SupaStylz's solo ride at the turntables

Garfene Grandison, Gleaner Writer

Formerly of Kingston Allstarz, DJ SupaStylz, whose real name is Daniel Moreno, now has a solo deejay career and wants to take the Jamaican entertainment world by storm.

After migrating to Miami in 2003 to attend school, the music lover moved back home two and a half years ago and decided to become part of the music industry full time.

Although he describes the music industry as being tough, and one where one has to earn his own respect, "Adaptation", is what has allowed him to exist.

"There are some dancehall songs over there (Miami) that we won't listen to in Jamaica but they are major hits there, so it's really just to adapt to the different atmosphere but it's a good experience because I get to see it from a different aspect," said SupaStylz.

Becoming a deejay was SupaStylz's dream ever since he snuck out to his first party.

"I used to see how the deejay could manipulate the crowd and entertain them just through music and I fell in love with it ever since then," he confessed.

Biggest fans

To this day, his parents are his biggest fans and showed their support even when he took the opportunity to enter Heineken Green Synergy last year.

SupaStylz recently broke from Kingston Allstarz because "I reached a point where I realised that I needed to start my own thing." Notwithstanding, he remains friends with his old group members and thank them for contributing to his career.

As far as music is concerned, the sky is the limit for the Jamaica College old boy. Producing is another aspect of the business he hopes to undertake in the near future.

In the next five years he wishes to go on tours all over the world in order to be able to experience places like Japan and continents like Europe, taking music to as far as he can.

According to SupaStylz, there are a few drawbacks to the music industry, but the biggest drawback of all is the daily production of new music.

"Out here in Jamaica, new music is made every day, you have to know what's hot and what is not, and you have to have the clean cut as well as the raw cut, and that's the fun but hard part," he said.

He has played at parties such as Heineken Igloo, Twisted Spiritz, Sunday Lyme, Guinness PLP and others.

Despite that and being a fan of the Jamaican music scene, SupaStylz thinks dancehall music is going in a direction that is "disappointing because it's not as fun as it used to be".

"I find myself playing other genres now. It still has its energy but it's just not as fun, the energy is no longer there but it's a cycle in the industry so I'm pretty sure it will go back to where it used to be," said SupaStylz.

Sanjay of Coppershot, Narrity, and Kurt Riley are some of the deejays that he thinks are the best in the industry, and ones that he looks up to for inspiration.

Other projects on his agenda are once-a-month live mixes that all can look forward to in order to live his dream of being one of the best deejay's in Jamaica's entertainment industry.