I’ve been spinning in the New Orleans Area since 2001. I was originally known DJ Black, a name bequeathed to me by DJ Goof, one of the founding fathers of the Break Beat Bad Boyz.
I originally caught the bug by making breakbeat remixes from trance records with my partner DJ Judd. Years of studying the Suzuki Piano Method helped make producing music much easier, and learning Acid and Fruity Loops was new and exciting. Judd and I went on to form a duo DJ team and we were fortunate enough to be able to play many different venues across the Midwest and South.
Time went by and the buzz around our niche genre slowly started to fade away. The path to success in music industry is built of long bridges, and those without extraordinary talent and/or drive can get disheartened with the tolls that must be paid. I was no different, I moved on to Restaurant Management, juggling the DJ life and a 60 hour work week. Slowly the gigs stopped coming and the 60 hours a week turned into 70 and 70 turned to 80.
Music has always been a large part of my life, so while I wasn’t playing shows anymore, I still found a way to express myself musically. My cousins Meynard and Justin started producing hip hop tracks and ST1D Records was formed. We never really took ourselves seriously, but we somehow were still able to produce over 50 unique tracks. Pretty impressive for recreational producers!
In 2010, I made the decision to abandon the restaurant industry in order to develop a new company with my Fiance Ashley called Spoofs Photo Booths. Shortly after, I was presented an opportunity by Ashley’s brother, Beebe, who owns Studio Tran Photography. He also owns All Out Entertainment, a mobile DJ company, and asked if I wanted to start spinning records again. His company targeted weddings, so this would be a different game than what I was used to. I have always been comfortable with a microphone in my hand, so being a wedding DJ seemed to come naturally to me.
My mobile rig consists of 2 Technics 1200 M3Ds and a Rane Sixty Two mixer running Serato DJ on a 15″ Macbook Pro. It’s not the most convenient or mobile setup, but when it comes to complete control, there is nothing like the feeling of the platter pulling the record. It is rare to see wedding DJs with the skills to handle a pair of Technics and all of the All Out Entertainment DJs pride ourselves on having those skills.
Feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Thanks for stopping by!