URB asked none other than DMC CEO Christie Z-Pabon to give us a road diary of a day in the life: airline-damaged gear, 3-way ties, and kismet encounters awaited, as she headed off to New Orleans, USA: “Arrived to the American Airlines terminal at JFK, and who was standing outside the door like an omen for good things to come? 1997 DMC World Champion: DJ A-Trak!! Soon enough his brother Dave (from Chromeo) joined him! I was so happy to see old friends from my first year at DMC in 1998! They flew off to Los Angeles and I was off to New Orleans…”
2010 DMC New Orleans Battle
By DMC USA CEO: Christie Z-Pabon
Photo by KAMMs the Ace
http://www.facebook.com/ChristieZPabon
Who’s on my same flight after my stop-over in Miami? DMC US Finalist from 2009, DJ Concept from S. Florida, headed back to DMC New Orleans for a second year with his eye on the title. Last year he came in 2nd at DMC NOLA, and runners up were invited to battle in the US Finals! Running into DMC World and US competitors was incredible foreshadowing for the battle to come. I was even more excited for the 2010 DMC American Battleground season to begin!!
Promoter and DJ Tony Skratchere fetched me from the airport and gets me settled in this great apartment along a major parade route in the Garden District – beads are dangling like fruit from the sprawling century-old trees and they look just beautiful! Maybe I am an old-soul hippie who missed her time period but Janis Joplin’s “Bobby McGee” and Arlo Guthrie’s “City of New Orleans” rang through my head throughout my whole stay in NOLA!
April 16th – Battle time! We arrive at The Hookah (309 Decatur), which was decorated profusely with images and a statue of Hindu deity Ganesh. Despite the club’s name, it was more of a bar, with no hookah to be found! Much to my consternation, it is still legal to smoke indoors in New Orleans. A scrappy, tall security lady grabbed my 50 lb luggage filled with 3 Rane mixers and all of my banners and lugged it up the 2 flights of stairs, making me feel like a prissy, helpless girl for not doing it myself!
Turns out that one of my mixers – despite careful packing – was seriously banged up during travel – knobs were bent or broken off – never seen anything like it. Maybe the airline inspected my bag and just threw everything back in willy-nilly? Maybe they gave it to the Samsonite Gorilla from back in the days. There is ALWAYS something that presents an obstacle when setting up a battle – and it’s different every time. Power DJ couple Tony Skratchere and Beverly Skillz set up all the equipment, the banners were hung, prizes laid out, and we were off!
Since there were only 6 entrants, they were all crowned 2010 DMC New Orleans Finalists and we skipped the 2-minute preliminary round, since only the top 6 get to showcase for 6 minutes each. Competitors had more time than usual to try out the equipment and tweek it to their liking, as New Orleans is a city where people go out late. Doors opened at 8pm, but the battle started around 11pm. The crowd was super-hyped about each and every one of the finalists, and yelled and screamed words of encouragement. Two ladies in particular attempted to dance to everyone’s battle sets – which was a feat to behold in itself!
DJs from across the South entered, including The Don Santos repping Houston TX, DJ Jeff C from Birmingham AL, DJ Swift from Rembert SC, DJ Concept from S. Florida, Know Respect repping the whole state of Louisiana, and DJ Rocksteady “from parts unknown”. Judges included reigning World DMC DJ Champ, DJ Shiftee (NYC), 09 DMC US Runner-Up: Mista B (San Fran) and DJ Spin (NOLA) who was the only DJ repping Louisiana back in the late 90s in DMC battles! Since I am not the most technical with descriptions of battle routines, our guest reviewer is 2010 DMC NOLA competitor DJ Jeff C from Birmingham AL.
DJ Jeff C on The Don Santos: “I saw his intro and part of his first juggle. He was coming across really clean and already had me scared haha…Around the last minute of his set, he was murdering the cut and staring right at me as if to say, “What you got now, homie?’”
DJ Jeff C on DJ Jeff C: “I came off pretty good with my scratch routines, but had skipping issues with both my juggles and was f*cking up anyways because I was so nervous.” [Christie’s note: Jeff C did great and he had a diss where he threw an empty cup at DJ Swift]
DJ Jeff C on DJ Swift: “This kid has skills! His intro was smooth and then he just started killin’ it. His cuts were super on point and so were all of his juggles. I think he was the only DJ to do some drumming that night. His set was really well composed with his transitions.” [Christie’s note: Look for him at the 2010 DMC US Finals – he’s coming hard!]
DJ Jeff C on Concept: “This dude is straight nasty! He had me yelling and going crazy. His set was clean from start to finish with super smooth transitions, hard-hitting and clean juggles that had my had nodding and the crowd screaming, his scratch routines were really well composed and his cuts were sick!”
DJ Jeff C on Rocksteady: “His style was really original. He had dope cuts, dope juggles, and his set sounded really well put together from start to finish. It sounded very clean to me but he told me he had some skipping problems too at the end of his set.”
DJ Jeff C on DJ Know Respect: He was from Louisiana and had the crowd screaming really loud at the beginning of his set but honestly I was so drunk by this time I really don’t remember much… All the DJs competing were cool as hell and great people.”
Our prestigious judges handed in their score sheets with unanimous picks for 1st: Concept and 2nd: DJ Swift, but each liked a different DJ for 3rd so it was a 3-way tie between The Don Santos, DJ Rocksteady and DJ Jeff C!
Concept won a TTM-56s Mixer and an 8-gig Rane/Serato USB memory watch courtesy of Rane plus Maschine from Native Instruments! The promoter Tony Skratchere will fly him round trip to NYC and hook him up with hotel accommodations to battle in the 2010 DMC US Finals on Aug. 7th at Santos Party House! DJ Swift took home the Rane/Serato memory watch (you cannot buy them!) and a Soundpack from Native Instruments!! As we are inviting special runner-ups to battle in the 2010 DMC US Finals, DJ Swift happily accepted the invite!!
Reppin’ the Bay Area and 4OneFunk, DJ Mista-B, 2009 DMC US Runner Up, tore up a mean showcase. 2009 DMC World Champ, DJ Shiftee followed with a bouncy but raw showcase. He was using Maschine to enhance his set AND best yet, in the tradition of the best battle DJs of the 90’s, he used the inimitable voice of Kool DJ Red Alert from the 09 DMC US Finals DVD for his set! Red was so impressed by Shiftee’s winning US Finals set he yelled, ”When I say DJ, you say Shiftee!”
Thanks to New Orleans for showing us a great time and DJ Tony Skratchere, one of the handful of DJs across the nation who refused to see DJ battles fall off the map – so he became a promoter and brought DMC to New Orleans!!
Check out Billy Jam of Hip Hop Slam’s interview with Tony Skratchere
View and Download the Raw video by Marc Bayangos
Next battles
May 15: DMC East Coast & Battle for US Supremacy at Santos Party House 96 Lafayette St. NYC 10013 http:/www.santospartyhouse.com
May 21: DMC West Coast & USA Team Battle at Cohiba 110 E Broadway in downtown Long Beach, CA. 90802 http://www.cohibalongbeach.com
May 28: DMC San Antonio TX at Sam’s Burger Joint 330 East Grayson St. San Antonio, TX 78215 http://www.samsburgerjoint.com
Aug. 7: 2010 DMC US Finals at Santos Party House 96 Lafayette St. NYC 10013 http:/www.santospartyhouse.com
More info at:
http://www.dmcdjchamps.com http://www.myspace.com/dmcusa http://www.muzu.tv/dmcusa
5comments