Bartenders telling you how to DJ: Ultimate NAGL
Fatback
6,746 Posts
Last weekend the bartender was playing Anime/Transformers/Power Puff Girls little dude ish while we were warming up. This is a small space where I've proven that having the screen on will prevent dancing. So about 11:00 I shut off the screen--like I have always done. Dude runs out and says, "We usually play videos." I say, "not tonight. it keeps people from dancing. we are here to make people dance." he disappears for a minute and comes back looking shook up. says, "you can talk to the manager if you don't want the videos on. and turned it back on." i checked myself because i was actually guesting that night. normally, i would have slapped the fucker, packed up and rolled out.also had bartenders come up and ask me to stop playing rap. even though i was booked to play that and all my requests were for rap tunes.i don't tell them how to mix drinks, who to serve and shit like that. so they need to step the fuck off. 
Comments
i love the one where the girl who was out on the floor dancing to what i've been playing for the last half hour comes up and says, "can you play something we can dance to?" what the? who the? shut the fuck up! you want bruce springsteen? at a fuckin hipster lounge?
Exactly why I don't go out anymore.
I don't see how you just don't pack up your equipment and get the fuck
up outta there. It's always good to see bars/clubs like this
go out of business due to shithead owners.
my version of this story had the girl asking me the same question. i pointed at the crowded, sweaty dance floor and said "what do you think THESE people are doing?"
To which the smart ass chick replies "No, I mean music that ME and my FRIENDS want to dance to! You don't have any Latin?"
An actual exchange I had a year or more ago. And by "Latin" she meant Ricky Martin or 'Gasolina', etc, NOT Salsa.
I now simply thank people for their requests and let them believe it is coming right up, no matter how crazy it might be, or simply apologize and say "Can you believe I left that at home? Next time!"
hahaha, i had the same convo the other day with probably the same girl.
i'm like, you know thats what EVERYONE there is requesting? she said the same shit, like, yeah, but just not rap. im like, uh, ok, whatever.
there was a fatal shooting at a club that was having an old school hip hop party in downtown raleigh not too long ago, and a lot of owners are (somewhat) understandably shook... a lot of places had an absolutely no hip hop rule for a couple weeks after that, but there were more fights and more people complaining and leaving, so i guess they let that one go
I need a stun gun to use on any and all club owners that run up to the booth.
2. play Biggie - One More Chance remix, some 'I ONLY LISTEN TO REAL SHIT OLD SKOOL' prick comes up and starts hating before requesting some Jurassic 5.
3. You're using your microwave DJ setup and playing in a venue with a fairly open to the public DJ booth. some fools wanna make some requests, cant think of anything and then decide they wanna look at your laptop, and cant understand why you're telling them to fuck off. (it's your own fault for being a faker DJ tbh)
4. break it down with some major scratch skillz, before some 'i've seen two DMC videos and that scratch film' guy comes and asks whether you know anything other then the transformer scratch.
maybe if i didnt have to get so wrecked in order to deal with the general public everytime i DJed i'd have a million other things.
Last party I DJed at, some ridiculouly annoying Miss Request comes up and says:
"Play something we can all sing along to."
Later, we??re getting a jam-session together, people are loving it, the drummer never showed up (the drums neither, by the way), so I??m doing the drum-scratch thing on the table, and while we??re right in the middle of this, while I??m concentrating like a mother to stay on beat (I was 9 beers deep) same girl comes up, drags my arm and asks
"When??s the sing-a-long?"
What the flying fuck?
- J
YES, That is Racist infact this happens in Portland on the regular.
There is a commission in Oregon that controls liquor sales and distribution, they are pretty much dead set against Hip Hop or Rap in any form. They haved harassed, ticketed and shut down numerous bars and clubs because they consider them Hip Hop bars. It seems to always happen after the end of summer when they add up all the shootings and vandelism downtown and then go after the clubs that had incidents stem from or near those locations.
Though Portland comes off as being liberal and progressive , it is in fact very white bread. Its just not that big of a city so these incidents stick out like a sore thumb. Hip Hop gets bad press here and there isnt enough support from within. Nearly every place that has opened with a strictly hip hop/ rap oriented vision is no longer in business.
Anyways, I can see why club owners are afraid of gangster music. As far as the dude who was OK with the underground....at least he is trying to give it something. My Pops cant stand rap and hip hop, but if I play him an instrumental he LOVES it! Not understanding the difference between commercial rap, undergound hip hop, classic hip hop and gangster rap does not suprise me. People dont understand what it is, let only where it comes from or what hip hop says to people. ( from the club owners perspective) and they usually dont care.
Its a pretty fine line between good and bad rap by most peoples standards and opinions. The people listening to commercial rap arent really in it for the lyrical value or content. At least thats how it is here, where every club spot is filled to the brim with Beckys and Joeys screaming " Get Low" while a hipster DJ can play dirty south all day flip it with some enya and modest mouse and get paid three times more than a real DJ. Shit is fucked up and twisted as hell.
The bar I book at is pretty cool for the most part, we dont censor our Djs but took some warming up for sure. As a bartender I dont tell the DJs what to play partly because I hired them and I know what they are going to play and we are usually friends as well. Ive been booking here for over 2 years...but my boss told me recently the OLCC has been knockin on our door and started asking questions. Im convinced that the OLCC is just a board of racist fuckers. There are just as many incidents at punk shows and country bars but the music at those venues isnt perfromed by black people so in the eyes of the OLCC its ok and just normal...but if it happens at a club that supports hip hop....that club will be fined and eventually put out of business.
Again being intertangled in the scene as a Dj and a Bartender I can see both sides of this situation. I dont blame the club owner for being afraid of what they dont understand and being told by the Nazi OLCC is going to ticket them $3,000, shut down their business and the family of the dude who got shot is going to sue the bar owner as well. how fucked up is that!? I know that goes a lot deeper than some jack ass telling you he wants to play videos while your djing. but in Portland this is the reality of living in a mostly white semi-metropoilis.
This summmer there were shootings at the Dj Quik show and then a few weeks later a couple people were killed outside a E40 show, both shows were at the same venue and the venue vowed to never have a hip hop show again....per request of the OLCC.
On the whoke rant..on point and informative
Good luck with that OLCC...
I mean this applies to schools here in montreal..no rap at talent shows no school concerts...kick out "thugged out" looking people at school dances
this use to be my beef all the time back in the day (even on school radio)