DJ Mickey Perez
DJ Mickey Perez, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn based DJ rocking the funkiest sounds from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, U.S., Europe & Asia. La Voz del Pueblo.
Where you are from/where you are now?
I was born in Chicago, but my family relocated to Miami in my middle school years. In 2002, I moved to Brooklyn to pursue a film career & I've been here ever since.
What do you do and what did you do before you started doing what you do now?
What I do now is DJ on a full-time basis. I've been doing it full time since 2010 but really started in February of 2008. While I did initially move to NYC to pursue a career in film to become what I hoped was the American born of Latin roots' version of Spike Lee, I never did work on a single film for even a single day. Plus, I couldn't afford to intern with no other income coming in either so I wound up eventually wind up working in TV at first in casting for MTV & then for some bad reality shows before working for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire for a season followed by a 2 year run in the Ad-World as a Producer. I worked at one of the oldest agencies ever & made the most money I had ever earned to that point. As a result, I decided to buy 2 stanton direct-drive turntables, a Numark M1 mixer for $50, a pair of KRK monitors, Subway Joe by Joe Bataan + a few other Boogaloo bangers & I was off n running.
Where does your inspiration to pursue music come from?
My inspiration to pursue music as a DJ that only plays what I see fit on a full-time basis comes from 2 vital origins. The first part is my parents, their roots & their struggle to provide what they provided for myself & my baby brother as we grew up. They were the first to tell me to embrace what I was & came from unapologetically & since I'm a bridge between their lives in Cuba & Ecuador individually & their lives in the US together, I'm telling the story of a First generation born American of Latin descent. That's a story many a Latin folk can relate to regardless of whether they're from Chicago, Miami, Cuba or Ecuador. The second part of my inspiration to pursue music in the form that I do is New York City & specifically Brooklyn. I've lived in Brooklyn longer than I've lived in either Miami or Chicago by about 6 years. Brooklyn is home, it's where I grew to become a man & it's where I found the true essence of what is me. Brooklyn & NYC as a whole was such an inspiration when I lived back in Miami. From the films of Spike Lee, John Cassavettes & Martin Scorsese to Punk, Rock & Roll, Hip Hop from all 5 boroughs, to the birth of Boogaloo & Salsa, I long had considered NYC the Mecca for American underground film & music culture before moving here. Once I got here though I never wanted to leave! Before moving here I wanted to tell the story of a first-generation born American of Latin descent. Initially, I thought it would be a story told through the Film medium but I soon realized once I started to learn to DJ in front of other people that I could tell that same story even more viscerally on an aural level via the medium of DJing. I haven't looked back since.
What's the most self-validating moment you've received in relation to your DJ work?
I have 2 moments that were the most self-validating. The first was in the summer of 2016 when I got booked to spin Cumbia records outdoors at Lincoln Center for an annual summer event they do. It was the first event of any king my mom felt compelled enough to fly over to NYC from Miami to attend. She sat in VIP & loved every second of it including the music I played because she wouldn't hesitate to tell me if she thought it sucked either! That was the first time (after DJing for 8 years at that point) my Mom could see me turning this DJ thing into an actual sustainable career (before COVID-19 of course). The 2nd moment was in the summer of 2018 in Cuba: my 90-year-old Uncle (my Pops' oldest brother) got to hear me not just DJ a packed house party in Havana but totally crush a packed house party in Havana. My Father passed away from cancer at the age of 66 on September 9, 2000 (the same day I would pick to move to NYC exactly 2 years later). He never got the chance to hear me rock but thankfully my Uncle did & I could feel his sense of pride witnessing what I was doing & I know that night my Pops' was there too. In fact, he's been to every single one of gigs despite never having been to one in the flesh. It's a large reason why I think I've been successful to this point, he's had my back watching over me this entire time.
What is your opinion on the virtual work field (in your profession)?
My opinion of the virtual work field for DJs is it's a mind fuck lol. It's definitely not the same in any real sense but it's the best we can do given the options we have. For me personally, I just kept doing as many as I could improving the format, the tools, the selections to fit the medium. I consider myself part of the DJ working middle-class community so I definitely do not have a massive virtual following by any measure. I'd be lucky to have 15 people watching my IG live at any one point before I made the switch to Mixcloud. If I have one site for DJs to do their streams though I would definitely recommend Mixcloud. They built their stream capabilities for DJs specifically & is the only place that actively wants us to stream on their site + NO COPYRIGHT bullshit whatsoever!
Any advice to give to a young person from the Diaspora?
My advice to young people from the diaspora who want to do what I do, which is DJ full time playing the music I want to play unapologetically, is to have a vision of what kind of story you want to tell. I didn't know anything about DJing & didn't think I had a single musical bone in my body when I started but i knew i wanted to tell my story which is one that involves African, Latin American, Caribbean & Black American roots & culture. I didn't know how to completely tell said story but I knew how it started! As I improved & my ear became more flexible to different rhythms I'd never heard, I just followed the rhythms my ears & body responded to which is how I eventually got so heavy into Brazilian music later. The other most important quality or attribute one needs to possess in order to be successful in this line of work is you have to know who you are & where you truly come from because that's where the sincerity in what you'll eventually play will come from. Can't tell you the number of times people think I'm a born & raised NYer or a born & raised Puerto Rican or Colombian or Haitian because of the way they hear me playing music they associate with their own roots & culture. They ask me if I'm from those places because I play their music with a very deep amount of respect & sincerity. So know your story & the story you want to tell and always make sure to tell that story in the most honest & sincere way you can through your voice. And lastly, once you start DJing you can never really ever stop. There'll be so many reasons to stop along the way. Believe me, girlfriends, parents, friends will all judge and attempt to talk you out of this. Especially when shit gets real tough but you can never let those insignificant reasons stop you. If you're real about it you won't anyways.