DJ Vlad (born Vladislav Lyubovny, June 28, 1973) is a

Ukrainian-American Ukrainian Americans are Americans who are of full or partial Ukrainians, Ukrainian ancestry. According to U.S. census estimates, in 2021 there were 1,017,586 Americans of Ukrainian descent representing 0.3% of the American population. The Ukr ...

interviewer, journalist, and former DJ. He is the creator of the news website ''VladTV.com''. His namesake

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel hosts interviews of prominent entertainers and

celebrity Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

figures, and has accumulated over five million subscribers. He is based in

Calabasas, California Calabasas (, ; Spanish language in California, Spanish for "winter squash, squashes") is a city in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States.Kyiv, Ukraine Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

(then part of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

) to a

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...

family and moved to the United States at the age of five, first living in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

before his family settled down in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ) is the most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It is part of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan region, and is located about south of San Francisco. San Mateo border ...

. He grew up in the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

and became interested in hip hop in his youth when

N.W.A N.W.A (an abbreviation for Niggaz Wit Attitudes) was an American hip-hop group formed in Compton, California in 1987. Among the earliest and most significant figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, the group is widely considered one of the great ...

released their debut album. He went to university at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

graduating in

Computer Science and Engineering Computer science and engineering (CSE) is an academic subject comprising approaches of computer science and computer engineering. There is no clear division in computing between science and engineering, just like in the field of materials science ...

Career

Lyubovny was initially making

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

beats, but later quit when he realized he would not be successful at it. He began DJing after experimenting with a friend's equipment. In a 2010 interview with ''Parlé Magazine'', he stated: "I kinda reached this point where I was like 'I really wanna do music. Let me try and concentrate and do music as well'." He directed on the '' American Gangster'' television series, as well as the

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

''Ghostride the Whip''. Lyubovny later launched VladTV.com and initially uploaded

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

files of DJ

mixtape In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists mo ...

s. He moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and released the ''Rap Phenomenon'' mixtape series. He was also making hip hop DVDs, but was financially struggling as DVD sales began to decline. In 2008, Lyubovny turned his attention towards

, which had recently launched its Partner Program which allows content creators to earn money. Lyubovny then decided to drop all other endeavours and focus on YouTube full-time. In August 2008, Lyubovny was assaulted by rapper

Rick Ross William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. An influential figure in modern Hip-hop, hip hop music, Rick Ross has become known for his "Wiktionary:booming, booming" vocal perfor ...

's entourage after he covered a story on the rapper's former career as a

corrections officer A prison officer (PO) or corrections officer (CO), also known as a correctional law enforcement officer or less formally as a prison guard, is a uniformed law enforcement official responsible for the custody, supervision, safety, and regulation ...

. Lyubovny filed a $4 million lawsuit. On April 15, 2010, a New York Federal Jury awarded Lyubovny $300,000 in his civil suit, finding Ross liable for setting Lyubovny up for the attack at the 2008 Ozone Awards in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. In April 2009, the ''Star & Buc Wild'' show joined the VladTV family to do a daily feature. In May 2010, Lyubovny voiced himself for a cameo in ''

The Boondocks Boondocks are remote, usually brushy areas. Boondocks may also refer to: * The Boondocks (comic strip), ''The Boondocks'' (comic strip), a comic strip by Aaron McGruder ** The Boondocks (TV series), ''The Boondocks'' (TV series), the television s ...

'' episode "Bitches to Rags". In December 2016, Lyubovny interviewed

Soulja Boy DeAndre Cortez Way (born July 28, 1990), known professionally as Soulja Boy (formerly Soulja Boy Tell 'Em), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to prominence with his self-released 2007 debut single, "Crank That ...

, who explained events surrounding a home invasion and shooting in 2008. The interview went viral, with many questioning the validity of Soulja Boy's claims. Numerous people parodied Soulja Boy's interview online, including rapper

Joe Budden Joseph Anthony Budden II (born August 31, 1980) is an American broadcaster and former rapper. He first gained recognition with his 2003 single " Pump It Up", which peaked in the top 40 of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and preceded the release of h ...

, and comedians Mike Epps and D.C. Young Fly, in what was ironically dubbed the "Soulja Boy Challenge".

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vlad, Dj 1973 births Living people Ukrainian people of Jewish descent Ukrainian people of Russian descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American hip-hop musicians American hip-hop DJs Jewish Ukrainian musicians Jewish American musicians Ukrainian emigrants to the United States Soviet emigrants to the United States Ukrainian YouTubers Musicians from Kyiv UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni 21st-century American Jews American music YouTubers YouTubers from California YouTubers from Massachusetts Jewish YouTubers Ukrainian DJs