Sally’s had been hiring hustler boys from Port Authority as their DJs.
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The truth of the matter is that I only got this DJ job because I knew how to read. She basically got me my first gig in a transsexual hooker bar on 43 rd Street called Sally’s II. Her name was Grace (The Electrifying Grace in the drag scene of Times Square). I came to stay with a complete stranger who had dated an ex of mine and I had only spoken to a few times on the phone. I took the last of my savings to buy a one-way ticket to New York. Plus, the documentary “Paris Is Burning” made me feel like I needed to be in a place where being black and gay was vital. I fell in love with the Big Apple and vowed that I would live there one day. I had been to New York City in the summer of 1990 to audition for “The Crying Game”.
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I was out of job and had worked for all of the gay bars or clubs that would hire me at this point. Unfortunately for me, the feds closed in and got the bar owners of BVDs for tax evasion. I even know some white DJs from back in the 80s who were told that they were playing too much black music. The only problem with that is there is no room for adding a more Urban format to be more inclusive and diverse. So, most black DJs have to go in and prove they can play “white”. And that is considered “bringing in the wrong element” (code for being racist). And it is the belief that if you have a black DJ you will attract a black crowd. House music was not the mainstay in Central Florida so introducing a track like “This Is Acid” was unheard of.īeing both black and a DJ are hard because most venues are white-owned. So many were surprised when I would drop a dance-able rock song like “Black Betty” in the middle of my set. In all the other spaces I had worked before I was pigeon-held as a “Black DJ” who was going to play “Black Music”. That club was BVDs (Boys, Video & Dance) and I got the opportunity to do a mixed format of Pop, Club and House. That was the first club that I got to really show what I could with my knowledge and diverse and personal music library. The owners didn’t want to hire me because I was black but the manager who was Latino said he would quit if they did not hire me. My last big club residency was back in Tampa in 1991 at a mafia owned interracial club that turned gay after too many fights broke out there. Petersburg at a new gay club there called Puzzles in 1990. I would later graduate to a residency in St. Meanwhile, my best friend who was white got in on his first attempt even though I had the longer resume. I had applied a couple of times at the largest gay club in Tampa, Tracks/El Goya but somehow never got a call back. By 1988 I was the resident DJ at Tampa’s only black gay bar. By 1986, I was the head DJ at a redneck lesbian bar called Paradise. I got the job when the owner of the Northside Lounge discovered that the “DJ” was a fake who had been playing my mixed tapes that I always signed and put my number on. I graduated and by fall of that year I began DJ-ing in a small bar in Tampa.
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I guess I could say that my entry into Tampa’s gay nightlife as a DJ began in 1985. Many DJs today will probably never know the beauty of handling vinyl: A glorious format to work with and I loved it! By 1985, I was doing pretty well for myself and Thursdays were payday! My best friend, Rick West would pick me up that every Thursday payday and go, you guessed it: record shopping! We would then either go to my place or out to his parents’ house to pop seals and play our new additions to our libraries. But it was what I could afford and what I learned on.ġ980 was the year I began writing for the Tampa Tribune. Realistic turntables were belt driven and absolutely horrible. And believe it or not, I still have that mighty mixer.
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I was so taken with it that when I returned to Florida I saved up and bought a pair of Realistic turntables with a mixer, all from Radio Shack. I didn’t find out about mixing until I spent my 1983 summer in Chicago and heard the “Hot Lunch Mix” on WBMX. My uncle did not mix but relied more upon his programing skills and choices of songs to keep a party going. This was a valued partnership that also led me to working with him as his assistant at parties. That was an amazing summer and I learned a lot about programing. This was how I came to be his assistant, as he was blind and needed someone to pull his records for his show. I started DJ-ing with my uncle Herb King back in 1980 when he relocated from Las Vegas to Tampa, Florida and took a job at WMNF 88.5.