About
I'm DJ Robzilla, a boom bap beatmaker, beatboxer, and turntablist working in the tradition of J Dilla, Rahzel, and DJ D-Styles. Each of those names taught me a different piece of the craft: Dilla taught me how to build a beat from a sample, Rahzel taught me what a voice can do when you treat it like an instrument, and D-Styles taught me how deep turntablism can go.
I came up in the southeast hip-hop scene, training under DJ Shotgun (of Goodie Mob) and running with the Table Hogs turntablist crew. For twenty years, since my first public set on February 10, 2006 (the day J Dilla passed), I've worked the circuit: breakdance battles, hip-hop shows, block parties, studio sessions, emcee battles, weddings, and nightclubs from Gainesville on out. Somewhere in there I started "Boom Bap, Original Rap" on Grow Radio, kept making beat tapes, and learned that the work that lasts is the work you'd make even if no one was listening.
Now I'm newly based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, bringing two decades of southeast circuit experience into the Twin Cities and broader Midwest scene. New rooms, new collaborators, same boom bap.
If I had to pick one thing inside all of this that I love most, it's skratching: the artform of manipulating the sound of a vinyl record by moving it back and forth across the needle while closing and opening the crossfader to cut the sound off and on rhythmically. Twenty years in, the trick still isn't old.
If you want to hear what I make, the catalog lives on the albums page. If you want to know what I'm working on now, that's on the news page. If you want to book me, say hello.
Questions
- Who is DJ Robzilla?
- DJ Robzilla is Robert Waelder, a boom bap beatmaker, beatboxer, and turntablist working in the tradition of J Dilla, Rahzel, and DJ D-Styles. Based in Saint Paul, MN, with twenty years of work across the southeast hip-hop scene (since 2006).
- What does DJ Robzilla make?
- Boom bap and instrumental hip-hop, with turntablism and beatbox woven in. The catalog is mostly beat tapes and full-length releases on Bandcamp; there are also live DJ sets and production credits on other artists' work.
- What does DJ Robzilla use to make beats?
- Ableton Live for production, paired with Reloop RP-8000 turntables and a Rane Seventy Two mixer for performance and scratch work. The studio also runs a rotating cast of MIDI keyboards, beat pads, and controllers depending on the session.
- Where is DJ Robzilla based?
- Saint Paul, Minnesota. Newly relocated from Gainesville, Florida. Available for regional gigs across the Twin Cities and broader Midwest, with national and international bookings considered when travel is covered.