Marques Wyatt

Marques Wyatt grew up in Santa Monica, California, raised on jazz, psychedelic funk, and soul through his father and older siblings, and came up as a skateboarder soaking in Southern California's rock soundtrack. A 1985 trip to New York changed his path, exposing him to Danceteria, The Loft, Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage, and Frankie Knuckles at The World.

He started out as a promoter rather than a DJ, working as the LA representative for the UK label Acid Jazz and helping break Jamiroquai and Digable Planets in the US. In 1987 he threw Mac's Garage, an underground party that ran two years and helped set the stage for LA's rave scene, and from 1992 to 1999 he held a residency at the after-hours staple Does Your Mama Know.

In 1998 he launched DEEP at Hollywood's Viper Room, a Sunday house night that ran continuously for over a decade and drew guests including Louie Vega, David Morales, Kerri Chandler, and Mark Farina, later expanding to San Francisco and New York. Around the same time he held a multi-year residency at San Francisco's Release, and played the official Grammy Awards after-party in 2000 and 2001.