This visionary DJ, entrepreneur, and lifelong collector has spent his career bridging worlds — from music to sports to culture. Now, DJ Skee (Scott Keeney) is channeling that same energy into The Realest, an innovative venture making it easier for collectors and fans to own the most trusted collectibles in the world. In this conversation, he reflects on his journey from childhood baseball cards to game-worn soccer cleats, his friendship with Clint Dempsey, and his mission to shape the future of memorabilia.

*Interview has been edited for brevity and clarity

Q&A with DJ Skee: Building The Realest and Redefining Sports Memorabilia

Pablo: For me, when I was a kid, I fell in love with sports through really tangible things — reading newspapers, pulling out little collectible cards, that sort of stuff. It was a physical way of connecting to the game.

What was that experience like for you growing up?

DJ Skee: For me, it was the same — except it started with baseball. My family had just moved to Minnesota, and the Twins made the World Series in ’91. I was able to go to those games, and that feeling…the energy of the stadium, watching them win a championship, being part of that run — it was incredible.

This was pre-internet, so when a team made a run like that, it completely dominated the cultural conversation. In a place like Minnesota, it was everywhere. Being immersed in that, feeling that collective energy, it was addictive.

I’ve never done drugs, but people always talk about chasing that first high. That’s the only way I can describe it. That rush is what set me down this path.

When the season ended, I was like, “Okay, now what?” That’s when I got into baseball cards, buying signed balls, and really diving into collecting. That’s how it all started for me when I was really young.

Pablo: Switching gears to music: there’s always been a crossover between sports and music culture. How did you first get into DJing and music in general?

DJ Skee: Like a lot of people, I just always loved music. I was fascinated by how songs were put together and sequenced. My high school had a recording engineering class, and that gave me a great foundation.

From there, I wanted to explore more. I got my first turntable — actually, it wasn’t even a proper one. I took one of my dad’s old record players and immediately broke it because it was a belt drive, which isn’t meant for scratching. [laughs]

But the moment I got my hands on real records, I knew: this is what I wanted to do. Up until that point, like every kid, I thought I was going to be a pro athlete. Once music grabbed me, though, I was hooked.

Over time, that passion for music gave me a way to get back into sports — but from the entertainment side. I started DJing for teams, leagues, and events, helping shape game-day experiences. Now with The Realest, it’s funny how it’s all come full circle.

Pablo: In a past interview, you mentioned that music gave you your first taste of entrepreneurship. Can you talk about that connection between music and business?

DJ Skee: I never set out to be a business owner or to launch something like The Realest. I was just a huge fan of collecting memorabilia and sports products.

My first business really came through sports cards. When you’re a kid collecting, you naturally start flipping cards to get the ones you want — that’s entrepreneurship at its core.

Nobody in my family came from business. It was just in me naturally.

When I got into music, especially during the era I came up in, the internet was disrupting everything. Streaming didn’t exist yet. There wasn’t a clear way to make money from selling music itself, so you had to find other ways — branding, marketing, shows, events.

To survive, you had to market yourself like a brand. Out of necessity, I learned how to piece things together, how to create opportunities.

Look at someone like Jay-Z. He’s built a bigger empire outside of music than he did just from rapping. That entrepreneurial spirit is almost required to make it in music, especially in that era.

Pablo: There’s such a natural synergy between music and sports. Even with our Soccer Odyssey bus project at CLUBELEVEN, we drew inspiration from how musicians tour — just hitting the road, bringing what they have to as many people as possible.

When you were deep into music, was sports always running in the background for you?

DJ Skee: Absolutely. There’s that old saying: every rapper wants to be a ballplayer, and every ballplayer wants to be a rapper. It’s true — even for DJs.

There’s a mutual respect there. Music drives the energy during workouts and pregame routines. Athletes rely on it. Personally, I always loved going to games and paying attention to the pregame introductions, the sound, the atmosphere.

That’s actually how I evolved my DJ career — by bringing that energy to major sporting events.

The crossover is natural because both worlds are similar. The odds of making it as a musician or an athlete are tiny. The personalities that succeed tend to be wired the same way — obsessive, driven, willing to sacrifice everything.

And beyond that, there’s curiosity. If you ask a ballplayer about their sport, that’s their whole world. They want to talk about something else. Same with musicians — they talk about sports as an escape.

Over the years, I found myself connecting those worlds. I remember when I was managing Nipsey Hussle, we’d have NBA guys like Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook come through the studio.

There was one session where Kendrick Lamar and KD were both there, early in their careers. KD was making beats while Kendrick was rapping. It was this organic collision of sports and music culture.

Moments like that taught me the power of being a connector. Later, that turned into collaborations, content, and eventually me DJing directly for teams and leagues.

I was one of the first DJs to perform at NFL games. Back then, nobody was doing that — now every team has a DJ. Same with NASCAR. I was the first to DJ during a live race.

I’ve always tried to be at the forefront, pushing boundaries of how music and sports intersect.

Pablo: So in a way, The Realest feels like a natural evolution of everything you’ve done. But where did the actual idea come from? What was that aha moment when it came to bringing The Realest to life?

DJ Skee: It was a combination of things. I’ve always been a collector, always loved memorabilia.

The real spark came in 2018–2019 when I noticed the sports card industry taking off again. It reminded me of the early days of the sneaker and streetwear market in the late 2000s.

I had a front-row seat to that era — I’ve been a sneaker collector forever. In fact, a lot of people still recognize me from the sneaker videos I made. I even produced and narrated a Netflix documentary called Sneakerheads.

My biggest financial win in that space was investing in StockX before it launched. They didn’t need my money — Dan Gilbert is a billionaire — but they wanted my credibility in the sneaker world.

When I saw what was happening with collectibles, it felt eerily similar. I thought, “Okay, I got lucky once with sneakers. What if I take a broader approach this time?”

So I launched a small fund called Mint 10. We made about 25 investments in the collectibles space — companies like Whatnot, some acquisitions, and yeah, a few that didn’t make it.

But here’s what really stood out: as we bought memorabilia with institutional capital, we kept running into one massive issue — authentication.

At the high end, the most important factor driving value is provenance. With art, it’s not enough to say, “This is a Picasso.” You have to prove it’s a Picasso. The stronger the documentation, the higher the value.

Sports memorabilia is the same way.

A game-worn jersey isn’t valuable because of the fabric — it’s valuable because a specific player wore it at a specific moment. If Michael Jordan didn’t wear it, it’s worth a couple hundred bucks. If he did, it’s worth millions.

The problem? The industry was flooded with fakes. The FBI once estimated that up to 90% of memorabilia on the market was fake.

As more money poured in, fraudsters got more sophisticated. We’d see the biggest auction sites selling items that were clearly fake. When we called them out, they basically admitted it. It was insane.

If you think there’s even a 20% chance an item is fake, you’re not going to buy it — let alone if it’s 50% or 90%.

That realization made me think, “This entire space is broken.”

We studied how others were trying to solve authentication — RFID chips, NFC tags, various tracking systems. Every single method had a weak point.

Security is only as strong as its weakest link. If there’s a vulnerability, people will exploit it.

The only organization doing it well was Major League Baseball. Their authentication program was strong. So we took inspiration from that, built on top of it, and added even more layers.

At the same time, we realized the memorabilia industry itself was outdated. The items were special, but the experience wasn’t.

Most memorabilia was sold through shady, third-party channels. It didn’t involve the teams, leagues, or players directly. The sales often came through an ex-girlfriend, an old locker room attendant, or someone who just happened to have access.

It felt gross — and it wasn’t being marketed to new generations of collectors.

We wanted to modernize everything: beautiful photography, transparent processes, no junk fees, and most importantly, 100% verified authenticity.

That’s how The Realest was born. It started as something I wanted for myself as a collector — a place where I could finally buy with total trust and a modern experience.

Pablo: You’ve been called a connector throughout your career. When you were building The Realest, what was it like figuring out the authentication process behind collectibles?

DJ Skee: Yeah, it’s wild. Most people just see that little gold or silver sticker on a piece of memorabilia and think that’s it. But there’s a whole infrastructure behind it.

There’s someone who actually witnesses the moment the item is used or signed. From there, it’s logged, tracked, and given that mark of authenticity. As a consumer, you don’t really think about how much has to happen behind the scenes to make that possible. It’s complex, but it’s also what makes everything trustworthy and real.

Pablo: Soccer has been growing massively in the U.S. over the past few years. As someone who grew up around more traditional American sports like baseball, what was it like stepping into the soccer world?

DJ Skee: I played soccer as a kid — I was a center back because I could kick the ball far, but I didn’t have the speed or accuracy for striker or winger.

But honestly, my deeper connection to soccer came later in life through music. Specifically, through Clint Dempsey. Clint was really into hip hop, and my brand manager at the time knew him and represented him. We started doing collaborations when Clint was at the height of his career, playing in the Premier League with Tottenham.

At first, I followed his journey casually, like most Americans — watching the U.S. National Team in the World Cup, a bit of MLS here and there. But once you actually get to know someone personally, it changes how you follow the sport. You stop rooting for just a team, and you start rooting for individual players.

Back then — this was around 2011 or 2012 — it wasn’t easy to watch soccer in the U.S. like it is today. You had to really go out of your way. But through Clint, I dove in headfirst. I started learning about things like the FA Cup, Champions League, promotion, and relegation. It was like a whole new world opening up to me, and I became fascinated.

Pablo: Was there a moment that stands out where soccer really clicked for you?

DJ Skee: Absolutely — the Snow Clasico. Clint invited me out to the game where the U.S. played Costa Rica in Colorado, and a huge snowstorm hit mid-match.

I’ll never forget it. At first, it was sunny and nice, and then out of nowhere, snow just started pouring. Watching that game, then trying to get out of the parking lot afterward, was insane.

After the match, Clint gave me his cleats — they still have dirt from Tottenham on them, with his kids’ names stitched on the side. That was one of my first big pieces of memorabilia, and it’s still in my collection today.

Pablo: Bouncing off that, I think it’s interesting that baseball has always had a strong memorabilia culture, while in soccer it feels newer. What has it been like pioneering in that space?

DJ Skee: It’s exciting. Baseball is king when it comes to memorabilia in America because it’s the oldest sport, and they embraced collecting early — from baseball cards to authentication programs.

With soccer, especially in the U.S., it’s still fresh. Many teams are brand-new. A hundred years from now, people will look back at these early days and the items from this time and realize how foundational they were.

We see ourselves as being at the forefront of documenting that history, and it’s an honor. Soccer is the number one global sport, and it’s only going to grow here. With more European teams having American owners and leagues like MLS expanding, memorabilia is a natural next step.

Pablo: It sounds like you see collectibles as more than just business — almost like storytelling.

DJ Skee: Exactly. It’s about preserving moments.

Take San Diego, for example. We were on the field for their very first match, authenticating every ball and jersey. Think about how important that will be decades from now if San Diego becomes a powerhouse franchise.

But it’s not just about the historic milestones. It’s about personal memories too — a dad taking his kid to their first game, a family bonding over something special. That moment might not make headlines, but it’s priceless to them.

Our job is to also create keepsakes that let people hold onto those memories forever.

Pablo: Do you have a personal favorite item in your own collection?

DJ Skee: Man, that’s tough. Everything has a story.

The Clint Dempsey cleats are definitely up there. I’ve also got a 1991 Twins World Series trophy, which means a lot because I grew up in Minnesota.

Another favorite is a pair of sample Jordan 3s made for Nipsey Hussle. He never got to release them because he signed with Puma before they came out. Nipsey was a close friend, so those shoes aren’t just rare, they kind of represent his journey and everything we built together.

Oh, and I’ve got a signed Messi jersey that a friend got for me as a birthday gift. Personalized and everything. That one speaks for itself.

Pablo: For people just getting into collecting, what advice would you give them?

DJ Skee: Two things.

First, collect what you love. Don’t just chase trends or money. When I was a kid, I collected Minnesota Twins cards because they meant something to me — not because they were worth a fortune.

The danger I see now, especially in cards and sneakers, is people getting into it purely for flipping and profit. That kills the culture.

Second, if you are spending serious money, think long-term. Right now, soccer memorabilia is massively undervalued compared to other sports. MLS teams launching today? Their first-season gear could be gold in the future.

If I were buying now, I’d be scooping up game-worn items, especially from teams and players at the start of their journey. Decades from now, people will look back and think, “I can’t believe I didn’t grab that.”

Pablo: Beyond collecting, you’re also an entrepreneur. What’s your advice for people trying to create something in soccer or any field?

DJ Skee: Just start.

Don’t wait for the perfect time or perfect conditions — they don’t exist. Look at others for inspiration, but find your own lane. If you just copy someone else, you’ll always be in their shadow.

And remember, it takes time. Social media makes it look like success happens overnight, but it doesn’t. Even if you only have 10 people watching your video or supporting your project, that’s 10 real people. Build authentically and organically, and the numbers will come.

Pablo: Looking back, what’s been the most rewarding part of this journey for you?

DJ Skee: Bringing joy to others.

Whether it’s inspiring someone to chase their own dream or seeing the look on someone’s face when they get a piece of memorabilia that means the world to them — that’s everything.

I’m just a kid from Minnesota living the Hollywood dream, after all. I believe everyone has the power to achieve their own dreams

Pablo: Finally, what’s next for The Realest?

DJ Skee: Right now, my focus is fully on building The Realest into the definitive brand in sports memorabilia.

We’ve got some exciting projects — like a collaboration with Deion Sanders, and a special line honoring the 1985 U.S. Women’s National Team. Those women never even had official jerseys, so we recreated them and brought their story to life through product.

That’s what it’s about for me — telling stories through physical items. Whether it’s a game-worn jersey or a piece of history like that, it’s about preserving moments and sharing them with the world. And we’ve got a lot more of that coming.