Episode #713 Say Yes Scared: DJX on Courage Before Confidence
“Even though I'm scared I'm still gonna do it.”
— DJX
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What do you do when the opportunity of a lifetime arrives and you're terrified? Toronto hip-hop legend DJX said yes to hosting CKLN's Power Move Show while scared to death, then learned to open the mic by opening it.
Episode Summary
Before Toronto hip-hop had a spotlight, it had a Saturday afternoon ritual. From 1 to 4 PM on CKLN 88.1 FM, DJX hosted the Power Move Show, and a generation of listeners organized their weekends around it, finger hovering over the tape deck's record button.
In this conversation, Adrien King, the man behind DJX, takes us back to how it all started: a kid who moved from Bermuda to Toronto, fell in love with hip-hop through Ron Nelson's show, hid his shyness behind the turntables, and practiced ten hours a day until he became, in his words, "the man." When a falling-out with Mastermind cost him his spot on CHRY, Ron Nelson handed him the biggest show in the country. DJX said yes while scared to death. On his first solo show, he didn't open the mic for two hours.
What follows is a masterclass in courage before confidence: the weight of being the gatekeeper for an entire city's local music, the discipline of removing your own taste from the equation, and the strange truth that you never see your own impact while you're inside it. Decades later, strangers stop him on the street to tell him what those Saturday afternoons meant.
Press play for the nostalgia, stay for the lesson: say yes scared, then figure it out.
Key Takeaways
KEY TAKEAWAY 1
Say yes before you feel ready. DJX took over the biggest hip-hop show in the country while scared to death, because confidence is built through action, not before it.
KEY TAKEAWAY 2
Preparation is what makes audacity survivable. The ten-hours-a-day basement years gave DJX the foundation to walk through the fire when the moment arrived.
KEY TAKEAWAY 3
Sometimes having no choice is the fastest teacher. DJX didn't ease into the mic. He had a three-hour show to host, so he opened it scared and kept going.
KEY TAKEAWAY 4
You can't see your impact while you're inside it. DJX only understood what those Saturday afternoons meant decades later, when strangers started stopping him on the street.
Meet Our Guest
Adrien King, known to a generation as DJX, is a legendary Toronto hip-hop DJ who helped bring the culture to the city in its infancy. As the host of the Power Move Show on CKLN 88.1 FM, airing Saturdays from 1 to 4 PM through the late 1980s and 1990s, he became the trusted voice an entire city organized its weekends around.
DJX's path to the mic started as a listener. After moving from Bermuda to Toronto as a kid, he soaked up Ron Nelson's show, taught himself the craft through marathon practice sessions, and worked his way onto the airwaves, first alongside Mastermind on CHRY, then with Ron Nelson himself. When Ron phased out, DJX took over the Power Move Show and never looked back. He is credited with introducing "Live at the Barbeque" and the "Eat the Beat" freestyle segment to the show's legacy.
Today, Adrien still has a foot in the music, touring internationally as a DJ, alongside a marketing business he has run since 2007 and a daily day-trading practice. He is a husband, a father, and a proud preserver of the culture he helped build.
Audacious Insight
Say Yes Scared: Toronto Hip-Hop Legend DJX on Courage Before Confidence
AUDACIOUS INSIGHT SUMMARY
DJX said yes to hosting CKLN's Power Move Show while scared to death, then built his confidence one opened mic at a time. His story is proof that courage is not the absence of fear, it is the decision to move while the fear is still there.
Audley's Personal Insights
There's something surreal about interviewing the voice you used to chase with a tape deck. I was one of those kids organizing my Saturday around the Power Move Show, so sitting across from DJX felt like closing a loop I didn't know was open.
What stayed with me is his honesty about the fear. He didn't reframe it or pretty it up. He was scared stiff, he said yes anyway, and he figured it out with the mic already open. That line, "I say yes and figure it out later," is going to live in my head for a long time.
And his storm metaphor stuck too. When you're in the middle of it, you can't see how big it is. You just keep going. That's audacity, plain and simple.
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