Before DJ Ghost would react to your favorite
rapper’s music videos
Before his reaction videos would go viral
including his rapper reaction which has more
than 2.5 million views, his reaction to snitch
fighting at the airport, which has more than
2.2 million views and his Eminem song reaction
which has 2 million views at the time of this
recording
Before DJ Ghost would have more than 162k
followers on Instagram and more than 1.6 million
subscribers on YouTube and more than 190 million
views.
Plus another quarter million subs over on
his family’s vlog channel!
Before DJ Ghost would have beef with Michael
McCrudden
I didn't even know this was a thing...
I'm just learning about this now but you guys
have been letting us know in the comments
that DJ Ghost gonna be getting heated every
time we use him as a clip.
I've reached out to DJ Ghost since and he
said he'd actually be looking forward to reacting
to this video so I'll I can really do is try
my best and hope I get a better review this
time around.
DJ Ghost has become one of the biggest hip-hop
reaction channels on YouTube.
With over 1.5 million subscribers, sometimes
the man gets more views on his REACTION videos
than artists get on their original music videos.
But he has had a long road to success.
DJ Ghost was at one-point homeless living
in his car and would sleep in a Wal Mart parking
lot, unsure of where his next paycheck would
come from.
He got into trouble with the law on multiple
occasions and was unable to get a regular
job because of his history.
So he needed a way to become his own boss.
That's when a little website called YouTube
opened up an opportunity for him to do all
that and more...
What’s going on guys?
It’s your boy Michael McCrudden, walking
your through the life and career of DJ Ghost,
prior to fame, here for you on Before They
Were Famous.
This video is long overdue...
I've been doing this YouTube thing for a really
long time now and I didn't even know all the
attention I was getting at some times.
If you like these videos some other recent
drops include a The Rich Life on Pretty Boy
Fredo and the boys of Love Live Serve.
As always we need suggestions from you guys
for who to do next.
I also got a trivia question for you guys:
“Who is DJ Ghost’s favorite YouTube vlogger?”
Alright, now let’s get into the video!
DJ Ghost grew up in South Central LA with
his mother and 5 sisters.
He was the oldest out of 10 children, but
he didn’t have his father around for much
of his life.
Ghost’s dad got locked up when Ghost was
around 9 years old in the 4th grade.
The two have talked on the phone since then,
but he’s been gone for over 20 years at
this point.
Ghost says that growing up without his dad
inspires him to be around for his own kids
today.
But he says that his mom held it down for
them growing up:
Although even his mother did haver her own
troubles with the law as well.
She got locked up for using counterfeit money
at a local Ralphs.
Ghost and his siblings got separated at the
time and had to move to Lancaster.
In Lancaster, Ghost went through some traumatic
experiences, including getting diddled by
his mom’s best friend at 12 years old.
In that video he explains that this actually
happened twice with two different women.
Damn!
This man has gone through a lot.
I mean he was even at when he was only 11
years old.
He attended Horace Man middle school in Los
Angeles where he spent most of his time playing
basketball with friends.
But his original dream was not to be a YouTuber.
Ghost wanted to play in the NFL.
Ghost got his first tattoo when he was 13
and it’s of his mom’s name.
His next tattoo was his grandma’s name and
by 19 he had 32 tats.
As of 2017, he had 47 tattoos.
After he got his first tattoo, 8th grade,
was the first time that Ghost smoked.
But it wasn’t a loving relationship with
smoking at first.
When he first saw some of his classmates smoking,
Ghost had a negative perception of smoking
and felt hurt
That is, until he finally tried it for himself.
Ever since then, Ghost can’t be spotted
without a smoke in his reaction videos!
In the 9th grade, Ghost attended Crenshaw
high school, the same school as Ice T and
where they filmed the Tv show Moesha.
Before he was reacting to rappers, DJ Ghost
was actually a rapper himself.
Ever since he was young he would stay up all
night writing raps and recording songs.
In terms of
his name:
He’s referring to the main character in
50 Cent’s show “Power,” where the main
character is nicknamed Ghost.
So maybe in this case…
50 Cent is the one who owes
the money?
Also, for those of you wondering about his
DJ background, well…
Hey, at least he’s honest!
While he was rapping, he was putting his rap
music videos up onto YouTube.
He was on the music grind just as much as
he is currently on the YouTube grind.
Dropping a video every single day.
He would drop a new remix of a popular song
from Monday through Friday.
I know something about dropping a new video
every day here for this channel and it’s
a lot of work!
But Ghost got caught up with the law and went
to jail on four separate occasions:
He fgot locked up as a teenager, later going
back for disturbing the peace which only sent
him in for 10 days.
The third time was a few months for a pewpew
case, and the fourth time was for something
that he didn’t do, but like he said, he’s
not going to snitch.
He said that in high school he was only worried
about getting money by any means necessary:
When he came out and was planning on continuing
to rap, the cover landscape on YouTube was
different and people weren’t really blowing
up from making remix’s anymore.
So it was back to hustling and trying to find
ways for him to get by.
While attending high school, he was placed
into a mentorship program at UCLA.
There the mentor showed them how to drive
for the first time and tried to help keep
him on the right path.
This special dudes name was apparently Herbert.
Shoutout to Herbert.
Ghost cites football as the reason he was
able to get his diploma.
He was skipping class, had bad grades and
didn’t really care about his formal education.
But because he was on the football team, he
had to show up to classes and come to school
on the daily.
Eventually, he did end up graduating from
high school.
Ghost never went to college and never had
any plans to
But he says that 
he prides himself on education.
He spends hours researching his passions online
and teaches himself how he can make money
from those passions.
Ghost had some regular jobs at first:
He
eventually moved to Bakersfield with the goal
of making some money and sending it back to
his family.
But when he first got there, he took a job
at Sears just to pay the bills.
In Bakersfield, he met up with some people
doing content:
But at the time, he thought YouTube was just
for nerds and he didn’t want to show his
whole life by vlogging, so even though he
saw some of his friends making money from
the site, he brushed off the idea.
Later on he moved to Vegas at around 25.
He finally had a car and some money from hustling
but he wasn’t able to get a regular job
with his record.
He was enjoying life, but he had no savings
in his bank account.
He was hustling at the time but didn’t have
a stable income so when his business went
south, he wasn’t able to pay his bills.
At this time he was living with his baby mother
and their two children.
So Ghost did whatever he could to make money.
He used his relationships with store owners
and friends to wash cars, work for a couple
hours at the corner store and do whatever
he could to make some quick money.
But he couldn’t make enough to support them
at the time.
The family’s lights were cut off and they
were eventually evicted from their home.
They stayed in a Motel 6 for a while but Ghost
knew that they couldn’t live there forever.
Ghost hit up his baby mamma’s brother and
said “we’re staying in a motel 6 right
now and we need to stay with you guys for
3 weeks.
But the brother told Ghost and the family
that they couldn’t stay with them.
Ghost knew that he had to keep his family
safe, so his kid and his girl went to go live
with her mom.
But Ghost was forced to look into other means.
It was during this time that Ghost was living
in his car and was homeless trying to figure
out a way to make things right for his family.
It was actually DJ Akademiks who inspired
DJ Ghost to get onto YouTube for real.
Ghost saw that Akademiks was making money
just talking about hip-hop and reporting news.
Plus, at the time Akademics didn’t even
have a camera, it was all just voiceover,
so Ghost thought, well, if he can do it and
make money, then so can I.
So Ghost put his first videos out using picture
overlays, but he wasn’t getting very many
views and he gave up for about four months.
This is the first video still on his channel
from 2016.
He eventually decided to get a camera and
put his face in the videos instead of doing
the videos like Akademiks.
But for some reason, he started wearing face
paint in his videos…?
Is that white face?
Then he got himself a green screen and started
doing some more commentary videos:
At this point, he was getting some views,
with the occasional video that got into the
hundreds of thousands, but it wasn’t very
consistent.
But what was consistent, was his posting!
Ghost was posting videos almost every day
for the channel and working constantly to
feed his subscribers.
But the summer of 2017, his channel got a
huge boost when Ghost reacted to all of the
XXL Freshman Cyphers.
And called them all garbage…
He got his channel up to 12 thousand subs
and even Ugly God hit him up and told him
he’s a fan.
And then finally, before long, he got himself
into some real rap beef:
From there, Ghost has interacted with many
of rap’s biggest names, doing interviews
and his videos have become an important part
of any new music video release.
DJ Ghost has a beautiful family and even has
a VLOG channel called The Ghost Family.
And now he makes a living off of YouTube.
What a story!
In terms of his favorite YouTuber, he loves
Casey Neistat
And that’s the answer to the question from
the beginning of the video.
That’s all I got for 
you in this one.
