Photo: David "Trick Productions" Alvarez
The Miami Heat have been on fire throughout the playoffs and the conference finals. While the team's combined skills on the court have led them to victory, their official DJ also chips in by providing the best vibes possible.
DJ M Dot has been responsible for hyping up the team and their fans at the Kaseya Center in Miami for the past 15 seasons. For 12 of those seasons, he was under the wing of the first DJ of pro sports and the Heat's previous resident disc jockey, DJ IRIE. In 2020, M Dot transitioned into IRIE's role as the main DJ and became all too familiar with the artists and songs that hype up the team the most.
"Bam [Adebayo] loves Jeezy. So I'll make sure that gets played. 1000% percent," M Dot tells iHeartRadio. "Kyle [Lowry] likes the old school. What's cool about the gig is that I get there early and I watch them practice and shoot around. Right. So I noticed that Kyle was vibing to a particular song. It was Nelly "Number One". It was like, 'I ain't heard this song in a minute.' Word for word, he was vibing to it so I said, 'All right, I'm gonna play it.' Same with Jimmy [Butler]. Last series versus Milwaukee, I was playing old school 50 Cent, and was going nuts."
Before the Heat faced the New York Knicks in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, iHeartRadio connected with M Dot at Mindful Music Lab in Miami. The seasoned DJ was so enthralled by the positive vibes seeping from the walls of the immersive studio that he laid out all the artists who appear in his playlist for the Heat's home games. Nardo Wick and Lil Baby's latest banger "Hot Boy" has been ringing throughout the arena and, from his experience, "you can't go wrong with Drake." However, songs by JAY-Z, T.I., old school Cash Money artists plus hometown heroes Rick Ross and JT Money always keep the players in a good mood, and gets the fans riled up.
"It's just paying attention throughout the season, kind of seeing what they're vibing to and sticking to that," M Dot said. "I want them in a zone where they're ready to go to war, man."
Born in Daytona Beach and raised in Miami, M Dot has been working his way up in the music industry for the past two decades. He learned the basics from DJ Mike E. Simms in Kendall before he eventually landed an internship at the same radio station where DJ Khaled became a household name. After serving as Khaled's board operator and collecting plenty of vinyls from the We The Best founder, M Dot began hosting at clubs until he made history as one of the first official DJ's for the Miami Marlins.
In 2007, IRIE offered M Dot a role as his assistant DJ at the Miami Heat's arena. While he hosted parties all around the arena, he learned all that he could from IRIE and witnessed some pretty incredible moments like in 2013 during Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs when Ray Allen made a crucial 3-point shot that tied the game and led a victory during overtime. He also witnessed the moment when Dwyane Wade made his grand return to the Heat in 2018 following his brief stint with the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"I enjoyed it back then," M Dot said of his tenure thus far. "But now I'm really enjoying it because of the effort and the time and the sweat equity I put in to get to this position. That's what makes the journey so rewarding. It's just the process, you know, just the journey."
Photo: Julia Rose & Cristina Sullivan
In addition to witnessing some historic moments in Miami Heat history, M Dot also serves as a tour DJ for a several notable artists including Jamie Foxx. He's spent nearly 17 years traveling the world with the award-winning singer and actor to help bring his performances to life from his "Unpredictable Tour" in 2007 to his "Blame It Tour" in 2008, and beyond. Once the concerts wrapped up, M Dot also DJ'd at Foxx's notorious house parties. Whenever Foxx was in any major city, all the heavy hitters showed up like Pharrell, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Justin Timberlake and even "the old Kanye West." M Dot got to perform in front of two U.S. presidents, President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush, but there's always one performance in particular that lives rent free in his mind forever.
"I flew out there to do [Foxx's] sister's birthday, which was also in celebration of my birthday because she's only three days before me," M Dot recalls about the unforgettable party. "This house party probably started at 10 o'clock. I think the last record I must have played could have been about six o'clock in the morning. Now that's whatever but the cool thing about it is seeing people like Busta Rhymes pull up and me playing, 'Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See' and him performing it in front of everybody. Now the DJ was on the second floor. He has like a pool area and everybody's down there. So I'm just above everybody just looking down, Busta performing, doing his thing. Then you get Missy Elliott.. It's over for me. I'm playing "Work it" and everything."
Photo: M Dot
"There are very few people in my life that, that are single handedly responsible for my success," M Dot said. "DJ IRIE is one. Jamie Foxx is the second, DJ Khaled and my guy Mike E. Simms. So Jamie's up there man."
On Sunday, May 21, the Heat defeated the Boston Celtics and maintained their lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. Although they didn't completely sweep up the Celtics, the Heat have another chance to dominate in Game 5. If they win, the Heat will face the Denver Nuggets in the Finals. As far as the team's future, M Dot clearly has his mind made up.
"You know where I'm going," M Dot said, alluding to the Heat's journey to the Finals. "If we handle business, then we'll be in a good position."