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"Groovin' Greg" In the summer of 1983 Greg was flipping through radio stations and landed on a local radio station that played a lot of urban and dance music. Every night they would play mixes. The first time Greg heard this he thought it was one long song but then noticed the songs were completely different. He thought this was so cool and then needed to figure out how it was done. He went to a local supplier and bought two cheap turntables trying to replicate the mixes. Having little success he realized it was the cheap turntables that were limiting him. He decided that if he was going to be able to mix he would need better equipment. He went out and bought the high end turntables that they were using at the radio station which allows for a record to be sped up or slowed down. This made it much easier to match the beats of different songs together. He had his friends listen to the mixes as he refined his technique and they told him what needed improvement. He listened to them all and took their advice and kept listening to the radio for inspiration. After he came home from work every day he would practice and practice until he thought he had a good mix put together. After months and months of practicing the mixes were getting quite good and friends were letting others know about them. More and more people started asking for mix tapes which he made for those that asked. As the mixes got better so did the equipment. The money he made off the mix tapes went into buying new equipment. As the mixing part of the business kept growing so did interest. Party promoters started contacting Greg about mixing for parties. He did them one after another. Some of these parties included other DJs also such as Bad Boy Bill, Mickey "Mixin" Oliver & Ralphi "The Razz" Rosario who were the mixers that Greg heard on the local radio station. Since then he has played at many clubs in and around the Chicagoland area and continues to improve his skills. In 2006, some of Greg's past experiences have been inspiration for a Novel called "The Groover's Last Stand". Some of his experiences in real life have been fictionalized in the main character, "George, The Groover". |
