DJ SPOTLIGHT with Cory Giles by Jennifer Norwood

In less than ten years as a spinmaster, LITT Live's CORY GILES is on his way up.  Starting off as a graduate of Jam Master Jay’s Scratch DJ Academy in 2018, he DJ’ed the NCAA Sweet 16, Elite 8, and WNBA Finals in the same year.  Now he's a member of the World Famous Shadyville DJs (since 2022).

Born in Brooklyn, NY, CORY GILES has a deep love for DJing.  He muses: "I was introduced to DJ’ing by my dad who DJ’ed. It’s all that I've honestly thought about doing. One thing a lot of people don't know about me is that I also spin EDM music - that's my first genre!  My personal DJ favorites are Rich Medina, Kid Capri, Brucie B, Craze, and Clue (just to name a few).  I have my own radio mixshow that is on weekly on LITT LIVE (formerly Dash Radio) called IN A NY MINUTE on the Hip Hop X. Which, respectfully, is the hottest mixshow out period. BIG P.  I’m on every Friday at 1PM ET with the replay on Sundays at 1P ET. Folks can listen via the LITT LIVE App on the Hip Hop X Channel.

"My first DJ event was the NY AIDS Walk and at one point I was doing the all-mix weekends at Hot 97 - I still have video from that!

"Further down the line, DJ Clinton Sparks and I started building through socials - he had posted a clip of him and DJ Paul from Three 6 Mafia saying "DASH mixtape coming soon" so I reached out to him. I said "yo, I want IN."  He texted back a reply a couple of weeks later and I almost crashed my Dodge Charger!  My friend/manager Ru and I had an idea for a podcast called “The Corner Store Pod" but I really didn't want to get in the podcast space too heavy - I felt that radio needed something new.  I knew before that, that I always wanted to be at DASH.  So Hala Maroc and I teamed up and did our first show on Clinton Sparks' DASH Mixtape Channel in January 2019.

"I have an affinity for mixtapes, but they aren't what they used to be. Mixtapes are still around but they aren't packaged and promoted like one.  You would find a mixtape, see a couple of song listed that you like, then you listen to the whole tape and find a bunch of gems on there too. I find songs that people aren't playing and package them that way.  I take indie, unsigned artists and then take hot b-sides of songs from major artists' projects and load those on a mixtape onto Audiomack.  Within the first year we had over 100k streams of our first series of mixtapes!  People have shied away from mixtapes because of the rise of social media, but I think if a really famous DJ like Metro Boomin did it - found 10 unsigned artists with three songs of his own and made it available for stream only - it could open up a new wave.  Playlists are cool but I don't think they will ever match the impact of mixtapes."

CORY GILES has been successful in his endeavors, having partnered with the likes of 300 Entertainment, Def Jam and Roc Nation to have artists do takeovers on his mixshow.

CORY GILES is still grinding and laying a new bright pathway for his career.  He attests:  "Right now along with LITT LIVE SVP Michael Coquia I am helping rebrand and program LITT’s current rhythmic channel “The City”.  It’s a task I am taking on with so much pride. I watched LITT when it was first Dash and just saw all the cool things they were doing in radio.  I always felt like I wanted to be a part of it.  

"I want to help LITT carve out a special place in radio and build a spot in hip hop culture. It’s a 25-hour a day job - studying to learn programming, following up on trends, listening to other stations, still doing my own show while thinking how I can help push this brand forward. Folks can check out “The City” by downloading the LITT LIVE app or streaming via the web littlive.com/thecity .

##