Rob Swift

Rob Swift (born Robert Aguilar; May 14, 1972) is an American hip hop DJ and turntablist.

So unlike those who were influenced through hip hop records, DMC and NMS tapes, or movies, Swift educated himself with the classic turntable beats of the early 1980s New York City playground pioneers while listening to funk and jazz at home.

“My older brother exposed me to all that,” he says.

“All the stuff I create as a DJ is rooted in the songs that I heard from Bob James, Herbie Hancock and James Brown to Quincy Jones and old DJs like Grandmaster Flash and Grand Wizard Theodore.

That's where my roots are.”

In 1990, Swift enrolled as a student at Baruch College in New York City and in 1995, graduated with a degree in psychology.

“While I was deejaying I pursued college.

Speech class and English serve a purpose, you know?” His education can be said to translate into his cerebral style of scratching, juggling and making music.

In 1991, Swift joined the groundbreaking turntablist crew the X-Men aka X-ecutioners (Roc Raida, Total Eclipse, and Mista Sinista).

Also in 1991, he won the DMC East Coast title.

In 1997, the X-Ecutioners debut their album 'X-Pressions' (Ashpodel), marked the ascent of Swift as a recording artist, evident in the dirt-funky tracks like "Word Play."

Five years later, their major-label debut 'Built From Scratch' (Loud/Columbia) propelled the group to stardom with the massive hit "It's Goin’ Down," featuring Linkin Park.

"Following the success of 'It's Goin Down,' our label reps aimed to shift us into a Rap-Rock group, not grasping our core aim of using the turntable as a tool to continually push musical boundaries."

— says Swift.

Swift decided to pursue a solo career due to the pressure from the label, which aimed to force conformity for commercial success, ultimately straining the X-Ecutioners' creativity.

His debut in 1998, 'The Ablist,' marked the beginning of his solo journey.

In 2001, he was featured in the DJ documentary Scratch (Palm Pictures).

He has appeared on ESPN, the Late Show with David Letterman and Sesame Street.

'Sound Event' (2002) further showcased his diverse production style, seamlessly blending dark jeep beats, Latin Jazz, and ambient-electronic funk with seasoned studio craftsmanship.

“Venturing off into my solo career helped me realize I was just beginning to scratch the surface of my true potential.” Swift says, “the worst thing one can do to an artist is limit them and I started to feel stifled creatively.

He was an original member of the turntablist group The X-Ecutioners until 2004.

He has also released numerous solo albums and collaborated with various artists, including Mike Patton, Patton's project Peeping Tom, Dan the Automator and Handsome Boy Modeling School, Lords of Acid, Portugal. The Man, and Herbie Hancock.

My departure from the X-Ecutioners was a necessary one cause it freed me from all constraints.” Swift's post-9/11 beat collage War Games (2005), his third solo album, (featuring guest shots from The Large Professor and Bob James) “is an ominous soundtrack to the DJ's perspective on the state of the contemporary world today.

It's complex, intelligent, and provocative…”

In 2008, Swift was the first hip hop DJ invited to perform at the Savannah Jazz Festival in Georgia.

He has collaborated with artists from many genres including Blue Man Group, Herbie Hancock, Scritti Politti, Bob James, Linkin Park, Good Charlotte, Dan the Automator, Fat Joe, Cypress Hill and Bill Laswell.

He currently works solo, as part of the group Ill Insanity (featuring former X-Men Total Eclipse and Precision), or collaborating with other like-minded artists.

In June 2008, Swift's girlfriend played a piece by Chopin for him on her iPod while he was shaving.

Swift said, "For some reason on that day in my bathroom, my heart was ready to embrace this genre."

In July, he began work on a new album and a month or two into the recording process, he said, "I listened back to see how to album was starting to shape up. After sitting down and listening to it I started realizing that I was being influenced by this genre of classical that I had a new found love for... I then started creating my music in a way that was reflective of the way that the composers created their pieces. So I started working in movements. I was using sounds and then reintroducing the sounds in other songs. And I sat down and went, 'wow!' All this time, artists like Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven were influencing me on this album subconsciously without me knowing. So once I realized that, then I decided that this album would be a take on what I feel classical composers like Mozart and Chopin would have done if they had turntables."

One guest MC, Breez Evahflowin, rhymes about the album's concepts on "Principio" and "Ultimo".

From January 2010 through May 2015, Swift hosted the online hip-hop radio show Dope on Plastic on Scion A/V Streaming Radio 17.

In January 2010, Swift hosted the online hip-hop radio show Dope on Plastic on Scion A/V Streaming Radio 17 on which he plays mixes and interviews with guest turntablists.

Guests have included J-Smoke & DJ Element, Tim Martells, and DJ Platurn.

In February 2010, Swift's solo 18-song turntablism-classical music fusion album The Architect was released by Mike Patton on Ipecac Recordings, which Swift dedicated to Roc Raida who died in 2009.

In August 2012, Swift became the resident DJ for a new late night college sports TV talk show on ESPNU called UNITE.

In September 2014, Swift became a Professor at the New School for Liberal Arts in New York City.

He is currently teaching the DJ Skills & Styles course and his research includes Hip Hop History and culture as well as Musical Composition via turntable techniques.

Born and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens, by Colombian heritage, Swift began DJing at the age of 12 by watching his father and brother.

"My dad was a salsa and merengue DJ. My brother learned how to scratch and do all the hip hop deejaying stuff on my dad's equipment (without his permission) and I'd sit there and watch him. When I entered the sixth grade, I decided I wanted to learn," "I had all the tools I needed to become a DJ at my disposal."