New York's internationally recognized radio and television figure DJ Envy has long supplied mixtapes while also working as a producer. Fellow Queens native DJ Clue? served as his mentor, guiding him through the release of numerous mixtapes before his commercial arrival came with the 2003 project The Desert Storm Mixtape: DJ Envy - Blok Party, Vol. 1. He established himself as a fixture on New York hip-hop radio before widening his audience once The Breakfast Club, his top-rated morning program, gained syndication across both satellite and terrestrial outlets.
RaaShaun Casey, his given name, first took up mixing following an encounter with DJ Clue? during the early 1990s. Steady mixtape output helped him rise swiftly, and by the start of the 2000s he was circulating the newest exclusives and freestyles from prominent artists including Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and the LOX. Production credits followed on Fabolous' Ghetto Fabolous and Foxy Brown's Broken Silence. Issued on DJ Clue?'s Desert Storm imprint in 2003, The Desert Storm Mixtape: DJ Envy - Blok Party, Vol. 1 marked his initial commercial release and peaked at number 57 on the Billboard 200; The Co-Op, a joint effort with New York rapper Red Café, surfaced in 2007.
Several programs on flagship New York stations Hot 97 and Power 105 featured him as mixer or co-host. In 2010 he joined Angela Yee and Charlemagne tha God to co-host the daily morning broadcast The Breakfast Club, which earned The Source's nod as best radio program before reaching national syndication in 2013. Production work continued into the mid-2010s with singles such as the 2015 Rico Love collaboration "Still a Fan," the 2017 track "Text Ur Number" alongside DJ Sliink and Fetty Wap, and a 2018 remix of "Hardaway" featuring Yo Gotti and 2 Chainz. Envy and his Breakfast Club co-hosts entered the Radio Hall of Fame in August 2020; the next month he issued "Sittin in My Car" with Fabolous and A Boogie wit da Hoodie.
