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 Brooklyn, NY, USA
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Member Since: 03 Dec 2003
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liL Ray
ABOUT LIL RAY
'He's so passionate about this scene and its music!! That lil muuuf**ker!! He can really cook!! His energy is hypnotic. I love him!!'
Where to start?
liL Ray was born in the city of St. Andrew, Jamaica and has been around music all his life. In the mid 70s he began hanging around the big sound system sets and the many dancehall parties in Jamaica and got his influences from a wide variety of music and music genre that his father use to play around the house in Jamaica.
He made many trips to New York City in the seventies and eventually migrated to the city in 1979 for good. As soon as he got to New York, he saw that it was ground zero for the evolution of so many cultures, and he soon started to sample what the city had to offer musically.
He soon found out that his strong point was putting together and hosting parties and he did so in his neighborhood of Brooklyn while still in High School…..then it was off to college.
While in college at American International College in Springfield, MA in the early 1980s, liL Ray joined the WAIC radio station and started a weekly reggae show. The show was so successful that it quickly moved to a two times a week and became extremely successful over the next 4 years and helped in putting the Springfield / Hartford area on the reggae map. It eventually was ranked in the top 1500 shows in the U.S.A.
During these times, liL Ray was introduced to the Paradise Garage and was blown away by the awesome rawness of the music and of the club, and of course, its dj Larry Levan. You could say that this was where liL Ray started to fall in love with the music that came to now be known as HOUSE and this is where he gets his inspiration.
liL Ray went on to be a who’s who on the NYC HOUSE scene by being involve with various parties and groups such as HOUSE NATION, WILD PITCH, BEHIND CLUB DOORS, UNDERGROUND NETWORK, and SHELTER.
liL Ray is also the driving force and one of the founding fathers of the annual CLUBHOUSE JAMBOREE, one of NY City’s premiere, free outdoor events for HOUSE music, which, at the time of this writing, will be celebrating it’s 14th year in 2007.
Some of the DJs who have played the Jamboree are: DJ Camacho, Kenny Carpenter, Little Louie Vega, DJ Pernell (from Black Underground, the Colony at Coney Island), Kim Lightfoot, Herb Martin, MKL, Omar Abdallah, Basil, Manski, Tyrone Francis, Shan S, Wil Milton, EMan, Donna Edwards, Victor Rosado, Khalim Shabazz, White Mike Sarkus, and Kervyn Mark, Dj Spinna, Karizma, The Martinez Brothers, Ian Rock, Ian Friday, Brian Coxx, and Timmy Regisford.
So as you can see, liL Ray has worked with many of the top names in the industry in some way or the other…from spinning with Larry Levan at HOUSE NATION parties, to spinning with Tony Humphries at Carolyn Byrd’s annual family picnic, opening up for Little Louie Vega and Timmy Regisford at the CLUB SHELTER, and also being a regular dj and light man at CLUB SHELTER, liL Ray has been there and done that, and wears his love for this music and scene on his sleeve!
He’s young at heart and still loves this music very much!!
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