• Ruta Smith

It may be hard to believe, but Natty Heavy, the party rockin’ DJ who took our Best Of Charleston award this year is actually also a regular, everyday dude named Nate who likes to spend time with his family.

“When I’m DJ’ing, I’m jumping around and running all over the place and interacting with people,” he says. “I’m keeping the energy high and telling them to put their hands in the air, stuff like that. At home, I’m a dad. I have a 2-year-old daughter, so most of the time I’m dressed up like a princess or something. It’s a contrast, for sure.”

And if you’re going to be a successful DJ, you’ve got to keep the after-hours partying to a minimum. For Natty Heavy, who fell in love with DJ’ing when he was 13 years old, there’s too much work to do. “One of the biggest misconceptions that I run into is that people think it’s all girls and parties and drugs and drinking,” he says. “If you want to be successful, there’s so much behind-the-scenes stuff you have to do. You have to treat it like a business; I can’t be wasted on a Monday morning when I have to send out emails and do marketing stuff.” —Vincent Harris

Runner-up: DJ Wade (a.k.a. DJ United)