DJs? WHAT IS IT?

Damn once again I've been neglecting my own hip hop blog for awhile, but honestly I've been doing a bit soul searching, and studying of hip hop around here & there. But the truth is I still have no conclusion to who, what, where, when, & why "Hip Hop" is "Hip Hop"? So moving forward towards my point today...

When it comes down to hip hop, more specifically one of the 4 elements - "DJing" in Central NJ. Unless you're in the inner circle(like any where else) you can't really get much exposure to the REAL idea about "DJing" because no one is around to tell you about it. Especially when you're so close to the big apple, really... the real of arts of hip hop isn't really exposed let alone DJing. This form of art has be so degraded by today's standards (kids/yound adults today) it's really hard to tell most people who enjoy music DJing is hard. It's definately easier to tell people they're wack than explain to them what DJing really means.





First up for the hate, we get hipsters. Takes one to know one, so to say the least I'm the worst kind, because I'm always true to my words. One of my reason to be a DJ is no different than the any musician out there, it is to get better with my craft so I can hope to challenge those in the lead. But we get hipsters who always claim they are who they are when they DO NOT practice the art. It's no surprise everybody's a DJ since they know how to play music, but music is as easy as being played by a press of a button. The real skill is the ability to manipulate and/or use songs in a fashion that you can use in different scenarios. Mainly in short (I will try to explain more about each later...) the skills of DJing are tested through parties/events, production, sessions, and battles.

If you do all the above or at least some of the above, that's great. In parties/events I don't hate on playlists because it is what I am weak at the most and in all honestly that fits the events. But you CAN NEVER call your self a DJ if you DO have a playlist on itunes or windows media player and play them in an AUTO CROSSFADE. Specifically you cannot fade one song into another random unrelated song because it is NOT apart of the art of DJ.



This is by example an outrageous attempt but it should bring you the idea of a session, when "you" a DJ that sessions, should be like one of the few turntables in the video above - a contributing factor. Unfortunately the lack of healthy DJ exposure makes the art of sessioning a dying practice.

Production... well... that's another story for another blog.

But for now the ones who read this should understand that being a DJ isn't hard, but being good is never easy.