This is the spot where you'll see upcoming Dj's as well as established veterans in the game. This Month's feature is Rob Swift.
What's your first memory of Rob Swift? Mine is probably different from yours- I met Dr. Butcher, a guy you could say is Rob's mentor, at the local barber shop. It was actually pretty famous back in the day- it was the spot where Anthony Mason (Ex Knick) used to get all those crazy designs in his hair done. Anyway- I met Butcher at this barbershop, I was about 14 or 15, didn't know much about anything, but I knew of the X-Men. Butcher and I stayed in touch, but he wasn't into DJing that much anymore, so he told me to call Rob Swift. Now if I was only slightly familiar with Butcher, mostly recognizing him from work with Kool G Rap, Rob Swift was significantly more recognizable to me. In fact, when Butch gave me Rob's #, assuring me it'd be cool if I called, the first thing that came to my mind was the hypnotic rhythm of his famous juggle, one you should all be familiar with, "nobody beats the biz". I started singing it to myself- "to get to get to get funky, to get to get to get dowwwwwn". It was funny cuz as I was calling him; I didn't expect much of a response. Instead, what I found was one of the coolest, easiest to talk to dudes, who in a lot of ways became a mentor to me. Now, 10 years later, Rob is asking me to run down his life in an easily digestible form. It was either roll with the usual PR written bullshit, or let you guys know the real. So here I am- a fan like the rest of you, to give you an inside perspective on Rob.
Born and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, Swift (born Robert Aguilar) initially got into DJing in a pretty unique way- his pops. "My dad was a salsa and meringue DJ. My brother learned how to scratch and do all the hip hop deejaying stuff on my dad's equipment (without his permission) and I'd sit there and watch him. When I entered the sixth grade, I decided I wanted to learn." So unlike some of us who got influenced through hip hop records, DMC and NMS tapes, or movies (Juice!), Swift educated himself with the classic turntable beats of the early '80s New York playground pioneers while listening to funk and jazz at home. "My older brother exposed me to all that," he says. "All the stuff I create as a DJ is rooted in the songs that I heard from Bob James, Herbie Hancock and James Brown to Quincy Jones and old DJs like Grandmaster Flash and Grandwizard Theodore. That's where my roots are." In 1990, Swift enrolled as a student at Baruch College in New York and in 1995, graduated with a degree in psychology. "While I was deejaying I pursued college. Speech class and English serve a purpose, you know?" I think that purpose also translates into his cerebral style of scratching, juggling and making music. I think if you take into account all those influences, the psychology schooling, growing up the son of a DJ, his musical influences- you begin to piece together a really good understanding of Rob Swift the DJ.
It was 1991 when his career as a DJ started down the path of local to legendary when he joined the upstart DJ crew, the X-Men. ......
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