DJ Ron G isn’t old enough to buy liquor in the clubs he packs. But when your goals include winning a Grammy, embarking on your career path must start early.

Ron G isn’t your typical club DJ. He isn’t associated with any cliques in the city, and he never sends out those annoying texts or Facebook messages as a constant reminder of when he’s working. In fact, the University of Toledo college student never wanted to be a DJ.

You would never guess that this humble, soft-spoken guy has dreams of being a rapper. His style is reminiscent of Kanye West circa 2004, with the style and hustle to match. Home studio equipment is a little pricey, so as an alternative, Ron G acquired turntables. It was only supposed to make him enough money to buy the tools needed to record. He has a home studio now, and is still the man behind the tables.

Since his senior year of high school, DJ Ron G has been perfecting his craft on the 1s and 2s, and he’s even managed to blur the line that separates Toledo club goers. There is a great divide in Toledo between college students (mainly University of Toledo) and non- college students. Hardly ever does one see the two crowds mingle at the same club event; the music, atmosphere and attitudes are totally different. DJ Ron G has a musical inventory that will satisfy any crowd, from techno to Hip-Hop, and because of this, he is one of the few DJs accepted into any venue.

The attitudes of some Toledo college students towards noncollege students are that they are aggressive, angry and can’t party without fighting. Shockingly enough, DJ Ron G prefers rocking an urban crowd because, while they may be harder to please, once you win them over, they will be wherever you’re spinning. And in the music industry, loyalty goes a long way.

DJ Ron G

There are even local Hip-Hop artists who have enough trust in Ron G to record at his studio and allow him to engineer their music. As an even exchange, he trusts their reputations enough to use them to build up his musical resume so that when he releases his own music, his “street cred” will be in place.

Social networking is a huge part of DJ Ron G’s connection to artists and potential club patrons. I’m sure he doesn’t personally know all 3,800 of his Facebook friends, but as he put it, “you’ll forget a lot of people, but they won’t forget you.”

It may seem like the young DJ came out of nowhere; the opposite couldn’t be more true. From carrying crates of records for other DJs to DJing parties for free, DJ Ron G understood the golden rule of the entertainment industry: You must be able to “accept last place to get to first.”

DJ Ron G’s “first place” is on the small screen. Perhaps performing on “Saturday Night Live,” rapping, then getting behind the tables. Or “in a fantasy world, at the Grammys.” At the pace he’s going, it’s about time he faced the fact that his art is imitating his life, and the Grammys don’t seem so far-fetched.

Tags: DJ Ron G, lilD, The Word I Heard

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011 at 6:25 am and is filed under Music, Star, The Word I Heard.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.