What started you on the wheels of steal?-DJRELATED
Gnat
1,183 Posts
My DJ brethren why did y'all start up? Your inspiration, the first thought that made you say "Damn that's what I wanna do!"...please share your stories for nostalgia's sake...peacegNATPS If you wanna know, (I'm real late in the game by the way)...I saw "Scratch" and was like, Yup, that's me...I put two 1200s on layaway at the El Cerrito Guitar Center with my Man Albert P...two months later I put my last $ on the deal and it's been a blast ever since...
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I always rocked my pops records but I was in to hip hop mostly when I was growing up... I heard DJ shit before but honestly the moment that I remember saying fuck it I'm buying 12's and thats it.... was..........................
This one night I was chillin with me friends in my homie's Blazer
After I sobered up I was like... I'm doing it.
The girl on the right is still go-go-ing in the city and looking damn good doing it
i was way (too) into the skratch piklz and all that, and my hair was too $hort. for a while i had 1 1200 and a mixer and was trying to be like qbert. after i while i realized that i'm never going to skratch like q-bert. then once i could afford a 2nd 1200 i taught myself to mix and found out that people would much rather dance to songs than hear you skratch your break record over an electro beat....so basicly i'm the target audience of turntablelab
before my cousin finally taught me the djing basics, the turntables were always a big DO NOT TOUCH, and i respected that, but growing up with 1200s in my bedroom of course was a big influence.
I couldn't sleep that night...
While laying in bed, decided that's what I wanted to do.
let's see...I guess I started becoming infatuated with scratching around 1984-85, listening to UTFO and Rodney O and Joe Cooley and shit like that, I kinda knew I wanted to be a dj. This dude Vinny that lived in Santa Fe who was from Chicago was a dj and he let me try out his turntables and I'd always try to scratch. Ended up moving to Chicago to live with my aunt in 1987 and met these 2 brothers who were house dj's and they taught me how to mix. I'd always practice scratching and they didnt' really scratch at all so they'd always talk shit and make fun of me cause I was more of a hip hop head. They used to say I scratched like Jazzy Jeff so they started calling me Jazzin Josh. haha. That became DJ Jazz after a while. Moved back home in 1989 and bought my own tables that year and my friend gave me a realistic mixer. Ended up changing my name to DJ Daze after I saw a 12" with some dj named DJ Jazz like a year later. It was kind of an homage to the graf artist Daze at the time I was real into graf so, yeah, that's it. whew
there was one other dj name briefly that we won't talk about.
ALL HAIL THE ALMIGHTY GEO-MASTER !!!
I started DJing as an extension of my musicianship. I grew up playing drums, and then moved onto electronic instruments such as drum machines and keyboards. I was gettin' into hip-hop then, so I was drawn to DJing. Also, my uncles were DJs so I was intrigued by it. I didn't start DJing full-fledged until I hooked up with my homie DJ Zo in the early 80's (big up Fayette-Nam), who taught me the basics. I also used to tape the mixes by DJ Gilbert Bayes on our local radio station D103FM on Saturday nights, so that made me wanna mix as well. I used to DJ parties and make mix-tapes in high-school and such, which is right around the time I started making beats for rap groups (as well as joining one group in particular).
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Peace.
Mike
As for "inspirational figures" or whatever, it really was mostly the low-profile dudes at house parties that knew just enough (good taste in music, smooth mixes, maybe a few baby scratches every now and then) to keep the crowd happy without making a big show of it.
my buddies show was on after Stinkin' Rich's (that's Buck 65 to y'all) so we'd usually all be chillin in the booth watchin him do the wickity wick scratch scratch. This was my concept of a real dj, namely a dude who could cut and scratch. We just played records on the radio.
It wasnt till a number of years later that i met a couple dudes who were Dj's but not in the hip hop realm. my buddy Yuma was a lounge / exotica DJ and my buddy Matt was spinning Brazillian and weird funk... they both told me "dude you've got alot of dope records you should DJ" ... so that was that... Yuma and me started doin shows around town (this was in about '99) mainly spinin fucked up library / OSTs bits and bobs of funky rock weirdo punk funk type steeze.
i didnt get an actual mixer or 2 1200's till a couple years later. At that point i learned to beat match and its been all about the 4 on the floor goodness ever since.
yea dude, that was my reason.
oh wait - you're talking to people. i obvously am talking out of turn.
Isn't that the famous "Frank" of Soulstrut (second from left)??
i talked to her after the show and lied that i "just started djing." she said, "girl, keep it up! there aren't enough of us." i bought some busted ass 1200s that month. so it's pam's fault.
we're friends now and we dj together often. look out for our mixtape. and check out her soul food brunch.
So necessary! Not only do you get a smorgasbord of amazing food, but Pam will sit with you and talk about records, being on the road, Oakland rap, the whole nine.
then I didn't even know WTF mixing was.
then I heard DJ Andy Smith scratching on the beginning of a live version of Portishead's "Only You"-instantly wanted decks, saved up and bought 1200s about a year later. Not even that spectacular scratching....but I guess I'd never really listened to scratching up until that point.
COTT DAMN!!!!!!! that looks like the shit. So Necessary is right. Is LA anywhere near this?
Plus late night radio I remeber hearing Cats rip it and getting pumped
Goddamn right, and I really aint that old.
I knew I wanted to be a dj for years. Starting around 84 when I heard the electrifying Mojo and the radio. I bought some janky turntables (belt drive shits).
problem was, since i was so young, about 9 or so, my parents didnt want me listening to rap music (of course) so they would never take me to the store to get it (lived just far enough away).
Many years later I saw Dj White Lighting play about 94 and that was it. It was just a matter of getting the equipment.
I djed here and there, for fun, always for fun and free. And I love it. No career here, just love.
When I had my radio show ??? I got to interview some great people, in the beginning I also had a dude who ???just got out of jail??? call me every week wanting to come up and ???visit???, almost lost my show by playing Biggie's Unbelievable before Noon and I also met my first serious BF by hyping a show he happened to be playing and he called up to say thank you and then I went to the show and we talked and???the rest is history.