Influential DJ-producer is â┚¬Å”good gay sonâ┚¬Â to mom in St. Pete

Grammy-nominated producer Ralphi Rosario has made quite a name for himself on the DJ circuit, and that's thanks to several influential women in his life, especially in the R&B and disco arenas.

â┚¬Å”I remember hearing her for the first time and that's what changed me,â┚¬Â Ralphi Rosario recalls about Donna Summer. â┚¬Å”And growing up in a house with seven kids and me being the youngest, I grew up listening to a lot of R&B: Aretha Franklin, Heatwave, Michael Jackson.â┚¬Â

But it was Summer's soul and Giorgio Moroder's synthesized sound of the future that blew the young Rosario's mind.

â┚¬Å”My sister brought home her Four Seasons of Love and it was really strange how one song flowed seamlessly into another,â┚¬Â he says. â┚¬Å”The marriage of the voice and the production was so fascinating to listen to.â┚¬Â

The Grammy-nominated producer of â┚¬Å”You Used to Hold Meâ┚¬Â doesn't live in Floridaâ┚¬â€he calls Chicago homeâ┚¬â€but he spends a lot of his spare time in St. Petersburg, taking care of his favorite woman and number one fanâ┚¬â€his mother, Carmen.

â┚¬Å”I'm very conscious of the things she needs like medicine and food,â┚¬Â Rosario said of his 82-year-old mom, widowed after losing her husband several years ago in a house fire.

Despite siblings relatively close-by or throughout Florida, without a family of his own, primary responsibility for keeping Carmen safe and happy fell to Rosario.

â┚¬Å”Just making sure that I'm there means more than anything for her,â┚¬Â he says. â┚¬Å”I've been doing this for about a year and a half now. Ever since my sisters got busy with their own lives and families.â┚¬Â

Rosario has always held a fascination with music. When he was a teenager he said he would sneak into hotels and banquet halls to observe DJs perform and listen to the music.

â┚¬Å”It was always more about the music,â┚¬Â he says.

Not long after, Rosario played his turntables in bars and clubs that for years wouldn't legally serve him. Also while in high school, he was part of Chicago's â┚¬Å”Hot Mix Five,â┚¬Â producing reel-to-reel tapes of his show that WBMX would air Friday or Saturday nights.
(There's even a street named after Rosario acknowledging the legacy of the â┚¬Å”Hot Mix Fiveâ┚¬Â in Chicago.)

But it was the 1987 evergreen house-dance classic â┚¬Å”You Used to Hold Me,â┚¬Â which Rosario co-wrote and produced with singer Cynthia Baker that placed him at the vanguard of a music scene of global proportions.

This music born in Chicago soon made its way to New York, London and Miamiâ┚¬â€into the ears of future co-producer and lifelong friend DJ Abel Aguilera.

Rosario has worked and helped design his own production/remix team Rosabel along with DJ Abel. He has worked with labels like Atlantic, Arista, Epic/Sony, Columbia, Nervous and Strictly Rhythm.

Despite being nominated for a 2012 Grammy awardâ┚¬â€and during the intervening years producing high-profile re-mixes for Madonna, Rihanna, Gloria Estefan and Summerâ┚¬â€both DJs are actively involved in the care of their elderly mothers.

â┚¬Å”DJ Abel is on the exact same page when it comes to our moms,â┚¬Â Rosario laughs, adding that when he visits his mother along Florida's west coast, he makes sure he takes some time to check out the local scene.

Rosario spins his music at large venues and in January, he worked the Gancho party at the Ritz Ybor. He also spends time on the road re-mixing music for artists like Gloria Estefan or Selena Gomez.

Rosario says he's contemplated moving to Florida to be closer to his mom as the reality grows of her even greater needs in the future. If he made the move, it wouldn't surprise Augliera, who knows Rosario better than almost anyone.

â┚¬Å”Ever since we were kids, we worked to help support our families,â┚¬Â said Augilera, who's an everyday-on-the-phone-kind-of-friend with his producing partner.

As LGBT populations age, so do their parentsâ┚¬â€to the point when roles reverse in many ways.

And it worries Rosario.

â┚¬Å”My mother is always alone,â┚¬Â he says.

Rosario doesn't mid visiting St. Petersburg, where his parents settled several years ago after following a daughter and her family to the Sunshine State. And when Rosario sees his mother, she and he are both at their happiest.

â┚¬Å”She's on cloud nine when I take her where she wants to go,â┚¬Â he says, â┚¬Å”and I like to do things with her.â┚¬Â

Of course, part of it has to do with repaying everything she did for him.

â┚¬Å”My mother always gave me the freedom to explore my music and friendships, to do whatever I wanted,â┚¬Â he says.