Parties (rant)

[nickp]

This is hip-hop themed, and I've put it here because itwill probably get better recieved than in the moaning section.

So I've been DJing a few years. Hip-hop/mashup/whatever rocks the party. Something triggered this memory from last spring:

I was DJing two nights in a row at this house party. I think they were just trying to get evicted, well the second night ended with broken bottles, people brawling, and a guy getting nabbed by the cops trying to come in with a six-shooter. A ****in six-shooter.

I remember I was just throwing down some hot jam stuff. It was a varied party, they weren't reacting well to more original stuff, so I go "eh, might as well just get drunk and have fun spinning these jams". Now, in this situation I was just doing a lot of cutting and mixing, and laying low on the scratch. Mainly due to the speakers being muddy. Well these three guys kept trying to come into the little booth I made. Now, if any of you are DJs (I suspect a lot are) then you can relate to how annoying it is when someone tries to come back and play mixman. Just walking back, taking up your space, going through your records without asking, telling mto play, and trying to give me "pointers" such as "YO TURN THIS TRACK UP!!!11!! BASS DAT SHIT!!!!".

I blow it off, make small talk, and leave it at that. Making a long story short, he kept telling me how his homie could smoke anyone at scratching. I said his friend could mess around after 3am, when it'd be clearing. He kept insisting and annoying th piss out of me. So I get fed up with him trying to get people to get behind him with letting his friend get on. I just shut off my decks and invited his friend back.

He comes and does some not-bad stuff. Mainly stabs and chirps. Not bad, but nowhere near good. I had moved out of the booth and was now in front of him. I wasn't minding until he started talking about putting me to shame. Now, this is as everyone is watching, and also while he had heard me scratch for maybe three seconds. I did what anyone in my situation would do:

I scratched the **** out of everything. Crabs out-the-ass, like full-out 140mph nuts. I did this all while reaching over the table and mixer.

They left soon after.
-Nick

PS: I have no problems with people suggesting like, maybe one song, or maybe a genre-change. But when the same 20-year old girl and her five dumb friends keep coming up and requesting "that one hot JLO track" or "all the Outkast I have", it gets really annoying. In my experience, the stupid-girl-syndrome usually involves asking for Jay-Z or Outkast, non-stop. And the occasional Babyface fan.

PPS: This Trilogy Sound mix is awesome. Anyone score the DJ /Rupture track that posted on lemon-red for a month? http://www.lemon-red.org/mix/2005/06-05-djrupture.html <- that one. They've hosted some nice mixes. And Hollertronix, as always, is killing it.

[Relax]

I pretty much quit DJ'ing out because of that shit, especially the requests for backstreet and whatever. Now I have a set dollar amount I need to be paid BEFORE starting and then I just consider it work.

[rickrock305]

Originally Posted by nickp

Well these three guys kept trying to come into the little booth I made. Now, if any of you are DJs (I suspect a lot are) then you can relate to how annoying it is when someone tries to come back and play mixman. Just walking back, taking up your space, going through your records without asking, telling mto play, and trying to give me "pointers" such as "YO TURN THIS TRACK UP!!!11!! BASS DAT SHIT!!!!".

I don't DJ much anymore, but i used to do house parties a lot. I absolutely HATED this shit. If someone came back where i was DJing and i didn't know them (or they weren't a nice lookin lady ), they would get the point REAL quick that they were not welcome...usually along the lines of "get the **** outta here" or something like that. And if you touch my records without me saying its cool, look OUT!!!!! Nobody touches my shit without specific consent from me, and i will definitely be yelling at you if i find you going thru my records. As for people giving pointers, i just tried to ignore them really and usually they would get the point. Requests are one thing, telling me how to DJ is another.


And yes, ALWAYS get paid up front for these type of gigs

[Methlab]

yeayh if you DJ prepare for that. I played house parties as a musician and would have clowns trying to play my gear..instant beating. what i did like was when the singer took a break and some dude wanted to get on the mic and rap...that was always good shit.


on crab scratching..I had some technics for 6 months (went broke, had to sell).I learned to crab in 2 weeks.my DJ buddy flipped out. he couldnt believe it..it was all i could do though..i never practiced...so is the crab real impressive? i have been playing instruments for 15 years so i think it helped me out with all that.

[ttauri]

Originally Posted by nickp

PS: I have no problems with people suggesting like, maybe one song, or maybe a genre-change. But when the same 20-year old girl and her five dumb friends keep coming up and requesting "that one hot JLO track" or "all the Outkast I have", it gets really annoying. In my experience, the stupid-girl-syndrome usually involves asking for Jay-Z or Outkast, non-stop. And the occasional Babyface fan.

Yeah, like Kurtis said, that's the breaks, that's the breaks.

I try to avoid even taking one request (if I can), 'cause it's like a vortex. After the first request, they just pile up more and more.

Cultivate an unapproachable demeanor. Look busy constantly, take a while to recognize that someone is waiting to make a request, and when you do notice them, do it in a gruff corner-of-the-eye "yeah, what?" kind of way.

Peece,
T. Tauri

[nickp]

Originally Posted by Methlab

yeayh if you DJ prepare for that. I played house parties as a musician and would have clowns trying to play my gear..instant beating. what i did like was when the singer took a break and some dude wanted to get on the mic and rap...that was always good shit.


on crab scratching..I had some technics for 6 months (went broke, had to sell).I learned to crab in 2 weeks.my DJ buddy flipped out. he couldnt believe it..it was all i could do though..i never practiced...so is the crab real impressive? i have been playing instruments for 15 years so i think it helped me out with all that.

Doing a basic crab is the easy part. Making it sound fluent is hard as hell. I mixed first, and started with the scratches second, with conditioning my hands up and such. It really turns into an issue of changing up your scratches and making a mix really sound personal with them. It sucks when you go to a party and some Invisibl Skratch Piklz guy will just scratch the same tourine for 45 minutes and wonder why his non-mixing wrecked the dancefloor.

In addition to cats sifting through your records is when they start taking them out and re-arranging them. That's when the swellbow comes out.

And finally: indie people who name 10,000 underground mcs that you should rather be mixing. And if you don't know 1/4 of them then you're some weak-ass top-40 shit or something similar.
-Nick

[rickrock305]

the thing with the crab scratch...by itself its not amazing, just cool...the ser effect you get with it. But add in some crafty movements with the record and you can get a lot of really cool combinations with the crab.


And DON"T let fools touch your records...not even close. Soon as somebody starts digging through your crates, foot in his ass.

[Methlab]

yeah..DJing is a tough trade. you deal with drunk owners, patrons and girls (the good part). unlike being in a band, you don't have a crew to enforce that you get paid for what you are doing. respect to those that spin those sketchy house parties.

[Relax]

another technique i had for requests when i had a weekly job at a frat house was to make a sign that says:
Write all requests on a piece of paper money and give it to the DJ.
and had a couple thin tip sharpies available.
The bank tellers always looked at me funny when i came in with a wad of $1s and $5s with drunkin scribble all over them.

[rickrock305]

Originally Posted by Methlab

yeah..DJing is a tough trade. you deal with drunk owners, patrons and girls (the good part). unlike being in a band, you don't have a crew to enforce that you get paid for what you are doing. respect to those that spin those sketchy house parties.

lol, reminds me of a story. I was hired last minute to dj this party in a not so nice part of town, Riviera Beach for those familiar with south Florida. Long story short, i almost got shot for not playing a request, requested after i was already packing up my shit. Good times though, i still got paid.

[rickrock305]

Originally Posted by Relax

another technique i had for requests when i had a weekly job at a frat house was to make a sign that says:
Write all requests on a piece of paper money and give it to the DJ.
and had a couple thin tip sharpies available.
The bank tellers always looked at me funny when i came in with a wad of $1s and $5s with drunkin scribble all over them.

thats a good one.

[Kestral]

My rant about parties is that stupid DJs never play what the crowd wants to hear. Instead, they masturbate themselves into a lather scratching or playing their sh-t that no one cares about.

DJ's: shut up and just play what people want to hear.

[nickp]

Originally Posted by Kestral

My rant about parties is that stupid DJs never play what the crowd wants to hear. Instead, they masturbate themselves into a lather scratching or playing their sh-t that no one cares about.

DJ's: shut up and just play what people want to hear.

If it's a top-40 club, then yeah, you're gonna be pretty much limited to whatever shit is on the radio. But see: you also get paid. It's officially a job then.

But part of not taking a high payment, or any payment at all (i.e. houseparties, local events, etc) and getting a name for yourself is that you get freedom. After lugging two or three turntables, a mixer or two, speakers, amp, and at least two crates of records across town, up stairs, into a room, etc- I'm going to have some fun. Not to mention that if it isn't a friend's house, I'm expected to lug it all home that night. That usually involves finding a D/D, so there's another person doing a service.

After all that I'll be damned if I'm going to be a jukebox. Oh wahh, you spent ten minutes to get over to this house party that:
a) is letting you in, with live music and available booze, with little/no cover
b) your friends are at
c) probably close by
d) probably has cheap booze and is most likely BYOB
e) probably no one is making much money at. Even if they make money damages to house/equipment/booze costs/police tickets will prob. bring them to the red. Not to mention the time that was put into clearing the house of expensive shit and furniture for an area for people. And sound checking. Booze runs all throughout the evening. Clean-up. Busted overflowing toilets. People doing dumb shit.

And you're bitching because the DJ isn't playing your favorite R. Kelly track? Cry me a piss-trail.

I go out of my way to find new stuff. To dig, to spend hours throwing things together and making it sound good. If you can only dance to the latest Em track then go turn on a radio and get down to "funky censored mix fridays" or whatever.

I do it to try something new, to have fun, and to try to rock a party the hardest.

I didn't spend time/money/energy to be a once-a-week replacement for an FM radio channel.
-Nick

[Relax]

Originally Posted by nickp

If it's a top-40 club, then yeah, you're gonna be pretty much limited to whatever shit is on the radio. But see: you also get paid. It's officially a job then.

But part of not taking a high payment, or any payment at all (i.e. houseparties, local events, etc) and getting a name for yourself is that you get freedom. After lugging two or three turntables, a mixer or two, speakers, amp, and at least two crates of records across town, up stairs, into a room, etc- I'm going to have some fun. Not to mention that if it isn't a friend's house, I'm expected to lug it all home that night. That usually involves finding a D/D, so there's another person doing a service.

After all that I'll be damned if I'm going to be a jukebox. Oh wahh, you spent ten minutes to get over to this house party that:
a) is letting you in, with live music and available booze, with little/no cover
b) your friends are at
c) probably close by
d) probably has cheap booze and is most likely BYOB
e) probably no one is making much money at. Even if they make money damages to house/equipment/booze costs/police tickets will prob. bring them to the red. Not to mention the time that was put into clearing the house of expensive shit and furniture for an area for people. And sound checking. Booze runs all throughout the evening. Clean-up. Busted overflowing toilets. People doing dumb shit.

And you're bitching because the DJ isn't playing your favorite R. Kelly track? Cry me a piss-trail.

I go out of my way to find new stuff. To dig, to spend hours throwing things together and making it sound good. If you can only dance to the latest Em track then go turn on a radio and get down to "funky censored mix fridays" or whatever.

I do it to try something new, to have fun, and to try to rock a party the hardest.

I didn't spend time/money/energy to be a once-a-week replacement for an FM radio channel.
-Nick

word-the-****-up.

[Kestral]

Any DJ that's schlepping turntables and boxes of records in this day and age is an idiot.

These days when I go to house parties, the "DJ" looks like this:



And unlike DJ's, the iPod plays what people want to hear.

DJ = idiot with an ego problem that plays music no one else cares about. If you want to do that, then do it in the comfort of your mom's basement.

[nickp]

Originally Posted by Kestral

Any DJ that's schlepping turntables and boxes of records in this day and age is an idiot.

These days when I go to house parties, the "DJ" looks like this:



And unlike DJ's, the iPod plays what people want to hear.

DJ = idiot with an ego problem that plays music no one else cares about. If you want to do that, then do it in the comfort of your mom's basement.

BUMPIN OUT THEM NON-STOP 128K BEATZ! HEAR THAT HOLLOW SHITTY QUALITY SOUND? THAT'S FRESH.

Non-non stop. You only have a break between the songs when a song ends. Or when two hipsters wearing tight size small women's jeans from goodwill fight over which Bloc Party track should come on next.

I thought the DJ was supposed to keep the beat going? I guess I was mistaken.

I bet all the iPod owners know how to make a setlist that brings the BPMs up and down and back again, and can make the party go apeshit at 1:30am with just the right tune. Yes, the iPod can read the crowd as a whole.

MAN I ESPECIALLY LOVE JOG WHEELZ IN DA MIX! Especially when the "party" turns into people all leaving the dance floor and forming a line to play their favorite song/fighting over it/getting intomusic fights. Nothing I love more at a party than all of them getting back on the dancefloor and realizing that they can't dance to Sigur Ros.

Have fun.
-Nick

[rickrock305]

Originally Posted by Kestral

Any DJ that's schlepping turntables and boxes of records in this day and age is an idiot.

These days when I go to house parties, the "DJ" looks like this:



And unlike DJ's, the iPod plays what people want to hear.

DJ = idiot with an ego problem that plays music no one else cares about. If you want to do that, then do it in the comfort of your mom's basement.

and your in the hip hop forum?


the ipod doesn't play what i want to hear, namely the whole MP3 craze which i'm still not a part of. I don't own an ipod, i prefer to listen to vinyl, or CDs for the convenience.

Real DJing is an art form. You don't even realize it, but a good DJ controls the party almost. Thru his selection of music, he's setting the mood for the whole place. He can make you dance, or he can get the entire place to clear out. He can get people rowdy and fighting, or he can get everyone grinding by playing a certain song at the right time. And the art comes in knowing what to play when, and of course how its done. Real DJing is not just spinning some random records one after the other, a la iPod shuffle. A DJ takes into consideration how the crowd reacts to what he plays, and modifies it constantly to suit whatever they may be into or feeling at the time.

You obviously know nothing about that, and just wanted to troll through the hip hop forum apparently, because your not with it.

Get a clue, and go to a real party for a change!