How I Became DJ Riddler — Part 1: Rippin Rich

I didn't choose the name DJ Riddler.

Someone gave it to me.

But before that — I was Rippin Rich.

And before that — I was just a kid from Houston with a cassette tape and a dream.

If you missed last week's post about the summer of 1988 and the cassette tape that changed my life — read it here first. This story picks up right where that one left off.

The Underground Productions

When I came back to Houston from Chicago in 1988 with a head full of House Music and a determination to become a DJ — I wasn't alone in that journey.

My friends John, Fred, and Eric were on the same path. We were all learning together — practicing at each other's houses, buying records, figuring out the craft one mistake at a time.

There were already two established Filipino-American DJ crews in Houston at the time.

Sounds Unlimited — the Serrano brothers who had come from Chicago just like me.Ultimate Sound Systems — the Guro brothers who had come from New York.

We were 17 years old and decided to start our own.

We called it The Underground Productions.

Johnny J. Fast Fred. Eric G. And me — Rippin Rich.

My best friend Diko — John's brother — suggested that name in high school. It stuck immediately. It felt right for who we were — young, hungry, underground, and just getting started.

The First Break

Eric G was the one who opened the first real door for me.

He invited me over to practice at his place and when he landed a gig at a teen club called Carrz — he brought me in alongside him.

Carrz had three Houston locations and one in Galveston. I ended up working two of the four locations.

My first paid DJ gig — $50 a night. Taxes taken out.

Every single dollar went straight back into buying records. I had to build my collection. There was no other option if I wanted to get better.

I was playing to over 1,000 teens every weekend at 17 years old.

It didn't bother me at all. I had spent years in my high school marching band performing in front of packed stands. Being in front of a crowd felt completely natural.

Side note — Carrz was the same teen club that booked New Kids on the Block before they became one of the biggest acts in the world.

The Radio Break

About a year after I started DJing — Alex Carmenates gave me my first shot on Houston radio.

Alex was the mixshow coordinator at Energy 96.5 — a Top 40 rhythmic station in Houston. He ran a mixshow called The Energy Mix. The DJ crew — known as the Mixmaster 5 — featured some of Houston's top DJs including John and Noel Serrano from Sounds Unlimited, Steve Smokin Chavez, Ron Beck, and Alex C himself.

Here's the part that still gets me every time I think about it —

Alex heard about me from the Serrano brothers.

The same crew we considered our competition.

They put my name in front of someone who could open a door for me. And he did.

That moment taught me something I've never forgotten — in this industry your reputation travels before you do. The Serrano brothers could have kept the door closed. Instead they opened it. That kind of generosity changes careers.

Alex introduced me to the team at Energy 96.5 including Paco Lopez and Steve Smith — who would both go on to Phoenix and eventually Hot 97 in New York. Paco even asked me if I wanted to join them in Phoenix.

I said no.

Another road not taken.

But that radio connection is how KRBE eventually heard about me. One opportunity leading to the next.

Miami

By 1989 I was DJing in the Houston nightclub scene.

Bobby Stark — a local promoter and former DJ — gave me a shot at his club night at Tower Theater called Decadance. Bobby saw my talent and potential early. He was also booking talent in Miami at the legendary Cameo Theater.

He called me one day and asked if I wanted to fly down and DJ there.

I was 19 years old. Free flight. Free lodging. Miami.

I said yes immediately.

3,000 people. The Cameo Theater. Packed and hot.

At that time the early 90s Techno and Deep House scene was dominating Miami. But Bobby and his partners felt the crowd was getting stale. They wanted someone who could shake things up.

I played House Music — but I also threw left turns.

Midway through my set I dropped Down In It by Nine Inch Nails.

The crowd went absolutely insane.

Nobody had dropped that record in a Miami DJ set at that time. The Miami DJs of that era would never have tried it. But I had been playing it in my sets in Houston so it wasn't a risk to me — it was just music I believed in.

I pumped my fist.

Bobby turned to his partners and said — we found our guy.

They offered me a full time position — music coordinator and DJ at the Cameo, Cafe Iguana in Kendall, and another club in North Miami Beach.

I took it.

I was 19 years old staying at the Clevelander Hotel for $40 a night.

South Beach in 1990 wasn't the South Beach the world knows today. Before Versace transformed it the area was run down — old retirees by day, young people flooding the clubs at night. It was raw and real in a way that's hard to describe now.

Six months later I came home.

Homesick. Didn't know anyone. The opportunity was real but the place and the timing weren't right for me.

Sometimes the right opportunity at the wrong time is still the wrong opportunity.

The Lizard Lounge

Back in Houston I connected with legendary club owner Don Nedler — who was about to open new Lizard Lounge locations in Austin and Dallas.

He asked me and another young DJ — Carl Fought — which city we wanted.

I chose Austin without hesitation. Carl went to Dallas.

The Lizard Lounge in Austin was the hottest nightclub in the city.

My DJ booth was set up in the middle of the dance floor — with people on the second level watching me perform from above. Every single night.

I had thousands of University of Texas college kids in front of me. A live radio broadcast on KHFI. The early 1990s were a special time for music — Hip Hop going mainstream, House evolving, Techno emerging, R&B transforming. I got to play all of it every single night for a crowd that was hungry for everything.

I fed off that energy completely.

The Lizard Lounge opened doors all over Austin's Sixth Street. I ended up spinning at clubs all over the city.

I even landed a Wednesday night residency at The Escape Club — the same venue where the late Selena performed along with many other Tejano acts.

That stage. That booth in the middle of the floor. That crowd watching from the second level above.

That's where I became the DJ I was meant to be.

What Came Next

Eventually I reunited with Bobby Stark at his new club — Paragon on the north side of Houston.

And that's where everything changed again.

But that story — how Rippin Rich became DJ Rich, how I got to KRBE, how Tom Poleman and Paul Cubby Bryant changed my career, and how a radio executive in New York City eventually looked across a desk at me and said —

"DJ Rich is too plain for New York City. I'm going to make you The Riddler. And you are going to be a star."

That's Part 2. Dropping next Friday.