Ronald Turner II, known as DJ R-Tistic, is an internationally acclaimed DJ born and raised in Los Angeles. R-Tistic is one of the entertainment industry’s favorite DJs, as he has mixed for special events for Issa Rae, Diddy, Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lena Waithe, Common, Floyd Mayweather and Marlon Wayans.
R-Tistic is known for his high-energy sets, along with his expert-level crowd-reading abilities. He has deejayed in ten different countries outside the United States, including Nigeria, Jordan, Ghana, Jamaica, and France. and has gained notoriety for his mixes and videos, which have gained over eight million listens and views throughout the years.
Where did your love for music come from?
Both of my parents are heavily into music. My dad is a jazz drummer and producer. He’s the drummer at church every week and my mom was in the choir. She majored in music. They both went to FAMU, and my dad was in the band at FAMU so it was one of those things where I was born into music. Even as a kid, I would be at studio sessions that my dad would go to, at his friend’s places like George Duke. It’s one of those things that I was just born into, but I didn’t really get into hip-hop and even R&B until really around early, maybe early mid-elementary school because my parents were all jazz, funk, gospel, and a little bit of soul, but not too much on that side. I got into hip-hop from my cousins and classmates.
What’s your process like when you’re deejaying?
Just looking at the crowd energy early, and seeing how to build on it. The first half of the night car I’m doing research and testing certain songs out to see what they know and what they might not know, and if they know this song, they should know this song. They don’t know this song, they probably don’t know this one. So I’m seeing where they might allow me to go and build on the hype. Every crowd is so different. Being in LA, every crowd I have here is different, it might be 10 different crowds that are LA native crowds versus the transplant crowds. Is it more of a [Southern] transplant crowd or HBCU crowd versus is it more of an East Coast crowd tonight? Or is it even going off ethnicity? Is it more of a Black crowd versus a White crowd versus a Mexican crowd? Is it an even mix? There are different ways to see where they are. It’s all about just looking at what type of crowd it is and attacking them and playing what I’m pretty sure that they all know but also trying and testing them to try to go a little bit deeper than that.
