DJ Cheese (born Robert Cheese) is an American disc jockey and record producer who won the 1986

DMC World The DMC World DJ Championships is an annual DJ competition founded by the Disco Mix Club (DMC) which began in 1985. It has been described as a "pre-eminent competitive DJ event". History Competitors are each given 6 minutes to perform, with wi ...

Final in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, showcasing the art of

scratching Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and Turntablism, turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a phonograph, turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to ...

turntablism Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more Phonograph, turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into ...

for the first time. He also appeared in the 1986 UK tour with

Run-DMC Run-DMC (also formatted Run-D.M.C., RUN DMC, or some combination thereof) was an American hip-hop group formed in Hollis, Queens, New York City in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the mos ...

Early life

Cheese was born in

Oak Hill, West Virginia Oak Hill is a city in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 8,179 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Beckley metropolitan area. Country singer Hank Williams died in Oak Hill on his way to a concert on January 1, 1 ...

. He was raised in

Edison, New Jersey Edison is a Township (New Jersey), township located in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated in Central Jersey, Central New Jersey within the core of the state's Raritan River, Raritan Valley r ...

and later moved to Plainfield in 1977. In 1980, he was influenced by

Grandmaster Flash Joseph Robert Saddler (born January 1, 1958), known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is a Barbadian-American musician and DJ. He created a DJ technique called the Quick Mix Theory. This technique serviced the break-dancer and the rapper by el ...

and began developing an interest in

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

. At this point, he began purchasing DJ equipment.

Career

In 1984, DJ Cheese won the DJ Battle for World Supremacy at the

New Music Seminar The New Music Seminar (NMS) originated in New York City as an event dedicated to education and the celebration of music throughout history, taking place each June from 1980-1995. After several years, the annual NMS was relaunched in 2009. In 20 ...

, becoming the first non-NYC DJ to win the title. At the seminar, Cheese met and joined

Tony Prince Tony Prince (born Thomas Whitehead; 9 May 1944) is a British radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). ...

in competition, and was later invited by Prince to appear in the inaugural DMC DJ World Championship. Cheese's portion of the competition incorporated

, which initiated a different approach to deejay battling. From 1985-1986, under the label

Profile Records Profile Records was one of the earliest hip hop labels. As well as hip-hop they released disco, dance, and electro records. History In 1980, Cory Robbins, who was 23 at the time and had worked briefly for MCA, wanted to start a record label ...

, Cheese released two

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

12" singles with the group Word Of Mouth entitled ''Coast to Coast'' and ''King Kut''. ''King Kut'' was used in the coming years as a way of "basing songs around how great your deejay is." In 1986, Cheese headlined the afternoon and evening performances at

’s " UK Fresh ’86" show at the

Wembley Arena Wembley Arena () (originally the Empire Pool, currently known as OVO Energy, OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, Greater London, England. The 12,500-seat facility is Greater Lond ...

. He performed alongside KMC and MC Original G from Word of Mouth. Later that year Cheese collaborated with

Fats Comet Fats Comet was a British/American industrial hip hop group formed by Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc, Skip McDonald and Doug Wimbish. The band was known for producing dance tracks that were densely layered in samples and ahead of their time. In ...

on the song "Eat The Beat". After this, Cheese distanced himself from Word of Mouth due to a financial dispute with Profile Records. Since then, he has spent periods of involvement in music, performing with Doug E. Fresh,

Slick Rick Richard Martin Lloyd Walters (born January 14, 1965), better known as Slick Rick, is an English-American rapper and record producer. He rose to prominence as part of Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew in the mid-1980s. His songs " The Show" and ...

Big Daddy Kane Antonio Hardy (born September 10, 1968), better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is an American Rapping, rapper, producer and actor who began his career in 1986 as a member of the Juice Crew. He is widely regarded as one of the most influe ...

, and

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and television producer. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In 1999–2000, ...

. In 2013, he reconnected with Word of Mouth to record the single "Life Without Hip Hop".

References

External links

* * American hip-hop DJs Living people Musicians from West Virginia Musicians from Edison, New Jersey People from Oak Hill, West Virginia Musicians from Plainfield, New Jersey Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-DJ-stub