As an 11 year old , Mista Sinista’s first influence was the sound of his father who was a DJ spinning old breaks in his house. Mista Sinista officially started DJing in 1986. He was mentored by Dr Butcher and is a pioneer of beat juggling. He joined the X-Men in 1992. He then competed and placed in several DJ competitions including the DMC DJ competition and won 1st place in 1995. Throughout the next couple of years, he gained a reputation for being one of the best tour and scratch deejays in the world. Mista Sinista began to partake in the recording of the X-Men’s debut album X-Pressions on Asphodel Records. Around the time of this release, some of the X-Men working on X-Pressions, including Sinista, renamed themselves the X-ecutioners. With the critical success of this album, as well as the growing buzz of the crew, the X-ecutioners secured a recording deal on Loud/Sony. The album Built From Scratch was finally released in February 2002, and was viewed as a groundbreaking album for turntablism. Soon after, Mista Sinista left the group to pursue several ventures, including his own solo debut album. He has since rejoined fellow X-ecutioners member Rob Swift to form the Odd Couple and has since released two albums under the Odd Couple name. Mista Sinista toured the world several times with the X-ecutioners and was a tour DJ for Common, Beatnuts, Joe Fatal and Lauryn Hill just to name a few. Some of his album credits include The Beatnuts Street Level LP, Common Resurrection LP which are viewed as some of the best cuts ever recorded on a Hip-Hop album. His work was also highlighted on Fat Joe’s sophomore release, Jealous One’s Envy. He continues to perform worldwide and is featured on The Rewind with DJ Safire which airs weekly on Beatminerz Radio.
