DJ Sega on real life and the religion of the dancefloor

The internationally known and locally cherished spinner, artist and producer, Philly's Robert Taylor Jr., felt all too human when he put out the word this spring that he and his family needed help.

PLAY STRONG: DJ Sega will play the Mad Decent Block Party Afterparty at Union Transfer on Friday.
Neal Santos

They’ve got fingers faster than turntables and the ability to make a dance floor leap with the flick of a finger on a laptop, but DJs aren’t superheroes.

DJ Sega knows it. 

The internationally known and locally cherished spinner, artist and producer, Philly’s Robert Taylor Jr., felt all too human when he put out the word this spring that he and his family needed help. 

After nearly 10 years of caring for his physically disabled mother and uncle, the city of Philadelphia had condemned the Taylor family house in West Philly. Sega had to move their belongings overnight. 

“I became DJ Sega in that house, and I’m on my 10th anniversary of being that character, but taking care of my family comes first,” says the DJ, 27, while en route to Baltimore for a gig. “I got to hold my head up and keep moving.”

Real life isn’t something you hear much about from those who make clubs tracks their living. They’ve got images to maintain as 24-hour party people. But all that frivolity is small in comparison to the drudgery of the everyday. 

Sega’s self-titled “Philly Club” style offers a way out. His dance music — singles like “Ghetto Hokey Pokey,” his Sixer Series volumes, his Angels and Demonz EP and his new HollaSonix Collection — has real soul, and shows off a human element few artists in the dance business possess. 

“Most mixers and producers are working with a blueprint,” says Sega. “But the human element in my music? I’m glad you asked. I don’t want to get all mystical here, but I think my music is about struggle, is about soul, is about that which you cannot see.” 

Sega’s not just talking about the problems he’s having taking care of his mom and his uncle. They’re currently living in a hotel, while he moves from place-to-place until their legal woes are settled. His troubles started much earlier, at Philly’s Martin Luther King High School (“the worst in the city, but I got through it”), his father’s addiction problems and the loss of his grandmother. 

Just last month, his pal Diplo sent and then deleted a tweet that basically called Sega a bum (without naming names). “He drew first blood with that, but I don’t have time for drama. See, all the energy that you have that makes you want to hit somebody — not anger, just feeeeeelings — is what I put into each track. It’s a spiritual thing too, because when you channel that emotion into music, you can call that God, you can call it magic or you can call it soul.”

(Anyway, the blood can’t be too bad, since Sega’s playing Diplo’s Mad Decent Block Party’s after-party on Friday.)

Whether it comes from his churchy upbringing and deep spiritual roots in his community or from the sonic vibe of a rich range of influences, soul is the biggest part of Sega’s deep, bass-heavy “Philly Club” sound, a brand name he coined to differentiate himself from the brassy “Baltimore Club” sound and the commercial “Jersey Club” sound. 

“It’s all club,” he says with a laugh. “Making the music is escape, tuning my environment inside-out to produce tracks — that’s what gives me my energy.” 

Everything that you hear from Sega, every original track or remix, there’s a story behind it. Take “Runaway,” Sega’s Kanye West Philly Club remix. “I was going through problems with a girlfriend where she thought I was a player — and I’m not a player in the game, I am the game — it coincided with what was going on with Kanye’s song.” With lyrics about “having me a good girl/ And still be addicted to them hood-rats,” Sega wrapped the feelings he was having about his troubled relationship (“man, I wanted her to run away,”) and created a remix with the same power and passion West had in his track. This is what Sega does.

For his new mixtapes/EP series, the HollaSonix Collection — “Don’t slip and call it Hollertronix or you’ll have lawyers on your ass,” he says, recalling the Diplo parties where Sega once spun — Sega is returning to the sound that made him famous: a metal/punk mix that’s hotter than hell in his mind. “I know the secret no black man is supposed to know, that heavy metal is the sound of those whose souls are wandering the earth.” 

Sometimes superheroes use their power for evil, and soul moves in mysterious ways.

Mad Decent Block Party, Fri., Aug. 8, 3 p.m., $40, Festival Pier, 121 N. Columbus Blvd., maddecentblockparty.com; Mad Decent Block Party Afterparty with Mad Decent All Stars, Fri., Aug. 8, 10 p.m., $25, Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., 215-232-2100, utphilly.com.