Last week, the Red Bull Thre3style DJ battle kicked off with competitions simultaneously raging across the UK, Colombia, Australia, Brazil, France, Canada, Norway and New Zealand in a bid to find the world's next deckwise luminaries.
In the UK, the competition will tour five major cities this month before settling in Southampton on October 26 for the final.
Each hopeful has 10 minutes in which to impress head judge DJ Yoda, a DMC champ himself, not to mention one of the UK’s most visually arresting live turntablists.
To win, he says, is not just about being nifty with a mixer: “It's a delicate balance between technical skills and the ability to get the crowd moving. Too much of one and you sacrifice the other.”
'Deejaying can be such a creative, inspiring art form, so it's great that Red Bull Thre3style can encourage that'
And winning is everything in this battle – no really, it is – as the champion will snap up £1,000 (€1,172) and the chance to record in the Red Bull Studio in happening London, and represent the UK at the world final in Vancouver, Canada, on December 17.
“This kind of competition is vital in keeping the art of deejaying alive,” continues Yoda. “It's depressing to see so many DJs on the scene with no skills whatsoever, getting by on a celebrity name or some other gimmick.
“Deejaying can be such a creative, inspiring art form, so it's great that Red Bull Thre3style can encourage that.”
Want some more tips? Check out DJ Yoda’s top five DJs below.
DJ Q-Bert
“If you ask any DJ who scratches, “Who is the best at scratching in the world?” they will immediately tell you it’s Q-Bert from San Francisco. And it more or less always has been. There are very few fields in which one person is consistently light years ahead of everyone else, but scratch deejaying is one of them. Listening to Q-Bert if you scratch is, frankly, quite depressing!”
Kid Koala
“I've always counted this Montreal-based DJ as one of my favourites as he’s one of the rare DJs that always has a sense of humour about what he does. He’s incredibly creative and musical, and he just released an album of the most relaxing scratching you will ever hear, which is quite a feat in itself.”
DJ Riz
“He’s an old-school hip-hop DJ in the classic form, but he was the first hip-hop DJ I ever heard mix other genres in a hip-hop style. I have this classic old tape of him cutting up Terence Trent D’Arby and Chris Isaak with classic breaks, and that is the kind of thing that inspired me to do what I do.”
DJ Kayper and Doorly
“These are two British DJs who I see play in clubs quite a lot, and they're my favourite to watch as they’re both very skilled DJs with a lot of talent. Kayper is a girl, which is rare to see and refreshing too – it would be nice to see a lot of female DJs in this competition. Doorly, on the other hand, mixes all genres of dance music, which impresses me too.”
Zane Lowe
“Most people know Zane as a [BBC] Radio 1 DJ, so people’s first instinct is to guess that his club deejaying is going to be just all personality-based. But he’s actually the most skilled person I’ve seen using CDJs – he really works them as hard as they can be worked and it’s always great fun to watch.”
Red Bull Thre3style in the UK heads to Nottingham on October 10, Swansea on October 12, Kingston on October 19 and Southampton (UK final) on October 26.
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.JPG "Martyn 1")
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