Mani Miglani aka MANI MIDI

Mani Miglani is an American DJ, music producer, MC, poet, songwriter, fashion style inspirer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Transplanted to the US from India when he was 2 years old, Mani grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and first began his musical career while he was attending the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. After graduating college, he began to work for Gramaphone Records and also started a new venture called EAR DJs named after the ‘Emissary Audio Response’ provided when the agency sent its DJs where they were needed. EAR represented 33 of the biggest names in techno music. In 2000, when the internet was just still very new to online shopping, Mani launched an online music store for Gramaphone Records which was one of its kind at the time. For the site, he used recommendation-based selling prior to the time when users became accustomed to seeing it more on sites like Amazon, using textbooks from Wrox press, and simultaneously attending graduate school at DePaul for E-Commerce. 

His first residency as a DJ in Chicago was at Big Wig, which turned into Evil Olive, for an event called Form. Following that, due to his passion for Techno and House music, and also that he is an Aries, Mani curated and co-founded the Gramaphone Techno Showcases which became a portal for many international DJs to perform for the first time in Chicago. These showcases continued for 5 years with a total of 44+ events at venues like Metro, smartbar, rednofive, and the Empty Bottle (one occasion).  Many saw artists like Surgeon, Steve Rachmad, Rino Cerrone, Steve Bug, and many more for the first time in Chicago. The Showcases also created opportunities for many of the residents and local talent in Chicago as it often booked them on its stacked lineups.

Mani has also been a producer since 2003 starting with early productions on the AKAI MPC 2000 and the Roland mc505 Groovebox which he had acquired in 1999 and practiced on for quite some time.  Eventually, these made it to the computer to be sequenced in Steinberg’s Cubase VST.  His first vinyl release came out as a 7” release via Smartbar and the Onion for its area DJ series.

Mani then began to explore his interest in Ableton Live and made a debut in the famous Metro Concert Hall in Chicago with version 1.0 of the famous software in 2003. It was an interesting night for Mani. Not only was it his debut but also the event began with huge pressure from the crowd as 2 of the International performing artists who were headlining were stuck at airports overseas. When Mani went to the stage, not only did he not disappoint but created quite a stir to the packed Metro crowd that evening. 

He then began touring and opening with a Live PA, with The Advent, known professionally in music as a British electronic music act. From these early experiences, Mani has been an advocate and expert of Ableton Live throughout his music career.  In 2004, Mani decided to end EAR and focus on his musical aspirations, rather than being a manager of other artists. 

He then joined Guitar Center, the largest American music retailer, where he gained much experience as a Dept. Manager and eventually as a GC Pro executive, where he worked with many professional artists, churches, and other businesses, taking the client’s vision from concept to completion. This has allowed him to bring his knowledge about music technology to his new Live Sets. Since then, Mani has been performing globally, recently performing at the Official after-hour party of one of the most prominent events, The Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. As ‘Mani Midi’, he has gone on to digitally release his 1st.Contact EP and 2nd.Birth EP on all digital platforms in 2018 and 2019, and is currently working on several music projects.

Hip-hop played a big role in Mani’s life around 2005-6, as he was going through some big transitions in his life. At this pivotal time, Shawn Carter or Jay-Z was retiring and Mani clung to his back catalog as he found his flows and poetry very close to his heart. While Jay came out of retirement with ‘Kingdom Come’, Mani had a vision for the next phase of his life. He felt that Jay’s words had lifted him up and he felt that music can have a profound effect on one’s life. He started a project called “Tha Werd” spelled with “We” as the first word embedded, representing collaborative efforts.  The mission is to spread love and healing through music and demonstrate that music can heal.  He also has recently graduated as an Ayurvedic Health Practitioner from New World Ayurveda so he can further explore sound and healing.

Outside of his musical career, Mani’s entrepreneurial endeavors have been in Information Technology, Renewable Energy, and Aerospace. Manish founded the Nirmal Usha Foundation with his wife, and the foundation’s goal is to raise consciousness via conscious education, music media, and holistic wellness. He is also the co-founder of MaNiverse Inc., a company focused on music and spirit.

He also completed NYU Tisch’s Music Industry Essentials this year, done in conjunction with the Clive Davis Institute and Billboard and by Yellowbrick. Also in 2020, DJ Mani Midi joined the elite DJ Fraternity, known as Fleet DJs, started by DJ Klassik. Fleet DJs have 400+ members internationally and DJ Mani is part of the Midwest Fleet Family. During the Quarantine, Mani DJ’ed 2 radio shows a week each month, for Chicago 77.3 and Fleet EDM Radio. In addition, rap has had a profound effect on Mani’s healing process at various stages in his life, and as a result, the ‘Practice Field Raps’ was born. Just like one of his rap heroes, who ‘was on the practice field running two a day’, Mani decided, as ‘MM Dot’, to attempt 3 raps a day with a rest on Sunday. From this, 249 raps were recorded over 1-minute instrumentals provided by producers on the now-defunct Bars App. In addition, there were 4 ciphers with Jadakiss attempted and 2 with Papoose, both legendary MCs and also heroes in the rap game to Mani, or MM Dot. The best 50 of these were compiled and mastered for the ‘From Crawling to Rhyming Mixtape’, which is on Bandcamp.

In addition to endeavors in rap and maintaining a regular DJ MIx release schedule on his archived ‘Tha Werd Sessions’ on Mixcloud, Mani has always had a passion for education and learning. In March of 2024, Mani also finished the Fashion Industry Essentials at Parsons New School done in conjunction with Teen Vogue and by Yellowbrick. In January of 2024, Mani also found himself back at Graduate School at DePaul Jarvis CDM for an MS in Artificial Intelligence. With active DJ Sets, a production schedule, and much learning in Data Structures, LLMs, Statistics, and more, Mani finds himself actively engaged and curious about how technology, soundwaves, and healing intersect. Mani’s mission has always been spreading love and healing through music.