ROOM: Oogie Boogie’s Dungeon

In late 1990, DJ Three ventured off to Los Angeles, believing it was the only place in the US where rave culture was happening on a scale even remotely comparable to the UK. Already an active participant in the alternative dance music scene—industrial dance, post-punk, early house & techno, alternative, hip hop, and grunge—he had begun DJing professionally in Tampa, Florida earlier that year. As mind-blowing as LA’s scene was, he expected to be wowed beyond any notion of playing the evolving sounds of rave, house, and techno exclusively. Instead, he heard records he already owned—and even heard DJs make mistakes. The rose-tinted glasses had come off, and DJ Three was emboldened to put his thumbprint on nascent American rave culture.

By the end of 1991, Alphonso King Jr. (DJ Relentless)—mentor and fellow resident DJ at the notorious Tampa gay club Rene’s—had convinced him to stay in Florida and build upon the culture rather than move to LA. He assembled a crew, including a pre-Rabbit in the Moon David Christophere, and began throwing the earliest “one-off” style raves in the Southeast—among them, the first to bring Moby and Doc Martin to Florida. DJ Three, DJ Monk, and Grumptronix quickly became known as outliers in the Florida scene for an already uncommon trait: doing things their own way.

This particular group, along with David Christophere and Peter Wohelski, had all worked within the same wildly eclectic alternative dance music scene in Tampa and inevitably converged with greater purpose to cultivate Florida rave culture from 1991 onward. Along the way, they created legendary record labels, musical acts, and physical media, including Hallucination Recordings, Hallucination Limited, Hallucienda, Erotic City Communications, Rabbit in the Moon, Second Hand Satellites, Grumptronix, and TRiP MAGAZEEN.

In 2025, DJ Three is celebrating 35 years behind the decks, beginning with a 350-page book published by DJ DB’s Blurring Books. TRiP MAGAZEEN: The Complete Collection — created by founder Peter Wohelski, DJ Three, and Grumptronix—documents nascent US rave culture whilst keeping tempo with the global village from 1992 through 1994. Across 16 issues, never before compiled online or in print, TRiP traverses the underground through the eyes of its progenitors during the peak and dissolution of “rave” music as a major label commodity. Over 750 multi- genre record reviews, 60 interviews, and DJ/retail charts provide a detailed sonic roadmap along the way.