When LAX launched its Throwback Thursdays party, the Luxor club couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate DJ to anchor the fun. DJ R.O.B. has lived in Las Vegas since 1976, scored his first paid gig in 1982 and has played an integral part in the way Vegas sounds and dances since before there were nightclubs on the Strip.
“I was working black R&B clubs when I was 16 and 17 years old. I’d come home at 4 in the morning and then go right to school,” says the DJ/producer born Robert Hathcock. “Being a DJ then was a novelty. I was cutting and scratching and doing things I didn’t know existed elsewhere. The DJ is such a commodity now, but back then it was something people wanted to watch, seeing the DJ manipulate the vinyl.”
Times have changed—especially in Las Vegas—but R.O.B.’s skills remain in high demand. Besides performing, programming and consulting for various venues, he has produced top-rated Vegas radio shows, edited music for various productions and even finds time to lead his Funk All Stars band (from behind the drum kit) for special events and concerts.
When LAX execs approached R.O.B. about guest performers at Throwback Thursdays, he “came up with a list of artists from the ’90s and early 2000s, plus a little ’80s golden era, and they’ve used a lot of those names,” R.O.B. says. “It’s been working.” Appearances by Vanilla Ice, Kid ’n Play and others—blended with choreography from LAX’s “fly girls” dance squad—have turned it into a hot night. “And it’s not just hip-hop. It could be Spice Girls to Salt-N-Pepa—pardon the pun—or Backstreet Boys to NWA. That’s the gamut, and it’s working.” Throwback Thursdays with DJ R.O.B. at LAX at Luxor.
