Rony Seikaly

Rony Seikaly is known for his spinning moves around the opposing team’s defense on
the basketball court. These skills garnered him the nickname, “The Spin Doctor.” In the
last few years Seikaly has become known for a different kind of spinning: Music.
The former NBA superstar is not new to music or DJing. Since the age of 14, Seikaly
has had a music room in any home he has lived in. Here, Seikaly plays music for friends,
parties, gatherings, birthdays. Any type of event, and Seikaly is the one behind the
decks. The more friends and friends of friends were exposed to Seikaly’s talents, the
more he was encouraged to share his DJing skills and selection with the public. Two
years ago, Seikaly was convinced to play out for fun, and the DJ rollercoaster ride has
not stopped.
“Sports will always be my love. But music will always be my passion,” Seikaly—now an
in-demand DJ and producer—states.
Seikaly’s music background is diverse. This is apparent n his DJing style. Growing up on
everything from the Police to Genesis to KISS, Seikaly’s family regularly exposed him to
classical music. Seikaly has moved with the times embracing disco at its peak during his
teenage years, moving to R&B and early hip hop from LL Cool J to Kurtis Blow in the
‘80s and early ‘90s, and developing a kinship for electronic music through all its
developing stages.
Speaking knowledgeably about various musical eras, Seikaly has an inherent
understanding for the music that has inspired him and influenced his unique style.
Dubbed “Rony Style” by such electronic music heavyweights as Erick Morillo, Seikaly
himself loosely defines it as “happy underground.”
“It’s underground in the sense that it’s not music you are going to hear on the radio,”
Seikaly explains. “But it is also not music that is going to scare you away. It is happy,
sexy club music.”
Driving, high energy, and most of all uplifting, Seikaly’s passion for the music is threaded
through his seamless mixes. Drawing from all the genres he is intimately acquainted with
and the DJs whose methods he admires, Seikaly brings in the best of the best. Touches
of trance-inflected melody lines, dynamic tribal rhythms, subtle yet memorable vocals, a
soulful vibe, and an ever present body-shaking beat all figure into Seikaly’s sets. In the
course of an evening, one can experience a little bit of Morillo, Danny Tenaglia, Pete
Tong, Sven Vath, Behrouz, Paul Oakenfold, Sasha, and Digweed in a Seikaly helmed
nightclub.
“Each of those DJs has a distinct style,” Seikaly says of the abovementioned influences.
“You could walk into a place with your eyes closed and know who is playing. My style is
a fusion of all those things.”
Pete Tong named Seikaly as one of the most underrated DJs of the year in DJ Times
Magazine’s 2009 Top 100 DJs, stating that Seikaly was “on fire.”