Category: DJ Castrawdis

Greetings…

My name is Carl AKA Castrawdis. Born and raised in Boston Massachusetts. I fell in love with the art of music at an extremely young age, and couldn’t have been more pleased… I love all types.

My mom is a huge fan of that classic RNB music, from Gladys Knight, to Marvin Gaye, to Luther Vandroz, to New Edition, to Parliament n Funkadelic, and so much more.

My father was a DJ, and from my young age, watching him develop his own style, eventually who knew I would’ve caught the bug later on. He would play a lot of Bary White, he was a funk head, just being honest! Anything funky, dad had to have it, and I respected him for that, because when that Vaun Mason Bounce Rock Skate hit, that was what did it for me!

My god father is another influence, for what they call “balets.” That type of music with harmony, such as Blue Magic, the Dell Phonics, The OJ’s, Continental Four, etc. When I was born, the doctor’s told my folks that I was going to face many challenge’s, disability wise, but God had a say in that, and thankfully I’m humbled to be legally blind. My vision loss has motivated me to want to do better, most importantly has allowed me to tap in to some major creativity…

Later on down the line, I tapped into the Dj world about 6-8 years old and have been here holdin it down in my own way ever since. When I started out though, my journey was very different then most cats… I started learning how to teach myself how to Dj/beat match, using 2 cassette player’s. Rewinding the tapes, to personify scratching sounds, that’s how dedicated I wanted to be. I remember getting frustrated really quickly, because its not easy mixing with 2 cassette players, not at all, but I felt like everyday when I came home from school, I had to get my practice on. I would practice for days and weeks at a time till I felt I got the beat matching down packed.

Eventually, working my way up, I got exposure to turntables, a pair of Gemini PT 2000s, and hearing my mom puts the needle on the records, that made me fall in love with DJIng even more. At some point, I began making mixtapes for friends, but really they were practice sessions.

By 2008, I found the name for myself, its not an ordinary name. Originally, I use to call my self Dj C. but by 08 I had gone with Castrawdis. A few years later, I did some research on it, and come to find out that the name stems from an ancient Italian group from the 1600s called Castrodos, so really all I did was change the spelling of it, not even realizing it! The name Castrawdis just sounds so like special to me, it has a ring to it! But, anyways, I was still working on my mixtape sound, when by 2011, I got my start in radio.

I was on the radio at the age of 16, sounding super “grown.” A few years later, I ended up on community radio, in 2017, had my own mix show, on the platform! I was the first and only blind DJ, with DJ skills to broadcast my sound on community radio, people were lovin it! Speaking of radio, and Djs, and mixtapes, some of my idles include Boston Djs such as myself, Chubby Chub, Dru Nyce, Chief Rocka Moe D, Static Selecta, Clinton Sparks, but other greats across the country, like Kid Capri, Jazzy Jeff, Dj Billy Busch, Technician The DJ, Dj Scratch, Dj. C. Scott, Dj PhillyBlack, Dj K-Swyft, Mr. Dynamite DJ Jamal, to now, even some of the Dj partner’s that I’m partnered up with.

Currently, I am still doing my thing on the 1s/2/s, quite so. I have gotten into creating my own blend tapes, I find those to be really fun. My style of DJing is a mixture of everyone, that I either named, or didn’t get a chance to, either way, the ambition show’s. I love what I do, even in a world that is extremely insane, DJN keeps me sane, equally! I’m humble/modest, that’s always gonna be me! There are other great cats who do what they do, but I’m no slouch either, and I hope to be taken seriously one day.

I have played on radio stations as mentioned before, 3 within the Boston area, New York, California, North Carolina, and Ohio. I’d like to end up somewhere where I’m excepted for my style of Djing, and where I can make ppl feel good. Peace!