by David JeffriesGrowing up in Puerto Rico, Robbie Rivera's successful career spinning house music got off to a rocky start. A fan of the freestyle and Eurobeat that was being imported to the island, Rivera bought two turntables in hopes of learning to DJ. Problem was the turntables didn't have a pitch control, a feature DJs require to blend records. Learning the hard way and teaching himself how to DJ, Rivera got the usual weddings and school party gigs that mobile DJs start off with, but a natural talent for working the crowd had him playing the big clubs by the age of 16. After high school the DJ went to the Art Institute at Fort Lauderdale to study music production and was introduced to many different digital audio tools including the popular Protools program. He was still in college when his first record came out, "Sorulla," a track influenced by the Latin house sound of early C+C Music Factory. The track became popular in New York and Miami and his career was underway. In 2000, Rivera's track "Bang" became a huge hit, making it to number one of the U.K. dance charts. Rivera started his own label, Juicy, and recorded mix CDs for Max Music, Filtered, and others. Widespread exposure to Rivera's deep sound brought him work remixing the likes of Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Moloko, and Sarah Brightman. In 2003, SFP released a collection of Rivera's productions, Wicked.