Born in Newark, New Jersey, DJ Punch grew up surrounded by soulful music — his father was a drummer and his uncle played conga in an authentic big band.

In the mid-1970s he fell in with the DJs who taught him the craft: Disco Chuck, who worked with Richard Long; Kelly, who owned Club Sensations; Mark 4 Disco, G.O.L.D. Productions, Mr. C Disco and Funky Bill Disco. They took him under their wing, and he began throwing parties with a group of friends as Gentlemen of Neptune Disco, playing high school dances and house parties. The club world opened up from there — Club Zanzibar, the Paradise Garage, Club Sensations, Docks, the Cheetah Club and Club Black Box — and in time he was playing those rooms himself.

It was in the clubs that he met DJ Shank. The two formed P&S Production and ran mobile parties at the Twin City Roller Rink, Zanzibar, Club Sensations and the Cheetah Club. An old friend, Paul Scott, took them both into the studio side and taught them production; working out of Club Sensations Studio they became B.O.P. Production. He now records as Baby Powder Music alongside his cousin’s Flip Entertainment, releasing through Cyberjamz Records, Toupee Records and New Generation Records, and teaches DJ classes at three Newark schools through After-School All-Stars, sponsored by Rutgers.

He and Flip Entertainment still throw the “Baby Powder” parties in New Jersey on their Richard Long sound system — the same parties whose flyers he was posting to the Dogglounge forum back in 2005.