About Me
My father was a respected Jazz trumpeter in the Washington DC area and played with a lot of legends from the East and West Coasts. From birth, I was raised on Be Bop and was named Morgan after the famous trumpet player Lee Morgan. When my brother and I would spend the weekends with him, sometimes he would take us to Baltimore and have us sit in on his bands sets at Bertha's, where they had a residency for over 20 years. Around the time of my fifth birthday, I heard Hip Hop for the first time and it changed me forever. By the time I turned 10, I was working all sorts of jobs - from mowing lawns to washing cars - and my money was spent on food, tapes and CD's.I ended up gravitating towards producers with a sound that gave me a certain feeling like Pete Rock, DJ Premier, Diamond D, Da Beatminerz, Erick Sermon, Jay Dee (Dilla), The Bomb Squad, Large Professor, The Rza, DJ Muggs, etc. I spent years accumulating all sorts of Hip Hop in standard formats, and when I got a set of Technics 1200's in 1998, I began buying all the Hip Hop and Drum N' Bass vinyl I could afford. An old friend gave me the DJ Moniker "Professor M" since I was always trying to put people on to the music that moved me. That same year, I was introduced to and eventually put on by DJ Kelt One (R.I.P.) and spun regularly at his Tuesday night party, called Power Moves, at Kaffa House on U Street. It was the best DJing experience I've had to this day (picture St. Andrews on 8th Mile).
Like all major cities, the DC area started going through gentrification which forced the clubs I lived in to get torn down or go out of business. As a result, Raw Hip Hop wasn't in demand at the remaining venues that stood the test of time. So instead of quitting, I decided to take it a step further. I've always had an ear for music, even when I was just a fan, I had ideas for tracks playing in my head. This led me, in 2001, to focus on learning the production side of Hip Hop.
In 2005 my friend Oscar brought his MPC 2000XL to my house and played me some of his tracks. We started getting together almost every night to work on music while he showed me the ins and outs of the machine. I started buying vinyl from all over the spectrum and fell in love with chopping samples. My bedroom, in the addition of a house I was living in turned into our studio. Life happened, he had to focus on being a Father and I eventually bought my own MPC which got me even deeper into it. For years I've worked a day job(s) while in my spare time I craft my own sound.
I'm from an era that's long gone and Hip Hop has been my life for a long time. I've accepted the responsibility of doing my part to keep this culture alive which has shaped my life. This includes crafting my own sound, supporting other artists I respect with dollars when they release projects, going to shows when they tour in my area and schooling younger people when I can. I've been through hell in life that most people aren't built to handle and survived things that kill others. No matter what, I've never given up on my passion. The Supreme Force that spoke everything into existence wouldn't have given me this drive or built me to persevere through this life unless there was something for me to do and music having to do with it.
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