The Hustler

He's not exaggerating. His personal website, www.clintonsparks.com, offers audio testimonials from Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, the Neptunes' Pharrell, Mobb Deep's Prodigy and many other A-listers. Sparks got to know most of these rhymers during radio-station appearances, but, he says, "some of them were just me goin' up in studios, meetin' people, introducin' myself. There's a fine line between bein' persistent and aggravatin' someone. You've got to find that line, try to use those relationships to your benefit."

Luminaries turn up frequently on Sparks's mix tapes, which have received plenty of acclaim from the hip-hop intelligentsia (he was named new DJ of the year at the 2002 Mixtape Awards). For instance, The Pulling Strings Mixtape is introduced by Roc-A-Fella Records head Damon Dash and includes numbers such as "Ghetto," co-starring John Legend and Scarface, and "Fly Away," with Kanye West, Fabolous and Musiq Soulchild. Coast Control, Volume 1: Defend Your Borders, a mix tape shared by Sparks and Los Angeles-based DJ Warrior, is equally glitzy, spotlighting Jadakiss, the Clipse and the team of XL and the aforementioned Biggie Smalls; this last duo contributes to "I Like," which is slated for Brainwashed. When he's asked how he got his mitts on such a Notoriously rare commodity as the B.I.G. verses, Sparks says, "It's funny -- even some people at Bad Boy have been wonderin' that. They don't even know how it happened.

"When you get somethin' like that, you can't come half-assed, or do anything you don't think the artist woulda liked or wanted to be a part of if they were sittin' next to you," he goes on. "I try to do somethin' I think they would've moved on to if their artistry had kept evolvin'."

Getting the best out of living, breathing hip-hoppers often requires trickier techniques. "Sometimes the artists give me the vocals over a beat that's already out there, and I create a whole new song and put the vocals on that -- and they were never in the studio with me to do that song," he reveals. "And I excel at figurin' out what somebody would sound hot over. Sometimes the artist may not have the same vision as you, and they don't understand where you're tryin' to go with somethin'. But if they're not there, I can make something that's so hot, but maybe a little to the left, that they wouldn't get it right away. Then, when I put it out and they get such a great response, they go, 'Hey, man, why didn't you give me that track?' And I'll be like, 'Dude, I played you that beat three months ago, and you didn't like it!'"

Moxie like this will serve Sparks well in the entrepreneurial world -- the next territory he's looking to conquer. He recently signed a deal with Def Jam Mobile to create Scratch Tones, a cell-phone-friendly series of ringtones, ringbacks, greetings, screensavers and wallpaper. "Sooner or later this stuff'll get regulated," he says, "so right now, it's a great opportunity for artists to make a lot of money." He's just as enthused about www.mixunit.com, a website in which he's a partner. A redesign of the site, which should debut in about three months, is intended to turn it into what he calls "the hip-hop Amazon.com. We're about to revolutionize the way you can target and market the hip-hop lifestyle, demographically and geographically."

If these projects take off, Sparks could wind up hosting parties at a future All-Star game instead of manning the turntables. Still, he doubts that he'd be comfortable taking it easy. "If I'm not doin' somethin', I feel inadequate," he concedes. "I need to keep doin' it, keep doin' it, keep gettin' things done. A lot of DJs attemptin' to do what I do, they're like, 'I can't believe you do all that. How do you do all that?' And I'm like, 'If you get the opportunity, how can you not do all that?'"