One Recommendation. One Passport. One Tour That Made Hip-Hop History.
As the Michael Jackson biopic arrives in theaters, the untold business story behind the only hip-hop DJ to ever tour with the King of Pop finally comes to light — and it starts in Atlanta.
In the spring of 1992, Arrested Development's Headliner made a phone call that set off a chain of events nobody saw coming. Manager Michael Mauldin — who was overseeing both Arrested Development and the newly exploding teen rap duo Kris Kross — needed a DJ and music director to take Kris Kross on the road with Michael Jackson's Pepsi-sponsored Dangerous World Tour. Headliner had a name: DJ NABS, a Durham, NC-born DJ he had been working alongside on the Atlanta University Center campus circuit, the same man who had already cut a turntable remix of Arrested Development's career-defining single "Tennessee." One recommendation placed a 23-year-old Southern DJ at the center of what would become a $100 million global touring operation.
The scope of what NABS stepped into was unlike anything hip-hop had touched at that point. The Dangerous World Tour was the most elaborate live production in pop history — 65 trucks of equipment, two identical stage rigs leap-frogging city to city across Europe because setup alone took nearly three days, and a rack of 20 Akai S-2800 samplers running MJ's voice tracking at every show. Kris Kross opened each night with a full 45-minute set, with NABS serving as music director, opening the show solo and holding the stage during wardrobe changes. The tour ran 37 dates across 12 countries — Munich to Bucharest, June 27 through October 1, 1992. The Bucharest finale was sold to HBO for $20 million, then the highest fee ever paid for a live concert broadcast. NABS was there for every night of it.
The business significance extends well beyond one tour. The network that produced this moment — the Atlanta University Center scene, Arrested Development, Michael Mauldin, and his son Jermaine Dupri — would go on to define Southern hip-hop's commercial ascent throughout the 1990s. Mauldin opened So So Def Recordings in 1993. NABS became the label's exclusive tour DJ for Da Brat, Xscape, Bow Wow, and Dupri himself. He later introduced Ludacris to radio audiences via his afternoon drive show on Atlanta's first all hip-hop radio station Hot 97.5. The infrastructure that put a Durham DJ on stage with Michael Jackson in 1992 was the same infrastructure that built Atlanta into a global music capital.
When Jackson passed in 2009, NABS and long time friend, Jerry “Smokin’ B,”created a tribute mix that debuted at what is now Ameris Bank Amphitheater in Atlanta. Clips circulated online and generated international demand that translated directly into business: the Official MJ Tribute Tour ran from 2010 to 2015, with NABS performing in several of the same markets where he had opened for Jackson nearly two decades earlier. It was a rare instance of an artist building an entirely new touring revenue stream from the equity of a historic connection.
With Lionsgate's Michael — directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jaafar Jackson — set for an April 24th theatrical release, the cultural moment surrounding the King of Pop's legacy has never been more commercially charged. NABS enters that moment as the sole hip-hop DJ on record with a verified global touring history alongside Jackson, and does so while simultaneously marking 30 years of his Atlanta-based platform In The Lab. The story of how one phone call from an Atlanta rapper sent a Durham kid around the world with the King of Pop is, at its core, a story about how the music business works when the right people are in the right rooms.
About DJ NABS
DJ NABS (Youtha Fowler) is a Durham, NC-born DJ, music director, producer, and radio personality with a career spanning more than four decades. Recognized internationally as the only hip-hop DJ to tour with Michael Jackson, he served as music director for Kris Kross on the 1992 Dangerous World Tour and launched the Official MJ Tribute Tour (2010–2015). A pioneer in Southern hip-hop, NABS introduced Ludacris to radio via Atlanta's Hot 97.5 and is the founder of In The Lab — now celebrating its 30th anniversary.