If you’re looking to hear a large variety of music and have a good time in the process, Ken Soap is your guy. Soap, whose stage name is DJ Soap, is a disc jockey who puts on weekly venues in Lawrence.

Originally from Lawrence, Soap began a professional DJ career in 1998.

“I started college in 1998 in Madison, Wisc.,” Soap said. “At the time, I was pretty good at math, but I was all about the music.”

Soap credits a summer internship for motivating him to consider disc jockeying as a profession.

“I was interning for IBM, but I couldn’t picture working there for the rest of my life and began to question what I wanted to do,” Soap said. “I felt like I was walking down a path that was expected of me, but I began to think maybe I can change my path and do what I want to do for a living. It was a revelation.”

He used money earned through his internship to buy equipment, like his first set of turntables. When Soap began his career, he would work any show he could find, hoping to get his name out to the public.

“You start off for the love of it — get your name out there, pay your dues and build respect in the business,” Soap said. House parties and birthday parties were common events early on, and free beer was an acceptable form of payment. However, as Soap established credibility as a DJ, his business became more professional.

“At some point, you have to treat it like a business and get paid,” Soap said.

After making a name for himself in the area, he soon became the host of “Phat Fridays” at Johnny’s Tavern, located at 401 N. 2nd St. He still hosts the show today.

“The crowd is always diverse and keeps me on my toes,” Soap said. “I’m one of the few DJs that take requests so the music that gets played depends on what the crowd is like.”

Soap said that much of the success behind “Phat Fridays” comes from not limiting the music he spins to one specific genre.

“I don’t play one type of music,” Soap said. “I really get in the zone and read the crowd. So if there are cowboy hats in the crowd, I’ll play country music. On other nights, I might play some house, rap or rock music. I make sure the people are having a good time.”

Dave Barton, Salina freshman, attends Soap’s shows regularly. He said that Soap is one of the better DJs around because of his diversity and connection to the crowd.

“He’s a crowd pleaser, which is unlike most DJs around today,” Barton said. “A lot of DJs play the music that is just successful on the charts, not necessarily what the crowd is dying to hear. DJ Soap will play the popular songs, but will also make sure the crowd gets what they want.”

Soap does his best to play what’s popular, and occasionally spins songs before they really take off on the radio.

“An example is ‘Party like a Rockstar,’ (by the Shop Boyz) of a song I feel like I was one of the first to spin,” Soap said. “I saw that ‘Party Like A Rockstar’ was number one on Atlanta’s charts for weeks last December, so I began to spin that here and got good feedback before local radio got its hands on it.”

While DJ Soap has lived in many cities around the country, including Boston, Denver and Minneapolis, Lawrence holds a special place in his heart.

“There’s something about Lawrence that when I leave, I always miss it,” said Soap, who returned to Lawrence in 2003. “It’s pretty fun, especially when school is going on and it’s just a hot spot for music.”

DJ Soap hosts “Phat Fridays” every Friday night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. The event is free and open to those 21 and older. He will begin hosting another weekly event tonight at 9 at Axis, 821 S. Iowa St.

DJ Soap has a profile on MySpace at www.myspace.com/djsoap and on Facebook.com, under DJ Soap.