No longer exclusive to the club scene, techno or hip-hop, today’s DJs play a fundamental role in nearly every genre of music. And while the craft is more accessible than ever in the digital age, younger DJs can still benefit from understanding its underground roots.
That’s where Sam Maxion—also known as DJ Slammin’ Sam—stepped in to preserve a legacy that has captivated him ever since he began mixing and scratching in the Bay Area in the late ’80s. In October, the Filipino American musician and Valley resident launched the DJ Museum in Las Vegas’ Filipino Town to shine a spotlight on the profession’s eclectic history.
DJ Museum
“You could go to Walmart right now, grab a little controller, sync it to your phone and DJ your uncle’s party at six years old,” he says. “But it’s still important for people to do a little reset, take a step back, and find out how everything got to where it’s at.”
The exhibit walks visitors through pivotal moments that birthed the modern DJ as we know it—from the pioneering era of the 1950s, to the golden age in the ’80s and the rave-heavy ’90s. Maxion’s tour passionately traces each major technological advancement while highlighting key innovators like Francis Grasso, Cameron Paul, DJ Qbert, Grandmaster Flash and DJ Jazzy Jeff.
At the museum, rows of glass cases are filled with iconic turntables and mixers sourced from the personal collections of some of those influential artists, alongside other rarities like a 1983 Randix HG-40P boombox and record player hybrid.
As he curated the space, Maxion—now a resident DJ at Aliante Casino—also constructed a mock bedroom setup designed to reflect the feel of growing up as a DJ in the analog ’80s.
“This is meant to be a time capsule of the period where I just fell in love with the idea of being able to play records and have people enjoy those moments,” Maxion says. “It’s kind of disjointed, with records and cassettes everywhere, but that’s just how it was.”
That display lies next to a vibrant archival wall featuring hundreds of hand-designed event posters, DJ Times magazines and racks of vintage DJ-themed apparel.
“A lot of people who come in will say, ‘I can’t believe you still have this. Let me show my kid what I used to do,’” Maxion says of his vast memorabilia collection. “To me, that’s very heartwarming.”
Elsewhere, guests can “scratch the itch” by engaging with interactive features like a music room with working turntables and keyboards, and an adjacent arcade area stocked with DJ Hero and Beatmania machines and DJ Zoltar—a custom spinoff of the popular animatronic fortune-telling booth.
Tucked behind the exhibit is Vinyl Hall, a rentable 1,500-square-foot event space that’s also home to an all-ages Level Up DJ Workshop, and an 800-square-foot cavern known as the Chamber Lounge that hosts rotating, open-mic style sets.
Maxion looks to continue building on this foundation in an “ongoing curation” process. And while he admits that it took several years of planning and several “false starts” before he found this space, he also believes it couldn’t have come together “in any other city on the planet.”
“With the Punk Rock Museum and others that are already here, I think it was a no-brainer to open in Las Vegas,” he says. “People come to escape and see Bruno Mars or watch the Raiders play, but I want them to add the DJ Museum to their list, too.”
DJ MUSEUM 3507 S. Maryland Parkway #6, 702-509-6229, djmuseumlv.com. Wednesday-Sunday, 6-10 p.m.
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