After sitting down to chat
with DJ E Sudd, one word echoes:
consistent. At just 26 years old, Erik
Sudderth has made a significant name
for himself as one of the top DJs in the
music industry. His fans know him as
DJ E Sudd, former DJ for Travis Porter
and current road DJ for well-known hiphop artist 2 Chainz, working with artist
like Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Drake.
To get to where he is so
quickly in his career, it
is clear that DJ E Sudd
has always maintained
true to who he is and
stayed focused on what
he loves: DJing.
So how did this
young man from High
Point, North Carolina
discover this love for
music? As a child music
was all around him.
He had the old school
influences of reggae and
jazz from his father in
addition to the exposure
to contemporary R&B
and rap by his cousins.
In elementary school
he began playing the
guitar, which morphed
into the drums in middle
school, but he always
had a primary love of
mixing music. “Mix
tapes have always been
a way for me to get my
name out there since
my mom’s basement. I
was in the game before I
even realized I was in the music game.”
Sudderth had a hobby of burning CDs
for his friends. “People came to me
with a playlist of songs, I’d make it
and sell it for $10. I’d make my own
playlists and sell them for $5. I always
had that mentality of hustling and
branding myself. It became more than
just burning a CD, the older I got the
more I realized the art behind it.” By
the time he hit T. Wingate Andrews
High School, he began to move around
the city, revealing the integral part that
music played in the nightlife of the
city. “That’s when I found that love
20
www.simplyelevate.com
for promoting parties and truly being
involved rather than just a guest.” As
a young high school student, Sudderth
began promoting parties and along
the way he met his first mentor, DJ
Smooth. “I followed him, watched how
he worked and one thing just led to the
next. He was the one that first led me
to touch the turntables. He said, ‘You
play’ I did and the crowd went crazy.”
DJ E Sudd was born.
He thrived off that energy
combined with his love of mixing
songs and by his senior year of high
school was a highly sought after DJ in
the High Point area, often performing
at venues before he was even legally
of age to enter as a guest. His family
was extremely supportive of his work
as he grew. His father, with a graphic
communication design background,
understood the love of branding
things and giving something a wellknown name. “I don’t know if that
was something I learned from him or
if it was actually in my bloodstream
or what.” From lending him their
basement to mix CDs to giving him
all his turntables, speakers, and crates
rides to his venues, they never stopped
showing him support. “Once they saw
that it was something that was making
me happy, they are behind him 100%.”
During his senior year at Andrews High
School, DJ E Sudd started
working with Waleed Coyote
on 102 Jamz to bring the
radio to the streets and the
high school crowd. “Being
able to go to the radio station
when I was in high school
and see the great DJs they had
at the time gave me a firsthand look rather than me just
learning on my own. Seeing
them mixing their transitions,
their scratches. Each DJ has
their own unique style, their
own way of doing business,
their own way of rocking the
crowd.” This opportunity
gave him a chance to meet
new people and further
engrain his name in the music
community.
After high school DJ
E Sudd became a name on
the campus of North Carolina
A&T. “Since the college is
very close to my hometown,
a lot of people coming to the
parties were already familiar
with my brand and knew my
name, so they knew that I
would bring a crowd. So now
I had the streets, radio, and college
influences all in one. I just stayed
consistent.” Successful in staying
consistent as a DJ, Sudderth struggled
with how to stay consistent to his heart,
which beat to the tunes he mixed, rather
than in the classroom. “I saw what I
wanted and I went for it. Sometimes
you get further in life going by your
own direction. At the end of the day
you have to do what you feel is right
for yourself. The college counselor told
me, ‘don’t waste time on something that
your heart isn’t in.”
Tony Graham, a longtime