Julio G
| Julio G | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Julio Gonzalez |
| Born | 1969 Lynwood, California, U.S. |
| Origin | Lynwood, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Hip hop |
| Occupation(s) | Disc jockey |
| Instruments | Turntable |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Labels | KDAY |
| Associated acts |
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| Website | |
Julio Gonzalez (professionally known as Julio G) is an American hip hop DJ, radio personality and record producer from Lynwood, California. Gonzalez was born in 1969 in Lynwood, California. He's from Mexican and Puerto Rican descents.
Julio G worked on KDAY; KKBT (1995-2001); KZAB (2004–05); KDAY (2005–07). Currently he hosts 1580.
Back in the ’70s, Julio Gonzalez grew up with his best friend Marcellus. One day Julio walked into Marcellus’ uncle’s garage and saw what would change his life: “Marcellus had a turntable that he took out of his mom’s stereo thing,” he says, “a Radio Shack mixer and another whole opposite turntable with all these wires all connecting, all on his uncle’s pool table. Marcellus scratched ‘Sucker MC’s’ by Run-D.M.C. That was the first time I had ever seen that. I’ll never forget that: I wanted to be a DJ”. So Julio got his mom’s consola, one of those old-school Mexican stereos with an 8-track player, and began deejaying. “The first records I ever scratched were Javier Solís and Vicente Fernández” - straight ranchera music, the kind nobody would ever think of mixing. He would practice every morning before school when his mother went off to work.
Living in Lynwood got a little tough because it had a real gang situation, and soon Julio’s mother decided to move him to South Gate High. A Puerto Rican guy from New York lived on Julio’s block, and he’d get tapes of New York rappers like the Furious Four and the Treacherous Three. Julio listened, and soon got hooked on hip hop - and the only hip hop station in town, KDAY, 1580 AM. KDAY was the nation’s first rap station and it had a group of DJs called the Mixmasters. Not only was Tony G. the lone Latino DJ on KDAY, but, says Julio, he was “the best of the best”. “I wanted to be part of KDAY. I’d listen to Tony G., and I would tape the shit. I would try to duplicate what they were doing with my little turntable; that was my way of learning”. At South Gate, Julio connected with brothers Mellow Man Ace and Sen Dog and their friend B-Real, then known as DVX (Devastating Vocal Xcellence). “I would DJ and they’d rap,” he says. They’d play at parties in South Gate, Bell, Maywood, all over Southeast L.A. (The buzz would later lead Mellow Man Ace to bust out solo with the hit “Mentírosa,” co-produced by Julio G. and Tony G). Party promoter and friend Luis Romo, whose brother had gone to school with Tony G., took Julio to KDAY. As Julio recalls, Luis introduced him to Tony G. like so: “My homeboy right here will fuck you up, Tony.” Julio was stunned. “I knew he was a legend. I was 17, so when I got on the turntables, I was really nervous. Then Tony got on the turntables and just fucked me up. That was my first lesson”. Tony and Julio clicked; Tony took Julio under his wing and showed him how to mark records and other DJ tricks.
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