ORLANDO, Fla. – From breakdancing to deejaying to producing music, DJ Chino does it all.
He has roots in Orlando, but that’s not where it all began. DJ Chino, a.k.a. Valdemar Crame, was born in the Philippines before moving to Maui when he was 7 years old.
Five years later he was on the move again, this time to Florida. It was in Orlando where his parents found good job opportunities and decided to move their family.
Chino found a love for dancing during his teen years.
“Being Filippino and breakdancing they go together” he said.
He recalled making a dance group called Mind 180 with his brother Chet.
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“He was one of the best break-dancers in the city and we went to dance battles with like 20-30 dancers and it was a lot of fun”, Chino said.
Although dancing was fun, Chino found himself focusing on the music. Often the flow in the club didn’t fit what a dancer was looking for. So he decided to change that.
“I said, ‘You know, what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna DJ for my group,’” he said.
Now, almost two decades in the music scene, the name DJ Chino is a staple. From throwing parties and learning from others, Chino said it was a lot of work.
“I really needed to learn from the best on the scene and at the time DJ Cesar, DJ Nasty, DJ Khaled, and DJ Prostyle, a lot of these guys that are now legends in the city helped me”, he said.
Known as the turntable dragon DJ Chino found himself at 102 JAMZ, a popular hip-hop and R&B station that coined Orlando “Jamlando”.
“They opened a lot of doors so I’m forever grateful to those guys for showing me the business, and now, you know, 20 years later, I’m still doing what I love,” Chino said.
Still on the scene, Chino does more than just local sets. Now he travels all over and is even sponsored by Pep Boys, traveling to throw corporate parties. Aside from deejaying, Chino has been producing music since 2000.
While doing that Chino kept remixing songs for his mix shows and landed a few official remixes for Atlantic Records.
“It wasn’t until 2018 when I started our electronic group Breikthru that we got our song ‘Brick by Brick’ signed with Brooklyn Fire Records,” Chino said.
That led to signing the electronic hit “Find Me” with Don Diablo’s label Hexagon.
“If you want to be a DJ, you love music, it’s a perfect job for you. You know, because as long as you love music, you will always make it to your finish line,” Chino said. “This Deejaying is actually about music more than it is a paycheck and I came into it because I love to DJ and I love music. All that other stuff will come along with it.”