Stories
The Act of DJing: Influence on Hiphop by VOFO.
by Rapjoint Lagos
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Most common types of DJs include: radio DJs, club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile DJs (who are hired to work at public and private events such as weddings, parties, or festivals), and turntablists (who use record players, usually turntables, to manipulate sounds on phonograph records).
It was coined in 1935 by American radio commentator Walter Winchell while describing Martin Block, an early radio announcer. At the time, the big news story was the kidnapping of the son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh. While awaiting details and developments, Block played records to give the impression that he was broadcasting from a ballroom. He called the show Make Believe Ballroom. Prior to this, most music heard on the radio was played live. Jimmy Savile claims to have been the first DJ to use twin turntables for continuous play in 1947. He launched the world’s first DJ dance party by playing Jazz records in the upstairs room of a UK-based mutual society organization, and eventually became a radio DJ himself.”
The Originators
The three most important names in the history of deejaying are Clive Campbell (DJ Kool Herc), Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler) and Grand Wizard Theodore (Theodore Livingston).
• Grandmaster Flash is known as the inventor of turntable wizardry. He perfected Herc’s breaks by using what he calls the "quick mix theory".
• Grand Wizard Theodore learned to DJ from his brother, Mene Gene. Theodore was also a student of Grandmaster Flash. He's universally credited with the invention of scratching. The story goes that Theodore’s mother had asked him to turn down the volume of his record. When she stormed into the room to reprimand him, he attempted to stop the record immediately by putting pressure on it with his hand. This produced a scratching sound.
• Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc, widely regarded as the "father of hip-hop culture," developed a technique of mixing back and forth between two identical records to extend the rhythmic instrumental segment, or break. Turntablism, the art of using turntables not only to play music but to manipulate sound and create original music.
The 5 Deadliest DJ Cuts of the 1980s
• “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel,” Grandmaster
• “DJ Premier in Deep Concentration,” Gang Starr (1989)
• “Jazzy’s in the House,” DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (1988)
• “King of the Beats,” Mantronix (1988)
• “Rockin’ Music,” Steady B (1987)
DJing & it’s impact over time.
Deejaying has evolved beyond recognition. Ones and twos have been replaced by CDs and laptops. Regardless, DJs continue to play a pivotal role at hip-hop parties everywhere hip-hop is enjoyed, thanks to the genius of Herc, Flash, Theodore and countless others.
Today we have a far different scenario than the DJs of those days, with our fancy laptops, DJ controllers and multi-thousand dollar CDJs. But the general idea still remains the same: to provide relevant music to an audience that people wanted to hear, without losing momentum. The introduction of the Pioneer SVM-1000 Audio and Video Mixer and other high tech digital sound mixers made a whole new culture of disco DJ integration. The proliferation of Internet technologies have also created a culture of disc jockey enthusiast groups. DJ battles imitating the events on the game gave the DJ industry a more competitive phase. The DJ industry has become increasingly about the atmosphere that goes along with a performance.
Marathon DJ sets are nothing new in the world of dance music. Selectors like Markus Schulz, Ben Klock have made names for themselves over the years by slamming down sets that extend well past the 10-hour mark.
Nigeria's DJ Obi. In his hometown of Lagos—from a room called Sao Café Lagos— the man born Obi Ajuonuma obliterated ole' Norbert's record by a whole forty hours, performing non-stop for ten straight days from June 22 to 11:30 PM on July 2 2016. The Syndik8 Records’ official disc jockey has put Nigeria on the world map by breaking the Guinness World Record for the Longest Marathon Club DJing.
Top DJs In Nigeria
• Dj Jimmy Jatt.
• DJ Kaywise.
• DJ Xclusive.
• DJ Spinall.
• DJ Obi
• DJ Neptune.
• DJ Big N.
• DJ Kentalky.
• DJ Tunez.
• DJ Cuppy.
• DJ Enimoney.
• DJ Lambo
• DJ Consequence
• DJ Big N.
• DJ E-Cool.
• DJ Sose
• DJ Baddo
Safe to say the long arms of Hip-Hop hold its gems.
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