ABOUT

DJ SO HYPE
Derrick Reeves (born in January 1989), known as Hype or DJ So Hype, is an American DJ and producer of Segway music. “Hype”, meaning extravagant or intensive publicity or promotion., suits his personality and skillset perfectly when talking about his craft. This is due to his well-known ability to work with any genre of music, or combination of multiple genres at one time, to produce dynamic and high energy music sets. In addition Hype is quite known by most in the industry for possessing one of the most critical skillsets of being a professional DJ, which is the ability to read the crowd and change a performance on-the-fly in order to keep the energy of the event high. It is because of these two aspects that the name “Hype” became perfectly fitting. But no matter what you call him or whether or not you’ve ever seen him perform, one thing is for sure, when he’s performing for you, you will surely know it. A triple threat of music talent, personality, and fashion sense Hype has become a member in a class all his own.

 

Hailing from Las Vegas, Nevada Hype has rightfully established himself in the most elite class of DJs, continuously and regularly playing all venues and events ever worth mentioning in this global mecca of nightlife alongside just about any major artist you can think of in today’s pop culture. As the resident DJ since 2002 of some of Vegas’ hottest clubs and lounges including Rum Jungle, Jet Nightclub & Koi Nightclub inside of the Planet Hollywood. Hype has also resided at Town Square since the Grand Opening in 2007 as still a Senior in High School every Friday & Saturday for Nu Sanctuary & Blue Martini, located inside of Town Square. Additionally, Hype is known for frequently playing such venues as Embassy, Treasure Island, MGM Grand Garden Arena, STK, Mocha Fest & more. So as you can see (if you are familiar with any of the hotspots in Las Vegas Nightlife from the last 20 years to present) there isn’t a place that he hasn’t blown the roof off of.

 

Additionally, when he’s not tearing it up in Sin City he also regularly jet-sets all the top entertainment meccas that this country has worth mentioning (LA, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Chicago, NYC, Miami). 2023 marks his twenty first year running with a continuous residency on the Las Vegas Strip. Hype can also be found heating up tours across the country with some of your favorite artists to date. But no matter where you see him it’s guaranteed to be a night to remember so come prepared. And as you can see there is a reason why so many of his peers call him “The Hardest Working Man In The Business” (averaging between 350 and 400 performances a year, due to performing multiple times daily throughout the Las Vegas Club, Community Scene & Internationally).

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EARLY LIFE
The middle brother of three, Hype was born in Ridgecrest, California. After living there for 3 months after his birth his mother moved to Inglewood, California. His mother, worked as a Surgical Tech, living a good life early on for the family, while being a single mother with 3 boys. He can remember many times as a kid being in the company of his mother growing up listening to Theo from 92.3 in Southern California which developed his love for music from Old to New. Soon after that the family was relocated to Henderson, Nevada when he was Twelve years old. It was during this part of his life that he was extensively exposed to deejaying by the last day of school of 2002 by finding 1 turntable & 1 mixer in the trash can. Soon after receiving the abandoned DJ equipment, Hype (3 days later) used his saved up lunch money to purchase 1 more turntable from the pawn shop. For a full 4 months Hype practiced only using 3 vinyls, Rick James "Mary Jane", Talib Kweli's "Get By" & Wu-Tangs "Triumph". Hype attended Green Valley High School where he ran Varsity Cross Country and Track, JV BasketBall, President of the Krump Club & President of the Student Body Club. Outside of school he was also very active in the deejaying house parties, school dances & a popular teen nightclub called "Club Frozen" while working at a Dry Cleaners part time along with working full time for 97.5 (Partially responsible for his name “Hype”). Close to graduation Hype wanted to attend college for the Computer Tech field, however due to his very social demeanor and deep passion for music and nightlife throughout his life he quickly knew that something in those areas was definitely where he belonged.

 

CAREER

At age 16 he became the youngest DJ to DJ on the Las Vegas strip in history & not be 21. It was from then on he realized his strong desire for being the life force of the party and delved into the world of the nightlife industry primarily deejaying and periodically independently hosting for nightclubs & events. It is here where he thrived and ultimately began to feel more comfortable and likely to succeed. After befriending many club owners and DJs (both nightlife and radio personalities alike) he realized what he always knew to be true, that he wanted to be solely responsible for the energy of the party. Being a host he had experienced this to an extent but it was quite obvious that the DJ Booth is where he needed to be and given his extensive relationship with music, this is the direction he decided to head. Hype taught himself on his own all the ins and outs of his craft, by simple trial and error and training his ear from watching and listening to the never ending talent from DJ Jazzy Jeff & Grand Wizard Theodore. So with his newfound skills, passion for music, and expanding relationships in this ideal arena Hype became an aggressively progressive self-made man in order to establish his place in the stars. And although Hype has accomplished a lot he maintains the utmost level of humility and gratefulness for his accomplishments. His plans are to now hone his pre-existing skills to music itself by producing his own sound. So stay tuned for the next chapter in Hype's history, this is where it gets fun.

 

PERSONAL LIFE
Even though being a DJ occupies much of his life there are many different aspects that Hype makes great strides to incorporate and maintain in his personal life. His wife & mother helps to keep him humble and grounded, and the ability to travel has always been very important. Hype has continued from a very young age to paint, dance & run his own magazine, which led to his art being sold world wide and displayed in galleries seen in New York, Los Angeles & Germany, his dancing career leading him to work alongside with the Jabbawockeez and appear in many commercials under KIA and to selling over 900,000 physical magazines that won "Magazine of the Year" in Las Vegas. In addition, Hype is an hard working, laid back & funny man amongst friends. A little later in life he thoroughly looks forward to building a school of his own and that represents the 4 elements of Hip Hop as well as an Fair DJ agency to help give chances to local DJ's in the city. .

 

DISCOGRAPHY
Hype has released multiple mixes over the years that can be found on his Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/djsohype