DJ Tomas

Tomas Palermo, a Bay Area native, started as a high school radio DJ in 1986 before hosting a reggae and dancehall show on KXLU while attending college in Los Angeles. He began playing LA reggae and hip-hop clubs in 1989, and in 1992 founded the Monday night Umoja Jazz N' Ragga Lounge with DJ Daz, which grew into the six-person Umoja Hi-Fi Soundsystem the following year alongside Daz, Jun, Culture D, and Cokni O'Dire.

He also drummed in the noise band Slug from 1988 to 2005, founded the LA clubs B-Side and Goa Dub in 1994, and was profiled in Rolling Stone and Option magazine in 1995. He moved back to the Bay Area in 1996, working in San Francisco record stores before becoming an editor at XLR8R magazine, and produces music as Double Identity and Dub I.D. for his own label, Voltage Music, which he co-founded with Andrew Smith.