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Armando Saafir was at a wedding when he noticed he had a knack for suggesting the right songs to the DJ that had people rushing to the dance floor.
That was back when Saafir was in high school. Now the 23-year-old goes by the name DJay Mando. And less than a year after graduating from UW-Madison with a marketing degree, he has become an established presence in the local club scene. In the past year, he’s gone into overdrive, rocking crowds at both Summerfest and Freakfest as well as touring with local emcee and friend Lucien Parker to cities throughout the Midwest and even flying over to Amsterdam to play a festival.
“I’m getting paid to do what I love to do,” he says. “This is a blessing.”
But it’s not his humility that has the crowds seeking out his sets — it’s his amped-up stage presence. Mando is one of the most lively, energetic DJs to bounce, dance, shake and stage dive off into the crowd that the city has seen.
Originally from Milwaukee, Saafir is the son of a percussionist father and a dancer mother. He is 6’4” and a natural showman, always dressed in a hat and backpack. He steps out from behind the DJ booth every chance he gets while spinning hip-hop, Latin and electronic music because he wants to make memories.
“A lot of DJs just sink into their headphones. I can’t do that,” says Mando. “I feed off people’s energy. There’s no time to be shy, no time to be nervous. People will remember me because I engage them.”
He tells stories that lead into songs and leads call-and-response sessions, encouraging the crowd to finish lyrics and sing along. “If I get bored, everyone else is going to get bored,” he adds. “There’s so much more to this than just playing song after song after song.”
Mando, who hosted a show for three years called Dirty Money on WSUM, UW’s college station, has big plans to keep elevating his game. “I want to travel internationally through music [and] I want all my friends who make music to experience that same feeling that I’ve had where thousands of people are out there for you.”
To do this, he knows he has to keep expanding his skill set, so he’s adding music production and rapping to his repertoire. “When you say you’re a DJ, people already assume you’re a producer too, especially in hip-hop,” says Mando, who’s managed by Strange Oasis Entertainment. “So, it’s time for this progression, time to add these elements. I want to go into the clubs, play some other music and then some of my own, too.”
As a DJ, he’s opened for Waka Flocka Flame, IshDARR, Freddie Gibbs, Lil Uzi Vert, among others. A big hit for him recently was September’s “Drake Night” at the Orpheum Theatre, where he mixed hours of jams from the Canadian emcee. Though it started as a one-off, he says “it looks like it will become a series” because of Drake’s many crowd-driving, dance-inducing hits.
Aside from his raw, on-stage energy, there’s another thing that sets Mando apart from many other DJs: he doesn’t drink or smoke. “Y’all can turn up,” he says. “I’ll be there to play the music.”
DJay Mando is scheduled to compete in a DJ battle Dec. 7 with DJ Boyfrrriend in the Memorial Union’s Fredric March Play Circle Theater.
