Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Piper.
Hi Joe, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I go by DJJD, which My first and middle initial. JD is my family nickname given at birth. I started DJing in 1999 when I was in high school. 10th grade I think. Me and my good friend went half’s on a Gemini DJ in the box. It came with two belt drive turntables and a battle style mixer. From skateboarding I had the Zoo York Mixtape vhs tape and it had Grandmaster Roc Raida in it doing a couple routines. During the same time I was a huge Eminem fan. I would try to get my hands on anything with him on it. That’s when I bought Soundbombing 2, a mixtape mixed by Jrocc and Babu of the World Famous Beat Junkies(my favorite mixtape of all). After that I seen The Adventures of Grandmaster Roc Raida on vhs at my local record shop and bought it. Me and my friend would go chill and watch that video over and over then try to figure out what they were doing. That’s all we had. No YouTube or anything and didn’t know anyone. We eventually started DJ’ing bar gigs and house parties. Eventually my friend moved to Florida. I stayed in Baltimore Dj’ing 2-3 nights a week and working part time while I was in college. I would go down to Daytona Beach for spring break and visit my friends. We DJ’ed spring break right off the beach a couple times. Back then I DJ’ed all vinyl, and had to carry all my crates of records to gigs. Then around 2009 right before I was about to make the jump to Serato and digital DJing, I ended up stepping away from the DJ/party scene for a few years. In that time I met my beautiful wife, got married, started a family, and started working at UPS. I never wanted to stop DJing. I never lost the passion. If anything, I became more passionate. In 2019 I ended up buying a new setup and have been back at it since.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Leaving the DJ world and coming back to it after almost 10 years was kind of tough because everything was different. I had to learn the Serato software. But the people, places, even social media is different. We had MySpace back then and now we have instagram, TikTok, and influencers etc. So everything has changed up! Nightlife in general isn’t the same anymore. We need to change that.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I currently work for the preload at UPS. I load the UPS trucks over night before they go out for delivery. I have been there for 15 years now. I basically work full time during the week and DJ on the weekends. Also, I’m now teaching DJ workshops on the wknds. It’s my friend’s company called Raise Nation. We do 90 min workshops, kind of like a paint and sip, except it’s DJing! We teach people the fundamentals of DJing/Turntablism; mixing, scratching, and blending. It’s a lot of fun!
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I grew up Skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing. And still love and do all 3 til this day(not as much as I’d like for safety reasons). Over the last 6 years I’ve had two back surgeries(cervical fusions). So I have to be careful. Also I’m a huge Mob/Organized Crime history buff in my free time.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jd_the_tablist?igsi=bXVnYzRhbmI2ejdj&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18pYGx6nuS/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Other: https://www.mixcloud.com/jd_thetablist/
