download Return of the DJ #6

Click here to download Return of the DJ – Volume VI. Get the whole album for just $9 and you even get to pick which format. We recommend Bandcamp as we get 100% of the proceeds whereas iTunes keeps 30%.

“Ever wondered how hip-hop might sound if the whole world ended and had to rebuild again? While that may be a dark, apocalyptic outlook on the impending future, hopefully a few DJs would survive so that we could rebuild the culture. Tapping a few of the dopest spin doctors around, The Return Of The DJ Volume VI is more of the same that you’ve come to expect from the series, and gives a peek into how hip-hop might sound if we had to start from scratch, pun intended. DJ JS-1 gets busy on “Transmittin’,” cutting up a colorful collage of sound bites and select verses from the likes of KRS-One, Digital Underground, and others. On the uptempo “Cheese Cuttin’,” DJ Itchy Ron does his best rendition of Edward Scissorhands on the wheels of steel, and DJ Agent 86 puts together his best arsenal of beats on “The Ultimate.” Providing a platform for those who are literally hands-on with the music, Return Of The DJ Volume VI is ear candy for anyone who appreciates the art of DJing, and a lesson in turntable etiquette for mixmasters of all abilities.” – Anthony Roberts, Limewire Blog

The Cream Always Rises To The Top

Here’s part of an email that DJ Agent 86 sent to me the other day. Words of wisdom.

“There’s something I learnt a long time ago (well, about 7 or 8 years ago) – and this sounds pathetically cliche, but I’ve found it to be true: the cream always rises to the top.

When I first moved to Melbourne in 2000, I’d already been DJing for 11 years, but I found it extremely difficult to find work. In time, however, people started booking me every now & then, here & there, and it grew from there.

Now I’m not the world’s best DJ, but I ain’t crap either – and at the time most cats were stuck in one style: you were a “Hip-Hop DJ” so you weren’t allowed to play anything with vocals or anything that the most seemingly “hardcore” Hip-Hop DJ wouldn’t play, or you were a house DJ and you would never consider playing anything with a “boom-bap”, or you were an RnB DJ so you could never play anything too hardcore or “electronic”, etc, etc. I came along & smashed that. I was playing everything (rock, pop, hip-hop, r&b, funk, techno, house, disco, electro, new-wave, etc) – and cuttin’ it up and breakin’ it down to boot. Hip-Hop DJ’s hated me, house dj’s didn’t get it, promoters didn’t know what to say and many punters were confused – but in time it started working – and now? Everyone is “eclectic”!!

I guess what I’m tryin’ to say is, stick to your guns & I’m sure things will turn around. These homeboys who bought Serato & download music from blogs? You know, blogs are now the way kids “dig” – they don’t get their fingers dusty anymore. Chances are they don’t even really like music. When it comes time to take the next step, 95% will step off. In my 20 years DJ’ing I’ve seen suckers come & go more times than I can remember.”

My favorite commercial

All That Scratching

a classic article from The Bomb Hip-Hop Magazine

ALL THAT SCRATCHING IS MAKING ME BIAAATCH
Worldwide DJ Movement centered in the Bay Area
by Billy Jam

Hip hop and all its components, including DJing, emcee-ing, breaking, & graffiti, may have been born in New York City back in the seventies but it is the Bay Area where the current world wide renaissance of the entire genre and in particular the DJ as artist or rather “turntablist” is centered. For several years now such Bay Area DJs as the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, the Space Travelers, Peanut Butter Wolf and DJ Shadow have each been, not only keeping alive the art of the DJ, which was pioneered in New York, but also advancing it to new creative heights while simultaneously educating a whole new wave of rap and hip hop fans about the DJ. READ MORE