An early skill Flint’s Tomás Tello had to learn as a DJ was the ability to read and react to the crowd. And when he made a mistake in some of his early gigs, he didn’t have to look far for feedback.
“My dad would give me the hate stare, like what are you doing? And then that’s when I learned about crowd reading and that I couldn’t necessarily always play what I wanted, but what the people want,” said the younger Tello, who goes by Mixmasta Mas. “I was not good in the beginning, just like everyone when they start something new. He (his dad) would say, ‘try and mix these songs’ or ‘try and do this or replicate me or try your own thing and see what happens.’ It took a lot of ‘what the hell are you doing?’ moments, but it was all out of love.”
His dad, also named Tomás Tello, has decades of experience as a DJ and has been a major influence as his son has also worked to perfect the craft.
That love and passion for the artform that has been handed down from the elder Tello, who performs as Eduardo Scizzahandz, is rooted in his own experience growing up in Flint in the 1980s. He was surrounded by drugs, crime, and a lot of negative temptations, but he found a competitive obsession in DJ’ing that sometimes saved him from more negative influences in his environment.
“I grew up in the hood, and there’s always been crime in Flint, but crime was something else back then,” Scizzahandz said. “But back then was also the golden era of hip hop. Me and my buddies would go and just be in one of their garages with records and old stereo turntables and a mixer maybe from Radio Shack and whatever was needed to practice scratching and doing rap stuff. This was a way to keep us out of trouble and be competitive at something besides sports.”
That was roughly 40 years ago – Tello said he started experimenting with equipment and DJ’ing when he was around 12 or 13 years old, and he hasn’t stopped since. It provided an outlet for him, especially as he navigated through difficult times when he was younger.
His parents sent him to private school, first Dukette and then Powers Catholic, hoping it would be safer and keep him out of trouble. Scizzahandz didn’t do well in that environment, and then also struggled after transferring to Flint Central.
“I hung around with the wrong crowd, I didn’t apply myself,” he said. “Then I did worse at Central.”
Eventually, he started realizing that if he didn’t turn things around, he wasn’t going to graduate when he was supposed to.
“I started realizing, I gotta get my shit together,” Scizzahandz said. “I was like, damn, I’m not gonna graduate. So I changed, and became a different person.”
In the years since, he’s consistently volunteered in the community, mentored young people, and had a long career working for Flint Community Schools. He’s been a board member at Flint’s Latinx Community Center and member of the parish council at Our Lady of Guadalupe church. He’s also built his career as a DJ, providing DJ services at events, working as an emcee and providing voice talent, producing music and mixes, and working as an on-air personality on WKUF 94.3 FM, the radio station on Kettering University’s campus.
As he’s gained experience, Scizzahandz has continued to be influenced by many different genres of music from his upbringing and his culture. But hip hop is where it all started.
“Hip hop was like a driving force when I was growing up, and it wasn’t as plentiful or as available as it is now,” he said. “Now, if you go look at Billboard’s Top 20, whatever category, hell, even country, you have country music with rapping in it. Back then, that would’ve been unheard of. But hip hop music was so fresh, new, and exciting, and it’s such a rebellious art form. I lived in the hood too, so it just drew me in.”
From that foundation, Scizzahandz blends many types of music into his performances. He plays with genres like Latin, dance hall, jazz fusion, soul, funk, and classic rock with hip hop, depending on who his audiences are for different events.
“I might play a Bachata song and might be able to mix Michael McDonald,” he said. “But it’s mixing and cutting and scratching and turntable work where it all starts from, I don’t just click a mouse.”
Throughout his career, he’s performed in Detroit, Chicago, and other places around Michigan and the Midwest.
Family and cultural pride are also a big part of who Scizzahandz is as a performer. His grandfather was from Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico and was a World War II veteran who received two Purple Hearts. His grandmother was from Uvalde, a border town in Texas, and his mom and aunt are from Michigan.
“ I was born and raised here, but with Mexican culture and people from Mexico and from a border town around, I grew up with all kinds of stuff going on,” he said.
He’s also passed that pride in their culture and heritage down to his son, who witnessed his grandmother working in jails, providing translation services in the community, and working in nonprofits. His dad has been involved in mentorship programs and was his Cub Scout Leader. He watched and learned from his aunt’s involvement in her church. All of those things had a heavy influence on Mixmasta.
“Just overall, there was this theme in my family of being involved in the community and giving back to other people and having empathy,” Mixmasta said. “That’s kind of what influenced me to think, dang, I need to carry on my family name.”
The younger Tello grew up in Flint during the water crisis, and volunteered at his family church passing out water and filters. He also has participated in the Flint Public Health Youth Academy, the Pediatric Public Health Initiative, and volunteered at various events through the Latinx Center.
He had his own struggles growing up, though. Like his dad, he began going to school at a private school where he was one of few non-white students. After the 2016 election, he said it became more common to hear racist jokes or comments from people he thought were friends.
“Students started making jokes that weren’t friendly to someone with a background like me, who is passionate about my Mexican heritage and about Flint,” he said. “I heard Mexican jokes about the border wall, or Flint water jokes. I ended up having to learn to stand up for myself and others, and kind of educate people. That experience made me more passionate about social justice.”
Like his dad, one of the ways Mixmasta found that confidence is through music and DJ’ing. Also like his dad, he enjoys mixing many different genres of music into his style and performances.
“Being around the Latinx Center and different people there, I got exposure to so many different cultures and types of music,” he said. “I like everything. It depends on my mood. I could listen to Hall and Oates one day, then King Vonn or Bad Bunny or Michael Jackson or Jimi Hendrix or Korn. I grew up hearing so many different things on my dad’s radio. That’s the thing my dad taught me, just being unique and authentic and not sounding like every other DJ.”
Scizzahandz said he didn’t set out to force his son into DJ’ing, but the environment he grew up in definitely had an influence. He’d take him to gigs, have him help haul records or set up equipment, and he’d hear a lot of music.
“When he was in the car, I’d play a lot of instrumental music, instrumental hip hop, because I didn’t want him to pick up on all of the swearing,” Scizzahandz said. “Without trying to nudge him, I guess that did influence him and he started showing an interest.”
Currently, Mixmasta is a student at Michigan State University studying supply chain management and minoring in Spanish. In addition to DJ’ing parties and events around campus, he also works for Impact 89, MSU’s student radio station, and has been on-air with his dad on WKUF. He recently completed an internship in Chicago, and also was able to gain some great experiences in Chicago’s music scene while he wasn’t working at his day job. He was able to connect with some of his dad’s contacts there and make some new ones as well – he even met DJ Head, who has produced music for Eminem before.
“My dad practically lived there back in the day, he was there every month,” Mixmasta said. “He had some friends he was able to introduce me to, to mentor me. And I also went and hit up different promoters, different club and bar owners, and looked for open deck nights. Any experience I could get to help further my name, I tried to get. Chicago is like the home of house music, it was incredible to perform there.”
As his son has grown and built his career as a DJ, Scizzahandz has just been able to sit back and play the role of proud father as he watches his son’s accomplishments grow.
“He was doing gigs in Chicago, and I’ve just been living vicariously through him,” he said. “He’s doing wonderful in academics, and then just to see him blow up and take control as a DJ, he’s damn good, and I love him and love watching him. It’s exciting and fun.”
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