Inspired by an unlabeled mix tape that mashed Miles Davis, Lee Perry and what he later found out to be a genre called Jungle, Zemi17 started DJing on turntables found in the trash in San Francisco in 1995. He experimented with turntablism; adding guitar foot petals, drum machines, live percussion, wind instruments and samplers to his DJ sets.

In the late 90s he moved back to New York and started a Cicada mix tape project spinning illbient and drum and base tracks mixed with original material, insect facts and snippets of Hakim Bey's T.A.Z. recordings. He was part of the Blackkat collective, and helped build the Havoc Sound System spinning regularly at Ransom Corp, Wanderlust, Amoeba Technology, and Complacent Nation events.

From 1998 – 2002 Zemi17 toured Europe several times, frequently playing in underground venues in Berlin. From 2000 – 2003 largely influenced by German Techno producers, he changed his style to a genre self-proclaimed as "Space Haus", but later in the decade it would often be referred to as "Minimal Techno". He seldom DJ'd during this period favoring original live sets. From 2004 till near the end of 2006 Zemi17 stopped DJing all together and focused on learning Gamelan Music. In late 2006 he appeared on South Bali's club scene as House DJ Tay Kaye (a moniker he had used from 2001 – 2003 DJing high-end fashion shows in NYC and Paris).

In 2007 Zemi17 returned to Brooklyn and became the resident DJ for the legendary Danger events until 2011, spinning through sunrise for 1000s of dancers in vast warehouses.