Wicked & Wild Part 2 (A Musical Explosion!)

DJ Neil “Nice” Whiting has been collecting and curating music for as long as he can remember.

Ever since his younger days skateboarding the streets of his hometown of South Kingstown Rhode Island, he recalls finding himself in record stores, researching music via URI and Brown University college radio and naturally grouping songs together with mixtapes for what would become a lifelong DJ career and obsession with sound.

After living out West for some time, Neil packed up his records and turntables and drove from California to NYC in early 2001. He quickly stitched himself into the fabric of the city, DJing at local venues, and in the summer of 2001 became one of two first employees at the iconic record store Turntable Lab in Manhattan, alongside friend and colleague DJ Neil Armstrong of the mighty 5th Platoon DJ Crew.

He spent the next few years honing his musical expertise, absorbing as much music as possible. At night he would frequent and DJ at many of the diverse nightlife spots New York had to offer, playing at places like APT, Lotus, The Thompson Hotel, The Rivington Hotel, The Chelsea Hotel, Tillman’s, Tribeca Grand, 205 Club, Spur Tree Lounge, Delicatessen and many more.

In the fall of 2002 Neil became the Music Director for apparel giant, Ecko Unlimited, where he produced concerts and runway shows for the brand. He also handled all music programming for Ecko’s over 50 retail locations and showrooms. Perhaps one of his greatest achievements during this time was working on the scoring and music supervision for Marc Ecko’s “Getting Up” video game, which went on to win an MTV Video Music Award in 2006.

“I just love the idea of creating stories out of music and making people feel good with really great vibes through selecting only the best songs for each and every moment," Neil explains. "I’m still so excited when i find a bunch of new tunes I love so much, all I want to do is share them with the world.”

Neil “curates” with his mixes -  tastes are vast and span a spectrum from classic R&B/soul, jazz, reggae/dub/dancehall to house, downtempo/trip-hop, disco, indie-dance, hip-hop and beyond. His range of interests, knowledge and passion for the music continued to define his particular style, as he took on a role as a resident DJ and curator for the Brooklyn-based start-up Legitmix - an online destination for people to buy and sell remixes. Neil began to connect the company with the music industry’s major players, from executives to artists, partnering Legitmix and Diplo for the collaborative project “Mad Legit.”

Neil's massive musical knowledge continues to grow, powering his unique ability to assess a client’s needs and help them find a sound that defines their specific identity. Some call it "Audio Architecture" - Neil just calls it being Nice.

~ Theo Bark (December 2015) 

More Mixes Here: https://www.mixcloud.com/extraNiceNess/

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