Phil K Swift began collecting 12-inch dance records in 1980, “When ‘Rappers delight’ hit my ears it became such a life changing song for me: from Roller skating, to choice of friends, and wearing clothes that were de rigueur … it made me forget all about rock n roll. I can still remember Chic’s “Le Freak” blaring in my parents’ car, dad was snapping his fingers, my brother was boppin’ his head – and he was a rock n roller, even he couldn’t resist the guitar of Nile Rodgers. And to bolster my enthusiasm “Soul Train” was emanating from the tube every weekend, which certainly solidified the hook that disco music had on me. 
Phil began hanging out at the roller rinks where he learned about Michael Jackson, (BEFORE the album “Thriller” was released) Prince, Frankie goes to Hollywood, and Rick James – just to name a few which further developed his love for dance music. As an avid listener of the now world famous WBMX FM and the “Hotmix 5” radio mix show, Phil began avariciously collecting dance records, just for the fun of it. Such genres included Disco, Italo Disco aka HI NRG, house music (before they called it House music (such as: First Choice – Let no man put asunder or Harlold Melvin and the Bluenotes), Freestyle, and Break beats, which we called B-boy jams back then or just “the mixes”
Once the break-dance scene emerged (or should I call it the B-boy scene to not offend the devout) in 1983 via a TV show called PM Magazine (at least for Phil that was how it started), Phil’s vinyl addiction only intensified as he kept up with Break boy; rap and hip hop jams. “ … but by 1985, even the breakers were dancing to house music in Chicago … that’s how big house music had become, all of us breakers wanted to hear Chip E.s “Its house” or “Time to jack” Which became Phil’s new vinyl addiction. 
“4 track home studio recorded House music: the essence of Chicago house music was the new sound at that time.” according to Phil. The house music scene in Chicago was larger than life and now we all know that it was actually a worldwide phenomenon. Thank you Frankie Knuckles RIP. While we are at it, we should also thank Robert Williams, David Mancuso and Larry Levan for house music; at least indirectly (in Phil’s opinion.) 
Breakin’ started to fizzle out in Chicago by the summer of 1985, so the next logical step for Phil was to buy Technic 1200 turntables. And life hasn’t been the same for him and his fans ever since. 
Phil had a love for Trickin’, scratchin’, and mixin’ which certainly stemmed from his B-boy days of the early 80’s.Now as a DJ, Phil focused on: Chicago house music, Deep house music, which was the kind of music that Frankie Knuckles played at “The Warehouse” in Chicago where “house music” got its name from, Freestyle, and Detroit techno collectively became Phil’s music styles of choice throughout the late 80’s but at any given DJ set Phil was likely to sneak in some Italo Disco or B-boy rap into the mix and maybe even a pop jam; “you see, that’s the thing … house music isn’t just one genre, its anything funkiliscous with groovitude.”
In 1987 Phil and his friends began throwing their own underground dance parties. At the Elks club (where Phil DJ-ed along the side of Mike “Hitman” Wilson, who was a guest at the party), Holiday Inns, basements, or apartment banquet halls. 
”Later they called them raves. We just called them “house music dance parties” Same thing – different name. Of the people who chose to use spirits: “they used X at raves but our 80’s crowd drank booze and four twentied in the parking lot, but the common denominator with both of these scenes was DJ’s and dance music.”
By age 17, This led to Phil acquiring residencies at two teen clubs in Chicagoland: Sensation Teen club and Odyssey One where Phil DJ-ed along with Bad Boy Bill who was a guest at the club, along with countless underground dance parties throughout Chicago and the suburbs, “When I was in high school DJ guest spots were coming in left and right and I didn’t even know where they were coming from my name would just appear on flyers; how these promoters knew my name in all of these other towns I still don’t know, the grapevine, I guess but gigs just kept coming in and I kept showing up to DJ.” (check out Phil’s vintage flyer pictures online)
In 1990 Phil K Swift entered his first World DJ battle; the DMC Midwest American finals held at the Riviera nightclub in Chicago. Where he ranked in the top 9 in all of the Midwest. 
In 1992 Phil was crowned first place in TOTOs battle of the DJ’s which was a well publicized DJ battle all throughout Chicago radio waves, “anybody within earshot of B96 for the 6 week span knew about the battle and all you had to do was show up and enter if you dared … I dared and I won.”
3 months later Phil placed 2nd in the B96 Chicago mixer search of 1993 at the China Club in Chicago; thousands of DJ’s entered. (See video Clip of the battle) This led to a mix cassette and CD called “The Final 6” which showcased the final 6 contestants of the B96 mixer search, that sold over 7000 copies at last count. DJ Bobby D was the distributor behind that production. A side note: Phil did guest scratches on Bobby D.’s famous “Edit Crazy” cassette and CD series. 
After both of those DJ battles Phil K Swift launced his own mix cassette empire, selling thousands Chicago-wide. 
1997 through 2000 Phil had residencies at Zero Gravity Teen club, Metropolis in Merrillville IN. nightclub, and Elixir nightclub in Rockford IL. The music that was played at these clubs was “Progressive House music” which became a part of Phil’s repertoire for three years while Phil tried to sneak in as much funky disco house and old school Chicago house as possible, which went against the clubs format ultimately leading to Phil’s decision to migrate into the rave scene.
Phil released a series of double mix CD’s, which included Progressive House Excursion Volume One and Progressive House Volume Two. After the realization that this music wasn’t a part of Phil’s true vibe within his soul, he left these Progressive house clubs and subsequently released, “Funky House Excursion volume Three; Disco house for the disco ducks.” This became very popular within the Chicago, Rockford, Madison, and Bloomington-Normal Rave crowds and earned Phil weekly rave gigs with Brilliantly Mad crew, Daynk method productions and others throughout the 2000’s. 
Phil K Swift and Mark Imperial (“The love I lost” and “J’adoor Danser”) have been friends since the mid eighties not only did they throw events in the 80’s but they teamed up again in the early part of the 2000’s and threw a few “Hip” parties for “fun.” “House Nation Records” Guests included: Junior Vasquez and Frankie Bones– both were sold out events and the doors were closed at pack point. 
Phil released more Double mix CD compilations titled: Underground Summer 2001, 80’s Old School mixes which was mainly Italo Disco-HI NRG and New York club jams, and Double Freestyle Fantasy, which was more or less released as an archive treat for his old school fans.
The Six Double mix CD sets sold over 14,000 copies from 2000 through 2007 but in the wake of music downloading Phil has put a halt to mix compilation releases and urges his fans to go see him LIVE to get their Phil K Swift fix. 
Live DJ in Phil’s vernacular means Two turntables, records, and a mixer 
Phil K Swift in 2005 was brought down to Atlanta GA by FF entertainment now known as “1200 Hustle”,” Ralph and Louie Atlanta”, and Iris promotion. In August of 2005 Phil opened up for B.T. at the Tabernacle (the old House of Blues building) and by serendipity all eyes were on Phil as happenstance would have it Phil was on the stage that was supposed to be occupied by BT at that moment but instead Phil was occupying the spotlight. (Read more about that story in Phil’s upcoming Blog. Link coming soon) 
In 2007 Electric Love promotions brought Phil’s sounds to Orlando FL at The Peacock room for a packed crowd of Party people that were delighted to finally be exposed to Real Chicago house music. 
Phil has DJ-ed with: Bad Boy Bill, BT, Mark Imperial, Mixin’ Marc, Alex Peace, Tony Arzadon, Frankie Bones, Junior Vasquez, Mike “Hitman” Wilson, and Lego … just to name a few. 
Phil’s music style is eclectic funky and groovy disco with diversified delectable dance music that can’t be labeled old school or new school or this genre or that genre. Phil’s Groove aka “Swift’s Groove” is sure to Funk, groove, and bang you all night long with bump in your rump. And make you jack your body in front of everybody; no holds barred. Experiencing Phil K Swift makes one understand what Chicago House music is all about. 
Phil’s INSTRUMENT OF CHOICE has and always will be TECHNIC 1200 TURNTABLES “The warmth, the mystique, the mood, and the meaning behind a DJ who still mixes with REAL VINYL RECORDS is unmatched compared to this new breed of ‘music mixers’ that use CD’s or Laptops. When a DJ is mixing on turntables, you are always aware of the fact that the mix is being done live. There is no guess work, it’s all right in front of you.”
During the Twenty tens Phil has been working on some clandestine projects that are set to be released by Jan of 2015 Plus, Phil has been setting up parties and club nights throughout Chicago, Atlanta, and New York, TBA, for the upcoming year of 2014. He is preparing the way for a re-emergence of the disco scene in Chicagoland with Phil K Swift at the helm.
As Phil says, as he quotes LL COOL J., “DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK … I’VE BEEN HERE FOR YEARS …” Peace, Love, and Dancing! THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

For booking or other enquiries
Dj.Johnny.Rawton@gmail.com

Rachael Ray in the streets
Gordon Ramsay in the sheets

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