Night People: How to Be a DJ in '90s New York City

A New York Times bestseller!

A profound memoir capturing the wild music, characters, escapades, and energy of the DJing and nightlife scene, from seven-time Grammy-winning record producer Mark Ronson.

"[Ronson[ doesn't simply recount history, he transports you into it, leaving you wishing you could step back in time and experience those legendary nights during one of the most defining eras of hip-hop, in New York and across the world." —Dua Lipa, Grammy-winning musician

Lady Gaga, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Dua Lipa, Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, the Barbie soundtrack—behind some of the biggest musical moments in the past two decades is one man: Mark Ronson. Night People conjures the undeniable magic of the city's bygone nightlife—a time when clubs were diverse, glamorous, and a little lawless, and each night brought a heady mix of music, ambition, danger, delight, and possibility.

It's about the beauty of what you can create with just two Technics and a mixer, in a golden era before Giuliani, camera phones, and bottle service upended everything.

It's also about a teenager finding his way—stalking DJ Stretch Armstrong and biting his mixes, crate-digging in every corner of New York, grinding gig after gig through a decade of incredible music—and finding a community of people who, in their own strange, cracked ways, lived for the night.

Organized around the venues that defined his experience of the downtown scene, Ronson evokes the specific rush of that decade and those spaces—where fashion folks and rappers on the rise danced alongside club kids and 9-to-5'ers—and invites us into the tribe of creatives and partiers who came alive when the sun went down.

A heartfelt coming-of-age tale, Night People is the definitive account of '90s New York nightlife and the making of a musical mastermind.

"A perfect New York tale—the kind that makes you jealous you weren’t there, grateful for your own version, and racing to make a playlist so you can visit this world anytime you want. It’s also about the power of obsession with the thing you love, and how it can drive you to find your people, the ones who will eventually introduce you to yourself.” —Lizzie Goodman, author of the New York Times bestseller Meet Me in the Bathroom

"A snapshot of 1990s New York City from a figure at the epicenter of its culture." —Dan Charnas, author of the PEN Award-winning, New York Times bestseller Dilla Time and The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop