DJ Roc, known to his mother as Clarence Johnson, was born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, known locally as the Low End. The "crack" in the Crack Capone refers to his style of production. Like an underground chemist, DJ Roc produces variant strains of Juke music, "crack" alluding to the synapse-snapping, potentially ankle-cracking manipulation of rhythms, and the sampling, hijacking and ultra-rhythmic micro-editing of the dominant forms of contemporary African-American underground and popular music into a style born and raised on the streets of Chicago.