DJ Rek & The ill Robot

Growing up in East Harlem i first fell in love with music when my grandma used to sing in our church choir. She had a large record collection of gospel and soul R&B. I used to hear the different types of music she played and dance to the tunes with her. Her collection has grew over the years and then she started to put them in the basement. It was 75' 45 and regular 33 rpm records in her collection. While being around music and her being a singer i learned how to arrange and write music from the piano she always kept in the house. At the age of twelve i have got my first Technics 1200 turntable, it would be the first time i called myself a DJ.Then at the age of fourteen i saved enough money to get my second 1200 turntable. My mom was a R.N and she worked long hours so i never really saw her. My grandma pretty much raised me. I started saving money for a MPC back in ''92''. No one taught me the art of sampling and using samples as instruments. I knew what i liked in music and what i wanted to hear to a beat. Before i even got my 3000 le i had 2 casio sk-5 and a sk-1 that my mom bought me for passing the 10th grade. I had a homie who had a E-mu Sp1200 back in 93 so i already had my hands in sampling and beat construction and then i got ill with sp-1200. It was that faithful day i got the ill robot(Akai MPC 3000 le)and that day changed my life forever. I had no idea my mom paid my layaway for the 3000 i got it on graduation day it was 1259 left on the machine. I right away started to make music and writing more songs while still Djing for houseparties and block parties. Now thousands of songs and beats later i found myself collecting gear. I have a eps 16 plus, Ensoniq asr 10 ,Akai mpc 3000 le ,MPC 2000 , MPC 2000xl .Akai s900 and s950 ,Korg triton, Korg trinity,Native Instruments Machine , Akai 1000, Akai mpk 49 and beat thang. I became a real gear head and still collecting.