Though the campus was largely occupied with pre-Halloween festivities Thursday night, DJs Danny "Daddy Mack" Tejada '09 and Mike "Million Dollar Mike" Thomas '09 continued to pump music through the Tang Museum for the DJ Dialogue Dance Party.
Tejada and Thomas specialize in hip-hop by underground and independent-label artists. Both students say they've been dedicated to sharing music with others for years. Their freshman year, the pair applied for a radio show on WSPN and received a timeslot on Thursday morning from 2 to 4 a.m.
They continued their dedication to the radio show while branching out into other interests.
"We play underground artists, but started to expand, doing mix tapes with underground artists," said Tejada, who is on his third such tape.
Tejada and Thomas got into DJing when they began attending parties at Skidmore. The experience opened Tejada's eyes to the potential for improvement.
"We've been to some parties where the music was just really horrible," Tejada said.
Thomas looks at it differently.
"It's great to make people happy," he said.
The two intend to continue working with music in general, but particularly hip-hop. Tejada said that while he plans to work in education, further involvement in the world of hip-hop is still on the table. He would like to keep working on mix tapes and will use his DJing experience in the future.
"I would like for something to come out of it," he said. "I would love to be in A&R [Artists and Repertoire], bringing artists and producers together."
Despite the pair's dedicated work on Thursday night, the turnout for the DJ Dialogue Dance Party was low. But Tejada and Thomas, who are motivated by the thrill of DJing rather than the size of the audience, were unfazed.
Thomas described himself as a puppeteer.
"I get to pull the strings of the crowd," he said. "If I want them to slow it down, I slow it down; if I want it to speed up, I speed it up. Everyone wants to be a puppeteer every now and then."
is a member of the 
Be the first to comment on this article!