Whack DJ's lately

Commentary.

It is not smart to speak in general terms but it seems that Washington DC is truly lacking good professional hip-hop DJ's. What makes a good DJ?
1) Reading the crowd
2) Song selection
3) Fading back and forth between two songs (actually artfully mixing)

The tools to enter the game have gotten less expensive over time yet the quality has not gotten better. Buying two of every record and having people help you carry cases of them, renting vans to carry your gear are no longer applicable. You can get all of the songs online, most venues have a sound system and the laptop is easy to carry.

Sadly I have gone to a few events of late, doing reconnaissance, and mixing seems to be a dead art. I remember leaving parties in the past where it was an experience. You actually got your moneys worth because the DJ had skill.

Playing one record into another record once by turning down the volume is not mixing!
Randomly playing records is not DJing!

Only pointing out problems is never helpful. So I will pose a solution.

1) Please practice the art. Literally, (like Allen Iverson- I am talking about practice!) left hand rewind cross fade, right hand rewind cross fade and then back again with feeling.

2) Actually think about when the tracks were released relative to one another, so that you are playing within a context. that does not mean that you have to play records in order of release date, but it makes sense if you are playing songs and trying to say have a biggie vs Tupac, or an LLCool J vs ... Context matters! Then you are actually having depth in your performance as a DJ.

3) Know your bpm's, so that you don't stop the dancing. Cats are playing songs they like to hear and are not cognizent of the people dancing. It is not a bad thing to decide against playing something. Don't think that your first thought is always right. I have seen the best of them pick up a record then decide now is not the time.


I think that many of the younger DJ's think it is cool that they are playing older better sounding songs than today's material, but they don't have a context of the history, because they don't know when the songs came out, because they are not playing records, where if they were they would see the dates on them. Just wingin' it is not DJing.

Imma letchu know! Where I come from people through drinks and bottles at wHack DJ's and I am starting to think that practice needs to come back.

Parties are too short for bad DJing.

Peace
Ian

I would like to say nobody cares and to just move on but that type of talk is just too easy. This shit is an epidemic to just ignore. People are becoming spoiled lazy by apps and tech that they actually think they can master a profession at the push of a button its ridiculous. It takes time and dedication to master a craft, something these new DJs despise. They all think they can sit by a piano and play Beethoven suites like they gifted. Its time to throw bottles and boo the shit out of these whackos!!

Ill-Green wrote:I would like to say nobody cares and to just move on but that type of talk is just too easy. This shit is an epidemic to just ignore. People are becoming spoiled lazy by apps and tech that they actually think they can master a profession at the push of a button its ridiculous. It takes time and dedication to master a craft, something these new DJs despise. They all think they can sit by a piano and play Beethoven suites like they gifted. Its time to throw bottles and boo the shit out of these whackos!!

That's why I love the club I go to when my favourite local DJ is on. Old and experienced and he knows his stuff, how to get the crowd going and uses vinyl and CDs. Funk, hip-hop, blues, jazz... You don't know what to expect.

A lot of bars in my area don't even have DJs anymore. Fair enough if it's just a bar where people sit down and drink, but these places that have a dancefloor and just use some playlist on a computer shit are wack. When there is a DJ all they have is a laptop. I'm all off embracing new technology, but when the computer is doing all the work that's wack too.

I'm a DJ and I've noticed too many DJs nowadays don't play to the crowd, but only to themselves the shit they like to hear.
Selfish bastards!!!

JUKE 179r wrote:I'm a DJ and I've noticed too many DJs nowadays don't play to the crowd, but only to themselves the shit they like to hear.
Selfish bastards!!!

If I turned up to a club now people would be wondering who'd brought their Dad.

I don't think technology plays a huge part in the overall scheme of things. It's irrelevant if someone is sweating over manually beat matching tracks together, or if their hardware/software does it for them. I personally like to see a DJ working hard for their craft but it doesn't really matter. Track selection is King.

In terms of cost of getting into DJing, I think it's more pricey now than ever. If you go the vinyl route it's a bottomless pit of expense with buying records, and if you go with digital the initial setup can cost thousands. Check the price of the top end CDJs…

Interesting point Coz...

I've been DJ-ing 15 years + now, (child's play to some of these headz here) and I have to say that technology is NOT the issue.

The issue comes from the fact that is is too easy to be a "DJ" nowadays. And when I say easy I mean the literal fact that it takes no effort. When I was coming up becoming a DJ was a very expensive, divisive life choice. You had to invest in gear, mixers, turntables, cabs...speakers for the uninitiated. THAT SHIT COSTS! Now anyone with a decent iTunes Library wants to call themselves a DJ.

The sad part is that these so-called DJ's are getting booked because A) they work for peanuts and B) club-goers and owners don't give a shit about the craft. They selfishly wanna hear what THEY wanna hear.

I hear you Mike. However realize you just said that technology is not the issue it is an ipod. the Ipod is the technological problem then, along with the apps.

I am no technophobe, i am a happy consumer of it.

The ipod dj just needs to hone a skill.

I think a really great DJ is a musicologist. Sadly some may not know the power they have because they don't know how to monetize it well.

For instance, I was reading a blog about why the house music scene with black DJs (the creators) are few and far between on the now very lucrative massive dance party scene. If you have been to Ibiza in the 90's you will be shocked at what it is like now (I have not been since 2005 but have been told of the change since then) The big festivals rake in huge profits and DJ's make millions as you all know. Very few of the ultra talented old heads have seen $500,000 in a life time.

If we are talking hiphop, well I am sure you know a lot of broke DJ's who are great at spinning.

Hiphop is suffering from a lack of investment in its own vanguard. Like you say, an ipod gets you in the game without skill and I am saying the crowd has been giving cats a free pass.

Talk is cheap, there needs to be real investment and structure from within and the crowd needs to play its part.

Peace
Ian

The real problem is a "DJ" is not a DJ these days in the UK its like a celebrity pass time, a way to host a party or pick up a easy pay check/entrance fee, they've taken the value out of a respectable craft. You could blame technology but that would be to deny technology can improve the future and we all no thats bullsh*t

*f*ck the young vinyl snobs who 'only play vinyl' but dont own any older than their iphone 5

If I turned up to a club now people would be wondering who'd brought their Dad.

Ouch, same here...

I don't think technology plays a huge part in the overall scheme of things. It's irrelevant if someone is sweating over manually beat matching tracks together, or if their hardware/software does it for them. I personally like to see a DJ working hard for their craft but it doesn't really matter. Track selection is King.

I noticed many young DJs don't do beat matching, or "blend" as I call it. My guess is that, since the introduction of digital DJ systems (not only Serato, but even includes iPods to DJ booth) how DJs are no longer have to choose which songs / records to play beforehand (vinyl records are heavy!), and they try to play as many songs as they can play at one night. I think they are doing that unconsciously, but I don't like the trend. I'm not necessarily against digital DJing, but since it is very powerful tool, many DJs are indulging themselves with it.

I don't own Serato (or other similar product), but I wish I owned one.

In terms of cost of getting into DJing, I think it's more pricey now than ever. If you go the vinyl route it's a bottomless pit of expense with buying records, and if you go with digital the initial setup can cost thousands. Check the price of the top end CDJs…

Maybe. I started with two SL-1200 Mk2 with a cheap mixer, and a few Ultimate Breaks & Beats doubles. It was late 80s', so I think SL-1200 Mk2 was a less expensive than nowadays, and used records were available anywhere.
The thing I like about Serato is that you don't need two copy of same record anymore! and you can mix your produced songs on turntables.

JVC wrote:

If I turned up to a club now people would be wondering who'd brought their Dad.

Ouch, same here...
.

I feel like that at 26. Clubs are like flippin high schools these days. Immature 18 year olds everywhere. Girls are that young these date you need to ask for ID before you continue to chat them up.

Like most things in society really if there is a quick buck to be made then they will exploit it. To be honest it's more of people becoming DJ's to much a fast buck here and there, gone are the days of using and homing your own skills, style etc. Now days it's all about your ego and appearance a bit like the music industry really.

Tag One The Fader Fiend wrote:Like most things in society really if there is a quick buck to be made then they will exploit it. To be honest it's more of people becoming DJ's to much a fast buck here and there, gone are the days of using and homing your own skills, style etc. Now days it's all about your ego and appearance a bit like the music industry really.

BAM . Point blank . Add in the extremely low cost of becoming a DJ now compared to even 5 years ago and you have a recipe for killing off a once flourishing artform .

I DJ for a living and am looking for a way out . It's a fcking joke these days .

I just found out that at a club where we used to get $500-1000 a night a couple years ago has kids coming in and DJing on Friday and Saturday nights for $100 and a drink tab because DJing EDM takes NO FCKING SKILL , especially w/ programs that now have a "sync" button . All of that sh!t is in between 120-130 so no real mixing is involved (even trap is in the 60's so it's not rocket science to mix a 120 song w/ a beat that's perfectly 1/2 the tempo), all songs come w/ intros and any idiot can figure out how to kill bass and treble to create their own drops on a mixer .

I don't know if I'm the bitter old man yet (probably am) but the state of the DJ scene sucks right now and I'm not going to sit around waiting for hip hop's comeback like so many people are, keeping their fingers crossed .

Big business has it clutches on the DJ industry HARD right now and I don't think they're gonna let up until they've sucked it dry .