Mr. Karan Thakkar (Broadening Narratives)

Description

Karan Thakkar, 34, also known as DJ Cash, is a physician practicing physical medicine and rehabilitation and music producer invested in blending South Asian and African American sounds and cultures. Born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, he immigrated to the U.S. at age four with his parents and older brother. The family settled in the northwest suburbs (Hoffman Estates/Medina, IL), where his parents worked blue-collar jobs before running a convenience store. Raised largely in the small farm town of Harvard, IL navigated accent teasing and cultural misreadings, and found early creative outlets—drums and DJing—alongside competitive scholastic debate. At University of Illinois, Chicago, he majored in neuroscience (later MPH in public health), connecting music and the brain; was very active in campus South Asian life while competition in DJ contests. Today he practices physiatry while producing/DJing and building “16 Seasons,” a mixtape/event platform blending South Asian sounds with hip-hop/R&B. Themes include immigrant hustle and parental sacrifice; identity and belonging across communities; public speaking and performance; and a clear through-line of using music—as science, therapy, and culture—to create novel, communal experiences.