After months of heats the worlds top turntablists finally make it to the world finals in London to battle for the coveted gold turntables. After a few years of getting overly technical, judging on the heats we are in for a more “back to music” approach and less of the complex scratch patterns that although difficult, aren’t always the most pleasing to your ears!
The first night at the 02 Indigo was dedicated to the battle DJs, the format is two sets each of 60seconds. This is DJs just straight up have to flex skills and egos to earn the panel of judges favor. Of all the elements of hiphop, this to me at least, is the most technical and universally respected. An emcee can practice lines, a writer can spray and erase, breakers can perfect their routines but a battle DJ has the unexpected elements of a track skipping under pressure, mis-cueing or simply making an error, the slightest fault is instantly punished by the judges.
The first set of battles saw Mikey from Hong Kong drop heavy bass but ultimately wasn’t a match for Frances highly rated DJ Nelson who crushed him without even looking warmed up. Craim from Italy dropped some funk and stretched the minute out in style with some precision juggling. The UK Champ, DJ Switch definitely had worked hard since his UK final victory to breeze through another 60seconds of insults. USA’s SPS, looked over confident before the needle even touched the record and was cocky in a very calm way to annoy DJ Irie from Benelux, both put in work with Irie cutting his way through a heavy weight set bringing the BoomBap to proceedings, the crowd were all for Irie, he smashed it, but SPS went through on technical merit to the next round, even the emcess taking us through the night, Trip and Billy Bizness looked a bit embarrassed.
Last years Supremacy champ was back to defend his title, rocking a shirt stating ” Nelson = French Bitch” and cutting samples calling Nelson a Bitch, dumb move. Nelson was wound up and battled back with Rage Against the Machine’s first album pulling out the riffs on the decks and wiped the former champ out. DJs were dropping like flys, Craim was suffering technical difficulties, Bunta from Japan looked the part with his fat gold chain but failed to impress, Switch was on hand to knock them both down to make it to the final.
The final put Nelson head to head with Switch. Nelson was bashful and stepped straight in to hard bass drums and taking every spare second to bate his opponent. Switch replied with a straight up battle set, no pretty juggling, jumping a level up from his already high standards, and even felt he could smooth things out while casually slating his opponent on track. I couldn’t pick between them and both of these guys were a cut above the other DJs on the night, but in the eyes of the judges, Switch took it and is the World DMC Supremecy Champion for 2008, worth noting that the first guy to shake Switch’s hand to congratulate him was DJ Nelson, its all love.
Next up is the team event – Portugal’s Supa had the misfortune of kicking off the sets with dual scratch routines, but the sound levels were mixed up and only the stage area received sound. USA’s Angry Ex’s setup in about 90seconds, just decks and mixers, these guys approached it as two DJs mixing hard, rather than over complicating things with multiple laptops, they just had fun up on stage winning the crowd over instantly, would be amazing seeing a full club set from these two technically gifted jokers. Intellivision from Italy started to warm things up with their LED glowing glasses and Mission Impossible beat juggle, very organized and intense and straight in to 3rd Place. The French crew, Trauma Team battled in to second with a 4 man set putting together their own sound from scratch (sorry!) but it was the Japanese team to take it again. Kireek are on a roll, the 2 Djs from Osaka have been pushing each other for a few years now and it wasn’t a surprise they took it for a 2nd year in a row and walked away with $10000 prize money!
Saturday is the main event, bigger crowd and a lot of much bigger name, established DJs along for the 6minute sets. Highlights were DJ Shub with a very complete set of making his own music and still hitting every aspect of mixing and might have been the first to even bother with his “up-faders” on the night. Rob Banks from Germany put in a faultless set with some stomping beats, Perplex had battled through technical difficulties to get his quick sound out. The UK Champ, DJ Skully drove the crowd wild with a no-messing-around mentality, straight in to a routine, no seconds wasted with a pointed intro and blazed some UK hiphop and breezed from tempo to tempo using musical breakdowns and combined technical ability to keep the judges happy, I hoped for a UK double victory, but Skully made a respectable 4th, another night he could have taken it.
Japan delivered a heavy showing as ever, DJ CO-MA will be hoping to follow in DJ Kentaros footsteps who took 3rd in 2001 and then stormed to victory the following year. Working his battle tools to melting point with a smooth electro juggle at warp speed showing pretty much a full repertoire of tricks and treats while keeping the music flowing, might feel hard done by with 3rd place, I suspect he will be back. 2nd Place went to the USA in the shape of DJ Slyce. Coming off more technical than the other DJs, maybe at the expense of the music – but manually spinning the decks backwards in a beat juggle mixed with high speed flares definitely got the crowd riled, faultless.
1st place however went to Frances DJ Fly, no holds barred here, treated it as battle set to start with and confidently abused the decks with a very strong style and played equally to the crowd with DJ Premier samples and to the judges with new scratch patterns and seamless juggles remixing drums as he went along. Any of the Top 4 could have taken the title, but on reflection, Fly had all the prime parts of each of the other top 4 DJs worked in to his arsenal so he justly takes the prize money, but more importantly the Gold Technics and the right to be called The World DMC Champion, props.
The DMC’s aren’t just about battle DJ’s competing, sets from DJ Vajra and former champions like last years DJ Rafik broke up the night. Live PAs from The Jungle Drummer got the club atmosphere going, while Kella came out of nowhere with a full live band and a full on large sound that had him rapping, singing and of course beatboxing with the added flavor of an artist completely out of his shell and violently attacking his latest sound of mashup/punk, definitely have to catch a full live show, he is brutally taking the art form in so many directions right now.
Again the DMC’s came up with an inspirational world class event, showing strength in depth from a world class judging panel that included legends like DJ Pogo and former champ DJ Rafik, nobody could argue with the end results. Even the technical problems didn’t spoil the mood with emcees Billy Bizness and the motormouth Trip both on top form keeping the crowd amused with playful banter and more product tosses than a crossfire event!
Good work, bring on 2009, I’m off for a mix!
Philip Procter