Born Darrick Taylor and raised on Chicago's West Side, DJ Dagwood fell in love with house music at 13 at the legendary Playground club on 13th & Michigan Ave. "My life changed the day I saw Jesse Saunders and Farley 'Funkin' Keith DJing there." From that moment, his mission was clear: to become a DJ and play house music.

He learned to spin and produce alongside a league of Chicago pioneers — DJ Fast Eddie, DJ Paul Johnson, Tyree Cooper, Larry "Mr. Fingers" Heard, Robert Owens, K. Alexi Shelby, Traxman and Jammin Gerald — developing a signature sound shaped by the emerging Hip House movement. But the groove never stopped at the city limits: he carried Chicago's fast jacking energy south, becoming a "Dirty South Mixtape Legend" on the Atlanta & Birmingham circuit.