{"id":7596,"date":"2025-09-10T15:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/7596\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T15:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:44:08","slug":"mark-ronson-on-memoir-night-people-and-the-music-that-made-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/7596\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Ronson on Memoir ‘Night People’ and the Music That Made Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen Mark Ronson began writing<\/a> his debut memoir a few years back, he grossly underestimated the commitment. \u201cIt ate my life,\u201d he tells Variety of \u201cNight People: How to Be a DJ in \u201990s New York City,\u201d an electric reminiscence of his days as a DJ on NYC\u2019s club playground. \u201cI\u2019ve turned down production gigs left and right and whatever else it is, but I am proud of it in the way that it\u2019s as good as I could have made it with my whatever, my writing talents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRonson may be playing coy \u2014 at 50, he\u2019s remarkably humble for someone who\u2019s halfway to an EGOT and performed at the Super Bowl \u2014\u00a0but \u201cNight People\u201d explains why. Before producing canonical records with Bruno Mars and Amy Winehouse, he had humble beginnings as a teen discovering the art of deejaying, lugging records in cabs across town and building his name one club show at a time. \u201cNight People\u201d is written with a sense of clarity and, above all, appreciation for the pedigree of his musical career, a blueprint for the records he would inevitably produce and the dynamic impact he would leave on pop culture.<\/p>\n

\n\tCurrently, Ronson is in the promotional blitz for \u201cNight People,\u201d out Sept. 16 via Grand Central. He initially intended to release a single to coincide with the book drop, and was crafting an album fueled by samples and flips of records from that \u201990s era. But ultimately, he doubled down on \u201cNight People,\u201d a read that makes you nostalgic for a time you may have never experienced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Ronson breaks down a handful of the 245 songs named in the book that were key to his makings.<\/p>\n

\tRedman, \u2018Time 4 Sumaksion\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Redman\"
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: YouTube\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tRedman\u2019s record was an absolutely monstrous record at the time in New York. Even the way that it sounded was just so heavy. It was just a monster. And so when I went to the record store and got my turntables, I had money to buy four 12-inches. And that was one of the ones that I got. <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter a month of trying to teach myself at home, I found one kid who used to go to my school, an older kid who came over and taught me how to DJ. He was like, no, you have to have two copies of the same record. That\u2019s how you practice to scratch and go back and forth. And it\u2019s amazing that I was so green that I didn\u2019t even really think of that myself. And so I went back and bought a second copy of \u201cTime 4 Sumaksion.\u201d That was the first record that I learned how to mark up two copies and do doubles and that kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

\n\tFunnily enough, as much as I love that record, there\u2019s other records by Redman like \u201cCan\u2019t Wait\u201d and \u201cDa Rockwilder\u201d that I really love more and play recurrently. But \u201cTime 4 Sumaksion\u201d is just something that I always just equate with my first trip to the record store.<\/p>\n

\tDe La Soul, \u2018Dinninit\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"De
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: YouTube\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019d been making little demos in my home studio that had a Mackie 8-channel mixer, which isn\u2019t really even a home mixer. It\u2019s like something that you would have at a fuckin\u2019 blues bar to mix the band and a little digital eight-track on my MPC. And this guy, Ian from Tommy Boy, came to the clubs. I got all my first production gigs because I was in the clubs where people wanted to hang out and were like, oh, let\u2019s ask the kid who plays the cool parties if he does beats. And he offered me, \u201cYou want to remix the next De La single?\u201d And I was just like, oh my God, I can\u2019t believe it. <\/p>\n

\n\tI had this loop by this group, Lowrell, that I thought would sound cool, and it worked. And then he asked me who I wanted to mix it. I didn\u2019t know anything about mix engineers, barely knew what they did. I just picked up a Wu-Tang record and on the back it said \u201cMixed by Carlos Best\u201d and I was like, I\u2019ll get the guy who did Wu-Tang, not thinking that as much as I love Wu-Tang, the Wu-Tang sound is absolutely nothing like my own production. <\/p>\n

\n\tSo it came back sounding all raw and fucking Wu-Tang and it just wasn\u2019t quite right for the song. I know the remix definitely never came out and I don\u2019t even know if De La Soul even knew that I did it, but it was a good lesson as well because I had it sounding better in my house.<\/p>\n

\n\tI wish I [still had the remix]. It\u2019s probably on a DAT tape lying in the bottom of the East River. I\u2019m mad that I didn\u2019t hang on to some of those old demos and things. Moving all these apartments so many times, you just become like lost socks in the laundry, you know?<\/p>\n

\tBobby Caldwell, \u2018What You Won\u2019t Do For Love\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Bobby
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: YouTube\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was one of those songs that I never heard growing up. I\u2019m sure it was something that was on R&B radio if you grew up in America or something. But some of those records I remember hearing at 18 or 19 and even though it\u2019s a slow jam and it\u2019s such a beautiful song that you could argue is a little soft, I was just so taken with it. And it\u2019s so weird that you\u2019re asking me because right now my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter is also obsessed with it. And you know, she knows Joni Mitchell and Chappell Roan, but to hear a two-and-a-half-year-old little girl say, \u201cPlay Bobby Caldwell\u201d\u2026 My friends have been over when she said it and they\u2019re like, did your fucking daughter just say Bobby Caldwell? Like she\u2019s obviously touched by this song too.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was an example of one of those records that you play at the beginning of the night when doors are opening, because you just need to like cleanse your soul and get ready for the night ahead, or it\u2019s the song that you play at the end of the night when people are having the last slow dance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI haven\u2019t played it as much anymore because I\u2019m a spoiled fucking DJ and I rarely play the end of the night anymore. Part of the fun thing of deejaying since I finished the book is I have been going out and playing three-, four-hour sets and playing from doors till doors. But I haven\u2019t and I need to start reworking that song.<\/p>\n

\t\u2018All About the Benjamins\u2019 \/ \u2018Back in Black\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Lil'
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: YouTube\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t[I debuted this mix at] Cheetah on a Monday night, after maybe the Tunnel Mecca with Funkmaster Flex on Sunday. Cheetah Monday was probably the biggest, coolest hip-hop party in New York at the time. It was like Janet Jackson, Missy [Elliott], Mike Tyson, you name it. Everybody came there and it was this amazing crowd.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was really my friend Jules\u2019 gig, but when he would go away, he would let me play. And I heard AC\/DC\u2019s \u201cBack in Black\u201d one night at this other place called Spy Bar where they only played rock and roll and that was the super ultra VIP. It was like fucking Leo and Trump and Mariah partying in there. And I remember just thinking, God, this record is just so heavy and insane and watching all these people lose their minds, probably drunk and coked to the gills, but just like going crazy listening to this song. I was like, I wonder if I could play this at Cheetah. And it almost became like an OCD type obsession. It was really crazy because I was still on my way up. Doing something that I could have fallen on my face that much at that point in my career would have really hurt my standing in New York. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut I worked out this mix of playing the \u201cBenjamins\u201d into the Biggie verse, [and then] switching to this rap metal version of the \u201cBenjamins\u201d that I didn\u2019t really love, but it was Biggie\u2019s verse with guitars. I knew people would keep dancing, and then right on the downbeat, [segueing into \u201cBack in Black\u201d] worked. And it was this wonderful moment because like the crowd totally went for it. Obviously, it was gratifying because it was a big swing. And then after that, I started to get much more experimental with my DJ sets and it paid off because it carved me this lane that made me a bit different from what everyone else was doing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tThe Notorious B.I.G., \u2018Hypnotize\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Notorious
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: YouTube\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s quite a lot [of Biggie songs to pick] because \u201cHypnotize,\u201d which came out only a few weeks before he passed, is bittersweet because obviously it was probably two weeks of playing it where it was tragedy-free, you know? That one is just such a stonker. There was the 112 remix, \u201cOnly You,\u201d which was just such a fucking club staple at that time. Now, for me, I love playing \u201cParty and Bullshit\u201d and \u201cUnbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s crazy to think that I was in a room playing music where Biggie was standing and as I said in the book, I don\u2019t even know if he knew my name. I don\u2019t care. He just came and he partied while I was deejaying and that was enough.<\/p>\n

\tJay-Z, \u2018Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Jay-Z\"
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: YouTube\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tJay-Z had New York on fire all the time. Something about \u201cHard Knock Life\u201d when it dropped was just so crazy because it was slow and then it was just so off the wall with the \u201cAnnie\u201d sample that the brilliant Mark the 45 King flipped. <\/p>\n

\n\tI remember when that song played and everybody would sing along and it\u2019s so high-pitched, everybody\u2019s voice is like squeaky singing off-key in the club. But that record really came in \u201998 at the time that the club I played on Friday, Life, was at its ultimate peak. Jay-Z and Damon Dash were in there most Friday nights and to see like Jay posted up at his table basically overseeing the room, and then all these people clamored in trying to be anywhere near him and screaming this song at the top of their lungs was like, you could have filmed that music video any one of those nights.<\/p>\n

\tNikka Costa, \u2018Like a Feather\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Nikka
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: YouTube\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tNikka, again, an example of getting a production gig because of my DJ sets. Dominique Trenier, who had the label that signed with Nikka and D\u2019Angelo, came up and was like, \u201cI got this white chick and I don\u2019t know what the album\u2019s supposed to sound like, but I want it to sound like your DJ sets: AC\/DC, EPMD, Chaka Khan, Biggie.\u201d And I was like, great, bring her by the crib. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen we started that record, I was kind of a novice on the production and Nikka was very patient and we found the sound together, but she probably had to deal with some rough-sounding demos. And when we finally made that record, it was really a bit of an accident. Nikka had come back from a flea market or something and she was like, I got you a record today and chucked it at me. So I did what I always do, listen quickly through each thing till I found a few notes that I chopped it up and played it for her.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a mixture of all our influences, my wanting to be DJ Premier and the way the beat was chopped, and Nikka\u2019s super soulful vocals and Justin [Stanley]\u2019s great bass line and even the guitars have this double-track fuzz. It\u2019s a little Beatles but it\u2019s a little Foreigner too. Like I had a little bit of my stepdad\u2019s \u201970s AM rock influences.<\/p>\n

\n\tJay-Z and Busta Rhymes and these people I love were coming up to me. They only knew me as the DJ. And they were like, you did that like \u201cdun dun dun dun\u201d thing. And I was a cool thing to suddenly be known for.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Mark Ronson began writing his debut memoir a few years back, he grossly underestimated the commitment. \u201cIt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46,6728],"class_list":["post-7596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mark-ronson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}