Not everyone can claim to have hip hop star Akon on their speed dial, but for DJ Pup Dawg, which is short for Puppu, it’s a reality. He’s been dubbed the ‘pride of the Desi people’ in Boston where he’s the co-host of the morning show with Ramiro and Pebbles on the 94.5 WJMN Jammin’ FM urban/mainstream radio station.

The full blooded Pakistani is a top notch DJ that represents Desi culture to the fullest on his weekly radio show for Desi Hits! In addition, he takes it one step further and reps his brown side on his Boston show and has interviewed dozens of mainstream hip hop and RnB stars, which most recently includes LL Cool J. So we thought we’d give you a little insight into the DJ that goes “from Pakistan to L.A. to Boston” and now Desi Hits!

Pup Dawg boasts an incredible list of artist interviews which include everyone from Diddy, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Lupe Fiasco, Q Tip, Cassie, Ice Cube, and LL Cool J, who’s interview you can listen to on show number 7. Pup describes LL as a great guy, who gives great advice. “[For] as long as he’s been in the game, he’s real humble still,” said Pup Dawg.

But for Pup the greatest interview he’s done is with DMC (Darryl McDaniels) from Run DMC. He remembers coming to the station one April morning and DMC telling him that he was there to audition Pup to be his tour DJ and he needed to mix live on the radio right then and there. He mixed his heart out and afterwards DMC proceeded to trash him as a DJ on the Boston wide heard radio show. He was crushed…until DMC and the rest of the morning crew shouted, “APRIL FOOLS DAY!” DMC felt a little bad about the joke and they bonded afterwards and over time became one of his mentors.

All of these accolades didn’t happen overnight though, Pup has worked hard to get to the point he’s at today, starting off as a mixshow DJ in LA. He remained in LA for 7 years at their top hip hop station KKBT, on his own Saturday night mix show and shortly later the morning show, before moving onto the morning show in Boston, where he’s now been for 3 years.

But all throughout he’s definitely been repping the Desi’s… “There definitely was a heavy Indian crowd behind me at the clubs, but I would take that over any other big race because our Indian people definitely helped me [and supported me] over here,” said Pup Dawg on his move to Boston. Moving from the LA market to Boston raised eyebrows for his competitors in Boston that felt territorial over their entertainment spaces. It took persistence and determination not only to get them to see past his color, but also his non-Boston upbringing.

Being a Desi in the mainstream media world can be difficult at times as we’re faced with typical stereotypes daily, and Pup has experienced those very same things. “It’s definitely looked at differently. The whole thinking that there’s no way he can be a DJ, he’s probably one of the IT guys, or if he is a DJ he’s probably just a street team DJ, not at such a high level doing the morning mix, which is the biggest mix you can do on a radio station,” said Pup. But at the end of the day that just fuels him to work harder to prove those people wrong.

Being a mainstream urban DJ, Pup doesn’t get a chance to play a lot of the Urban Desi music out now, yet he still values the production and feels that it just needs a bit more of a push. “If the program directors at urban/mainstream stations are made more aware of the music, it may have a chance on our playlists” says Pup. He notes that Desi artists need to be known as just artists not Desi artists… “It’s a rapper, it’s a hip hop artist, it’s a RnB artist. I’m not looking at it as Desi hip hop. We don’t go hey, that’s a black hip hop artist or a white hip hop artist, we say that’s a hip hop artist.” DJ Pup Dawg is always sure to tie in the Desi culture in each one of his interviews, which you can hear right here on Desi Hits!

Click here to listen to the latest edition of the Pup Dawg show featuring LL Cool J!