• Alphonso Henderson, better known by his stage name DJ Aladdin, is an American DJ, record producer and turntablist from Compton, California. He was a member of Low Profile, and Ice-T’s collective Rhyme Syndicate. He produced records for its members Ice-T, King Tee and Lord Finesse. Aladdin formed the duo Low Profile with rapper WC in 1987, and the two released an album, We’re in This Together, two years later.

That’s what the average search will tell you, but I’m different. Let’s get into it.

Like myself, Aladdin became a hip-hop head in about 1983. That’s when he started messing with the turntables. He soon joined DJ  Chill and DJ Faze in a crew called “LA Music Crew”. In about 1986, he started getting more serious about it.

He started  DJing parties in Compton and other little neighborhoods around the way. The hood is where he gained his recognition as far as a starting ground. Then from there, he had an audition for the KDAY Mix-Masters.

Since K-DAY was the first of its kind, the Mix-Masters were offered a rare opportunity to to parlay their mixtapes from the show to further their popularity; not to mention the jackets. Those K-DAY Mix-Master jackets were the envy of everybody in the hood!

Flipping this opportunity is exactly what Aladdin did. He caught the attention of Ice-T  and Rhyme Syndicate, which was Ice T’s crew because Aladdin was known for breaking new records first, like Eazy-E and NWA. A lot of DJs weren’t playing them in their mixes. He was the one that would play those records. Ice-T loved “that power”. It wasn’t like now where it’s syndicated and one can’t really break new music. The only one that can do that is maybe Julio G. That’s what made KDAY so bomb because they were able to play stuff that no one else could’ve play. As long as there wasn’t any cursing, you were good to go; although, there were a couple slip ups every now and then. You could break unknown artists and stuff like Ice T’s “6 In the Morning.” Yep! Aladdin was playing that stuff when other DJs wouldn’t mess with it.

Another common ground Aladdin and I have is, we were both enamored by the New York hip-hop scene. Movies like Wild Style and Beat Street, were in vacant buildings and used to dress the building up in graffiti and just party in it. Aladdin was fascinated with the New York scene. Compton was known for its drug dealing so he put his hustle down and got a ticket and went to New York. He went to this DJ battle; it was called DMC – The Disco Mixing Championship. History would be made.

When he first touched down out there to battle, New Yorkers were vexed. Dressed in khakis, sporting a Geri Curl, they weren’t ready for that. All that changed when they heard him spin; that gained their respect.

That’s how he got on the map. Back then, there were a lot of hip hop & DJ magazines. They would always put him in their articles, especially after he won the DMC battle. He tripped a lot of people out because he was from the West Coast and beat all of the East Coast DJs in the battles. In the DMC, they had him represent the East Coast…even though he was from the West Coast. His name had become known, and it was out there ringing bells, like an LL Cool J song.

He then went to Chicago and won the USA Championship. That got him the love to really flip that new found fame from there and take it to London, where he met cats like King Sun and Just Ice. At the time, when he was going back and forth to New York, he stayed with DJ Clark Kent, who was Dana Dane’s DJ. He used to lace Aladdin a lot on the East Coast style of DJing, which gave him the advantage of combining the East Coast style to his West Coast style.

Although Aladdin didn’t win the World Championship in London, he did come in second. The situation appeared to mirror the situation with Joe Cooley in 1987. The “out of town” DJ coming in, and the “hometown” favorite winning because of … well, nevermind.

Anyway, after that, Aladdin went on to the New Music Seminar and that’s where he got his get-back (against Cut Master Swift, the “winner” in the World Championship). He faded him in the New Music Seminar and it just went on from there. He then went on to Yo! MTV Raps and had the pleasure of cutting on MTV with Dr. Dre and Ed Lover.

Like most early DJs, he soon made his way to producing. He worked on his own album with WC, which together, were known as Low Profile, and the album was called “We’re In This Together.”

Low Profile came together from a cat named “Zero”. He was the original Low Profile MC. They had a record that they put out called “Hip Hop I Crave” along with a song called “My Dream.” At the time he (Zero) didn’t think that hip hop was going to be a successful avenue, so he decided to go off to college. WC came along and that’s where it ended up. He was originally the beat boxer of the group, then when Zero left, he became more of the rapper of the group.

Unfortunately, we only got one classic album from this duo. Apparently they were tied to a bogus contract with Priority. It put them in the position where they really didn’t get a chance to make that next album. They spent a bulk of their time trying to get out of that contract. Units were being sold, but they weren’t seeing any money so they had to hustle. It kind of put them in the situation where Low Profile broke up and WC went his way and Aladdin went his. Aladdin then went on and started producing with Ice-T and doing things on that level. He also worked on King T’s “Act A Fool” and “Tha Triflin” albums.

The bottom line, and like I even told him personally, DJ Aladdin, is a true national treasure. His skill, his brilliance, his innovation should be spoken about more. He’s just another brutha from my city who contributed to the pride I have in the West Coast capital of hip-hop, Compton, California.

Love you, brutha, and your story shall never die. #HipHopHistoryAppreciation