Ah so the weekend is over, and now I await my fate whether good or bad, I\u2019m obviously hoping it will be good. See I kind of worked really late on Friday, and it kind of wasn\u2019t approved by anyone, but then again there was no one there to not approve it, and I was technically working under a different dept, thus technically my boss as no say on the issues, since there\u2019s 2 different managers.<\/p>\n
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Lost yet? Let me fill you in.<\/p>\n
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In one dept I generate emails that are sent to students, and then submit request for a 2nd<\/sup> dept to create the mailboxes on our mails server. If anyone remembers a few months ago I applied for both depts., will I got accepted in both. So on Friday 2 people from the 2nd<\/sup> dept called in and for the most part nothing was done due to all the calls that they were getting, and since I\u2019m in both depts. I get both queues. Needless to say we sent out over 800 emails and generated the same amount of mailboxes. Normally these would be done by oh 9 ish. Unfortunately since 2 people didn\u2019t show up, on top of the fact there were still 300 from the day before, at the end of the night there\u2019s were close to 100 mailboxes to be created.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s where it gets sticky, the Manager for the 1st<\/sup> dept doesn\u2019t want us staying past oh 12:30, for whatever reason, whereas the 2nd<\/sup> manager doesn\u2019t really care as long as the work gets done. So Friday night 11pm rolls around and still nothings been done, so a few of us decided to stay late, I happened to jokingly mentioned ordering pizza and staying till 4 am, the other took it serious, even though I knew one of them for sure wouldn\u2019t be able to hang, and the other would possibly stick till 3am but probably no later than that. We order pizza and got to loading down the exchange server. <\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n At 12:45, the 2nd<\/sup> manager comes strolling in, and just laughs, some one of the other guys would already been at work since 10 am was a little delirious and started trying to crack on his name, which is odd since his name is Dan. Nonetheless he came up with a few used phases, like \u201cit\u2019s Dan the man\u201d, to which Dan\u2019s response in a somewhat I\u2019m tired now tone was \u201cWhat are you guys doing here so late, I know it\u2019s late because last call was 10 minutes ago?\u201d We explained how nothing got done and we were going to stay late and try and knock out the rest of the boxes.? Shortly after One o the guys said he was leaving because he didn\u2019t want to get in trouble for staying so late, we bid him farewell by telling him how much a punk he was for flaking out. Then an hr later the 2nd<\/sup> one bailed and as he left he explained that he actually didn\u2019t get a chance to do any of the mailboxes because he was still creating classes, and that the 1st<\/sup> guy had only made about 40. <\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Oddly enough the 1 person to stay till 4 am was the only person who joking about it to begin with. As the early morning rays of light struggled to make it over the mountains to the east, there were still 525 mailboxes to be made.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n I had planned to go to work Sat but was too tired and figured 13 hrs in a day was good enough, besides it\u2019s not like I\u2019m 22 and can work 15 16 hr days back to back like I used to.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Sat was a day of tragedy. It started out fine, went to the new Chandler mall with Mike for some odd reason, which I can\u2019t remember why, and then headed back to the crib. On the way however Tom, called and told me the pool party he was Dj\u2019ing at was off the hook and that we should roll by. I told him I was down for it, and then tossed the phone to Mike, as I was not about the try and relay info to him. After a minute or 2 Mike tossed the cell back and said he was down to roll. A few minutes later I called tom and asked if he had his digital camera with him, of course he didn\u2019t so I told him we\u2019d swing by the pad, grab it and the roll out, as well as grab a few choice picks of wax to throw down with. Well sometime, between the 1st<\/sup> call, us getting to the crib and grabbing to bags of wax, Mike decided he wasn\u2019t going to roll after all, which was kewl, but at the cost of ridicule from Crackhead and Tom, not like that\u2019s a big thing.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Anyway when I got there it was a fairly large gathering at a apartment complex pool jus inside the edge of \u201cSnotsdale\u201d, oops I meant Scottsdale for all those who aren\u2019t from the Phoenix area. The mood was some what like that of a high school party almost, people were just kicking it enjoying themselves in the pool, apparently they had been worn out by Tom\u2019s friends trance sets, and were dying for some hip hop flava.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Right off the bat I had made a decision not to throw down, for a few reasons really. Okay 2 reasons, but each with sub context involved so to speak.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n 1)???? I was no where near prepared<\/p>\n a.????? I had no time to get a bag and a set prepared, this was totally spur of the moment for me<\/p>\n b.????? I have not spun a Live Hip Hop set in well over 4 yrs, so I\u2019m somewhat out of touch with the technical ins and outs of today\u2019s hip hop music. And yes there is a technical end to dj\u2019ing if you wanna be good.<\/p>\n c.????? I was not mentally prepped for a live performance<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n 2)???? I didn\u2019t like the setup being used<\/p>\n a.????? The decks were too far apart, forcing you to reach much further than our normal setup would require.<\/p>\n b.????? The mixer being used is a great studio mixer with lots of kewl built in effects and tweaks, but is useless as a live Club\/Party scene Dj setup, which I why they invited Tom, and in turn Tom invited me. They wanted to see hear Hip Hop Dj\u2019s and the flare they provided to music, of which the mixer being used was not sufficient to be used.<\/p>\n ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? i.????? The decks were not setup correctly for a Hip Hop set<\/p>\n 1.????? In a standard setup as seen in the picture the tables are turned to allow full access to the platter, thus providing much needed room for fast paced cuts, and large scale tricks i.e. flashing.<\/p>\n 2.????? The weighting of the tone arm and the anti-skating were way off, thus any intense cuts were completely out of the question as the needle would fly out of the groove on the 1st<\/sup> pull back.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Obviously none of this sank in, or peer pressure got the better of me, as I ended up going on after Tom\u2019s 30 minute set with no game plan at all. Tom had left me with a pretty good amount of instrumental beats from his last mix, yet I found myself self lost like a child in the woods. Finally I snapped out of it and began to \u201cstep up\u201d, and found the next song to mix in. As quickly as the wave of nervousness hit me the 1st<\/sup> time, it came back again 3x\u2019s fold. My hands were shaking uncontrollably, and I found myself not being able to \u201cdrop in\u201d. It was like it was the 1st<\/sup> time I ever Dj\u2019d before, actually I take that back it was probably worse. The 1st<\/sup> time I Dj\u2019d my hands weren\u2019t shaking, mainly because I didn\u2019t really have to do the mix in, Robbie had left Sugar Hill Gang\u2019s instrumental playing and Tom mixed in the 1st<\/sup> record for \u201cboot the Booty\u201d. All I was doing was a short flash set followed by some flares, going back to an even shorter flash set. Tom then Mixed in Lisa Lisa\u2019s \u201cSkip to My Lou\u201d Instrumental, so I could mix in the accapella with some transforms followed by 1st<\/sup> official mix, by mixing in Onyx\u2019s \u201cSlam\u201d, as they used the exact slam beats.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Normally before I go on I get in a few scratches to loosen up, within the headphones so no one else can hear them, It kind of shakes of the jitters, but this time I couldn\u2019t as I stated above the mixer was not meant for it, not mine at least, as I have long since moved from dominating the left turntable as the primary scratch table, and have since evolved to the left side for quicker sharper cuts, and patterns. <\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n I glanced over and could see by the grooves I only had about 2 more sets of beats before the song ended. I was stuck, no matter how much I tried to stop my hand from jumping I couldn\u2019t and every attempt to drop in was way to far off and I\u2019d never be able to back spin it enough, and match the beats before the instrumental faded out. I was about to grab tom and have him do a few fader less cuts on the 2 table to extend the beat out, when I saw a girl light up. I had left my pack of smokes in the car and definitely needed one, I called out to her and asked her for a drag, which she interrupted at 1st<\/sup> if I could have a whole one, I then quickly explained I simply needed a drag. Whoever she was, she was a life saver, and within the 30 seconds of exhaling I was clamed enough to drop in right on cue. <\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Stab\u2026<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Stab\u2026<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Stagger\u2026<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Stab\u2026<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Stagger\u2026<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Stab\u2026<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Stagger\u2026<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Stab\u2026<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Stab\u2026<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Slam!<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n It was over, the 1st<\/sup> Live Hip Hop mix, in over 4 yrs was over, and all would be well again. I went through few brief trips as I had no clue where what wax was, other than what I had brought, and the wax I brought I hadn\u2019t looked at in over months. Overall, I did well, and received some props from the surrounding patrons. 6 songs later I was ready to call it quits, as the crowd was beginning to regain there vibe for non vocalized trance. Which would have normally been the time when I\u2019d be called up but alas I started the day with no intentions on spinning thus, all my house wax was left at the crib. We have a few pics from the day which I\u2019ll have to get form Tom\u2019s camera, and I\u2019ll post them later in the week<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Tom\u2019s friend Chong, was next up, and simply let my record fade away, as he used the built in special effects on his mixer to bring in house groove. Tom and I packed up our bags and made our way out. I mentioned to one of the organizers of the party who had kept asking if I was going to play to let us know when his next party was so we could bring our decks and truly represent. He said he was down for it, and had no problem sponsoring local underground Dj\u2019s for gigs like these. On the way out I told Chong next time, we\u2019d have 6 decks, and it would be on.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always used Tom as my reference on my performance, which is kind o the standard as he and Robbie both taught me how to mix and scratch many moons ago. On my own scale of 1-10 on my ability to mix hip hop at all, with no practice in over 3-4 yrs other than scratching, I gave myself an 6, as there was one mix in which I miss timed the break and ended up slamming vocals even though the beats were on. As for the overall performance I gave myself a 3 as Tom, did as well, along with himself. <\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Thus that day plans were made, motivation was returned, the protocol son, is returning to his roots, of being a hip hop Dj. Granted Saturday was the catalyst of this decision, it was not the sole reason. Ever since my last party, I\u2019ve noticed that most of Phoenix has only felt the vibe of trance and has shunned progressive house into a category of shame, which from a Dj perspective if absolute crap. I like both, I like all forms of house music, I even like trance and often times teeter upon the edge of it when I do my house sets. But I have never and will never strictly play trance house, its appeal is its speed and its energy, which at the same time is its downfall, as well as the lack of vocals, to accompany it. Because of this lack of vocal or sparse amount of it, mixing trance is the easiest form of Dj\u2019ing with turntables. <\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n I now realize why Tom and Robbie didn\u2019t want to me to learn house music before I learned Hip Hop. With Hip Hop, you are forced to learn the music as well as develop the skills to utilize the knowledge one has gained from learning the music. With Trance there are no words to contend to, there is no real need for a break down as ever 4th<\/sup> measure is just as good as the breakdown to mix in or out of. In hip Hop you must contend with versus and choruses. I had learned house music early and excelled in it, thus placing my true skill of Dj\u2019ing on the back burner to revel in the small success I had with house music. It was at one of my 1st<\/sup> paid gigs when I realized I had lost touch with my hip Hop side and vowed I wouldn\u2019t let it happened again, when mix went terribly wrong, leaving the dance floor jumbled, I had experienced my 1st<\/sup> public train wreck. A train wreck is when to songs are beat synched and playing through the speakers at the same time, and fall off beat, thus leaving 2 completely different sets of beats being played at the same time, clashing against one another, thus refereed to as a train wreck. These wrecks are common when learning how to Dj, but should be avoided at all cost when playing live for an audience. <\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n After Saturday\u2019s mid derailment I have vowed to myself to if not surpass, but to at least achieve the same level of Hip Hop Skill that I once had before, thus leading to Sunday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Technically it\u2019s Monday now, but since I haven\u2019t gone to bed, it\u2019s still Sunday for me, which was chill day. Tom and I rolled down to Circles on central, to get caught up on new wax, as well as stopped by a new shop that just opened recently Called London Records. I\u2019m not sure about Tom but I doubt I shall be retuning to London Records anytime soon, as their shop is configured like Swell\u2019s, thus one must have at least 4 hrs to burn, in order to meander about and search out, listen, and then determine if the music is up to par. This is a trend for Import shops, and it pisses me off, unless you have absolutely nothing better to do that stay on top of the gazillion singles put out overseas and in the US, then there\u2019s no way top know what is what, or where anything is. No I believe I shall stick to Circles, and Just Dance Records, even though there selection is smaller, I\u2019m am not forced to meander through countless racks of junk before finding a prized record. Besides if they don\u2019t have it we can simply order off the net or through Remix Warehouse like we used to do back before there were no records shops available.<\/p>\n ?<\/p>\n Ironically this week has been filled with Dj\u2019s references leading up to Sat. A guy at work wants to buy my 2 CD mix set, and then earlier in the week 2 people called and asked if I wanted to collaborate with them on some Hip Hop projects they were working on in their home studios. So it\u2019s kind of no surprise that I did spin this weekend, funny how things like that happen.<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>