Dj Chief

Dj Chief was born in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1982. He began making mixtapes at age 10, using a dual cassette deck to compile and remix songs by Hip-Hop artists of the day. By age 15, Chief would start his first DJ gig at Planet Ice in Palm Beach Gardens. Many more gigs followed, including a weekly job at Atlantis Skateway in Lake Worth, local music festivals, private parties, and “unofficial” sets at the 21+ clubs in downtown West Palm Beach. Chief was self-teaching music production by way of step editing on a classic DJX keyboard from Best Buy by age 16, sampling phrases from his mom’s 45 record collection using a stand-alone Gemini sampler. In 2000, at age 17, Chief moved to Orlando to attend UCF, and started playing for bboys and bgirls at the infamous AKA Lounge Monday nights in 2005. Chief became known for combining his battle-arranged Technic turntables and mixer with live, improvised Latin percussion via a Roland Handsonic, laying additional percussion over the tracks he played. He also prepared his own cypher-ready versions of well-known songs, including current hits and classics, in addition to original tracks he was composing over the years. Since then, Chief has produced countless mixtapes, flips, remixes, singles, and albums that have been featured at some of the biggest bboy events around the world, including Red Bull BC One, Battle of the Year, Silverback Open, Miami Pro-Am, and many more.