Hammersmith Palais
10.09.06-11.09.06
The 2006 DMC World DJ Championships took place in London and once again didn’t disappoint. With 3 titles up for grabs, the competition was fierce from all across the globe and the crème de la crème brought their A games for the crowd this year.
First up was the World Supremacy crown, the battle event of the weekend. DJs each had two mini-sets to try and defeat the opponent and there were some serious fireworks in this event. The semi finals saw Japan’s DJ Coma edge out the British entrant Switch and France’s DJ Troubl’ saw off the challenge from Sweden’s DJ Ego in what was an entertaining viewing. The final itself was extremely close and it could have gone either way but when Coma dropped in some DnB and slightly better techniques, it swayed in his favour.
However, this was just the beginning for France’s entries as they powered they way through the two remaining contests. Before the Team Championship, we were treated to a bit of breaking, which saw Tenacious D take on Lil Tim in the final, which the almost constantly airborne Tim one, but huge big ups to D for the best character and unfaltering smile throughout!
The team event threw up some amazing routines and started off brilliantly with Taiwan’s Noise crew donning their 1980s power dress jackets and serious concentration. Dangerous Combination threw up some great guitar-effects with a guitar shaped turntable whilst dropping Nirvana before a masked team threw up some nice jazzy combinations.
With Canada’s Stylists bringing the raw hip hop flavour, America’s Animal Crackers throwing in some Korn and the UK’s Disablists coming so close to winning the crown, it was left to the 3 time champions C2C to once again wow the crowd and take the title for a 4th year in a row. No-one could argue with that, the best style and sound going.
Then on the Monday we had the main event – The World DJ Championship. The top DJs came up towards the end and we were treated to some real amazing styles. Sweden’s Kid Sid hit us with some huge basslines mixed up with electro and disco tracks before actually setting fire to his vinyl. Fred Funk brought some old skool steez to the plate, with his early 80s dress and awesome style and techniques, spinning around, hitting the crossfader with his nose and such.
Rafik from Germany was up next and delivered a flawless routine ending in Smells Like Teen Spirit before handing over to Japan’s Yasa. His routine was brilliant, showing great styles, even bettering Funk and really catching the imagination. He would’ve won if it hadn’t been for France’s DJ Netik throwing up some unbelievably heavy house sounds which he cut up and floored brilliantly. After his routine, he threw his arms in the air and paraded himself in front of the crowd, who seemed to think he was the winner.
And so it turned out, Netik picked up the $10,000 and golden stylus for first place, Yasa coming second and Rafik filling in the bronze positions. It was a perfect advertisement for turntablism and even those that didn’t place in the top 3 were worthy of all the applause they got. A brilliant weekend all in all.