Weekly mixes across soul, funk, boogie, jazz, hip hop and more, pulled from a lifetime's collection. Roger Athelston Drakes better known by his stage name Dj Dodge, is a Los Angeles-based English DJ, music producer, and songwriter. He came to prominence in the early 90's when his rap band Dodge City Productions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_City_Productions) signed to Island Records after winning a demo competition on Tim Westwood's Capital Radio Show In London. Early Years
Roger Drakes grew up in South West London absorbing a rich and cultured mix of music from Reggae to Jazz, It's this start that shaped his love for music and later became an obsession for collecting records. With no plans to ever Dj or Produce he hunted down and bought hordes of classic albums and singles just for the music,mainly Funk and Soul then later Hip Hop and House. Once his bedroom skills were honed to perfection he began Dj'ing small local gigs and friends parties. The 90's
After meeting a fellow Dj and drummer from West London IG Culture (real name Ian Grant) they joined up to form Dodge City Productions, a band that made soulful jazzy hip hop and was part of the UK's Acid Jazz Movement , DCP signed to Island Records in 1990 and released their debut single 'Ain't going for that' in 1991 to critical acclaim by the British press and radio. The album Steppin Up And Out came out in 1993 and the group went their separate ways shortly after that. IG went on to form his own label and craft a legendary career in the broken beat genre while Dj Dodge became a 'go to' guy in the UK for remixes and Production. Dodge's first remix of notoriety was the UK version of Method Man feat Mary J Blige 'I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By' which reached no.10 in UK the singles chart. He formed his production company Soul Inside Productions with this release, SIP simple stood for music that comes from deep within. After the success of the Method Man remix the work came in and he went on to remix and Produce several acts inc Beverley Knight.Jill Scott.D'Angelo and more. He worked extensively with Beverley Knight co-writing and Producing her come back hit in 1998 'Made It Back' which featured Redman, plus contributed to her albums Prodigal Sista and Who I am for which he received certified Gold sales plaques for both. Also boy bands Damage and Another Level we're UK groups that charted with Soul Inside Productions in their mix. The 2000's
This period saw Dodge's dj bookings increase due to the popularity of his studio work, so he met the demand by regularly touring clubs globally and residing at some of London's most known club brands. Rotation at Subterranean (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/at-the-club-face-rotation--subterania-1142061.html) and Fresh & Funky at Hanover Grand being two big nights, then later The Lick for MTV where he Dj'd as main support for Trevor Nelson all over Europe. Dodge formed another group in 2004 called Venus Tribe and released the song 'Slow Down' to critical acclaim, this resulted in a 4 album deal with Sony UK but was short lived when the single failed to make the Radio 1 play list and the label got cold feet. This moment Dodge described as "the downside to the business of music,there's no real love"
He continued remixing and completed projects for Omar 'Sing (If You Want It)' and Jamie Foxx 'Unpredictable' before leaving the UK for Los Angeles in 2007.
2007 -
Dodge Dj's at several Los Angeles clubs including a 2 year residency at Boulevard3 on Sunset Blvd,playing all genres of music for the first time he embraced EDM and other American know music styles. In 2009 He released his own 100% written and Produced album called 'Sounds Like Me' on i tunes and shot a video for the lead single 'In The Club', the album used heavily the auto- tune plug in and was not received well at all by his core fan base who simply were more accustom to his more musical Productions. In 2010 he Produced IFE 'Aim to please' a neo soul sounding song for up coming new artist from Seattle,The video got over 250k view on you tube. Right now Dodge says 'you just work and enjoy what you do"
He recently placed some tracks in the forthcoming movie Dead Drop (Lionsgate home entertainment 2014) starring Luke Goss.
