Ramon Valdez Jr.

Ramon Valdez, Jr. is a House Music DJ & Producer born in San Francisico, raised in Vallejo, California and has resided in Long Beach, California since the late 1990’s. As a child living in Vallejo in the 80’s, his father would come home from work and play music from his eclectic vinyl collection on the “home entertainment” system and play different scales of sound – anything from the styles of Alice Cooper, Queen, the tones of The Doors to the genius of Prince, Ohio Players, George Clinton Funkadelic as well as Bay Area Funk groups like Con Funk Shun and Tower Of Power.  Ramon would discover other songs and groups of the rising MTV era such as Duran Duran, Motley Crüe, Culture Club, Men at Work and Deee-Lite as well as Hip Hop’s front stage pioneers of RUN DMC, Salt n Pepa, Beastie Boys and the like.  Then in his teen years he started listening to more R & B, Freestyle and more mainstream Hip Hop like The Jets, New Edition, BBD to Hip Hop acts NWA, Public Enemy, EPMD, BDP, Digable Planets, A Tribe Called Quest, Hieroglyphics Crew and a lot of Bay Area acts such as Too Short, E-40, Tupac and Mac Dre and many other local artists that pushed funky, heavy bassline songs better known as “mobb music”.  His father was very key in identifying the samples current to the music Ramon was listening to which gave them a connection to the music from their respective generations.

Ramon’s story of becoming a House Music DJ comes a little different. Like his father, knowing he was a DJ in the 70's, he wanted to become a Hip Hop DJ himself.  Through junior high he would hang around friends that had a pair of turntables, watch and learn but would never have the confidence to try. His fascination and dreams of becoming a Hip Hop DJ would come down to just being a fan of the music and still be part of culture.  During this time in 1988, a neighborhood friend had his stepbrother visiting from Chicago.  He had a cassette mix tape in his pocket of a House music mix. Sitting in a garage, he inserted this tape, hit the play button and Ramon took a first listen and did not know what he was hearing, explaining, “It was different, music was fast and kept looping, which I didn’t understand at the time.”

In the early to mid 90’s after graduating from high school he worked at a Bay Area event ticketing service and would get discounts to events, which he was able to get tickets for his cousin who would ask for “Rave” tickets to events in the Bay Area.  Being a solid hip hop head at the time, he wasn’t interested in going, but would learn what they were.

Fast forward to the late 90’s after a short 3 year stint in the military, Ramon opened his ears and mind to new music and went to raves, mostly in Northern and Southern California.  New to the trend, he dipped into all the genre’s raves had to offer:  Trance, Jungle and most importantly the genesis of what started all the forementioned… House.  He found House music more particularly relevant to his taste and began learning the foundation and history, while at raves and nightclubs watching, listening, and low key studying the DJ’s that came out to these raves all the while buying records up and down California and purchasing himself a pair of turntables and borrowing a mixer from a friend.  From his favorites Diz to Derrick Carter, DJ Heather to Mark Farina, DJ Sneak to DJ JDub, Marques Wyatt to Doc Martin and so many others, he was up front taking mental notes of their style of mixing behind the decks, then going home practicing and implementing them and adding his own twist to his own style of mixing from watching both the dj’s that were currently inspiring him as well as the small amount of information he had learned from his friends that were djing in the past with Hip Hop.

Ramon’s career as a House Music DJ & Producer has come full circle since that unlikely meeting with a mix tape in ‘88.  He has been the consummate advocate of House Music, the culture and music’s beats, harmonies and vibe. His understanding of the sub genres of house music and his passion of mixing is evident in his DJ skills, the parties he backs and promotes for. He has also expanded his technical ear for sound, becoming a graduate of Music Production & Engineering at the Los Angeles Recording School.

Currently, Ramon streams weekly online and works on his own productions and mixes which can be found on the links above or by going to linktr.ee/djramonv

For DJ bookings, remix requests, sending promos or other info: djramonvaldez@gmail.com