Before he ever stepped foot in a DJ booth, Brad Williams (4Grand) had been known around his family’s house, high school sports practice, college fraternity parties and any other social gathering as the guy with the music - a signature combo of a cheap Dell laptop, a Bose sound dock and an iTunes playlist updated by the day. In January 2011, after seeing professional DJs in action, he asked his parents for a loan of 4000$ and obtained his first set of turntables and mixer. Thus the moniker DJ 4Grand was born - both as a token of thanks to his parents and a reminder to never forget those humble financial beginnings. After finishing at UC and spending a year in graduate school at Clemson, Brad chose to forego year two of the Masters program and return to Cincinnati to DJ in 2013 - transitioning what was once a hobby into a full fledged career. In the decade that followed, he has played in over sixty bars and clubs in the greater Cincinnati area, holding residencies through the years at some of the biggest venues in the city - Longworth’s Mt. Adams, Mynt Martini, Chapter Mt. Adams, Galla Park, Tin Roof, and for nearly seven years running, Mr. Pitiful’s in OTR. An additional twenty-plus sets were played away from home, at club and bar gigs (mixed with paint party concert tour stops) in Columbus (OH), Chicago (IL), Columbia (SC), Little Rock (AR), Put-In-Bay (OH), and more. Excluded from the aforementioned figures were also various corporate, birthday, greek life, senior citizen, bar crawl, and genre-focused (Latin, Funk, Oldies etc) events - and, of course, weddings. Brad played his first wedding in 2014 at the Madison Event Center, and a few each year following, preferring to keep them as a change of pace from the clubs and bars. However, just as DJing transformed from a hobby to a profession, so too did Brad’s interest in weddings over the following years, evolving from a change of pace place filler into the type of gig he enjoys the most.

 

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