He started out with Bad Boy, learning the game from P. Diddy, Mase and then freshly-signed hardcore Gs The Lox. When The Lox split Bad Boy for DMX’s Ruff Riders, DJ Supa Mario was back in their camp soon enough, riding with his fellow Yonkers, NY homeboys and banging out jammin’ mixtapes and monster beats along the way. Yes, unlike most mixtape DJs, Supa Mario makes his own beats, too, and they are hot to def, boy. Trust me.
Since The Lox morphed into the D-Block movement and started their own label, Supa Mario has become all things great to this super-group comprised of Jadakiss, Styles P, Sheek Louch, and young gunner J-Hood. He often hosts, produces, and compiles their mixtapes; he DJs for them on the road, he provides many of their hottest beats, and he’s the right-hand man they turn to for advice and wisdom. Mario knows the streets, knows hip-hop and (not surprisingly with a name like that) knows his video games.
G4 had a chance to chat with Supa Mario as he prepped for two new D-Block releases, Sheek’s After Taxes and Styles P’s Time Is Money. Read on…and watch out for falling gorillas and runaway barrels!
What are you playing these days, Mario?
I just got Suffering: Ties That Bind, X-Men 2, and NBA Live, but it’s kinda funny to me. I gotta get used to it. It’s not like the other one. It’s like it’s almost too easy. Maybe I’m just not playing it right.
What type of games do you dig?
I like the shooter games. I love Max Payne. Max Payne is my hero, he’s dope. I never got into war games like Medal of Honor and stuff like that, though.
Does D-Block ever do voices for video games?
Yeah, as a matter of fact, we do voices in The Warriors game. Sheek, Styles and J-Hood are in it. Jada was overseas and he missed it. Sheek is one of the guys who sells you weapons in one part of town. Styles is another weapons dealer on another side of town. J-Hood is a little dude that holds tournaments and sh*t. I’ve done music for Midnight Club 3, too. I did, like, three beats for that.
Where’d you get your name?
I didn’t like that name at first.
How’d you get stuck with that then?
My friends were just making fun. Just my luck, it started to stick. I was doing everything in my power to make it go away. I even had a coupla fights over that.
So finally you just gave in?
What are you gonna do? N*ggas just started calling me that.
Where do you find all those great “Hey Mario” quotes you lace throughout your mixtapes?
From Super Mario games. Some are from Grand Theft Auto, too, some of the goons from Vice City. Plus, there’s a few from Nintendo’s Luigi’s Mansion.
So Halloween is coming up. What kinda costumes did you rock back in the day?
Aw man, I was a big superhero fan. I used to collect comics and draw. I was one of those way-out-there kids, a real weirdo.
So you’d dress up like Superman or Batman or something?
Naw, never those regular superheros. I had to go out there and make my mother or aunt make me some Wolverin
nbsp;before anyone could even get it, or Silver Surfer. I needed to be one of those types of guys, not nothing you could really buy in the store.
How did you pull of the Silver Surfer costume? Did you spray-paint yourself silver?
My aunt could sew real well, so I’d just show her the pictures and she’d know what she had to do and took it from there. It was nice for me, it really worked out.
You had handmade costumes every year?
Yeah, all the time. Halloween was big for me.
What about now? You got kids? How do you celebrate with them?
Yeah, I got kids. But it’s not like when we grew up. They can’t really go trick-or-treating. You don’t really trust too many people where we’re from, New York. You got to be careful out here. It’s real Halloween, 365 days a year out here. There’s creeps out here. So you got to take them to a party, or maybe a school or at the churches. But all that knocking on the doors, I’m not really with that too much anymore.
So what else can we expect from D-Block in the future?
We’re working on some movie scripts right now. But we wanna do something different, not just that same hip-hop gangsta movie that everyone does. We want it to be a really good production, a good picture. We’re exploring a clothing line now too. Plus Sheek’s got After Taxes out on November 8th, and Styles’ Time Is Money is coming soon too.
Check out Mario and the rest of the D-Block boys at www.d-blockworld.com and www.dblockonline.com.com.
