Unless you're a resident of Cook County, you were probably confused as to who the gentleman was at the end of Kanye West's new record "Theraflu," shouting out all of the Chicago streets and neighborhoods. Well, for all those outside of the Chicagoland area, that's none other than the Heavy Hitter, DJ Pharris.
A triple O.G. in the Windy City, Pharris could be best described as Chicago's answer to Funkmaster Flex. His professional career kicked off in the late '80s as a house DJ on Chicago's WBMX radio station. He bounced around the Chicago urban radio circuit for a few years before finally landing at Power 92 ten years ago, where he's the mix-show director and graces the airwaves seven nights a week.
Pharris handles the coveted drive time 5pm slot, and hosts his own show, "Real Radio," which airs 10pm-2am nightly. He's also one of most renowned club DJs in the city, not to mention one of Diddy's official Ciroc Boyz.
Pharris is largely known as the first radio DJ to spin Kanye West in Chicago, and is also credited for helping break other noteworthy Chicago acts like Bump J and out-of-towners like Drake. In fact, if you look closely, you can see Pharris throughout Kanye's breakthrough video "Slow Jamz" (That's him standing behind Aisha Tyler at the poker table).
Besides working on Ye's upcoming album, Pharris is in the process of launching his own independent label, Loud Pack Records, which will release his long-awaited solo album, Loud Pack —a compilation in the vein of DJ Khaled's releases. 2 Chainz, R. Kelly, Ace Hood, Twista, Travis Porter and Future are all confirmed features. Pharris also recently co-produced "Parachute" from Future's upcoming album, featuring R. Kelly.
You can catch DJ Pharris on Power 92 (92.3 WPWX) Monday-Friday at 5pm. And Monday-Saturday 10pm-2am.
Written by Andrew Barber (@FakeShoreDrive)
