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He started with turntables at age 10 on Baltimore’s east side. Three decades later, Roberto “Rico” Silva hosts the city’s morning show, co-owns a wrestling promotion, runs a DJ academy, helps lead a national museum — and this fall became the official DJ of the Baltimore Ravens.
East Baltimore has produced plenty of talent. It has produced very few brands that lasted thirty years.
The DJ Quicksilva Baltimore celebrates today — born Roberto “Rico” Silva and raised in Northwood, on the 1600 block of Shadyside Road in the Hillen neighborhood — got his first set of turntables at 10 years old. By 14, his mixtapes were dominating Baltimore streets, moving through the city hand to hand. That early hustle earned him a managing and promotions contract with Unruly Productions, one of Baltimore’s largest production companies, and a weekly spot at Club Indigo — a teenager learning the entertainment business from the inside, not just the music.
That distinction is the whole story. Quicksilva never treated DJing as the business. He treated it as the front door.
The Radio Foundation
Radio made him a household name across two cities. He broke in on Baltimore’s V-103, landing the 9 p.m. mix-show slot, then moved to Radio One’s 92Q from 1998 to 2000, with time on X105.7 as well. When that station went off the air in 2002, he toured with singer and fellow Baltimore radio voice Lil’ Mo, then returned home in 2004 to join Washington’s WPGC 95.5. A few years later he moved to evenings on WKYS 93.9, and his run on the nationally syndicated Russ Parr Morning Show put his voice in markets across the country.
The afternoon chapter proved his drawing power. In 2018 he returned to afternoon drive on both 92Q in Baltimore and WKYS in Washington, and in 2020 his show with co-host Dominique Da Diva was picked up by Reach Media for national syndication — five markets, weekdays 3 to 7 p.m., one of the few syndicated afternoon shows in urban radio.
Then he came home for good. In August 2023, The Quicksilva Morning Show launched on 92Q, weekdays 6 to 10 a.m., with Baltimore legend Porkchop and Chey Parker beside him. It is the job he still holds: Baltimore’s morning voice, interviewing everyone from hometown artists to the mayor and the governor, living his stated mantra — hard work, dedication, consistency.
The honors followed the work. He is a two-time Global Spin Award winner and a repeat honoree on The Source magazine’s Power 30 list of the most powerful DJs in the country. In November 2022, Baltimore renamed his childhood street Quicksilva Way and proclaimed his birthday, November 4, Quicksilva Day. This past summer at AFRAM, Governor Wes Moore handed him a governor’s citation and said it plainly: “Quick is worldwide, but he’s ours.”
Building the Portfolio
Here is where Quicksilva separates himself from every other big name in radio: he converted audience into assets.
He owns and operates the Quick and Eazy DJ Academy with William Epps, known as DJ B-Eazy, running courses in Baltimore and Washington that teach aspiring DJs the craft — turntables, cueing, timing, and the business around it. The academy is serious enough that when his own son Antonio wanted in, there were no handouts: Antonio enrolled as a regular student, earned his certifications, and now performs as DJ Sauce God, with his father openly preparing him to one day take over the business.
He holds ownership in a Baltimore nightclub, Club Downtown Bmore. And in 2019 he became a co-owner — alongside CaSino Haze and Richie Fingaz — of Capital Combat Championship Wrestling, C3W, a Black-owned professional wrestling promotion built in the Washington, DC area for fans the region’s established promotions were not reaching.
Television widened the funnel further: he starred with his wife, Ashley Silva, on OWN’s Love & Marriage: DC, after earlier appearances including BET’s 106 & Park. Add his recently launched interview podcast, #WhoIs, and the pattern is clear — every platform feeds the same brand.
Baltimore Is the Headquarters
Plenty of Baltimore talent leaves. Quicksilva built his headquarters at home, and in 2026 the city and the culture returned the investment at the highest levels.
This year he was named Executive Vice President of the National Hip-Hop Museum in Washington, DC — the world’s first hip-hop museum — with a remit spanning fundraising, partnerships, leadership and publicity as the institution works toward a permanent home.
And this fall came the appointment Baltimore understands best. The Baltimore Ravens named DJ Quicksilva the team’s official on-field DJ. He announced it his way — “From Shadyside Rd to Official DJ for Baltimore Ravens” — took a welcome call from Ed Reed, pulled on a custom number 26 jersey, and performed ahead of the September 20 home opener at M&T Bank Stadium. A kid who grew up watching the Ravens arrive in Baltimore now sets the sound of game day.
What He Is Building Now
Underneath the spotlight, the quietest part of the portfolio may be the most personal. Through the Silva Lining Foundation, which he runs with Ashley, Quicksilva serves young people who have lost parents — work rooted in his own life: his mother died when he was 10 and his father when he was 18. The foundation’s annual drives put socks, underwear and essentials in the hands of homeless men in the region, and his community service record earned him a place on the Wall of Fame at DC’s legendary Ben’s Chili Bowl.
So what is DJ Quicksilva, in business terms? Not a DJ with side hustles. He is a media company with one founder: a flagship morning show, a training academy building the next generation (including his own successor), live-event and wrestling ownership, a museum leadership seat, a foundation, and now an NFL stadium. The turntables were the entry point. The business was always the plan.
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