From shepherd Sent Sun, Jul 11th 1999, 19:55
From shepherd Sent Sun, Jul 11th 1999, 19:55
1999 DMC US Finals
Hosted by J-Rocc and Babu
In one word...historic. In attendance: DJ Apollo, J-Rocc, Babu, Develop,
Craze, Infamous, the Skratch Perverts, Vinroc, D-Styles (is in the house!),
Rholi Rho, Cash Money, DJ Premiere, Guru, Rasco, Planet Asia, Grandmaster
Caz, Shortkut, Spictakular.
So much happened at this year's DMC! The day started off kind of strange,
though. I showed up at 4:00pm because the flyer for the event didn't print
a starting time. Also, I'm not familiar with driving around San Francisco.
When I find the place where the event is supposed to be held (The
Galleria), a security guard there tells me that it's been relocated because
of a fire that happened two nights ago. The security guard then hands me a
hastily thrown together, blue flyer with sketchy directions to The Palace
of Fine Arts which I have never been to. I followed the directions and got
lost a couple of times because the main road (Lyon St.) dead ends, but the
directions on the paper say to follow Lyon all the way down until you reach
Bay Street which is right by the Palace of Fine Arts. After reading a map
I had thankfully brought along and some detouring, I discovered that the
road ends and picks up again a few blocks later.
Believe me, you would have gotten lost too, since you have to drive four
blocks out of your way and then down another five to pick the road back up
again, but the flyer doesn't say anything about that. Right now, I'm
thinking that the turnout for the DMC is going to suck. A last minute
relocation with poor directions to boot?!
So anyway, I finally find the Palace of Fine Arts which has beautiful,
Greek-like architecture (an indoor theatre with huge columns and a dome
with frescos, frieze relief sculptures and everything!) set beside a lake
in a park. A different, but very cool setting for a dj battle.
Since I still have about three hours to kill (Yep, it took me almost an
hour to find the new location for the event), I used my trusty map to find
the Amoeba Records that I knew was somewhere near Haight and Ashbury. Once
I get there, there is absolutely no parking, so I parked in the McDonalds
parking lot next door to the record store.
Honest, I did intend to buy something to eat at McDonalds, so that I could
utilize the 40 minute parking lot limit to buy records, but the lines were
ridiculous! At Amoeba Records, I bought two copies each of three Group
Home singles from their first lp. I know Malachi the Nutcracker's lyrics
are lame, but you can't front on Premier's instrumentals. On the
Electronica side, I picked up Bogdan Raczynski's "Boku Mo Wakoran" on vinyl
(Yes!) and Autechre's "ep7" on vinyl (Yes! Yes!).
I also saw, but didn't purchase the new Dirtstyle record, "Gag Ball
Breaks." Has anyone seen the cover for this? I don't know, man. It looks
like what you'd expect to see in that Kubrick film that's coming out, "Eyes
Wide Shut." Basically, there's a picture of a woman in bondage on the
cover with a "gag ball" in her mouth. At first, I thought I walked into
the wrong section of the record store.
Anyway, while waiting in the long line at Amoeba to buy all of this, I was
having paranoid visions of my car being towed. I've seen it happen to
three cars at a Taco Bell by my school. Imagine being stranded in San
Francisco in Haight-Ashbury (it's not the 60's anymore) with no car and
then missing the DMC because you tried pull a fast one over on McDonalds.
I nervously walked back to the parking lot expecting to see an empty space
where my car should be, but it's still there. Whew! Since I was hungry
and still had more than an hour before the DMC started, I went into the
McDonalds. No lines! Now I'm feeling pretty good. A good vinyl purchase,
my car's not towed, no lines at McDonalds, and a dope dj battle in about an
hour.
I zoom over to the Palace of Fine Arts after a quick meal, and I find a
parking space in a neighborhood only three blocks away from the event.
While I'm waiting in line at the Palace, Rholi Rho and his girlfriend
Kuttin' Kandy walk up to where I'm at before realizing where the entrance
DMC competitors is located. At first, I tripped because I was used to only
seeing these people in battle videos.
Inside the Palace, it looks like a really plush theatre for drama or opera,
but on stage is Grandmaster Caz on the decks with a 2 1/2 foot black,
cylindrical stack of vinyl set off to one side! Caz says that he's going
to give us the history of hip-hop. He reaches from the top of the vinyl
stack and begins a super megamix of just about every hip hop classic
imaginable until there was no vinyl left in the stack.
As Caz is finishing up with the last record, Cash Money is already setting
up on a pair of turntables right next to him. Cash Money then seemlessly
picks up where Caz's mix left off with Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz ("Uptown
Baby...Uptown Baby"). Cash Money proved why he is so frequently cited as
an inspiration for many turntablists. Scratching, juggling, and
mixing...all with apparent ease, confidence, and a funky style and
presentation that transcends the execution of mere tricks. Cash Money is
the archetype of hip hop DJing.
Babu and J-Rocc are already clowning around on stage at this point talking
about "If it wasn't for Caz and Cash Money..." Babu interrupts J-Rocc and
asks J-Rocc, "Don't you mean...if it wasn't for Bronx?" in reference to the
Gunz/Tariq track that was playing. It was super corny the way Babs said it
and J-Rocc busted up because it was so wack.
This kind of joking went on all night. Because D-Styles was in the
audience, they kept saying "D-Styles is in the house 'yall!" like every
five minutes. I know D was super embarrassed by this, but it was so funny
because they said it so often and in reference to things that had nothing
to do with D.
Well, the first four DMC competitors were called to the front, and one
after another, they each just tore the place up with mad turntable skills.
No thanks to the sound guy who had to be told to turn it up by J-Rocc,
Babu, the entire crowd and whoever happened to be on the decks. Because
the sound person wasn't getting the hint, before each competitor would
begin, Babu would say, "Can we PLEASE have some volume on the turntables
this time sound person?"
Is it that hard to remember to move the little knob on the board, so people
can hear? The sound person made most of the djs sound like they were doing
some kind of a volume trick at the beginning of their routines. The
routines would start at a barely audible level and gradually reach the
right volume. Irritating.
DJ Spictakular was the first to compete and he pretty much set the pace for
the entire evening. Incredibly fast and precise beat juggles, scratches,
and volume tricks. He worked the volume faders and crossfader like some
kind of a technician.
>From a dj perspective, I really realized the power of using dramatic
silences in your style...scratching, juggling, or whatever. Spictakular
and a few other djs would get really fast and loud on parts of their
routine and then stop suddenly. The silence would just hang in the air
forever and you could feel it in your chest. I could hear people around me
say a quiet, Keaneau Reeves-like "whoa" because the sudden silences had so
much force behind them.
Comedic highlight of the evening was DJ P from Tulsa, OK who mixed Bruce
Hornsby and Phil Collins in his routine. The key word here is "mixed"
since that is all he did. Have you ever seen something so intentionally
wack that it was dope? DJ P knew that he sucked so his routine was a
parody of djs who suck and mix wack music. However, the whole time, P
fronted like he was freshest thing to touch the decks since Q-Bert. He
would do a super simple and wack scratch or cut the volume on and off and
then raise his arms up for acknowledgement as if to say, "Can you believe
how tight I am?" Hilarious! He would also do this after mixing in the
corniest song imaginable, and be like it was the beat to lose your mind
over and bring the house down. At the end of his routine, he looped a
record saying "Tonight, there's going to be some breaking" over and over.
He then threw on Newcleus' "Jam On It," ran in front of the turntables, and
started doing some serious popping and breaking. He ended with a fresh,
old-school Crazy Legs-like pose on the ground. That brought the whole
house down. It was so wack it was fresh. Everybody was out of their
seats. Rhettmatic, one of the judges, was shaking his head in his hands
the whole time from laughter. Even all the djs and loiterers backstage
came out on stage to watch DJ P. When it ended, J-Rocc and Babu yelling,
"DJ Peeeeeeeee!" and "DJ P 'yall!" like it was just the hypest thing they
had ever seen. Too funny.
DJ Rukas brought back the old school New York DJ flavor. We're talkin'
body tricks, gold chains, hat angled to the rear corner of the head, bright
electric blue jersey and t-shirt, and unlimited confidence and attitude.
Rukas' routine was dope. Probably the smoothest and funkiest that night.
Plus, the body tricks brought back memories of the old DMC battles before
it was considered wack to do body tricks.
I'll admit that I got sick of body tricks for awhile, but I think the
pendulum has swung too far in the turntablist culture. I think there
should be a balance and Ruckas definitely had that balance. Rukas
scratched and juggled brilliantly, but his body tricks and overall stage
presentation were like seeing something you remember and miss a little bit.
His freshest body trick was tossing a yellow vinyl behind his back from
hand to hand while cutting back and forth from turntable to turntable. I
still can't figure out how he did that. So what if it's not some artistic
new scratch. I was impressed!
Rholi Rho once again brought the super complex juggles to tweak the DMC
crowd. He even incorporated a considerable amount of scratching in his set
which I don't ever remember seeing him do in the past. I thought Rho's set
was dope, but he didn't seem too happy about it. He looked as if he
thought he had messed up too many times or something.
Develop, Infamous, and Shotgun are all outstanding djs who just had an off
night. I've seen and heard all of them give brilliant performances, but
the needles skipped during their performances enough times last night to
throw the average dj into a panic. However, each managed to stick it out
and salvage their sets and finish. You could tell their routines were
dope, but just didn't come off the way they wanted. These were the three
that I was sure were going to place 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the DMC. Don't
sleep though because they will be back. They'll probably make up for their
loss in the DMC by storming the ITF.
P-Trix, Pone, and E-Jay, Nando, Abilities, IXL and Slyce were the opposite.
If they messed up at all then I didn't notice it. In the flyer, E-Jay's
quote says, "To all the Finalists--Don't tear me up too much," but I don't
know what he meant because I thought he represented San Jose to the
fullest. The same goes for Pone and P-Trix who represented Fairfield and
LA respectively. All gave great performances. You couldn't pay me to
judge the DMC last night because it seemed way too close to pick out a
first, second, and third placement for the dj performances. All of these
guys were way too good.
In the middle of all of this, Rasco and Planet Asia gave a great set with a
commanding stage presence. This was difficult because of the theatre
setting which Asia said made us look like we were watching a movie instead
of a live hip hop performance. However, their tag team style broke through
to the crowd and really added punch to Rasco's dope lyrics. Planet Asia
played the role of a hype man as he accented key words in Rasco's verses.
I think Rasco said that he Asia were doing a project together. Let's hope.
That might be an even better team up than Black Star.
The needle kept skipping during one of Asia's performances, but the
unrattled Rasco said "We want that to happen because we don't use DATs!"
Big up to Rasco for that one. Also, Rasco was giving away tons of free
t-shirts, albums, cds, tapes, etc. He said, most artists want you to come
to their shows so that you can buy their stuff, but we GIVE you stuff to
let you know that we appreciate the love you show us."
Also, around the middle of the DMC event, the dance crew, Medea Sirkas, did
a clean, electro showcase of tightly integrated popping. I'm talking about
that old school, synchronized team popping like Playboy Rob and
Incorporated used to do back in day in the Bay Area. Dope!
At the end of the evening, Prime Cuts and Tony Vegas of the Scratch
Perverts did a showcase. They had some technical problems, but I still
enjoyed it because I'm such a biased fan of their crew.
Also, there was a surprise visit from DJ Premiere and Guru. That blew my
mind like nothing else. It was like when Michael Jackson appeared on the
Arsenio Hall show years ago and at first you just didn't believe that it
could really be him. Premiere talked about the importance of supporting
turntablism as an art and Guru talked about the Decade of Gangstarr cd
coming out this Tuesday. He said there would be a quadruple vinyl version
for DJs!
Tony Prince announced the winners:
1. P-Trix
2. Spictakular
3. Slyce
Tony Prince also publicly denounced the rumor that the DMC banned Q-Bert or
any of the Piklz from the DMC for winning too much. He said that he had
heard that rumor and that it was untrue. He invited Q and anybody else to
compete whenever and however much they want. Prince said that he wants
Q-Bert to win ten years in a row, so that people will say "Q-Bert is a god,
and I think I want to try and beat him." Prince said that that kind of
competition is what the DMC is all about.
Prince also announced the new DMC teams category that will be held later
this year. Prince wants the Invibl Skratch Piklz to compete and win.
Also, Prince said that Canada has ten teams representing, but the DMC is
limiting Canada to one.
Also Prince did apologize to everyone for the last minute relocation of
this years DMC and the theatre setting.
The highlight of my whole night was walking up to and shaking DJ Craze's
hand. Craze is an incredibly humble and cool human being as well as a
genius on the turntables. I hope Craze wins the World title again in New
York.
Yep, that's right. The DMC World Finals are actually going to take place
in the USA instead of France, Italy, or London.
Can't wait for the 1999 DMC battle videos to come out!
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