Mackenzie Johnson, Mackenzie Johnson, professionally known as MAKJ, is an American DJ and producer who’s been a driving force in electronic music since 2012. Breaking into the scene with solo releases and standout collaborations with artists like Hardwell, Tinashe, Steve Aoki, Timmy Trumpet, Lil Jon, and Deorr. MAKJ quickly became a festival favorite, performing at Electric Zoo, EDC, Coachella, and Tomorrow Lands main stage. In 2014, Billboard named him one of the “Top 10 Artists to Watch” at Ultra Music Festival, and he earned a spot on DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs list. Beyond the stage, MAKJ hosts Revolution Radio on Clear Channel’s Evolution channel, where he continues to showcase new talent and sounds shaping the future of dance music.

Biography

Mackenzie Johnson was born in 1990 in

San Luis Obispo, California ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

. By his teens, he was living in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

while pursuing a career as a professional race car driver. At age fifteen, he became interested in DJing, and he purchased a set of Technics 1200 Turntables. By age 17, he had returned to the United States, where he found himself invited to perform at local events in his hometown. He had a number of lessons with

DJ AM Adam Michael Goldstein (March 30, 1973 – August 28, 2009), known professionally as DJ AM, was an American DJ. Born in Philadelphia, Goldstein became interested in deejaying as a child after watching Herbie Hancock perform his 1983 single " ...

, who trained MAKJ on

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 ...

. In late 2013, MAKJ embarked on his first major US tour, traveling the country with

Bingo Players Bingo Players is a Dutch dance and electro house musical project fronted by DJ and record producer Maarten Hoogstraten (). Bingo Players was originally a duo, which included Paul Bäumer, who died from cancer in 2013. After the death of Bäumer, ...

and

Bassjackers Bassjackers is a Dutch electronic music production and DJ duo consisting of Marlon Flohr & Ralph van Hilst. Marlon is the more outspoken member of the duo whereas Ralph takes care of "behind-the-scenes" production. After a time playing small venues, he began to attend festivals as well. Since 2013, he has performed at festivals such as Electric Zoo Festival,

Voodoo Experience The Voodoo Music + Arts Experience (formerly The Voodoo Music Experience), commonly referred to as Voodoo or Voodoo Fest, was a multi-day music and arts festival held in City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana. First started in 1999, it was last hel ...

Coachella Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music festival, music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valle ...

, a main stage slot at

TomorrowWorld TomorrowWorld was an electronic music festival, held in the Atlanta metropolitan area within the town of Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia. Held from 2013 to 2015, the festival was a spinoff of the Belgian festival Tomorrowland. The festival was ...

, Northern Lights Festival, Euphoria Festival,

Webster Hall Webster Hall is a nightclub and concert venue located at 125 East 11th Street, between Third and Fourth avenues, near Astor Place, in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City. It is one of New York City's most historically significant ...

, and Ruby Skye. In March 2014, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' named him one of the Top 10 Artists to Watch at

Ultra Music Festival Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music Music festival, festival that takes place in March in Miami, Florida. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes. It was first held on Miami Beach, but bes ...

. He toured Europe in 2014 with his "Let’s Get Fucked Up Tour," then traveled North America with his "Peyote Tour." Plans for an Asian tour were also announced. He has released a number of singles as a solo artist since 2012, as well as a large number of collaborative singles. He has collaborated with artists such as

Showtek Showtek is a Dutch electronic dance music duo consisting of two brothers from Eindhoven, Wouter Janssen (; born 20 August 1982). and Sjoerd Janssen (; born 6 April 1984). The duo regularly manages to reach the top of multiple music charts and wor ...

Lil Jon Jonathan H. Smith (born January 17, 1971), better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American rapper, DJ, and record producer. Regarded as a progenitor of the club-oriented hip-hop subgenre crunk, his production and voice presence were inst ...

, and DJ Kura. In 2013, he released a collaborative single with

Hardwell Robbert van de Corput (; born 7 January 1988), known professionally as Hardwell, is a Dutch DJ and music producer from Breda. He was voted the world's number one DJ by ''DJ Mag'' in 2013 and again in 2014. In 2022, he was ranked at number 43 in ...

entitled "Countdown" which peaked at No. 1 on Beatport within three days. He has also released music on Hysteria Records, Doorn Records, Diffused Records, and Juicy Music, among others. In late 2014, he released his track "Generic," which had earlier debuted at the Ultra Festival in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. Several of his original songs have charted in the Beatport Top 10. MAKJ has been a guest judge for the Campus DJ contest, and he is the host of a radio show on Clear Channel’s ''Evolution'' channel, with the show also streaming at

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast, radio streaming and Music Streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. Founded in August 2008, iHeartRadio serves as the national umbrella brand for iHeart ...

Awards and nominations

Singles

As lead artist

Other singles

* 2011: Parallax (with Kura and dBerrie) * 2012: Crunch * 2012: Croche * 2012: Galaxy / Old Memories (with Kura) * 2013: Conchy * 2013: Hold Up * 2013: Springen * 2013: Hakaka * 2013: Revolution (with M35) * 2014: GO (Showtek Edit) (with M35) * 2014: Generic * 2014: Ready (with

Deorro Erick Orrosquieta (born August 30, 1991), commonly known by his stage name Deorro, is a Mexican-American DJ signed to Ultra Records. He formerly used the name TON!C. Career 2005–2012: Early beginnings Deorro was born in Los Angeles to Mexic ...

) * 2015: Lose Your Mind (with Deorro) * 2015: Ante Up (with Deorro) * 2015: Get Whoa (featuring Fly Boi Keno) * 2015: On & On (with Kenze) * 2017: Knock Me Down (with Max Styler featuring Elayna Boynton) * 2017: Space Jam (with Michael Sparks featuring

Fatman Scoop Isaac Freeman III (August 6, 1968 – August 31, 2024), better known by his stage name Fatman Scoop, was an American hip-hop recording artist and radio personality. Noted for his booming, raw vocal presence on various hip-hop songs, he was best k ...

) * 2017: Too Far Gone (featuring

Matthew Santos Matthew Santos is a two-time Grammy Nominated pop and folk singer-songwriter, musician and composer, also known as MA/SA. ...

)

Remixes

* 2012: Nari & Milani featuring Maurizio Gubellini - Unbelievable (with

Robbie Rivera Roberto "Robbie" Rivera (born 1973) is a Puerto Rican house music producer and DJ. He has an extensive catalog of original productions and remixes to his credit, ranging from tribal to progressive house, as well as incorporating garage and La ...

) * 2012: Drop the Lime - No Sleep For The Wicked * 2013:

Trinidad James Nicholaus Joseph Williams (born September 24, 1987), better known by his stage name Trinidad James (often stylized as Trinidad Jame$), is a Trinidadian-American rapper, songwriter and music video director. In December 2012, he signed with Def Ja ...

- All Gold Everything * 2013:

Nervo Nervo may refer to: People *Nervo (DJs), Australian DJs Olivia Nervo and Miriam Nervo *Amado Nervo, a Mexican poet *Carlo Nervo (born 1971), Italian professional footballer *Hugo Nervo (born 1991), Argentine football defender *Jacques de Nervo (1 ...

and

Ivan Gough Ivan Gough (born 19 May 1969) is an Australian house music producer and DJ. His first release, a remix of Pendulums "I Need You" became an instant club anthem, being played by the likes of Paul Oakenfold and Pete Tong in the United Kingdom. H ...

featuring

Beverley Knight Beverley Knight (born Beverley Anne Smith, 22 March 1973) is an English singer, songwriter, actress and radio personality. She released her first album, ''The B-Funk'', in 1995. Heavily influenced by American soul music icons such as Sam Cooke ...

- Not Taking This No More * 2013: Federico Scavo and

- Jump * 2013: Sound of Stereo - Zipper * 2013: Sandro Silva featuring Jack Miz - Let Go Tonight * 2014:

Benny Benassi Marco "Benny" Benassi (; born 13 July 1967) is an Italian DJ and music producer. He is widely seen as a pioneer of electro house, a genre brought into the mainstream by his 2002 summer club hit " Satisfaction". He started his career as DJ alon ...

featuring Gary Go - Let This Last Forever * 2015:

O.T. Genasis Odis Oliver Flores (born June 18, 1987), better known by his stage name O. T. Genasis, is an American rapper. Flores is best known for his 2014 single "CoCo" and its 2015 follow-up " Cut It" (featuring Young Dolph), both of which peaked within ...

CoCo Coco or variants may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Coco'' (2009 film), a French comedy film * ''Coco'' (2017 film), an American animated fantasy film * '' Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle'' (), a 2020 Japanese anime film ...

* 2016:

Rae Sremmurd Rae Sremmurd ( ; "Ear Drummers" Anadrome, spelled backwards) is an American hip-hop duo composed of brothers Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi, both of whom originate from Tupelo, Mississippi. They signed with record producer Mike Will Made It's label Mike ...

Black Beatles "Black Beatles" is a song by American hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd featuring American rapper Gucci Mane. Produced by Mike Will Made It, it was released in 2016, by EarDrummers and Interscope Records as the third single from their second studio alb ...

* 2016: Madly - Work Me * 2017:

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

Shape of You "Shape of You" is a song by English singer Ed Sheeran. It was released on 6 January 2017 as one of the lead single, double lead singles from his third studio album ''÷ (album), ÷'' (2017), along with "Castle on the Hill". The Dancehall pop, ...

* 2017:

Future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ex ...

Mask Off "Mask Off" is a song by American rapper Future from his eponymous fifth studio album (2017). The track was later released as the second single after initially charting as an album track. "Mask Off" was produced by Metro Boomin, and written by Fut ...

* 2017:

Steve Aoki Steven Hiroyuki Aoki ( , ; born November 30, 1977) is an American DJ and record producer. In 2012, Pollstar designated Aoki as the highest-grossing electronic dance music artist in North America from tours. In 2024, Gold House recognized him as ...

featuring

Lil Yachty Miles Parks McCollum (born August 23, 1997), known professionally as Lil Yachty, is an American rapper. He first gained recognition in August 2015 for his viral hit "One Night (Lil Yachty song), One Night", the lead single from his debut extend ...

and

Migos Migos () were an American hip hop group founded in Lawrenceville, Georgia, in 2008. The group was composed of rapper Quavo, his nephew Takeoff, and their "cousin" friend Offset. Quavo is from Athens, Georgia, while Offset and Takeoff were bo ...

- Night Call (with

) * 2019: Goody Grace featuring

Blink-182 Blink-182 is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992. Its current and best-known line-up consists of bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. Though its so ...

- Scumbag * 2020: Winona Oak - He Don't Love Me * 2020: Rat City - I Just Wanna Dance

References

External links

* {{Authority control Living people 1990 births People from San Luis Obispo, California American electronic musicians Revealed Recordings artists American electronic dance music DJs