Few Hispanics have had electronic dance music careers as fruitful and influential as that of DJ/producer Erick Morillo. Born in Colombia and raised in Union City, New Jersey, the house music veteran began DJing in his teens. By the early '90s, he was experimenting with provocative genre-bending fusions of house, Afro-Latin rhythms, hip-hop, and reggae — not unlike his renowned peer and collaborator, Little Louie Vega of Masters at Work. Morillo has since gone on to top charts worldwide for more than two decades under various monikers, including Minister De La Funk, the Dronez, RAW, Smooth Touch, and Reel 2 Reel, whose 1993 hit, "I Like to Move It," has become one of the most recognizable dance staples on the planet.
After the massive commercial cross-over success of Reel 2 Reel, Morillo founded Subliminal Records in order to get back to his underground roots. But that would hardly keep the producer in obscurity for long, because Da Mob, a new collaborative effort with José Nuñez and Carlos Sosa, would score a number one Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play hit in 1998 with "Fun." The late '00s have seen the always in-demand DJ hold court at the world's most popular big-room venues, including Le Palais in Cannes, Ministry of Sound in London, and the Pacha franchises in Ibiza, Barcelona, and New York. He's no stranger to Miami, or to the extravagant jet-setter environs of LIV, where he'll return with more big-room house fare this Saturday.
