Freaky Flow is the stage name of Stephen Grey[1] a drum and bass and hip hop DJ, who started his career in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, but now resides in Los Angeles, California, USA. He has dual citizenship in the United States and Canada.
Grey has also been known to include music from other genres in his DJ sets, ranging from Fleetwood Mac to Don Henley. He is the owner of Freaky Flow Recordings[2] (a division of Freaky Flow Entertainment Group), the record label that released the Canadian electronic music group, The Heavy Petters (often billed as "Freaky Flow Presents: The Heavy Petters"[2]).
Globally, having released six mix CDs in total, Freaky Flow has sold more drum and bass mix albums than any other Canadian DJ.[3] Within Canada, Freaky Flow has sold more drum and bass mix albums than any other DJ from anywhere in the world,[4] including the best-selling drum and bass mix album ever released in Canada, Obscene Underground – Volume 1: Freaky Flow (often referred to as “Tits”, due to the album artwork, which bares this word on the front of it[5]), which has sold over 20,000 units in Canada (and was not widely released outside of Canada).[4]
Freaky Flow has performed in over ten countries, including Canada,[6] the United States,[7] Japan,[8] Slovenia,[9] and others. He is also currently sponsored by gsus sindustries, a clothing company,[10] and represented by Circle Management, a DJ booking agency.[11]
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Freaky Flow was born Stephen Grey, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in 1977. With his parents, he relocated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1979. While attending high school, he began to DJ as a hobby, and eventually, as a career, even while earning a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Toronto. In 2009, he moved to Los Angeles, California, USA.
“...The way I got Freaky Flow was when I first started spinning anything, it was hip-hop. Then drum and bass caught my attention and I started getting into that. I heard drum and bass, but even as I heard it for the first time, I was still feeling like hip-hop could be incorporated into it.
Now this was six, seven years ago, when hip-hop and jungle blending together was just an unheard of thing. The two scenes were separate and segregated, and people didn't want to mix the two crowds. Hip-hop purists were just as bad as jungle purists. Hip-hop purists didn't want drum and bass invading their territory, and junglists had this misconception that all hip-hop jams are violent, and all hip-hop lyrics were violent.
But I like the energy of hip-hop and I started mixing that into drum and bass, and the crowd took really well to it. But other key figures didn't. They didn't like the fact that I was doing this.
So my flow was different. And I was labled [sic] a freak. Hence, Freaky Flow. Additionally, there was also that Jeru the Damaga [sic] song "Come Clean," where he happens to say those two words together, back-to-back and I thought, ‘Oh, that's great, I can scratch with that.’”[12]
In 1993, Freaky Flow first began DJing mainly at house parties and small events.
In 1995, Freaky Flow was “introduced” at the very first Liquid Adrenaline event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[13]
In 1995, Freaky Flow released his first DJ mix tape, entitled Music To Make You Freak – Volume 1. In the years that followed, Freaky Flow released seven additional mixes, in audio cassette form, prior to releasing his first CD in 1999.
In 1997, Freaky Flow launched Placebo Recordings (a subsidiary of Stickman Records) with MC Flipside, and The Stickmen. The label produced three vinyl records.[14]
In 1999, Freaky Flow released his first DJ mix CD, entitled Obscene Underground – Volume 1: Freaky Flow (often referred to as “Tits”, due to the album artwork, which bares this word on the front of it[5]), which has sold over 20,000 units in Canada (and was not widely released outside of Canada).[4] To date, this is the highest-selling drum and bass mix album ever released in Canada.
In 2001, Freaky Flow was signed to Moonshine Music (which had also released mix albums by DJ Keoki, D:Fuse, DJ Micro, AK1200, DJ Baby Anne, DJ Dara, Cirrus, Anabolic Frolic, Ferry Corsten, and others).[15] That same year, on Moonshine Music, he released his first mix CD outside of Canada, entitled World Domination.[16]
In 2002, Freaky Flow released another album on Moonshine Music, entitled Keep It Live, his first ever commercially released live recording. The album is hosted by MC Flipside, and was recorded at an event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[17]
In 2004, Freaky Flow released the album The Envy, on New York label, Topaz Records.[18]
In 2005, Freaky Flow independently released another mix CD, entitled Flashback, featuring only songs that he had written, co-written, or remixed since the start of his career.[19]
In 2007, Freaky Flow launched a new record label, Freaky Flow Recordings. That same year, the label released the debut album of the Canadian electronic music group, The Heavy Petters (often billed as Freaky Flow Presents: The Heavy Petters[2]). The album was entitled Smell The Glove.[2] Freaky Flow served as Executive Producer.
In 2009, Freaky Flow released the mix album The Furious Factor on New York’s Moist Music, as a joint-venture with Furious Records. This album was a retrospective mix compilation made up entirely of notable releases on Toronto-based drum and bass label, Furious Records.[20]
In 2011, Freaky Flow continued his Volume mix series (the last of which was Volume 008, several years earlier), with two new mixes, Volume 009 and Volume 010, both given away free online.[21]
