MEMORIES: OPX/MJ & Friends (The 20 Aughties)

By the year 2000, the Y2K Bug scare had fizzled, and 9/11 was only known as the phone number you dialed in case of a severe emergency. In entertainment, the musical divide between mainstream and alternative was as wide a chasm as its ever been due to the internet, cable television and the coming of 'The Age of Choice', and MJ was beginning a new lifetime as a decidedly anti-Pop rave DJ. We now had not only Backstreet Boys, but also Nsync, 98 Degrees, Britney and Christina. The closest thing to alternative cool was this new kid called Eminem who was laying mainstream Pop icons in the industry to waste left and right.

MJ got a job at the local music store as a DJ and Electronic Music instrument salesman where he soon befriended the likes of not-yet DJs, Chris Art!ficial, Steve Smith/DJ Rodamus Pr!me, Synth man Jenova (Mason Harris), DJs Ralph Lindstrom and Karen Day of The Harmony Network, and a cast of other co-creators loosely known as the BU/Birmingham Underground, many of which were just beginning their adult and collegiate lives within Southside, near the UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) campus.

MJ and his gang of fledgling DJs quickly began training together and participating in the regional rave scene as ANOM!LE/Rocksolid Crew, garish, loveable, known for their distinct style of dress and rowdy Punk attitude, often compared to The Rat Pack of the 1950s.

A few years into their partnership, the group violently split due to a clash between the two headsspringing from conflicting romantic interests (in other words, women came between them). They would remain embittered adversaries for the next 3 years.

In 2005, MJ went UK "scooterpunk" and bought a gunmetal gray scooter and took up motorcycling where a freshly reunited best friend, Chris Art!ficial followed suit a couple years later as MJ went from riding scooters to full-on motorcycles. Even though they had been sore enemies for years, they were able to rekindle their friendship where their bond became stronger than ever. During this period (2006-2009), they also wrote and recorded two Hip-Hop concept albums together, MJ's "OPX & Tales Of The Southern Cross" and Chris's "The Morning Would" as rapper, Dub Helix/Dub Hel!x.

During the making of Chris' album in 2008, MJ, also enthusiastic about the active participation of the scene's ladies soon found their interest in a completely different space than inside the DJ or Hip-Hop arena. Upon making the fast acquaintance with local dancer, Jezabelle Von Jane, MJ soon threw his hat into her chosen industry and became a producer and Creative Director of the newly formed Magic City Sirens, Birmingham, AL's premier classic burlesque troupe.

MJ's plan was to unify the separate crews and premier a new form of live variety show, but the idea was abruptly shelved when a sudden string of untimely deaths and other grave tragedies struck in 2009 rocking everyone's world. The toll included the loss of Magic City Junglist DJ, Paul "Gadget" Keith, the heartbreaking resulting incarceration of his best friend, Harold J "MC KNCKTRNL" Williams for an unintended crime committed during the first 48 hours of grieving Gadget's fatal overdose, Red Harp guitarist Ted Ledbetter (OD), beloved local B-girl andTragic City Rollers' derbyist, Sarah Stanfield/#44 (car crash) on New Years Eve, and just 2 weeks before that, MJ's best friend of nearly 10 years, Chris died tragically in a motorcycle riding accident with MJ distraught in attendance.

Photo highlights from that decade.