DJ RIKKI DONT

I’m also a DJ…

I started DJing in 2016. I had moved to Ft Worth a couple of years earlier and noticed that there was really no place to enjoy hip hop in my area. The few places that did play hip hop had dress codes that were mostly geared towards not letting minorities in their establishments, and well. . .RIKKI DONT PLAY THAT. So I decided I was going to create a hip hop night inclusive to all.

I put a couple of feelers out there and got my first gig DJing at the bar closest to TCU on the first day of school. It was packed wall to wall. I really had no idea what I was doing, but I knew the songs to play. About an hour in to my set, Leon Bridges showed up with his crew, and they danced and partied for rest of the night. After that I was solidified as one of Ft Worth’s premiere DJs, and I didn’t even know what beat-matching was.

Since then I’ve become much better and really honed in on this side-hustle of mine. It’s truly one of the greatest joys in life to take control of a crowd, and I’ve had some incredible experiences in my DJ career thus far.

I designed just about every flyer with occasional illustrations from my good friend Matt Cliff. I designed my own business cards and stickers. Early on I branded myself as the guy who always DJ’d in pink, but then that became too expected, so I stopped. Plus I had other looks to serve.