Famed DJ Mango plays the iii points music festival

DJ Ricky Cano, AKA Mango, purchased a two-day iii Points festival ticket to the iii Points music festival, which starts in Wynwood today, months before they booked him to perform as an artist. Now he is looking for someone to buy that ticket.  

The 21-year-old Miami native first started DJing in high school with his friend Laszlo, which allowed him to discover new music. Eventually, he fell in love with it. An encounter with famed DJ Skrillex helped.  

“I started DJing when I was like 14,” he said during an interview at The Boombox, a music venue on SW 75th Avenue where he is a creative director. “Me and Laszlo went to a party that Skrillex’s label Owsla threw in Wynwood. We got a picture with him because we hopped the fence once and they kicked us out. They called us over later that night and gave us autographs.”  

A Mango show is dark, loud and filled with strobe lights. The walls of The Boombox, where he played recently, are covered in graffiti that highlights the rebellious nature of the venue. He wants people to feel like they can let out their emotions in a mosh pit without being judged.

Ledwing Picado, a regular at The Boombox, says Mango knows exactly what to play and when to play it. 

“I like dancing hard,” Picado says. “His sort of music really hits with people in Miami because this place is diverse as hell, it’s music that I think is hard not to vibe to.”

Mango’s music taste revolves around loud bass, which he says is a staple in Miami culture. He combines it with sounds from Asia, Europe and South America, creating a diverse mixture of sounds that is very much like his hometown. 

“You play something that sounds like techno from, like, Germany or something,” he says. “And then, you know, I can throw you something that sounds very foreign. Then you’re like ‘damn, this is kind of crazy!’”

He began practicing on a turntable “the size of a packet of Oreos,” a Numark DJ2GO, he says. His friend Laszlo owned the interface, so Mango would go home and work on music software by swiftly clicking on different sounds with his computer mouse. He says this rather tedious way of mixing taught him to blend tracks well. 

Booking local acts to perform at The Boombox familiarized him with the Miami DJ scene, and he eventually met iii Points veterans Roiju and Daisy Cutter who put in a good word for him at the festival. 

“A lot of the DJs that are playing here from Miami I’ve known for a while now, due to the fact that I’ve exposed myself to the nightlife here and I’m also a DJ myself,” he says. “I’ve been able to book them and play shows with them so I’ve been able to develop a friendly relationship with them.”

iii Points is being held at Mana Wynwood, 2217 NW 5th Ave, on Friday and Saturday, October 21 and 22. Prices range from $149 to $449.  Mango will be playing this afternoon on at the festival this Friday, Oct. 22 in the Sector 3 stage from 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Mango in the middle of a DJ set. (Courtesy of Mango via Instagram)

 

Vittorio Parravano is a senior studying Journalism at Florida International University. He was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela and loves writing. He hopes to become an author one day.