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Your first "Paid" DJ Gig?

GnatGnat 1,183 Posts
edited April 2005 in Strut Central
I just had mine last night and landed me a whopping $40 (it was a check and everything--guess I'll have to fill out a seperate W-2!). It was a stoke though because I thought I was spinning for free. I suppose my standards for "professional" gigs should be higher, but since I'm not trying to make a living at DJing I sometimes have this "will spin for food" attitude. Maybe things will blow up, maybe not...I will say it's a fun fuckin way to earn money...So the nerves were high-stress, the dex were slightly out of whack (haven't played out enough to be adaptable to different dex and pitch-control peculiarities), and I was hidden behind a bush so nobody actually knew when I started...BUT, all things considered, four drink tickets and 40 bones later I felt happier than a pig in shit...Hit me back with any first gig stories...would like to hear other's experiences...

  Comments

  • HollywoodColeHollywoodCole 184 Posts
    I was in college. Me and my boy did a Latin sorority party. I spun the Hip-Hop and Reggae, he did the Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, even Reggaeton before it was REGGAETON. That shit been large in the Spanish community wayyyyy before it blew up last year. This dude used to spin all the Spanish tunes using two Discmans and a mixer, no shit. That's why I get pissed at how overpriced CDJ's are. It was coo' party but I done a bunch of other parties for free, so getting payed was just a lil bonus. It was only $50, and I think I spent most of it that night on weed and White Castle.
  • bluesnagbluesnag 1,285 Posts

    puto bong bong made live beats for my 16th birthday. it was the shiznit kid. it was his first paid gig. i gave him a wooden nickel and a bushel of apples.
  • Sun_FortuneSun_Fortune 1,374 Posts
    It was my first year of college, and I put up all these flyers around campus. My name then was Dj Stranger -- quite possibly the most wack name on the planet. On the flyer, I had drawn a picture of an eye with a turntable for the iris. Anyway so I got this call from this chicka who wanted hip hop for her birthday, so I agree to do her house party for a Cnote. She lives in this apartment complex, where there's a courtyard in the midlle of a three-sided enclose (what???). Basically its not near the main party scene, so nobody is coming whatsoever -- like 25 people. I'm up there on the second story playing Eric B. and Stetso, and the girl keeps telling me to play hip hop. I'm stumped. After about an hour, she pays me 75 dollars to stop.

    The worst part was that I met this kid who started rapping who wanted to make some tracks with me. I hung out with him a couple of times and he rubbed me the wrong way/was not good at emceeing. But he kept calling me for 3 years and everytime I was playing out, he would find me somehow, and stand by the setup whole time, like he was part of my crew or something.
  • DIGGADIGGADIGGADIGGA 456 Posts
    I NEVER GOT PAID JUST STARED AT CAUSE I CAN MAKE YOU HATE YOUR FAVORITE PRODUCER..............FREEZE ................MUSIC PLEASE
  • rookrook 357 Posts
    my first "payed" was for beer/wimmen at a string of house parties my last year in highschool. aint nothing like girls coming up and sayin, "oh so and so, youre the dj what up, heres another beer/shot."

    but first monetary reimbursement was first year o college in a big old rec center. i opened for some reggae band and about an hour.5 deep into my set, (nobody had been dancing, just wallflowering and talking) i cut it out. after the reggae band started, my boy thought it would be tight to smoke weed in the building-consequentially i had to drive his ass with quickness as the cops were approaching the building, left my tables anrd records there, pick up the next day. but i got 50 bucks.
  • The_Hook_UpThe_Hook_Up 8,182 Posts
    my first gig was spinning jazz at a rock club on a radio shack mixer and two mismatched turntables, a yamaha and a kenwood...I was offered the gig but I had no equipment, this what was just stting around my apartment. It was fun, got free drinks and $100. I thought it was a cool way to make more $$$ for records, been doing it ever since, whenever the opportunity arises.
  • residentgiantresidentgiant 619 Posts
    When I was going to college in Worcester and I was Mr. Rawkus von Backpack, I used to play at house parties on the weekend. You know, charge 3 dollars a cup for the freshman and get everybody hyped because there was a "real live DJ". Man, I used to blow shit up. I would have a living room packed and rocking, using paintcans under the table legs as shock absorbers because we were usually in some rickety ass old house with shaky hardwood floors that would bounce up and down. Girls dnacing up on the couch stripping and shit.

    Yup..





    Anyway I always used to do it for free just because I always had such a good time doing it. If we were doing it at my house I'd just put whatever money we made toward that month's rent. Then I heard about some other kid on campus who was charging $150 to do a party. I went and checked him out and his selections were good but he couldn't mix for shit and people would come up to me like "hey when you gonna get on?" I kind of took it in stride but I was like, where does this kid get off charging that much? So my friend Karen threw a birthday bash, invited me to spin and had her friends charge people to take body shots off her. She handed me an envelope with $100 in small bills at the end of the night. That was my first paying gig. I figure it probably won't get much better than that ever again.
  • TheBeatGoesTheBeatGoes 711 Posts
    my first payed gig was a house party i was doing for some friends. i was doing it for free cause they are friends. i don't wanna brag, but i was KILLING it, playing all kinds of shit that people in this town wernt used to hearing and mixing it all.

    this one guy came up to me like i had made his night. he was thanking me and told me people from his country (forget which one) put their money where their mouth is and he opened up his wallet....than he was like "damn...i only have a dollar, i wish i could give you more, but i wanna give you something cause your so good, go buy some gum or something"

    the next morning i taped that dollar to the front of my left turntable case, it's still there. and it's a good easy way to tell which table i like to put on the left and which one i like to put on the right.
  • kilogramkilogram 152 Posts
    high school dance. i think $150. probably the only time aphrodite's child 4 horsemen has ever been played in a school gym. slow dance request = the sloooow song on c'est chic at -8. half the people left after an hour.
  • marumaru 1,450 Posts
    my first paid gig was a lesbian wedding.....yeah
  • street_muzikstreet_muzik 3,919 Posts
    My first payed gig was company party at a Mexican restaraunt. The place got shot up a few days later and the guy who payed me was killed. No lie.
  • tinyhuntertinyhunter 31 Posts
    1989 - Deputy Chief of Police's daughter - 18th Birthday - In a police college. 50 notes. Left the NWA at home.
  • SonicReducerSonicReducer 421 Posts
    It was three years ago, I got paid in records. For spinning one hour at a plush suburban bar I recieved a mint copy of the 45 "Hard Headed Woman" by U.S. Warren. Those of you in Detroit know who I got the record from.

    I also got paid for a gig in Ann Arbor once, $50 for 45 minutes. I liked that. They also fed me.

    Most people who ask me to spin on their nights offer me free drinks rather than cash. I don't drink so I get a zillion cokes and give my drink tickets/credits to friends.

    I am spinning at my boss' wedding reception this summer though. Nothing but jazz, soul, and deep disco. No requests, no Bob Seger, no "monie monie", none of that. Straight soul and jazz. Getting paid too.

    Deep beats and deep crates,
    SonicReducer
    (TEAMAARON)
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