Meet Tony Jones aka DJ Hawaii 5ive-0

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tony Jones aka DJ Hawaii 5ive-0 and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tony Jones, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I had an idea and aspirations to do it. I knew if I really wanted to do it I was going to have to take the risk and invest in the necessary things I needed to gain my start.

Majority of people work for financial reasons, doing and starting this – I knew I would be doing it for passion and also to alleviate the every day stresses from my job.

Finally I really believed in myself. I looked and myself in the mirror and said “if you really think you can do it, then what are you waiting for??? Because time waits for no one!”

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
A true soul of mischief who has mastered the art of hip hop and soul…

There is only one recipe to being a great DJ—- having a deep extent of musical knowledge from variety of genres

That is what sets me apart. I can hear and think about mixing things that the average person may not. I love teaching new music to people versus playing the same thing that you hear everywhere you go.

Challenges- the biggest is exposure. Knowing your worth but not getting the chance to showcase your talent to the world on a platform that you know you would be successful upon. The reason why I get compliments about my craft? It’s because I truly am passionate and my mood sets the tone when I’m spinning. It’s “pure”

Lessons I have learned- stop trying to please everyone because you are worried about what they want to hear. Do your musical journey upon your set – where ever that leads you during that set. When I started playing for me, versus the crowd, I got more compliments. I’m not saying “don’t pay attention to the crowd”, I’m just saying “do you and be confident”.

Becoming a DJ isn’t easy because there are so many now, but know your worth and be confident! I’m not where I totally want to be but I continue to make progress.

Most proud of these things I do called “SonicSessions” – each week I create a new theme that I only spin. Ex: one week I did “Cali Love” where I only play west coast. One week I did “The Jacksons” where I played everyone with a last name “Jackson”- Jackson 5 (obviously), Curtis Jackson (50 cent), O’shay Jackson (Ice Cube) etc etc. another week I did a theme Nike vs Adidas “Checks vs Stripes” – a theme of all the artist underneath each brand (adidas: Missy, Beyonce, Kanye, Pharrell, Childish Gambino… Nike: Drake, Travis, Tyler the creator (converse is under Nike), Kendrick, Eminem, DJ Khaled, etc) – the goal is to push myself to make something creative and fun each week but also testing my musical capacity of blending in things I would never think of. The crowd anticipates the theme of the week and they always look forward to how creative I will make the night. It’s extremely fun, you should come out

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would take them around to food places. I like to eat – houston has some of the best food in the nation.

So we would go have Tex mex, bbq, and probably Indian food.

Then nightlife we would definitely go to Local Seat on Sunday nights (because I spin there then) 😉

I would then see if any other DJs in the city I know where spinning – shout out my Brotha DJ Red Soda 🥤

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shout to Melanie Thomas for recognizing and recommending me to you all.

I am very humble about my friends and the support and love they show.

Shout out to the best Family ever – Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., as well as my Texas Longhorn fam too.

Last but not least- shout out all my Ohana in Hawai’i

Website: www.djHawaii5ive0.com

Instagram: @djHawaii5ive0

Twitter: @djHawaii5ive0