“Biggie was like, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll just stand here until each one gets in’”: Mark Ronson recalls the time Biggie Smalls rocked up to an NY club event he was DJing in the ‘90s with “50 dudes from Brooklyn”Super producer Mark Ronson has looked back on his days DJing in the New York club scene in the ‘90s, in a conversation with Rick Rubin discussing his new book, Night People.
The book – titled, in full, Night People: How to Be a DJ in ‘90s New York City – arrives 16 September, and charts Ronson’s years as a DJ in the city’s vibrant nightlife scene.

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On his motivation for writing the book, Ronson says: “Far more famous DJs than me have written books, but no one’s really written the book that just talks about what it’s like to be a gigging DJ. Not a superstar DJ, but that shit when you’re just going to work four or five nights a week, playing in bars and clubs and dealing with regular people.
“I don’t want to over-dramatise the emotional highs and lows, but there are these things that are baked into it. You’re the most solitary figure in the most action packed surroundings.”
In one particular memory that stands out, Ronson remembers DJing at a party attended by Biggie Smalls.
“It was obviously a fucking seismic event,” he recalls. “And even the way the club was shaped, this weird angle and corners, I barely saw him. I could feel the energy like, ‘Holy shit’ – Biggie and the crowd ripple, you knew something was going on.
“I remember at the end of the night… his security [and] promoter telling me [about] Biggie rolling up with 50 dudes from Brooklyn. Some of them had guns [and] swords.
“[Security told Biggie:] ‘Yo, I can’t let 50 dudes in right now.’ And Biggie was like, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll just stand here until each one gets in. You just let them in how you can. You balance them with girls, and then I’ll come in when it’s all done.”
Ronson adds that Biggie was “just standing there” with a “wad” of cash, “just giving a bill each time someone [came] in”.
Asked by Rick Rubin what, in his opinion, makes a great club, Ronson says venues which are more rudimentary are often better environments for DJ sets.
“The best ones, some of them were just a fucking corridor with two speakers,” Ronson says. “You know, the crowd is what makes the club great. I think the crowd and the DJ.”
He continues: “For me, my favourite places, 50 percent of them were basements. And I try to get into that in the book, I’m like, why was it a basement? Is there something like going underground where you’re just like, you’re getting a little closer to Satan’s real estate?”
Mark Ronson’s new book, Night People: How to Be a DJ in ‘90s New York City, arrives tomorrow, 16 September. Preorders are available now.

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