Winston "Blackout" Thomas is a native New Yorker who began mimicking his father who was also a Dee Jay. On the turntables from an early age, BlackOut became well versed in all genres of music. BlackOut's passions continued into his early teenage years where he got his start as a Dee Jay at high school parties and local clubs in the New York City area. BlackOut received his first break when he met Wyclef Jean at a club where Blackout was deejaying. Soon after, he joined the Refugee Camp/Booga Basement as a deejay, thus getting his first experience of touring in the music industry. During his time with the Refugee Camp, BlackOut began dabbling in music production. Eventually, sharpening his skills on the production side, while still deejaying within the music industry and becoming a staple in the industry. After extensive touring with various artists such as Jada Kiss, MIMS and others, BlackOut realized he needed to get out of his comfort zone, so he moved to Miami, Florida…which turned out to be the best decision of his life. He began to Dee Jay at all of the hot spots in Miami…such as Level aka Mansion, Crave and Goddess to name a few…which is where he was confident enough to hand Ja Rule a beat CD. That effort landed him his first commercial release in 2003 on Ja Rule's "Blood In My Eye" album.
BlackOut started his own company "BlackOut Movement" in 2005 and went on to produce a number of artists such as Jim Jones, Diplomats Fabolous,Bun B, Trina,Kymani Marley, Serani, Don Omar. He developed and produced Jason Derulo; produced a number of songs for MIMS including the smash single/remix "This Is Why I'm Hot" and he has also produced Nicki Minaj including the 2012 highly controversial performance "Roman Holiday". BlackOut is now currently signed to Minaj's Pink Friday label/management.
BlackOut is an award winning seasoned record producer, composer, engineer and CEO. BlackOut is about to make history with his new reggae/dub/pop artist Justin Anthony from Kingston, Jamaica. In addition to the many hat's BlackOut currently wears, he's added Director of A&R Operations at ELEVATE Music Group which was founded by Louis Massaro and based in Miami, Florida. BlackOut is the co-founder of ELEVATE as well and is extremely excited about the new endeavors he's embarking on.