Born and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, Swift (born Robert Aguilar) initially got into DJing by watching his father and brother. “My dad was a salsa and merengue DJ. My brother learned how to scratch and do all the hip hop deejaying stuff on my dad’s equipment (without his permission) and I’d sit there and watch him. When I entered the sixth grade, I decided I wanted to learn.” So unlike those who got influenced through hip hop records, DMC and NMS tapes, or movies, Swift educated himself with the classic turntable beats of the early '80s New York playground pioneers while listening to funk and jazz at home. “My older brother exposed me to all that,” he says. “All the stuff I create as a DJ is rooted in the songs that I heard from Bob James, Herbie Hancock and James Brown to Quincy Jones and old DJs like Grandmaster Flash and Grand Wizard Theodore. That’s where my roots are.” In 1990, Swift enrolled as a student at Baruch College in New York and in 1995, graduated with a degree in psychology. “While I was deejaying I pursued college. Speech class and English serve a purpose, you know?” Some say that his education also translates into his cerebral style of scratching, juggling and making music.

Swift is a former member of the turntablist group The X-ecutioners as of late 2005 and as of 2006; with Mike Patton’s latest project Peeping Tom.

Discography

Albums

• 1997 Soulful Fruit (Original Release on Stones Throw Records)
• 1999 The Ablist
• 2001 Airwave Invasion
• 2002 Sound Event
• 2003 Under the Influence
• 2003 Who Sampled This?
• 2004 ''OuMuPo 2
• 2005 Wargames
• 2006 Back to the Beat
• 2006 Pure Moods
• 2008 Dust to Dust

References

• www.djrobswift.com/bio.htm. Retrieved on 2006-05-01..

Warning: this site has music!

External links

• DJ Rob Swift
• Video Interview with Rob Swift