Anyone can mix records nowadays and call themselves a DJ but a true DJ uses their craft to create unique environments, bring diverse people together and connect the dots through music. That’s always been the M.O. for DJ Gravy, whether he’s juggling for hardcore dancehall crowds in his home base of Brooklyn, playing for jet setters in the Middle East or providing the vibes for weekenders in the Hamptons. It’s a mindset that he’s brought to Rice and Peas, the now-legendary downtown dancehall party he founded six years ago in NYC, and LargeUp, the innovative lifestyle website through which he’s highlighting the Caribbean’s place as the world’s cultural epicenter.

A lifelong New Yorker, Gravy lived in four of NYC’s five boroughs growing up, an experience that exposed him to the full range of culture the city had to offer. As a kid on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in the ‘80s, he learned how to breakdance by watching the famed New York City Breakers set up on his block. Attending Manhattan’s famed LaGuardia High School for Music & Performing Arts (a/k/a “The Fame School”) a decade later he helped create a strong community of artistic types

After years of playing in bands, he immersed himself into reggae DJing while working at landmark NYC record shop Jammyland he began amassing the record collection and knowledge necessary to compete as a reggae DJ. Building his brand with gigs at NYC dives, hotspots, house parties, festivals and even school dances. With his series of “Iration Soundz” mixtapes, he soon found himself guiding the careers of—and DJing for—eclectic reggae/dancehall artists Jahdan and 77Klash. Setting out to merge the downtown NYC parties whose audiences could never get enough dancehall, and the late-night Brooklyn bashments that Manhattanites never able to make it out to, in 2007 he started Rice and Peas with Max Glazer.

“I like to fill voids,” Gravy says of Rice and Peas. “We saw that, as big as dancehall was in New York City, there wasn’t a progressive dancehall party that could capitalize on downtown kids who like dancehall but aren’t going to go to Flatbush at 3 in the morning. We gave dancehall a home on the downtown club circuit.” Now in its seventh year, Rice and Peas has hosted performances from Shaggy, Collie Buddz, Gyptian, Beenie Man and Mr Vegas and others while drawing A-list guests like Sean Paul and Damian Marley to Benny Blanco and Just Blaze earning Gravy and the party a highly-respected space on the global reggae/dancehall circuit.

Having held down the basement at Q-Tip's Open and Just Blaze’s Reopened parties at Santos Party House for several years, Gravy is also regularly tapped to spin at special events like Marc Baptiste's Nudes book launch at Milk Gallery, fashion designers Ricky and Dee's Casio G-Shock release party, and the opening night of record shop/art gallery Miss Lily's Variety. Having performed with Wyclef, Slick Rick, The Roots, Ian Neville, Matisyahu, he’s also DJed parties from Jamaica to Scandinavia, Belize, London, Miami, California and Israel, and at U.S. music festivals like Camp Bisco, New Orleans Jazzfest, Village Voice-River To River Fest. Behind the scenes, Gravy was instrumental in the birth of Major Lazer, A&Ring tracks on the influential, Diplo-led electro/dancehall project’s game-changing debut Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do, and even introduced original frontman Skerrit Bwoy to the group.

2009 saw the start of a new chapter in Gravy’s career, with the launch of LargeUp. A partnership with Questlove’s Okayplayer network, the highly respected Caribbean lifestyle website brings enlightened and discerning reportage to an arena of music and culture largely overlooked and misrepresented by mainstream media. Recently he’s expanded the brand with an online radio show, The LargeUp Sessions (on New York City hotspot Miss Lily’s RadioLily.com), and special events like the NYC premiere of Jamaican film Better Mus’ Come at Lincoln Center. He also orchestrated the Roots’ first-ever dancehall collaboration at the 2011 Okayplayer Holiday Party, pairing the world’s greatest hip-hop band in a jam session with legends like Shaggy and Patra and in the summer of 2014, brought Chronixx to Central Park Summerstage along with Rice and Peas, the event hit capacity instantly and drew heavy influencers including Mick Jagger, who spent his birthday on stage with his family.

“While I'm most known for the work I do with reggae, I'm equally obsessed with every genre and wouldn't be who I am without them" Gravy says of his eclectic taste and talents.