About Me
DJ Mental has a diverse background in music, influenced throughout his upbringing, and enhanced through his early travels between Detroit and Chicago. Upon settling in Chicago in 2000, he began a passionate exploration into the music and culture of Hip Hop, a musical genre he chose to focus on in his personal and professional life. His DJing career began in a clothing store where he worked his first gig simply for a t-shirt. After graduating from broadcasting school, he continued small-scale DJing gigs and soon found himself on a weekly late night Hip Hop radio show at Triton Colleges own 88.9 FM. Soon thereafter, his career emerged into a back-to-back Friday/Saturday 4yr. residence at aliveOne, a musically oriented bar on the Citys near-north side. After a couple gigs in Paris, France in 2005 he now works his way around the Chicago night life scene, DJing at venues such as the Funky Budda Lounge, Zentra Nightclub, House of Blues, The Metro, The Abbey Pub, Hot House, Subterranean, Lava Lounge, Darkroom, The Gramercy, Sonotheque, Sugar, The Wild Hare, Lucilles Tavern & Tapas, and The Tonic Room. Additionally, he has spent significant amounts of time DJing events and after-parties alongside musicians including Common, Eric Sermon, Redman, Keith Murry, Raekwon, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Slum Village, Seel Fresh, Digable Planets, Juice, Shawna (of DTP), Biz Markie, Snoop Dogg, Twista, Kanye West, and DJ Grand Master A-Track His continuous journey through the world of Hip Hop has led this DJ back to the roots of this musical genre, and into a wide variety of music including Jazz, Funk, Soul, and classic R&B. His sincere appreciation of these varied musical genres have recently brought him to his most recent partnership with local Jazz expert, Eric Ricks, with whom he co-hosts a daytime Jazz radio show on Northwestern Universitys renowned radio station, WNUR 89.3 FM.
