My Son Started DJing at 12. Now He's Getting Paid More Than I Did

Last Friday I told you how I became a DJ.

The summer of 1988. My cousin Cheryl's silver boombox. Move Your Body by Marshall Jefferson. The moment I thought House Music was Disco. My cousin John's turntables in the living room. Staying in that basement until my hands started to make sense of what they were touching.

If you missed that post — read it here first. This one picks up where that left off.

Because last Friday's story was about how a cassette tape changed my life.

This Monday's story is about what happens when that legacy passes to the next generation.

The Beginning

Renner's first time on the decks wasn't planned.

It was 2017. The World Series was in Houston. I was DJing a Nike pop up store in front of Minute Maid Park — one of those electric moments when the city is fully alive and everyone is celebrating.

Renner was there with me.

He got on the decks and started playing.

The crowd loved him immediately.

He was a kid. Nobody expected it. And that's exactly why it worked. There's something disarming and electric about watching a child do something with genuine skill and confidence in front of a crowd. People stop. They pay attention. They smile.

That was his entrance.

Not a bedroom. Not a basement. Not a teen club.

The World Series in Houston at a Nike pop up store in front of Minute Maid Park.

That's how Renner Pangilinan started DJing.

Covid and the Craft

When the world shut down in 2020 Renner kept going.

He started live streaming his DJ sets by himself — building an audience, building his craft, building his confidence in the middle of a global pandemic while most people were binge watching Netflix.

I watched him practice. I watched him improve. I watched him develop his own style and his own instincts about music.

I didn't push him. I didn't force it. I just made sure the equipment was there and the space was available when he wanted to use it.

He found his own way to the music the same way I found mine — through curiosity, through repetition, through refusing to stop until he figured it out.

The Hot Wheels Call

My friend DJ Speed in Chicago — a respected DJ and industry connector — recommended me to The DJ Firm, the company booking DJs for the Hot Wheels Legends Tour.

I saw an opportunity.

I pitched them a father and son duo.

Renner was 12 years old at the time.

The concept was simple — we'd split the four hours of DJing together. Father and son. A generational story on the decks.

Then we got to the first event.

Renner looked at me and said he wanted to DJ the whole thing himself.

I thought about it for a moment.

Then I said okay.

He played four hours straight. At 12 years old.

The Hot Wheels Legends Tour is a family oriented event — custom cars, life size Hot Wheels, interactive displays, a contest where people can enter their own custom builds to potentially become an official Hot Wheels car. Parents and kids everywhere. A completely different crowd from the nightclub and concert world I've spent my career in.

And they absolutely loved watching a 12 year old DJ for four hours.

I MC'd the event. Watched from the side. Took it all in.

That was four years ago.

He's been doing it ever since.

Dallas — This Past Weekend

The Hot Wheels Legends Tour makes stops in cities across the country throughout the year.

This past Saturday was the Dallas stop.

I drove three hours at 3am to get him there.

Renner set up. Did his sound check. Got behind the decks.

And did what he's been doing for four years now — entertained a crowd of families and car enthusiasts with the same confidence and instinct I first saw in him at Minute Maid Park in 2017.

Watching him work is something I can't fully put into words.

What This Means

I started DJing at 17 years old.

Belt drive turntables. Realistic mixer. $50 a night with taxes taken out. Every dollar going straight back into buying records because I had to build my collection from nothing.

Renner started at 12.

National brand events. A professional setup. Getting paid significantly more than I ever did at his age.

He's taken his journey to places I hadn't reached at 16.

And here's what strikes me most —

I didn't push him into DJing.

I never sat him down and said this is what you're going to do. I never put him behind the decks and told him to practice. I never made him feel like he had to follow my path.

He found it himself. On a set of decks at the World Series at nine years old. Through live streams during Covid. Through four years of Hot Wheels Legends Tour stops across the country.

My job was simple.

Make sure I was there when he was ready.

Make the call to DJ Speed. Pitch The DJ Firm. Drive to Dallas at 3am.

Show up.

That's what being a DJ dad looks like.

The Through Line

Last Friday I told you about my cousin John — the DJ who let me try his turntables in his living room in Chicago in 1988. Who said go ahead and try when I told him anyone could do that. Who watched me stay in that room for hours trying to figure out what my hands were supposed to do.

He didn't push me either.

He just made the decks available and let me find my own way.

Thirty eight years later I'm doing the same thing for my son.

The music passes. The love for it passes. The instinct for it passes.

Not through instruction.

Through presence.

I just had to make sure I was there.

And I wouldn't trade it for anything. 🙏🏽