Born and raised in urban Chicago, DJ Phantom was the first member of a positive youth organization called the South Shore Drill Team. Founded in 1980 to help keep kids off the street, the group offers young people an opportunity to develop self-esteem, self-discipline, and goals for their future. After graduation from Thornwood High School and Coyne American Institute, he attended DeVry University. DJ Phantom worked for nearly ten years as an electronics technician at Motorola. In the spring of 1998, inspired by his love of music, he pursued entrepreneurship by opening a retail music store. While managing his store, Phantom worked on his skills as a DJ, a passion that began when he was fourteen.

As a teenager, Phantom was overwhelmed by the power of a DJ. The DJ’s ability to affect a crowd of people through music was something he quickly developed a love for. In those days, most homes owned at least one turntable and a nice collection of wax; Randy gradually took over his mom’s hi-fi equipment. He borrowed a neighbor’s turntable to complete his DJ set. At home, learning new skills, practicing everyday, and building his record collection …DJ Phantom was born!

There are two people that Phantom considers significant in his early development as a DJ. The first was Floyd Pope, who had all of the latest mixing equipment and let him use it to practice and hone his skills. And later, Randall Montgomery, who sold him his first real set of turntables and trained him intensively through the crafts of mixing and blending. Being from Chicago, the town that is famous for mixing and blending records since the disco era, also influenced his skills. Phantom gives credit to the art of mixing old disco classics for helping to train his ear, he says, “Disco music was not sequenced so you had to be prepared to catch the fallen beat.”

Inadvertently, in high school, Phantom was networking, building valuable relationships, and laying the foundation for a promising career. He was especially proud of becoming a member of the #1 suburban DJ group at the time, SRT. The group included Hula Mahone and Maurice Joshua, who are now two of Chicago’s top producers. “It was a good time during those days, my first taste of success. Being part of SRT brought me notoriety as a professional and it felt good to get recognition”, recalls Phantom.

Phantom learned that being a DJ was not an easy job. He had to carry heavy crates of records every time he worked, he had to hustle to make sure he kept working, and he had to keep late night hours and practice when he didn’t feel like it. However, he was determined to succeed and overcome the unexpected obstacles. “I remember once, a friend and I were on our way to a party; I had my first set of real DJ turntables packed in my ’72 Chevy, and I needed to stop at the store to get extra speaker wire. As we were exiting the store, some guys tossed the last piece of my equipment into their car and burned rubber out of the parking lot. Talk about pain…I was devastated” says Phantom. Fortunately, Phantom’s friend, Curtis Davis, loaned him his turntables until he hustled up enough money to buy new and better equipment.

Being a good DJ means you possess the ability to be universal; this means being able to play and blend any kind of music. DJ Phantom has the ability to rock any crowd whether its old school disco classics, slow jams, steppers music, or new school hip-hop and R&B. After years of developing his style as a professional DJ, all of Phantom’s hard work and perseverance paid off. In early 2001, he won a Mixology contest held by 107.5 WGCI-FM. The radio station urged DJ’s, aspiring to be on the radio, to enter the contest by submitting one tape for a chance to be featured on the station as a Mixologist. “I submitted different material for two weeks straight to everyone at the radio station, even to the receptionist”, says Phantom. His ingenuity paid off, and he had the skills and the energy to back it up. His mixes are featured on 107.5 WGCI at Noon every weekday, at 8am on the morning show and 10pm on the A-Side mix show every Friday, and at 11pm on the B-Side mix show every Saturday.

Aside from his radio projects, DJ Phantom has started a DJ school, the Audio Edit Scratch Academy. Teaching his son, Terrell, who is a young successful DJ in his own right, inspired this. His purpose for the school is sharing his talent with aspiring DJs, giving back to the community and promoting his own special brand of positivity to the world.

Meanwhile, Phantom is steadily making his mark in the music world. He has been featured on Chicago’s WGN News, CLTV (Chicago land TV), and in Radio and Records magazine. In recent years, he has become friends with his role model, DJ Kid Capri. He has worked with various Hip-Hop and R&B artists, has been a guest DJ on BET’s 106th and Park, and was the DJ for Dave Chappelle when he came to Chicago. Phantom is currently working on building his skills as a producer. He is the DJ for Hip-Hop artist, White Boy and is working with him and some local acts on production projects. He feels strongly about the unrecognized talent in Chicago and encourages local unknown artists to send their music to him. If he feels it’s “hot” he gives the local unknown artists airplay by highlighting them on the Wednesday mix at noon, during a segment he calls “Local Artist Wednesday”.

He continuously sets new goals and ventures to expand his horizons. His message to the world, which he adamantly lives by, is “Prayer, practice, and persistence will get you anywhere you want to go. Don’t let negativity from haters deter you, and once you get to your goal don’t get comfortable, get even better”.