MR. MAURICIO Where are you from? My folks are from New York, but I’m born and raised here in Miami. Where do you currently DJ? I’m on the radio every day doing the 5:00 traffic mix on 103.5 The Beat and I’m in the clubs six nights a week at Mansion, Opium, and Prive. I’ve also got my own separate radio show on Friday nights from 10-midnight. What’s your strongest quality as a DJ? Other DJs are one-sided. I’m working six nights a week at the top three clubs in Miami. I’m on the radio every day during peak hours. I’ve traveled all around the world. I’ve played in Vegas, New York, everywhere. The difference with me is that most of the spots I do are high-end. That’s what I focus on. On the beach in Miami, if you wanna make money you gotta be at the high-end spots. That’s what it is down here. That’s what I do; Mansion and Prive. It’s not the same as playing in the spots I grew up at. When you say “high-end,” what kind of audience are you talking about? White, Euro-trash, models and stuff like that. That’s what Miami Beach is known for and how it’s portrayed on TV, and that’s basically what I do. I do all the big parties, like Paris Hilton and Scott Storch and stuff like that. To me, it’s kinda corny, but it is what it is and I accept it. Bottom line, that’s where the money is, and I’m trying to make money. That’s what I do and I do it better than anybody else. When I’m in New York I do the high-end spots too and spots with Enuff and Camillo and the other Heavy Hitters up there. It just depends on which market I’m in. I do stuff with Felli Fel in L.A.; I do highend stuff. I try to balance myself out just so I can branch out, not holding myself to one market. I think that’s the problem with the majority of the DJs; they just stick to one thing. I try to do everything and I try to corner the market.
MIAMI, FL
house, techno, trance, crazy shit, and it’s just evolved since then. Hip-hop’s so commercialized now. It’s funny. I’ll play Rick Ross in a club that’s honestly completely full of white models and French and German people, and they know the words to every song. That’s how hip-hop is evolving. To me, it’s crazy the money that hip-hop brings in. Anybody can tap into it, whether you’re a hip-hop producer, DJ, clothing designer, radio station, artist, A&R, or anything in the urban market. Everybody’s cashing in right now, because regular people and rich people and European people can’t get enough of it. They wanna wear chains and walk around with our clothes on. They just wanna live the life. For the last few years turned away; now they embrace it. It’s just crazy. How did you get started DJing? I just moved to the beach tryin’ to get a regular job, and my homeboy got me a job at some club. The promoter did a party on the beach. I never showed my interest in wanting to DJ, and no one really knew that I DJed. This was back in 1996 or so when hip-hop was in the small room. Hip-hop was never in the big room in the 90s... The rest of this interview is featured in the June issue of OZONE Magazine at www.OZONEMAG.com.
Why do you think the “Euro trash” at the “high-end” spots you spin at want to hear hip-hop music? Me, I’m 27. I got my first album when I was 17 or 18. I remember when I first started out, and it was unheard of for a club in Miami Beach to play hip-hop. There was one or two hip-hop spots but they were in the hood. All the big clubs were playing OZONE
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