, how old does he think you are, dude?

[Mark Ronson]

And then. And so I've been playing these all vinyl sets, which is sort of fun. And then it's, you know, you're at a handicap because you're not going to be playing Sexy Red. But it's fun to occasionally play. Like, I think that my, my most recent record is probably like Soulja Boy, like, and then like Justice Dance. So like occasionally you drop a record like that new and then people like lose their minds. They're like, oh my God, like something that I remember. But I'm really Loving. I've been playing a lot of vinyl lately and it's fun as shit. My back is fucked up again.

[Host 1]

My ears can't get a fudgeing. Someone to carry the shit around for you.

[Host 2]

Yeah, dude, come on.

[Mark Ronson]

Now. I just feel Wikipedia crates. I know I get a. I used to like, I, I feel corny, like going to the club, like, watch like walking behind people that are carrying my records. It's like, okay, like a procession versus.

[Host 1]

Showing up with like three milk crates.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah. I just. Because I came from that, you know, before I was ever, whatever you want to say, famous or known as a producer. Like, so to suddenly make other people. If I made people carry my records from the beginning. And I was that dude like Kid Capri walking the club and like there's. He had like, like eight dudes carrying all these crates. But no, because of how I started, I'm like, I just can't be like a different dude in the city that I came up in.

[Host 2]

Never forgot where you came from. And that's beautiful.

[Host 1]

Mark, you do tell a story in the book about how Diddy kit Kid Capri off the ones and twos and put you back on at one of his parties. What was the thought process of leaving in that tidbit about you DJ at Diddy party?

[Host 2]

Getting the co sign?

[Mark Ronson]

There was a lot of is there.

[Host 1]

Editor pushing for that, right?

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. You know, obviously I've been writing the book for three years and when all this stuff came out with about Diddy, it was suddenly like, oh, like all these stories that might have been amusing anecdotes, like just because I like ate a weed cookie at the white party and like went into a stupor and my friends had to hold me up Weekend at Bernie style. I finished DJing, I was like, this story hits a little different in the, in the now knowing what we know, because obviously, like, I never saw any crazy freak offs in, in my time djing for Puffy. I probably spoke five sentences to him, but you can't dj.

[Host 1]

You can't scratch covered in oil.

[Mark Ronson]

But to, to. To ignore him and cut him out fully from a story of New York in the 90s is. Would be so disingenuous. And to cut him out of my rise when he really did have playing all his parties became. Was a big part of it. So I just cut out a lot of the stories. But the one or two of the ones that were important, like playing his 29th birthday or these other things, I was like, I'm just gonna leave this in. But it is actually the only time that I came out of the diaristic, like I said style of it to be like, yo, 20 years from now, we would all find out some very different things. But.

[Host 2]

And Night People has now been entered into evidence. Thank you.

[Host 1]

What's. Can you point to a single party is the most fun party you've ever been to.

[Mark Ronson]

The goat party that I've ever been to, I've ever DJ'ed.

[Host 1]

Let's do both.

[Mark Ronson]

Okay. I mean, there was this club called Life that lasted about two years. It's like where the Poisson Rouge is now. Every time I tell these stories, I always think of that old like thing from the Tumblr era called Now. It's a Froyo. Do you remember that? It was like all these legendary Starbucks fro. Yo.

[Host 1]

And that's kind of how your epilogue ends, right?

[Mark Ronson]

You're. Yeah.

[Host 1]

When you said, yeah, your daughter, you're like, that used to be where daddy. You know, where daddy met Diddy.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. But that was incredible. That was this really Euro cheesy club that like played this like kind of corny like lounge music. And they had house in the main room and one night actually Dave Chappelle. So we hung out with a lot like comedians. That area. You had Dave Attell, Chappelle. Everybody was at the Cellar Insomniac. Yeah, I was. Yeah. I was in such a huge hotel fan. Such a comedy fucking nerd. I would go to the Cellar before my gigs and sick. They would. Chappelle would come to Rebar and stuff. And one night Chappelle came out of the. Of the Cellar, was like, I'm going to this new club life. Who's coming with me? And I knew him barely enough to like tag along into the entourage and got in this club and went up to the owner was like, you should let me play here. There's nobody dancing. This is a cheesy. This is a lounge and whatever. And he was just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I also noticed that the regular DJ had a slight baby bump. So it's like, well, if I keep asking for six months. Yeah. So six months. Damn the vision. I did get the call. I was like, yo, Cleo, I think her name was Waterbrook, you want to play the Life VIP tonight? So I knew like it was one of those nights, like if I got to ever tear it down, this is the night. And turn this like what was a chill out lounge where they played like kind of like lounge exotica music into like full on hip hop parties. So once word got around that, the hippest club in New York was also playing hip hop. It was like Mariah Carey, Chris Rock, Rick Rubin, Jay Z, Puff Damon, everybody, every, every Friday night. And that was really like this for a year and a half that that party was on. It was just the craziest. And it was the beginning of Richie, Akiva and Jesy. And I got everybody throwing these parties in this kind of like downtown. Models, graffiti, skateboard, all this scene coming together. So that was. There was some pretty legendary nights in there. The best party I've ever been to. I mean, there's. There's been so many. My brain is such mush at this point.

[Host 2]

Really the best one, I would think you wouldn't even remember it.

[Mark Ronson]

Right. Yeah, that's how you. Yeah, it's good.

[Host 2]

Presumably.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, come back. Come back to me on that one. All right, all right, well, real quick.

[Host 2]

What's the connection between comedians and DJs in your mind? Like, what are the. Because if you connect with them so much.

[Mark Ronson]

I started to think about it a lot when I was writing the book because I was like, it was such a signature thing in the 90s as well. Like the Cellar before Roast culture took on. And like, there's a line around the block now every night at the Cellar. And I was thinking, like, we are all so similar. We're all completely obsessed with the craft. Very insular. Of course there's the trope of like comedians, miserable people inside. We know that's not the case. But like, all my DJ friends were also kind of like a little hardened, you know, and like, like only wanted to hang out with other DJs because only they understood the weird ass nighttime style and the grind.

[Host 1]

It's all timing.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Comics call it timing. DJs have rhythm, we play clubs, we say killing it. You know, the difference between like a split second of getting it wrong with the punchline or dropping a mix is the difference between like a roar and like cricket. Yeah. And then I also noticed, like, you know, we played in these kind of small rooms and. And you know, no matter how good the night is, you just go home and you're haunted by the face of that one dude with his arms crossed.

[Host 2]

Like, you're not one hate the one hater.

[Host 1]

That one supreme skater.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you Jason.

[Host 2]

Skater haters.

[Mark Ronson]

And. And I. And my. There was this comedian who was on at the Cell all the time, who's now not a stand up, but a writer named Jordan Rubin. He was my good friend who brought me into the scene and we Just hung out all the time. All these comedians, like. Like a towel. Jeff, Ross, Chappelle. Like it was all like. You just see that everybody at each other's parties. Sick.

[Host 1]

So kind of like comrades in misery.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Host 2]

You're in the trenches, the emotional trenches on the physical ones.

[Host 1]

Foxhole brothers.

[Mark Ronson]

Exactly. And like, you know, the. The community, we all got off work at like late hours with like 120 bucks in cash. Whatever. The usually looking to do something bad with it. So, yeah, they hang out a lot.

[Host 2]

Throw Gang, you already know this is a pro skims podcast. We're not just the only podcast that matters. We're the only podcast where every single member of the show is skimmed up from the dick up at any given time.

[Host 1]

That's right, Lawrence. As you know, I've been doing a lot of competitive sports gambling, and I need to keep my shit high and tight when I'm screaming at the television because Lamar Jackson is shitting the bed once again, Derrick Henry. You know, I feel like Stavi out here, but mainly because I'm losing money, not because I'm a fan of the Ravens, but.

[Host 2]

But even though you're losing money, you're losing money in your skin. So that's like a little silver lining.

[Host 1]

Exactly. It's performance based draws for amateur gambling.

[Host 2]

Yeah. Even right now, as I record this incredible ad read for a good friends at skim, I'm in my stretch 5 inch boxer briefs. I love these. They're forgiving, but they keep me high and t in all the right places. Guys, you can shop Skims Men's right [e-mail] and let them know that we sent you. After you place your order, select podcast in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows. Throw Gang. Let's be real. Most skincare products just aren't made for men. And when they are, they're usually not great. They're overly complicated, packed with questionable ingredients, or just don't deliver results. And that is where Caldera Lab comes in. They've redefined men's skincare by combining advanced science with high quality non toxic ingredients to create a simple, effective routine that, yeah, actually works.

[Host 1]

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[Host 2]

That's funny you mentioned the billboard, because I happen to be on said billboard as well. And before we got our photos taken to be on the summer jam screen. Before, it was hard to be humble stunting on a jumbotron. You know, I had to hit my face with that good serum, which is an award winning serum made with botanicals and antioxidants to help skin appear smoother and more hydrated. It's a first of its kind antioxidant and it was shown to generate almost 3.4 million antioxidant units per drop, helping to protect skin from environmental stressors. That's right, guys. Whether you're starting fresh or upgrading your routine, Caldera Lab makes skincare simple and effective. Do not settle for drugstore junk or steal your partner's products. Elevate your own skincare routine that's made for you. Head to caldera lab.com throwing fits and use throwing fits at checkout for 25. 20 off. 20 off.

[Mark Ronson]

Excuse me.

[Host 2]

Your first order.

[Host 1]

I mean, yeah, it was not a podcasting.

[Mark Ronson]

It.

[Host 1]

It was not a. At least the. The frame of the book Night people. It is not a glamorous era.

[Mark Ronson]

Right, Right.

[Host 1]

But it. I mean it's. It's super exciting, but like, yeah, this is pre. Glitz and glamour. Do you regret really building up your DJ career before the era of DJs actually getting.

[Mark Ronson]

I didn't really care. You know, somebody read this book and you're like, there's not really a lot of romantic in there. And I was like, I. I always just had. I always had like steady girlfriends. And that was the thing. Like I was just so. I mean, you know, we went out to strip clubs and a lot of DJs. Like, there was New York Dolls. There was like all this. There was a big link between the stripper and the DJ community as well as the community that.

[Host 2]

The triumvirate.

[Mark Ronson]

Right there. Yeah, yeah.

[Host 1]

Five pillars of hip hop.

[Host 2]

Strippers are one of them, honestly.

[Mark Ronson]

But no, I. I don't know. I think it was a. It was an amazing era. You know, I don't want to over romanticize it, but you know, it. It was. It was glitzy by the end. Yeah. And some people thought that that was.

[Host 1]

The shiny suit era.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, exactly. But it was.

[Host 1]

Well, one. Okay. One moment in the book that, that really stood out to me because you're kind of reading the book and you're like, you don't realize this. How democratic everything was until somebody, I think they did. They bring it up from Japan. Like bottle service.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

And then a vip. Like, the VIP section did not exist for a long time.

[Mark Ronson]

No.

[Host 1]

And that is what kind of turned the club into, like, a real estate hierarchy.

[Mark Ronson]

It was. And it became very much less about, like, the. The music and. And the dance one that they. They. You know, the club owners realized they could make so much money selling these quintuply overpriced bottles of vodka that, like, they just started to put more tables in the club and the dance floor got small and smaller until you could only tell people were dancing if they were standing on the tables. Right. So it was very much about this status and hierarchy. And, you know, I wrote about a lot of these things, like Giuliani closing down a lot of the big clubs and bottle service, like, like, casually. But then I had this really great editor who came on and helped me at the end of the book, and she's a features editor at the New Yorker. And she made me put it much more through the lens of, like, don't just say Giuliani closes club. Like, say how Giuliani's policies and his war on clubland really changed the landscape of New York at that time. And tell me about what. Don't just say. And then bottle service happened. Tell me about the origins of bottle service. So it was cool. She made me dig deeper. But it makes it a little bit more of like, a.

[Sponsor Voice]

The.

[Mark Ronson]

It's not the Bowery Boys, but it's like. It definitely makes it a little bit more of a New York story. Nice.

[Host 1]

It's a. It's a full on, like, scene report, vibe report, for sure.

[Mark Ronson]

I've never heard that expression, but I love learning what the young.

[Host 2]

A true vibe check, man.

[Host 1]

Do you think New York City now has lost its club culture?

[Mark Ronson]

I. I mean, I definitely. If I'm playing out now, most likely it's in Brooklyn and then like, obviously going out to Knockdown center. And I mean, I know that there's Kyber guards and, like, what Harrison the Dare was Baby Dimes saying, there's definitely clubs here. I'm just old, so I don't know what it is, but New York is always just gonna have this energy. It's just. Even though, like, everything went to the west coast for a while, as far as DJs and, you know, like, producers and New York was kind of left for dead. It's like New York is always just gonna be the most. One of the most inspiring places to come and make art and do it.

[Host 2]

It just got too goddamn right.

[Host 1]

New York or nothing.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, y. Nowhere.

[Host 1]

That brand.

[Host 2]

Nowhere.

[Host 1]

Yeah, whatever that brand is. Do. What do you think? What city do you think has like the. The crown currently of. Of best clubs in the world?

[Mark Ronson]

I don't know because I'm probably not visa out enough. Yeah, I guess it'd be the per capita.

[Host 2]

I got the final boss man.

[Mark Ronson]

But yeah, I mean New York has still has incredible clubs for sure. Like. Like I said, like Gabby's in Brooklyn and public and all this places. Yeah. But like I said, I'm like, I'm not the person.

[Host 1]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Wrong guy to ask.

[Mark Ronson]

I'm a little bit out of it.

[Host 2]

He's retired.

[Host 1]

Solomon is like 60.

[Mark Ronson]

Oh really?

[Host 1]

Going like.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

Doing like 14 hour sets. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well you're still active though. You're still DJing. But it's typically more in like the like the. The paid gig.

[Host 2]

Getting a bag, right?

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, I was when I finished this book and then a friend of mine read it and he's like always got like a hot take for me when I like finished a record or something and it. And he said the book is great. It just sounds like you really miss DJing with vinyl again. I think you should only play vinyl to the end of the year. So I was like that is such a stupid thing to say. But he's probably right. So I did like find my all the old records, replace, get the crates back together and I've just been playing vinyl and it's just rejuvenated. It's been a great hard reset for my love for D because I did become a fucking parody of myself. Going to every. Every fashion party or like paid gig and opening with like Barbie into Uptown Funk like so people can take videos and like that's not real DJing. Like real DJing is like being able to play music and move a crowd without relying on your back to the source.

[Host 2]

Dude, that's beautiful. And I can't believe you didn't make that connection yourself, stupid.

[Mark Ronson]

And now I have the worst tinnitus of my life and my back is killing me. But thank you for that.

[Host 1]

Have you ever dropped shallow in the club?

[Host 2]

Yeah, we got him know there was.

[Mark Ronson]

Like a kind of cool like call it miss the Calla park remix. Like an Atlanta trappy mix came out around the time and I did. And yes, if at the certain. At the right party I will take the acapella and like throw a break beat under Bradley Cooper and tell it's something boy.

[Host 2]

I mean that slaps.

[Mark Ronson]

Dude, let's.

[Host 1]

I watched last night in preparation for this.

[Mark Ronson]

It's so good.

[Host 2]

It's a really classic movie.

[Mark Ronson]

God, it's. That's a. And that's that song. If it's in the right place or you can tell that people are ready to sing. It's kind of fun to play.

[Host 1]

That goes off at karaoke every.

[Host 2]

Without a doubt.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. It is a karaoke.

[Host 1]

You start slow, but it.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, it's a.

[Host 2]

It's a builder. Are you the only DJ with an Oscar straight up?

[Mark Ronson]

Oh, I guess. Who's the DJ from. From 36 Mafia.

[Host 2]

Oh, my God. Juicy J.

[Mark Ronson]

And DJ Paul is a doll, so they must have.

[Host 2]

That's right.

[Mark Ronson]

They do. Right?

[Host 2]

Wow.

[Mark Ronson]

So great call. So that. That would be one and then three.

[Host 2]

Six Mafia Academy Award winners.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Remember, I don't know if you remember the Oscars that year, but John came back after the break and was like, 36 mafia 1, Martin Scorsese, 0.

[Host 2]

It's so true. John Stewart.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

With the bars.

[Host 1]

What do you think of celebrities who become DJs? Maybe they win an Oscar first.

[Mark Ronson]

And actually, I mean, there's. So now I see it and it's like, of course, because the technology and the automatic beat matching and stuff. If you have taste in music and maybe actually even if you don't like everybody's dj. I see this things like, like, you know, I'm losing gigs to Real Housewives.

[Host 2]

Left and right hand.

[Host 1]

Meredith Marks has Bushwick going nuts right now.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Yeah. But I see videos in there in the hands. They're like, it's totally fine. I mean, it is at this point now where, like, there's no point in griping about it.

[Host 1]

D.J. james Kennedy.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Who's the white Kanye?

[Host 1]

Vanderpump rules.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Okay.

[Host 1]

Are you a reality TV guy?

[Mark Ronson]

Some of it.

[Host 1]

What do you watch?

[Mark Ronson]

I don't know. Well, my wife does love housewives, so.

[Host 1]

Watch that at Salt Lake City on the way back.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

And Meredith Marks, Salt Lake City housewife, has been like, legit shutting it down.

[Mark Ronson]

In oh oh, you weren't joking club.

[Host 1]

I think she was at Knockdown Center.

[Mark Ronson]

How old is she? Older than you, probably. And like, really killing it, huh?

[Host 1]

I mean, she's like, fine.

[Host 2]

Really.

[Host 1]

I think she's ironically mother.

[Mark Ronson]

Okay. Yeah. I saw like that first wave of celebrity DJs, but it was still people like Perry Farrell obviously, like, in a little trouble, but. But it was so crazy. And I remember going, but he was opening up for him at this gig. And I love Jane's Addiction as a kid. And I remember him panicking because he Couldn't get the record to play. It's like, I've got it, like the headphones and the records on. And I was like, you just have to lower the tone. Arm floating over the record. But this first era of like, you know, Paris Hilton started DJing stuff and it felt like, it felt so wild. And now it is the most common place.

[Host 1]

Was there ever a celeb that actually kind of surprised you? Like, yeah, fuck it. Paris has got it like that.

[Mark Ronson]

Maybe not her. Yeah.

[Host 2]

Someone that pleasantly surprised, Mr.

[Mark Ronson]

I don't know. Because now it's like, who did I see shut it down?

[Host 1]

Lindsay.

[Mark Ronson]

Just Lindsay dj?

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

She's got a. She's got a club in Mykonos.

[Host 2]

An operator.

[Mark Ronson]

Is that club still open? Don't know, but we'll text her and find out. I. I don't know. Who have. I. I probably had to like, hit play for a couple people in my time. I. I don't remember.

[Host 2]

You went back to. Back with something, Someone.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

How do you discover. How do you, Mark Ronson, discover new music in 2025?

[Mark Ronson]

I wait till I have a gig and 2 hours before frantically text and email every dj I know who's in the clubs. Like, yo, I got this gig. Like, what's going off in the club?

[Host 2]

You outsource the playlist?

[Mark Ronson]

Well, I. And then I listen to it. I'm like, man, I can't play this play. Play the old. But I'll play DMX tonight. I like to go out and still watch other DJs play. I like to, you know, obviously, just like. And social media, you get fed so much these days, but say, do you.

[Host 1]

Hit tick tock and just like, see what's.

[Mark Ronson]

What's going viral sounds. Yeah, yeah. What's the big. What is big right now this week? Like, what's the big.

[Host 1]

Well, the last song that I shazammed off of Tick Tock was the Indonesian or farming Kid.

[Mark Ronson]

Oh, yeah.

[Host 1]

I'm young, black and rich. I think his name's like, Melly Mike. And then he went to Indonesia and, like, performed there and everyone's going crazy.

[Mark Ronson]

Oh, my God, that's crazy. Yeah, see, I'm behind. But, you know, it's funny because, like, I had to go and see all these young kids playing. I'm like. And I'm. And I asked like. And they're like, dude, the biggest. Just play. Everyone's still playing. Like, you're set from the 2000s. It's like candy Shop. And it's like, you know, so it's like, I guess there's this real nostalgia and that shit's back. It's weird to call it nostalgia because half of these people weren't alive when those songs were out. But that sound, it just seems retro. Yeah. The way I played Michael Jackson when I was coming.

[Host 2]

Golden oldies for a new generation.

[Host 1]

You're playing disco, right? Which was like not necessarily. Necessarily your. Maybe.

[Mark Ronson]

No, definitely not. Yeah, no. And, and, and like, you know, Crooked's another great dj. I don't know if you know Crooked. Like he's like a New York Vegas dude and he's like, tells me like, yo, I'm still standing by Elton John. I'm like, what? Like that's a old record. Yeah, like every generation has their own throwbacks and golden oldies. So it's like the Ramones, but it's Greek pop. That wasn't a record we played when I was coming up. And now that's. That shit goes off.

[Host 2]

So easy to dance to.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host 1]

Is it corny? You mentioned, you mentioned dropping shallow, which is very hard in the club. But is it corny to play songs that you produced or wrote when you're DJing? Or is it like you kind of have to.

[Mark Ronson]

I think that there's like a certain amount and I talk about the end of the book. Like, of course, if it's a certain kind of crowd and they're coming out like I'm gonna play Uptown Funk, Valerie and records because that's what people are coming to hear. But you know, it's funny, like when I was coming up as a dj, I would go see some of the older guys play who I thought were like, like, you know, play a record that was like eight months old and kind of think to myself, well they're kind of a little out of the loop. And then I'm getting up on stage and playing my own 15 year old hits or whatever. Like in my head I always feel a little bit like, should I be doing this? But I think like every year I like remix or re edit or do the song to keep it fresh to me. But. But yeah, I do think about that a lot.

[Host 1]

Now that you have the luxury really of kind of, you know, spanning multiple eras of, of club culture and music writ large. What's a tougher crowd? Is it the 90s cool kids and the 90s drug dealers and models? Or is it the 2025 selfie taking influencers at the corporate brand activation?

[Mark Ronson]

They terrify me way more because back then when I guns back then.

[Host 1]

But now it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Host 2]

Now it's a look.

[Mark Ronson]

And. And I was like, gigging five nights a week. Like, that's why I wanted to write about the 90s, because I was probably. Honestly, it might lose me gigs. I was never a better DJ than I was back then. Because when you're playing five nights a week and you're just so in it. And I knew every record. If a record came out Monday, I had a bootleg of it by Tuesday or Wednesday. And I could go into any room like the Terminator and, like, just scan it and be like, I know how to kill this room now. I have no idea. I go into this things, like, listen, when I'm playing, like a club, like Gabby's in Brooklyn. Of course, like, people have taste. I know what I'm doing there. But like, like the influencer and the people that want to hear, like, it doesn't matter whether it's Sexy Red or Kind music or whatever. I'm just like, I don't know, you know? And I'm like, I can, like, just hold them to this point where I'm like, yeah, well, they're getting paid to.

[Host 2]

Be there too, so don't even trip.

[Host 1]

That's. Do you ever try to maybe nudge them with like, some. Something a little out there, experimental that maybe, you know, might miss with that crowd because you.

[Mark Ronson]

Because you have to. Or you could just be anybody if you're not taking chances. They could have heard anybody. They could have heard a playlist to auto mix that night.

[Host 1]

Is there a chance recently that paid off? Chance that you took?

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Like, I think going to these places, I feel like, of course people want to hear songs they know. And at some point is it for, like, the Instagram crowd? They're just there to be seen. It's going to be hard to get them moving. You're gonna have to play hey, Sexy Red and whatever the it is. But I think the crowd can really tell when you're playing the. That you really love. And if you're doing that really well and you just like going, you just throw on, like, Stardust Music sounds better with you. Or just something that's just like a curveball and you get them, then that's kind of the best feeling.

[Host 1]

And you still get that high when you unlock that puzzle.

[Mark Ronson]

So get that. I wouldn't be doing this. So at this point, for, like, no money and beating up, battering my ears and all this stuff, I still love the high from that thing. At the end of the night when you're, like, wrestled with this crowd that don't want to dance that thing. By the end of it, everybody's sweaty. It's. I still live for it.

[Host 2]

Good thing books make so much money.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Do you think that there's a reader that's going to be disappointed because they want to hear about, like, working with Amy Winehouse and that?

[Mark Ronson]

I think, I think, like, definitely I address it early on in the book because I'm like. Because I know there'll be people picking up the book. Like, wait, no Bruno, no Amy. But I. But I. You know, this was this era that was really important to me and in turn defined everything I did after. And weirdly, DJing was never something that I wanted to do. You know, I wanted. I played in bands. I wanted to be a guitar player. I wanted to be Slash. And I. I failed. Like, I failed at that. And everybody who played music around me was so much better than me that I accidentally ended up in this DJing thing that somehow miraculously brought me back to making music. But I did. Yeah, I, I, you know, maybe there'll be another book for that era.

[Host 2]

Said there's a whole nother chapter that's legendary. Like, you won an Oscar, dog.

[Mark Ronson]

Right? Yeah. Like, it would be cool. Listen, this book took me so fucking long, and, like, I don't know if I'd write another book in a hurry, but maybe 10, 15 years from now, to write about that book, it.

[Host 1]

When you got to put your kids.

[Mark Ronson]

In college, write the book that people are actually going to buy, then it might.

[Host 1]

But you talk about, you talk about. I mean, there's like a little kind of like prelude or whatever to your work in. In making music where you're like, yeah, I was dog in production.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, my sucked. Yeah. Yeah.

[Host 1]

You were very bad at making music at one point.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, I was. And, you know, you're playing. You're out five nights a week playing the music of Timberland and the Neptunes. Like, yeah, you. It's hard. You're not gonna be able to find your voice. You like going back to the studio, turning on NPC and making it like a Neptune.

[Host 2]

These drums aren't hitting.

[Mark Ronson]

What the hell?

[Host 2]

Yeah, I'm white.

[Mark Ronson]

That's.

[Host 2]

That's right.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. And then, and then, yeah, I just. It took me a while, and then I found it. I got hooked up with this incredible singer, Nika Cost, and that was, like, the first thing I made that put me on the map as a producer, but.

[Host 1]

But as a hip hop producer. You sucked.

[Mark Ronson]

I sucked. Yeah. I was trying to copy my Heroes, like, verbatim. And it was just like, like a bad carbon copy.

[Host 1]

Kill your idols.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

What do you listen to in the shower, Mark Ron? Listen.

[Mark Ronson]

Does anyone really listen to music?

[Host 2]

I don't personally.

[Mark Ronson]

Oh, really, dude? Like, so what is it playing on, like a, on a, on a jbl? Like Bluetooth?

[Host 1]

Yeah, a little waterproof speaker that I talk.

[Mark Ronson]

Oh, you actually have the speaker in the shower really loud from there?

[Host 1]

No, I have a little. I have a little shower speaker.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, I don't listen to a lot of music.

[Host 1]

When do you listen to music?

[Mark Ronson]

Actually, you know, weirdly, like, lockdown was the first time I really. For someone whose homies, like career has been like, like, thanks to records and vinyl and all that. Like, I never really listened to music at home other than to like look for samples and beats until covert. When a lot of us found ourselves spending a lot of time at home and cooking and doing and putting records on. And now that I have a two and a half year old daughter, like, she's the one who really controls the music in the house. Like, so we listen to music actually probably more than I ever have. But it's like, it could be like, like baby shark. There's a little bit of baby shark and then there's like Chapel Ron and then there's like Joanie Mitchell and she's obsessed with like Scenario and like Bobby Caldwell. What you won't do for love. So it's kind of wild. Like, I'm lucky that she has good taste. She loves Jack Black's rendition of O Hanukkah. Yeah, she's just like, yeah, Jack Black, Jack Black.

[Host 1]

But are you kind of incepting her though by like nudging her towards like the good stuff instead of just K pop demon hunters all the time?

[Mark Ronson]

I.

[Host 2]

Which does slap, by the way.

[Mark Ronson]

I haven't heard that. People are crazy about that. I must be living under a rock because people, every people that. Whose opinion I really judge, like, I rate, like, think it's amazing.

[Host 1]

It is.

[Host 2]

I can have your.

[Host 1]

Have your daughter throw it on.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

Because you grew up in a very musical household. So are you kind of trying to do the same where you're like, hey.

[Mark Ronson]

I definitely trying not to do the obvious and like push my musical taste and my. But like, I mean, if all she gets is a love for vinyl, that's the best baggage she could probably get for me. But yes, she has her own own little turntable. This like 80s Fisher Price with like Big Bird, like on the, on the needle. And she has her own 40s, fives and she listens to like Sister Nancy, Bomb, Bomb and like Old Snow.

[Host 2]

So you provide the tools and it's like you will discover this on your own.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah. And she. Obviously, she must see me the way I look when I'm putting on the records or something and has inherited some kind of like. Oh, that's some cool primal. It's final. There's something. But I'm. I wanted to find her own, of course, too.

[Host 1]

But you're also buying her the baby DJ set.

[Host 2]

The Fisher Price DJ set.

[Mark Ronson]

Yes. Do your own thing. Going away, child. But first learn how to beat Match.

[Host 1]

DJ daughter or, I don't know, influencer or something. Do you. How many records do you have in the crib?

[Mark Ronson]

Oh, I gave away so many records when I moved from LA back here in 2020 because I was like, now I. I'm never going to DJ vinyl again again. Of course. That was wrong.

[Host 1]

People never want vinyl.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah. I'll just.

[Host 2]

Worthless.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Do I really need to keep three copies of Weight by the Ying Yang Twins? Like the Whisper Song? Well, thank you for asking.

[Host 1]

Don't play that too.

[Mark Ronson]

So, like, I gave away a lot of hip hop 12 inches. Because I was like, if I'm not going to listen to at home, then of course when I started DJing vinyl again, I'm like tracking down every copy of a.

[Host 1]

Where's that Ging Yang Twins record at?

[Mark Ronson]

No, I had to like that totally.

[Host 1]

People won't.

[Host 2]

How much have you spent on records in your lifetime? If you had the guesstimate, we're talking millions of dollars, right? Or no. I don't know.

[Mark Ronson]

It could. It's probably like. It's. It's somewhere between probably $500,000 and a million. Like, I. I mean, just even all the 12 inches over, like 25 years of just spending, like. Yeah, yeah. No, it's a. It's. I've never thought about that. But that's a. That would be a crazy thing to figure out.

[Host 1]

I don't know if you want it.

[Host 2]

Yeah, don't do the accounting, bro. You might be depressed.

[Mark Ronson]

Has Chad. Gb.

[Host 1]

There's a little. There's a little nugget in the book about how you kind of like unlocked the.

[Mark Ronson]

The.

[Host 1]

The record hunter in you.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

And you were like, traveling to, like, meet some Japanese.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Dealer. Guru. Dealer.

[Host 1]

Fort Green. Before Fort Green was Fort Green.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. No, you would. You would if you wanted to find those old records. Because I was obsessed with finding this. The sample. The records that were sampled by Quest and stuff. So you could either go to this one record convention at the Roosevelt Hotel that happened four times a year which was, was like the scene and, and, or you had to know people who knew where to find those records. Like there was no who sample.com. there was no like all this. So like, yeah, you would go and sit and drink tea and light incense in this Japanese dealer named Son his house. And then he would like after half an hour show you the record.

[Host 1]

Once he like, once he was like, okay, this guy, this guy's got a vibe.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, totally, totally.

[Host 2]

Did you ever a real guru.

[Host 1]

There's a moment where you really embarrass the out of yourself with Q tip. Did you guys ever like, like, I don't know, get over that awkward moment together?

[Mark Ronson]

There's like a lot of people that I like, I, I, who I'm really good friends with who like I've had embarrassing awkward moments with that I don't know if we ever discussed until I wrote them in the book.

[Host 2]

Oh, wow.

[Host 1]

So he's going to text you like, yo, dog. Like, yeah, you were corny.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, he, he said something funny because I was like, yo, you don't remember because I wrote about it in the book. Like I went to one of those record conventions at the Roosevelt Hotel to find the breaks. And I'm searching all day to find all the original, original Tribe Called Quest samples. And as I come out, I see Q tip. I'm like 19. This is my absolute God and hero. So I'm holding this one record that was a Tribe Called Quest sample from Benita Applebaum. And I walk up to him, I'm like, in like in any imaginal imaginary universe, we are peers like holding this recommend. Oh, what's up? You know this is a record. You guys sampled for Bonita, right? And he just looks up at me and goes, I don't know, it just walks off. Of course he knew. Yeah, so I told him. Yeah, he totally saw me. Like it was, it was like. It was a record that was original already out. He wasn't protecting any goods at that point. And I remind him of the story and just laughed. He's like, yeah, it was mercenary out there. Jay Z stories as well. Like you know Jay Z. I wouldn't say we're like best buds but like I've definitely on a friend friendly basis. You guys number you want to call it? I do not know but I can get a text to him. I can get a bad signal. So Jay Z, I remember like he used to come down to this club. I DJ on Tuesday Nights with Biggie. And it was amazing to see them in the club. I don't know if they knew my name, but like they dance right where I was partying at. I mean, they were party where I was DJing. So one night I. I see him at this other club, Cheetah. I see him, you know, he's like a head and shoulders above the crowd and he's, you know, before the VIP all that happened, he would always post up by the bar. Like I think it was like some old school so you could like see the entrance. Who knows? Yeah, he was there all night. So one night I'm like a little drunk feeling like, you know, Russian courage. And I decided to go, this is going to be the night. I' finally go up to Jay Z and introduce myself. And by the end we'll be toasting Crystal insist I call him Jigga or whatever the. Yeah. And I saw as. I'm like thinking of like the perfect charming thing to say that's going to pique his interest or whatever. The. The club was like really packed and the clubs at that point, they had their weird own current because everyone was like pushing through. So like here I find myself suddenly in front of Jay Z before I've thought of anything to say. Say instead of being like, I'm the DJ at Sweet Thing and I just love your music and whatever, I just went, I play all your songs or something like that. And then even as I'm saying it, I'm getting pushed by the thing. So I'm kind of like already passing like, I play all your songs, you know. And I think because I probably looked a little like Lucy Goosey and like, lyric like I actually kind of saw him like, I think out of the corner of my head just like Turner's gonna be like, like what that kid said and then, and then, and then his boy just turns and was like, nothing man, just a fan, you know? And I heard like those words, nothing man, just a fan. Like echoing my head as I kind of got.

[Host 2]

Good title for your next memoir.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. What? Just the Fan. Yeah.

[Host 1]

Did you eventually address that with Sean Carter?

[Host 2]

Have you had a better interaction with Jay Z?

[Mark Ronson]

I've had a better. I've definitely had better interactions with them like post that. But the book is. Is like, you know, it definitely celebrates. I'll always be a fan. Even if I do know these people and I'm in a proximity in a. In a room to them or playing music for them, it doesn't change the fact that like they make that changes the molecules in my body. And, like, so I'm writing about, like, Jay Z at life partying, or I'm playing Hard Knock Life. And, like, everybody, like. And I have to write about it how it is. Like, this is the prince of New York City here surveying this room, like. Like, so it's. It is unusual to write about people that, you know in with this reverence, but to paint New York and what he meant to New York at that time, I had to kind of do that.

[Host 1]

Yeah, it takes you. It transports you there, for sure. I mean, it was before my time, but, like, it. I felt like you kind of do feel like you're.

[Host 2]

It's immersive, for sure.

[Mark Ronson]

Thank you.

[Host 1]

What's the one record that you're still hunting for after all these years? Maybe you want to position it nicely so Q Tip sees it next time you're walking by.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's some incredible. But actually, now I'm, like, looking for records to sample. Sample myself as opposed to the thing. But. But weirdly, I'll be DJing, and because I've given away so many of my records, I'll reach for a record that's not there.

[Host 2]

The Phantom Limb.

[Host 1]

Oh, no.

[Mark Ronson]

I'll be like, oh, where's. Oh, I don't have Missy. Get your freak on, God damn it. Yeah, yeah.

[Host 2]

I had three copies.

[Mark Ronson]

Oh, wait till you see my dick clip it. But, yeah, I. So. So it's funny now and then I have to go on, like, discog or ebay the next day and, like. Like, find a copy of, like, I don't know, Young Jeezy or whatever the hell it is.

[Host 1]

What's the most you ever spent on record? Single record? Because that was a big deal in your use. Like, yeah, am I really gonna spend, like, a hundred dollars?

[Mark Ronson]

A hundred dollars was the craziest thing. Like, that would be the most expensive. And obviously I didn't have that when.

[Host 1]

You were, like, 22.

[Mark Ronson]

Yes, but. But maybe, like, probably, like, 250 bucks. But now it's for some old Chet Baker, like, original pressing or something.

[Host 2]

Dad, dad.

[Host 1]

Yeah, yeah, we get it as a dj. J, what's on your writer?

[Mark Ronson]

Well, in my, like, crazy, more partying era, like, in England, and I was, like, going on tour, like, it would be like. Like, I remember someone coming and dressing. I mean, like, you could put cigarettes on your rider. I was like, yeah. Like, it would be. You know. And sometimes when I was touring the album version, like, with Valerie, like, had a whole band and we were all miscreants. So that would be like every kind of a good thing, like hangover medication. Like it wasn't like a thousand white lilies. Like Katy Perry drink. Dress like that. That's in some ways a few plan B pills. Yeah. And we would. There was this.

[Host 1]

Just in case.

[Mark Ronson]

There's this thing called Baraka, which is like this. Yeah. English thing. You. I don't. Do they have it here?

[Host 2]

I mean, I'm familiar.

[Mark Ronson]

You know what it is? It's like a vitamin C tablet. They drop it. And sometimes if they were out of mixtures, like we would just pour the vodka straight and just drop the bar.

[Host 2]

That is rock star.

[Mark Ronson]

That's some Liam Gallagher for sure.

[Host 2]

The problem and the solution.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. With Barack and Roll is what we.

[Host 1]

Call the detox while you retox.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. I don't know. And I remember, like weird Cadbury is like, you know, chocolate bars. Like there's this chocolate bar called a curly Whirly that you could only get like in England, the most British sounding candy bar ever. A curly, curly Whirly. And then people start and it's. It's quite a hard candy bar. People started throwing them us on stage with love. But you could get kind of. Yeah, it's a little distracting. You know, I wouldn't say it hurt, but it's right. The. The. The only time I really ever was like in danger of my life on stage is we're. I was playing bass for Jimmy Fallon in his band because like later on in the 2000s, I produced a record for him and it was like this kind of power pop punk songs. But he. With. With joke lyrics or Jimmy lyrics. And he was like, okay, I'm going on tour. I was like, I'll get you the best band then. I'll get you like this. You know, I know the guys from like the New York hardcore scene. He's like, no, no, no. I need a bad band. Like, this would be crazy if I got up with a good band. I was like, cool. I' on tour and we would be opening for like the Strokes or something and like, something. And you know, because Jimmy was like the good looking young star of SNL at the time. Like, there was a certain part of the crowd was just like, you guys just like pelted with pennies and hard candies for like, made it hail on you. 30. Yeah, 30 minutes straight.

[Host 2]

That's rough.

[Host 1]

Damn. That's the only time you're truly in danger for your life.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

[Host 1]

What about.

[Mark Ronson]

No, actually, I've taken some crazy falls. Like I've done, like, nothing Dave Gro level, but I've definitely, like, hit. Really? Wearing all those stupid, shiny, pointy boots and shoes I used to wear on stage. Like, just, like.

[Host 2]

Right.

[Mark Ronson]

Literally, like a Pratt.

[Host 1]

What shoes do you wear when you dj? Because you're on your feet the whole time, actually.

[Mark Ronson]

So I got this thing, this disease, which I. Not disease, but this physical element that's just basically. Okay. So I did this DJ gig in. In Italy this time, and by the time I landed, my foot was like, holy shit, something's going on down there. Like, I could see through my shoe. It had fallen up. Whoa. So I. I go to the doctor or something, and he's like, yeah, you have. They do all this test that, like, you have this arthritis. It's called synovitis. And he's like. We sometimes see it in musicians and, like, orchestras from, like, even just from tapping their foot on beat. Like violin players for, like, 25 years. Right. You can do this sort of damage that, like, crazy.

[Host 2]

Basketball player injury.

[Mark Ronson]

Arthritis. Yeah. And something. Synovitis of the right metatarsal. But I just like calling it DJ Foot because I think it just sounds cooler.

[Host 1]

So that's what Trump has.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host 1]

Dj.

[Mark Ronson]

DJ foot. So what was the question?

[Host 1]

What shoes?

[Host 2]

The fall? Some of the falls or.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for that time, for a little while, I was actually, like, DJing. Like, I would show up to the gig, and then I would, like, take the shoe off behind the booth because no one wants to see, like, a barefoot dj.

[Host 2]

Gotta pay for that. That's extra.

[Mark Ronson]

But, yeah, I was wearing, like, old guy shoes for a little while. Like, what's the Mephistos?

[Host 1]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Classics.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

Orthopedic vinyl back in style.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host 2]

What goes around comes around.

[Host 1]

Mark, who is on your Mount Rushmore of the best DJs of all time, dead or alive.

[Host 2]

You cannot put yourself on there.

[Mark Ronson]

I mean, Stretch Armstrong, definitely, because he was the most influential to me. Am RIP I loved Enough Kid Capri was amazing thing. Yeah. How many people are Mount Rush?

[Host 2]

You're at Budget right now.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host 2]

That feels like a great list.

[Mark Ronson]

There's other people I'm forgetting.

[Host 2]

No ties, though.

[Mark Ronson]

Clark Kent. Okay. Yeah, I might have to switch someone out.

[Host 2]

It keeps the DJ in his name as he quoted in the book sales.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

Now that you. Now that the book is out and you've come on the only podcast that matters and book sales are shooting through the crazy. Now that you have all this book money, what do you like to spend your money money on?

[Mark Ronson]

And more books.

[Host 1]

You're a book. I know. Like, do you collect books?

[Mark Ronson]

Back into the game? No. What will I spend all this book money on? Yeah.

[Host 1]

Or just like, generally, like, beside. Okay. Besides your own family, Besides records, Like, what are you, boring? What do you indulge?

[Mark Ronson]

What do I care about anymore? Yeah. Financially, probably. Like, now it's like old vintage synthesizers and stuff. Like, since we got toys, scoring some films, you know, Barbie was the first film that me and my partner Andrew scored and working on Greta's new film right now. Greta Gerwick, who directed Barbie. So, like, I, Yeah, now it's just like, for that, like, Hans Zimmer has this crazy studio in, in la. And it's just like this wall of, like, modular synths and all this. And I listen, you can do all this with plugins now, but I, I want to make weird noises. That's what I want to do.

[Host 2]

Yeah, Love that. Put on your.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, the John Carpenter. Like, just people. People. That still sounds great if you want to listen to. But is that noise? That's what I want to do. Yeah.

[Host 1]

A sample. You, you're out here inventing noises.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host 2]

Inventing you never heard of before.

[Host 1]

What's the dumbest purchase you've made recently?

[Mark Ronson]

I think there's some kind of thing right now where I'm like, definitely, probably having an identity crisis that has something to do with my age. Like, not quite sure how I can dress or how, you know.

[Host 1]

So you're wearing your wife's clothes?

[Host 2]

We've gone to the women's center section.

[Mark Ronson]

I, I, I've, I've ripped the tendon came off of my bicep. I was trying to lift a speaker at a gig. So I was in this, like, big cast for a little while, so I had to, like, get some oversized clothes. So I went to, like, essentially buy young people's clothes. I went to places like acne and like, things where the silhouette is a little bigger. Yeah, I was kind of like, oh, kind of like this. It seems to, like, take 10 years off me. Like, how do you do, fellow kids?

[Host 1]

The boxy. The boxy fit is so slim.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. It's like a Diplo can get away with it. How does he still manage to, you know, still dress young at this age? And then I got home, my wife's like, what the are you wearing? You know, like, I think we all go through that kind of struggle.

[Host 1]

I think Diplo needs a little that in his life. What the are you wearing?

[Mark Ronson]

No, I'm just kidding. We love you.

[Host 2]

He's the voice of a strong woman.

[Host 1]

I just saw a post where he's wearing a full Nigerian garb. I think he was at a wedding.

[Mark Ronson]

He's so, like, I don't give a fuck. Like, he's beat everything this. But yeah, I don't know. But also, I do like clothes. I do like fashion. I think you can still appreciate and be like, okay, that's not for me. I can't quite wear that.

[Host 1]

Is the row your your number one brand right now?

[Mark Ronson]

I mean, the their for men's clothes is just insane. I love this brand Stofa as well. Of course.

[Host 2]

Shout out Nick and AES the homies.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, we love sta Stoa.

[Host 1]

Great plug new retails.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Brick and mortar. Yeah. I went there. It's a block from my studio. I walk past it so many times.

[Host 2]

That's dangerous.

[Mark Ronson]

I went in for the. Yeah, very dangerous. Dangerous. I like, like a lot of. But again, I'm kind of like a little out of the little bit Stouffer, bro. Vintage.

[Host 1]

Are you scared of dressing? Not your age.

[Host 2]

I know your wife is.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. I don't know. You know, this is this couple weeks of, like, having the book out, being back on like a DJing so many gigs and, like, having had fashion week and two gigs and I had, like, thought about clothes more than I have in my A while I've been like, should probably step my game up, do the comfort zone. But yeah, I'm figuring it out.

[Host 2]

You always look good, dude. You have a look.

[Mark Ronson]

Thank you. Yeah.

[Host 2]

Let's give credit where credit is. Bring back the right at the end.

[Host 1]

Bring back the Tommy back. The Tommy fits.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, Tommy. Tommy's having, like, a resources. I mean, obviously that's tied into the whole 90s thing. And even though Tommy's had plenty of good runs since then, it's so iconic, though, that Aaliyah, the. All those photos of the in the bando and stuff. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know. What. What would you recommend for you? Yeah, where should I go?

[Host 1]

I think stofa. You're off to a great start.

[Host 2]

Nailed it.

[Host 1]

I mean, is that like the tailoring thing? Tailoring up of theirs or kind of the more ready.

[Mark Ronson]

It's like. It's kind of loose. Yeah. I haven't done this. I just. I don't have, like. I usually go on a shirt because I need something to wear like that night.

[Host 1]

Would you be a la Mer guy? Was that a little too, like, flowy.

[Mark Ronson]

For you to see that?

[Host 2]

Oh, you gotta check it out.

[Host 1]

Stofa it's like French stofa.

[Mark Ronson]

Okay, okay, Right.

[Host 1]

Yeah, it's like flowy French.

[Host 2]

The silhouette is. Is forgiving, but still put together. And I think it would vibe with you for sure.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. I gotta go see it.

[Host 1]

Yeah, we'll send you. We'll send a few suggestions away.

[Host 2]

Send some links over.

[Host 1]

Well, no one's paying for these suggestions. Recommendations right now, so we gotta.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Someone told me yesterday also to check out that spot in Brooklyn. Is it Van Ven Space?

[Host 2]

Shout Out Chris.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, our friend. Stop.

[Host 1]

Yeah, but then you got to go to Brooklyn, right?

[Mark Ronson]

Right, right.

[Host 2]

That's true.

[Mark Ronson]

And then Kobo's right here.

[Host 1]

Kind of similar vibe.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. I have this thing, like, I think it was whenever the Big Soul sneakers started to become a thing 10, 15 years ago. There's like, just certain things when you recognize a trend, you're like. And that's where I get off the bus. Like, you just. You know that there's something that you can appreciate. I see kids, like. Yeah, you see kids.

[Host 1]

I've seen this movie before.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Host 1]

I'm getting the out of here.

[Mark Ronson]

It looks so cool on you. And I tried on and I just like, look, it looks ridiculous. So, like, there's. And it's. It's purely mental. There's just silhouettes and shapes and shoes like sambas, gazelles, air force ones that, like, you can picture on yourselves. And then others that you just can't.

[Host 2]

You got to know thyself, Right?

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. That I have friends my age or diplo people that do take chances. Enjoy that. And they look fine, but for me.

[Host 2]

It'S like, okay, so full Nigerian garb for fashion Week.

[Host 1]

I would say for you, bring back the adult Nietzsche fits.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

You know, some South Pole, some academics.

[Mark Ronson]

I liked, I really liked. There was, like, probably two years where I lived in a Nietzsche velour jumpsuit. They were just super cool, delicioso. I just. And those guys were like, those guys, Tony Shelman and them, they were just always in the clubs. It was fun. They were good dudes.

[Host 1]

You know where I do see Echo now? Probably the only place is kids wearing it ironically. In Bushwick.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah. Right.

[Host 1]

So next time you're out gig and there they still throwing the rhino baby.

[Host 2]

No, they don't.

[Mark Ronson]

I think they're getting vintage.

[Host 2]

I don't think they're buying new Echo.

[Mark Ronson]

Where do you buy the vintage? Not that we need to keep places.

[Host 2]

Luke's Emma. Rogue. Rogue Gallery, whatever it's called. Rogue.

[Mark Ronson]

Where you're finding. Or just vintage streetwear, Vintage street wear.

[Host 2]

Luke's Leisure Center.

[Mark Ronson]

Okay.

[Host 1]

There's.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

Fancy explosion if you want like, like, like vintage street wear or like.

[Host 2]

Yeah, a resell 194.

[Host 1]

Yeah, the new 194. Chad Senzel.

[Host 2]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

Sorbaras is more designer.

[Host 2]

Sabaras.

[Host 1]

A real New York slice.

[Host 2]

This little place you might have heard of.

[Mark Ronson]

I guess I can get all these things when we're done recording from YouTube, but it's cool.

[Host 2]

No, this is good. It's good for the audience. Hit up us Saras next to Madison Square.

[Host 1]

Real New York slice. Mark, after an hour and 20 minutes together, we're not best friends. We're gonna go shopping together after this. We're gonna go to ven. But do you have any constructive crit criticism you'd like to give us?

[Host 2]

No.

[Mark Ronson]

No. I think you guys are amazing. For someone like me who's just so low energy, like, I sound like I'm on Sudafed all the time. Like, you managed to still, like, make.

[Host 2]

This pride out of.

[Host 1]

Really, you feel low energy?

[Mark Ronson]

I. I just can't help it. Like, I had to do the audiobook for this book. I realized that like, that's what, that's what you do.

[Host 1]

Did you do the voices of the other people?

[Host 2]

The impression?

[Mark Ronson]

I tried, like, some of. Yeah, I did do that because that's. That's an easy one to do. But. But I. You know, my wife heard me about six months ago, like, starting to like, read an anecdote because I think my friend was like, you should post something on socials, reading a thing. And my wife just heard me. She's an actress. She was like, you need help. So she sent me to her acting coach of town who she's not going to turn me into Al Pacino, but she would, like, help me learn how to like, put a little. Whatever.

[Host 2]

It's some little sauce on it.

[Mark Ronson]

Melody. It's a melody. Some arch and t it. So I. So I did it and I went to do the. The audiobook and I still kept thinking like, man, I just wish Timothy Chalamet was doing this or something. But I realized then I listened to biopic. I listened to Julia Fox down the drain. I mean, really, it was that one snippet that went viral where she's talking about being down on the floor looking for cocaine. Yeah. And I realized, like, she just has this very charming, amazing draw New York, like one note thing. And I was like, oh, I don't care that she's like acting out every line. I just hear her voice and this makes me. Me Dig it. So it made me feel a little bit better about doing the thing, but I can't even remember what the question is.

[Host 1]

Oh, did he do the voices?

[Mark Ronson]

So I did do the voice.

[Host 1]

Trying to be like, who the that was.

[Mark Ronson]

I did. I did some voices. And then I think that like I wanted to have my friend Simon Rex, you know, of course, Dirt Nasty. Dirt Nasty. He's your dj. Yeah, yeah. And. And do some of the voices, but they were just like, we don't have the money.

[Host 2]

We can't afford.

[Mark Ronson]

Shut up.

[Host 2]

Next time again for the second book. You know.

[Mark Ronson]

Exactly.

[Host 2]

Tap in your mother in law. Maybe you don't get a whole roster.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

Mark, where can the kids follow you? What would you like to plug right now? Yours. We reached the conclusion.

[Mark Ronson]

Okay. Definitely Night people. How to be a DJ in 90s New York City. Which is, if you think about it, the most useless how to book of all time. There will never be a DJ in 90s for dummies.

[Host 2]

For Dummy.

[Host 1]

Can I make some suggestion?

[Mark Ronson]

Can they be.

[Host 1]

I don't know if you've done this. Is there an accompanying playlist of like all the record. There is.

[Mark Ronson]

There's a QR code in the book. So use.

[Host 2]

We only have the gall. They don't have the QR codes.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah, but. And I guess that's the main thing.

[Host 2]

I want to Instagram is I am Mark Ronson.

[Mark Ronson]

Instagram is I am Mark Ronson. Someone else got Mark Ronson, bro. And then when I tried to get it, sister. No, it was like some random person who like just posted paintings of landscapes. That good? Yes. The fact that I wanted my name and I wrote to the person and they were like, how dare you? I've amassed 5,000 followers. I was like, it's my name. But obviously nobody is that also.

[Host 1]

But that's also his name.

[Mark Ronson]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

You Mark Rosson.

[Mark Ronson]

No, this was. This wasn't.

[Host 2]

Oh, they were like, oh, they're using it. They're trying to pretend. Oh, interesting. Well, strategy is working. 5,000 followers.

[Host 1]

Nothing to shake this Korean or Japanese guy.

[Mark Ronson]

Oh, wow. Goal.

[Host 2]

Maybe he sold it.

[Mark Ronson]

Mark.

[Host 1]

Followers 450.

[Mark Ronson]

What are they posting?

[Host 1]

Just him. Just sneakers. He's a sneaker guy. Maybe you have some like rare kicks. You could, you know, swap with him.

[Host 2]

That's just Mark Ronson.

[Mark Ronson]

So crazy. So it must have changed.

[Host 2]

He got a better deal for this guy.

[Mark Ronson]

He. It must have. The other person must have given it up at some point or like closed their account and now this guy got it for us. Dude, you should. You should I hope he's following me. Imagine if he's not following. That would.

[Host 2]

He doesn't even know who you are.

[Mark Ronson]

The ultimate insult. Come on, man.

[Host 1]

He is following you.

[Host 2]

Wow.

[Mark Ronson]

Okay, you gotta hit him.

[Host 1]

Hit him.

[Host 2]

You gotta hit him with the follow back, dog. Gotta hit him with the fall back.

[Mark Ronson]

Okay.

[Host 1]

Yo, I'll DJ your wedding, bro. Just let me get the ig.

[Mark Ronson]

Oh.

[Host 1]

All right.

[Host 2]

So no contractor cruise drop sandstorm at your wedding.

[Mark Ronson]

If you give me. I am.

[Host 1]

I am Mark Ronson on ig.

[Mark Ronson]

This is the only podcast that matters. It's. This has been a treat. Night people out now.

[Host 1]

Hell, absolutely.

[Host 2]

Thank you, Mark. You're the best.

[Host 1]

You want to. You want to fade a us out? You want to cross fade us out or drop? Is there a drop? What do you want to do?

[Host 2]

Gotta pay for video to see that, folks.

[Mark Ronson]

Air horn. All right, thanks, Mark.

[Host 2]

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[Mark Ronson]

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[Host 2]

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[Mark Ronson]

It's even got super speed since you.

[Host 2]

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[Mark Ronson]

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[Host 2]

That's s o f I.com power loans.

[Mark Ronson]

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[Host 2]

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