DJ Buddha

DJ Buddha
Background information
Birth nameUrales Vargas
Born (1980-03-15) March 15, 1980 (age 44)
Genres
Occupations
  • Disc jockey
  • record producer
  • songwriter
  • A&R
  • music publisher
  • radio personality
  • record executive
Instruments
LabelsTherapist Music

Urales Vargas (born March 15, 1980), known professionally as DJ Buddha, is an American DJ, record producer, radio personality, music publisher, and record executive from Lawrence, Massachusetts.

In 2015, Buddha was enshrined into the Lawrence Boys & Girls Clubs' Hall Of Fame.

Bridging the gap

Over the last few years, the urban music industry has seen an evolution bridging together forms of music from the streets from different cultures, including hip hop, R&B, Jamaican reggae and Latin music. Within this movement, DJ Buddha has also developed and evolved into becoming an integral player in the future expansion of these genres. Buddha was associated with team, La Favela, in the form of a mixtape and a movement called "Caribbean Connection," which delivered a continuous mix of Dancehall reggae and reggaetón. Along with the "Caribbean Connection" and ‘Tropical Heat" series, he has created hundreds of mixtapes which were critically acclaimed in various articles from: Fader, Rolling Stone, NY Times, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Miami Herald, Ozone Magazine, MTV.com, Billboard.com, etc. DJ Buddha has showcased his talent, performing in 6 out of 7 continents. He has also recently released a mix album titled "Ultra.Latino" which hit #2 on iTunes[1] Latin within the 1st week of its release date. His creativity and gift of music, is what helps him continue to bring forth new, improved and different sounds.

Collaborations

DJ Buddha soon began building relationships with the artists whose music he had been promoting. He worked alongside reggae artist, Mighty Mystic in which he began creating records and collaborating with other reggae artists such as Mr. Easy, Tantro Metro & Devonte, Mr. Vegas, Red Rat, and T.O.K. It was when he met dancehall reggae group, T.O.K. that he became their official DJ for about 6 years. While on the road with T.O.K., Buddha created the remix for "Gal Yuh A Lead", featuring T.O.K., Beenie Man, & Nina Sky, which was one of his first songs to gain major airplay. He also created two different promotional mixtape samplers of T.O.K and Lady Saw for reggae indie label VP Records.

He has worked on remixes with other artists like Pitbull, Daddy Yankee, Machel Montano, Lil Jon, N.O.R.E., etc. In 2004 Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina" was remixed by DJ Buddha, featuring Cuban-American rapper, Pitbull and N.O.R.E., and first appeared on Caribbean Connection Volume 2. It was a smash hit. Later that summer, Lil Jon mixed his own vocals to the remix, which was featured on his Crunk Juice album. In 2005 he teamed up with Pitbull again on "She's Hotter Remix" featuring T.O.K. He later became Pitbull's official DJ and joined him on the road for the next 6 years.

Buddha has been a part of the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson's Bad album, doing the 2012 edit of Bad with Afrojack & Pitbull. Also co-produced with Marc Kinchen & Big Syphe the theme song for the Men In Black 3 film, titled "Back In Time". Buddha recently (2014) won a grammy for his work on the song Echa Pa'lla (Manos Pa'rriba) - Pitbull featuring Papayo.

In 2016, Buddha was the music supervisor to the Nick Cannon directed feature film, King of the Dancehall (film).

2017, Buddha released his first single with dancehall artist Munga, titled WAAR, which has over 15 million streams on Spotify.

Discography

Mixtape

Tracks (produced, written or remixed)

Albums (appeared on or produced)

Publications

References

  1. ^ iTunes - Music - Ultra.Latino (Mixed By DJ Buddha) by DJ Buddha
  2. ^ The New York Times > Arts > Music > Critic's Choice: New CD's
  3. ^ "Boston Globe Archive". Pqasb.pqarchiver.com. 2005-04-16. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved 2014-08-08.
  4. ^ "ProQuest Archiver: Titles". Pqasb.pqarchiver.com. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012. Retrieved 2014-08-08.
  5. ^ DJ Buddha of Boston | La Favela Mixtape | LatinRapper.com