DJ Artistic is one of the hardest working producers in San Diego's hip-hop community. The dreadlocked DJ is much more MC than DJ — he leaves the turntables to others and picks up the microphone to rally the crowd. “Ladies, make some noise! Fellas make some noise! Everybody say Ho! This party is in full effect!”
Artistic kickstarted his DJ career in 1995 by throwing Apollo-style events called “The Breakthrough,” where he brought up and coming DJs and MCs to showcase their skills in front of a crowd. From there, he began DJing locally himself, before becoming a producer for Deep Rooted (2008 San Diego Music Award for Best Hip Hop album). He has gone on tour with Public Enemy and has shared the stage with the great Richard Humpty Vision.
As of summer 2010, Artistic was hustling his own weekly radio show on www.jellyradio.com and balancing a schedule of two monthly residencies, a weekly, and a smattering of one-offs.
In October 2014, Artistic won Best Club DJ at the San Diego Music Awards.