DJ Riz, a.k.a. Joseph Rizzo is a Brooklyn born and bred All-American boy. In high school, the budding DJ played baseball, football, and basketball. His parents, having bought him his first turntable when he was fourteen, thought that DJing would be a passing hobby. Little did they know that their star athlete son’s passion for electronic music was growing rapidly, soon to take off.
Rizzo got into radio DJing in college, working on the 5” Hip Hop show at Hofstra and “The Hip Hop Spot” at Adelphi University. Then he moved over to WNYU in 1995, teaming up with Mayhem and DJ Eclipse for the shows “N.Y. Live” and “The Halftime Show”.
Riz’s work took him to touring with MC Search and appearing on The Arsenio Hall Show. As an original member of Funkmaster Flex’s “Flip Squad” DJs, he also had a lot of guest DJ spots on commercial radio.
He’s since DJed all over New York and the Tri-State area. He does frequent gigs in Las Vegas, Miami, and Cancun, as well as touring internationally. As far as production goes, he does a lot of work with his friend and partner in production DJ Sizzahandz under the name Crooklyn Clan.
Since beginning his career in 1985, DJ Riz has won DJ battles, produced world-famous party tracks (e.g. “Be Faithful” on AV8 Records), played celebrity events for the likes of Mike Tyson and Heidi Klum, and DJed huge parties from Miami to Hong Kong.
DJ Riz continues to spin house and progressive house tracks that will get anybody moving on a dance floor around the world. Look for his heavily hip hop influenced styles at every major event in Manhattan, Las Vegas, and Miami. Riz has been a force to be reckoned with for almost thirty years, and he’s not going away anytime soon.
