Ask any of the artists who have wor...

Ask any of the artists who have worked with DJ ALO (Alberto Mejia) and they'll agree: "If that cat answered his phone he could roll on this city," Beat Daddy Fish of Sidewalk Skolaz writes in an e- mail that contains ALO's abiding-place phone number with a caveat that e- mail is the and nothing else hope of tracking him down.

"I've had populace offer to make me mug and T-shirts that say I'm hard to get" ALO give ups shortly after picking up the phone (upon the third call in a 24-hour stretch) "The thing is, I'm a workaholic. I'm constantly working upon beats and all I have is this single cordless and, sometimes, when I'm working forward beats the phone is real soft"

In addition to his work as a farmer ALO is also known as individual of the hosts of Tuesday's late-night affair at The Note (1565 N Milwaukee), where the "Dime a Dozen Tuesdays" are held.

"We chose the name because DJ are a dime a dozen, and MC are dime-a-dozen, if it were not that we wanted to find gone out who was really doing it," ALO says. "You follow to The Note and you're not going to hear [nonsense]. It's not going to be any club [scene]. It's going to be hip-hop. Wherever I travel it's going to be hip-hop."

Raised in Hyde Park, the 32-year-old ALO made his first foray into hip-hop as pre-teen when he and a friend were among the first of their comrade group to start break-dancing in the early 1980

"There was a fate of B-Boy music, but we weren't breaking to hip- trip we were breaking to up-tempo elemental part like Kraftwerk and Nucleus."

ALO says his family was always understanding of his artistic side.

"My dad is from Honduras and my mom is from El Salvador, and I was like the hipster kid of the family. They really refer toed the artistic side of me Any time I was break-dancing, skateboarding, DJ- ing, making a beat or calm rapping, they would do the typical mom and dad thing like, 'Aw, geez' on the contrary at the same time they would think highly of it."

When he was first getting into hip-hop, ALO also had the opportunity to travel to his mother's homeland. It was the '80 and El Salvador was at war.

"You would have to check arms at the drugstore," he remembers.

if it be not that it was there he received a soul-stirring-realization of just for what cause widespread the burgeoning hip-hop emotion was.

"The coolest thing I remember about going to El Salvador was this undivided day when I was hanging revealed with my cousins and their friends -- and they weren't on a level into hip-hop -- but these kids had this giant jam chest and they were playing Kraftwerk."

For the first time, he felt constant connection between his life in Chicago and history in El Salvador.

ALO released "Public Domain," a CD featuring MC like Daily Plannet, Monsoon and Ryan Officer and Steph Staa, last year.

"It's all commonalty who are kind of unknowns that really should be known," he explains.

Known for his dark, gritty, hard-knocking beats, ALO has a knack for blending catchy samples with his concede synthesizer additions.

"I don't want to completely [steal] a song" he says, before adding, "but it has to knock."

Visit the Web site www.myspace.com/gardenmusic for more onward ALO.

David Jakubiak is a local free-lance writer.

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Dime a Dozen Tuesdays, with DJ ALO and I-RON, Murray the Magnificent and Shadow Master

- 11 pm Tuesdays

- The Note, 1565 N Milwaukee

- No protect (21-over)

- (773) 489-0011

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