@Nick Cheo Is Spinning Something Special: From Ohio to NYC

“This whole event is a story about friendship.”

Picture this, you’re scrolling through Reels for what feels like ages, in a battle with the algorithm to give you something good. In the midst of brain-rot SpongeBob and some guy cooking a delectable sandwich you suddenly bump into a dude mixing Desiigner’s “Panda” with Jungle’s “Back on 74” or Grimes’s “Genesis” with Tay-K’s “M… She wrote”. That would be @Nick Cheo. Cheo is creating mixes that sound original even though he is mixing with popular songs. Anytime a reel of his lands on my Instagram Explore page, it’s an immediate face-scrunch experience, because like most of his comments say, he’s mixing water with oil flawlessly. 

Nick and his friends took over Chinatown on August 23rd. Emerging as a full-blown takeover of Tribecca’s LUME Studios, where the lights pulsed, and the energy was palpable. I had been wanting to interview Cheo for a while, and he invited me to his set, so this was the perfect opportunity. We were ushered out by security, I asked, “How are you feeling?” Cheo, visibly drained but buzzing with adrenaline, gave me a grin: “This is the first event I’ve planned. Me and POSH VIP did this whole thing, and to be honest, I’m tired as shit.”

Sitting on the steps outside, we were interrupted by an ecstatic guy who threw his arms around Cheo, thanking him for pulling off the event. Nick chuckled, “Yeah, he made the connect with POSH happen.’”

When asked if he plans his sets or goes with the flow, Cheo was candid. “It depends. If it’s a club and I know the vibe, I’ll prepare something. But sometimes, you just gotta feel it out in the moment.”

Just minutes before he went into the venue and started his set, he pulled up in his own @Nick Cheo-branded bus, recounting the wild experience of DJing in a moving vehicle. “It’s a whole different challenge when you’re literally in motion.”

For Nick, DJing is still a fresh venture. The 21-year-old from Ohio only started mixing on his laptop in February, got his first controller in March, and now he’s taking over New York’s nightlife. He credits his manager Ethan, the former head of their college’s DJ club, for introducing him to DJing. “Ethan, Isaac Ani showed me how to do it,” Cheo shared. “Before I started doing anything solo, I was tagging along with them, learning at bars.”

Inside the venue, it wasn’t just Nick at the center of it all. His crew took turns behind the decks, each friend hyping up the next as if no one else existed. It was just friends hanging out—friends who started off experimenting in dorm rooms now experiencing the madness of NYC nightlife together. “It’s really a story about friendship, man,” Cheo said with a smile.

“I just want to play stuff that makes people move,” Nick confessed. “I know it sounds cliché, but when the drums hit right and you’ve got the perfect vibe going, there’s nothing better. Before I started DJing, I didn’t get it. Now I’m like, ‘Oh, this is why people lose their minds over this music.’”

When I asked him about his biggest DJ influences, Cheo didn’t hesitate: “Ethan, Anni, and Isaac—they’re the ones who really taught me. Playing at bars with them before going solo gave me the confidence to do my own thing.”

I threw him a curveball, remembering the SpongeBob Reel from the morning: If you could be any cartoon character, who would you be? Without missing a beat, Nick laughed, “SpongeBob SquarePants. Dude is so carefree, finds the good in everything, and his naivety doesn’t even get him in that much trouble. I love that.” said Cheo, maybe we saw the same thing in the morning. 

Coming from Ohio, it’s quite the leap to now be throwing parties in New York City. But for Nick, it’s not about the size of the stage. “It’s the same thing, just on a bigger scale,” he said. “People always trash Ohio, but Ohio made me who I am.”

Cheo’s been bouncing back and forth between Ohio and NYC, spending months at a time in the city to focus on his DJ career and build his Instagram following. But at the heart of it, it’s still about the music and the people who come for it. “My favorite crowd is one that just dances. If you’re there for the hits, not the top 40, but if you’re moving and vibing to new music? That’s what I live for.”

Recently he released a DJ set on ON THE RADAR

Check his Instagram here @Nick Cheo