2009, he was featured alongside Jadakiss and Diddy on the Chester French song, "Cîroc Star," becoming an official brand ambassador for the vodka. He would also enter into a promotional partnership with Boston-based online apparel retailer, Karmaloop, a company for which he served as director of marketing from 2010 to 2014. Sparks continued writing and producing songs in 2009, including Pitbull's "Shut It Down," for which he won a BMI Songwriting Award. He also worked with T-Pain and Leighton Meester and moved his weekly Las Vegas DJ sets to the newly-opened Vanity nightclub in the Hard Rock Hotel. In 2010, Sparks released his first single as lead vocalist entitled "Favorite DJ" featuring DJ Class and Jermaine Dupri. The song was featured on the video game, DJ Hero 2. 2011–2014: New focus as recording artist and ICONoclast In 2011, he released the single "Sucks to be You" featuring JoJo and LMFAO, started a new weekly residency ("My Awesome Party") at the Moon nightclub in the Palms Casino Resort, and released a new series of mixtapes entitled, My Awesome Mixtape, which featured an introduction from Samuel L. Jackson. He also signed a record deal with Interscope Records and changed the name of his syndicated radio show to My Awesome Radio Show. At the grand opening of his "Awesome Party," Sparks made his entrance by being lowered from a helicopter through the retractable roof of the hotel onto his DJ set. In 2012, he began working on an album with his band, UGHmerica. He also released the song "Watch You" featuring Pitbull on the Strictly Rhythm record label. He received his first Grammy nomination for his production work on Lady Gaga's "Bloody Mary" which appeared on the album, Born This Way. In 2013, he filmed a music video for his song "Boston Bass" (a bootleg remix of the Dropkick Murphys song, "I'm Shipping Up to Boston") at a Dorchester boxing club. In May of that year, he also released the single, "Gold Rush," featuring 2 Chainz, Macklemore, and D. A. Wallach. The song was accompanied by two videos: an actual video featuring the artists and a spoof "1849 Edition" featuring actors Nick Swardson and Simon Rex. It was the first song he had released after signing to Photo Finish/Island Def Jam. Later that year, he was featured with Teddy Riley on the Bad Rabbits song, "Dance With You," and released another original song,