To the teen community he's known as DJ Ovadose, but his parents named him Jasper Thomas. No matter what you choose to call him he's apparently one of the hottest deejays in the country today -- and he's only 13.
DJ Ovadose is a Rake n' Scrape/EDM (electronic dance music) deejay who is on a mission to take Bahamian Rake n' Scrape music -- music that he says he loves to the world -- Dubai and a four-city tour of North America (New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Miami) for which he will need to raise at least $85,000 to make his dream a reality.
On July 29, Jasper kicked off a quest to raise the funds to send him on his journey to take Bahamian music to the world.
The first stage of the project that is expected to take him to Dubai, has a target goal of $50,000 set which Jasper is hoping to raise in 45 days. The funding period opened on July 29 and will close out on September 12, with DJ Ovadose's Dubai tour taking place between October and November.
The second stage target goal is $35,000 for the January to February 2015 leg of the proposed North American tour dates.
If he doesn't raise the necessary funds he will have to forfeit the project. But he is confident Bahamians will support him in his quest.
"I would love for everybody to support me, and I promise to do my part once everybody does their part," said Jasper who has a strong teen following. "I think Bahamians are very proud of what I'm doing and will actually be behind this."
Jasper also describes himself as a lover of Bahamian music which he grew up listening to, the result of being around older people. He said the sound played a major role in his life.
"I'm a big fan of Rake n' Scrape and I try to impact others with that. Some teens don't really get it, but my interpretation of the infectious beat with the drums ... when you actually are in the zone, you're taken away from different emotions," he said.
The teen deejay mixes Bahamian sounds with every genre possible from rap to Reggae, electronic music and even house music.
"I throw it in with other catchy tunes to make others want to actually dance because you can't just stick to one genre of music because not everybody will want to dance to one genre of music, so if you switch it up, then everyone gets what they want."
DJ Ovadose has been mixing Bahamian music with hit songs for a little over two years. In that short space of time he's carved out a great reputation. He's one of the number one requested deejays for teen affairs, he has guest deejayed at Atlantis' teen party spot, Club Crush and deejayed on a number of local radio stations including Hot 91.7 FM.
Tony Williams, programming director at Hot 91.7 FM said the few weeks Jasper guest deejayed at the station was really good for his age, and that they got good feedback from the public after his stint.
Jasper is such a hit with the community that he said parents have even called him up to deejay as a surprise for their children's events.
Jasper's road to becoming one of the country's hottest teen deejays began with him just being a fan of music. He said he surrounded himself with it so much so that in 2011 an uncle introduced him to online software and he began to fool around with it. He is actually self-taught, but said some people gave him tips along with way.
The teen quickly mastered the virtual deejay software his uncle gave him before he got his first mixer. Since then he has gone through three mixers upgrading each time. He's now on his fourth mixer, which is at the professional level.
The deejay who is home-schooled at the Leadership Academy, said being homeschooled allows him the time he needs to practice his craft to become the most requested teen deejay that he is today.
"My grueling routine of practice has catapulted me into the most requested teen deejay in The Bahamas," he said. He can be found spinning tunes at gigs most weekends and says there really isn't a time when he's not deejaying.
"My life is pretty much music," he said, but added that he does make time to talk with his friends.
Jasper credits his love of music to his father, Ian, and grandfather. His stage name he credits to his brother who told him that he was always listening to music and that he overdoes on it.
Long term Jasper says he wants to be a music producer and venture into making beats, but still deejaying from time-to-time.
For now, his immediate goal is to make it to Dubai. As of Thursday, DJ Ovadose had one backer who had pledged $100 on www.kickstarter.com/projects to help him achieve his initial $50,000 goal. People wanting to help the teen deejay make it to Dubai can pledge as much as they want. Pledges as low as $1 are accepted.
He choose Dubai as his first stop because he figured after spinning at Atlantis, Paradise Island the connection would be easier for him to get into the Dubai resort.
The funds raised will go towards defraying DJ Ovadose's expenses for he and his team's travel including airline tickets, hotel accommodations, and paraphernalia such as T-shirts CDs and armbands.

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