Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ralph Russell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Ralph, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I first learned to DJ by watching DJ tutorials on Youtube and doing research on what was the best equipment to get to perform to the best of my ability. I also spent time at the local skating rink “Cascade” going to teen nights and watching the local DJs, like DJ Lavish Lee and DJ Krunc, control the crowd; paying attention to what songs they played that made the people in the crowd move. Skills that I observed from these DJs that were essential was mixing, microphone prescence, interaction with the audience, and scratching. I took what I saw them do and went back home and practiced these skills daily until I mastered them. Learning the importance of having these skills as a DJ helped me elevate my ability to control any party environment, have clean mixes and be able to read the audience. Obstacles that stood in the way of learning more was not having a physical teacher to teach me the skills of being a DJ; I learned everything I know on my own when it came to scratching, mixing and branding myself. I had to go through many personal experiences and make mistakes to better myself moving forward. Nevertheless, I was getting advice from older DJs that were willing to give me game along the way.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a professional DJ, music producer, band coach and graphic designer. I provide musical entertainment for different venues and clients around the metro Atlanta area and many other cities the United States. I also produce beats and design graphics for many independent artists, such as cover art and digital promotional/marketing items.

I was intorduced into DJ-ing when I was in 5th grade. I told my parents that I wanted to become a DJ the summer before 6th grade and they purchased my first pair of turntables (Numark CD Player). From there I began djing at my middle school basketball games and school dances. I developed a reputation amongst my friends and peers as the DJ of the school, and capitalized on the opportunity to make this a career to live off of. I continued to build on my DJ career throughout high school and expand my brand across the city of Atlanta. I provided music for all of the school events, and began to get booked outside of school where I was introduced to house parties, clubs, lounges and corporate events. When I wasn’t busy playing trumpet with the marching band and serving as the drum major, I would dedicate my time to learning the craft of producing beats and creating my own music. Once I graduated high school, I went on to Florida A&M University on a marching band scholarship where I would pursue a music industry degree. During my time in college, I learned even more skills to apply to my DJ career and networked with many individuals from around the world. I’m proud of myself because I maintained my business while pursuing a degree and marching with the “Marching 100”. I expanded my brand even more by attending college, learning the new music environment and studying music business. Being in this position helped me elevate to another level as an entrepreneur and allowed me to apply these lessons to everyday life moving forward.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

One goal that drives me to continue my creative journey is I want my parents to see me reach my full potential as an artist and entrepreneur. They have supported my dreams ever since I was a child and they haven’t discouraged me anytime that I felt like I wasn’t performing at my best. I want them to be able to see all of my hard work pay off and thank them for never giving up on me!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my audience on social media by being interactive with my followers and posting interesting content that draws the viewer’s attention. I recently began posting more mix videos because I realized they were getting positive feedback and my followers don’t get to see high quality mixes like that often. Also, others may not get the opportunity to see me live in person so I wanted to bring that experience to them. I switch up the content by doing different years to correlate with a time period in music people often forget about or look over. Also, doing the mix videos is another great way to promote myself as a DJ and show people the difference between my mixing style and other DJs.

Contact Info:

• Website: dj23atl.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dj23_live/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralph-russell-170219171
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/DJ23_LIVE
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/DJ23LIVE

Image Credits
@eyeofmarko @paparazzi_pics