Grandmixer D.ST
Grandmixer D.ST., or Derek Showard, was known for his precise deejay abilities as well as his showmanship at parties. Sometimes he would break out into a dance, or use body parts other than his hands to cut the records. All this brought him to the attention of Afrika Bambaataa who asked him to join him for parties. D.ST’s original group was The Infinity Four MC’s consisting of Kingpin Shahiem, Mike Nice, Baron and...
DJ Smalls
DJ Smalls was known as the Son of DJ Hollywood, (similar to DJ Run being known as the son of Kurtis Blow). They performed together around ’77-81. At times he jammed with a couple of MC’s named Nasty T and MC Poo. He was part of The Marvelous 3 with Busy Bee and AJ Scratch. “Summertime Rap” was a hit on Dazz Records in 1981. Info submitted by Mark Skills and Mr. Ed Back to DJ’s...
DJ Hollywood
DJ Hollywood is widely considered one of the most underrated and most often forgotten of the hip hop legends. There is little information around about his involvement in the genre, but when you hear other old school artists talk about pioneers, Hollywood’s name is inevitably among the names mentioned. He was born in 1954. As a disco deejay in the early to mid 1970’s, he became one of the first people to rhyme over the...
Davy DMX
Davy DMX, born David Reeves, got his start as a deejay in the late 1970’s in his hometown of Queens, New York. He worked with many groups who wanted to employ the beats he created using the Oberheim drum machine from which he took his name. He also was successful at using live instruments (many of which he plays himself) in his tracks. He was a member of Orange Krush along with Larry Smith and Sal Abateillo (possibly Russell...
Chris “The Glove” Taylor
Chris “The Glove” Taylor was one of the DJ pioneers on the West Coast. Ice T’s first appearances on wax were on his records “Reckless” (from “Breakin'”) and “Tibetan Jam” both in 1983. He was signed to Electrobeat Records. He was also in a crew known as The Radio Crew before he was a solo artist. Other members of The Radio Crew were Ice T, Super AJ, and The Egyptian Lover. They...
Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa is undoubtedly one of hip hop’s godfathers. As a teenager in the mid-1970’s, he fell into the Black Spades gang, but had a different interest than causing trouble. Bam started deejaying in 1970. He had a passion for buying records (he would later be known as the “Master of Records”) and his tastes were very diversified from rock to r&b to African sounds to Latin, calypso, and classical. ...
