Please stop. I really try to hold back on my “DJ rants”, but damn y’all make it tough. What is going on? Is it really that the general populous cannot tell when a DJ is not good? Anyway, I’ll try to keep this a bit more constructive, instructional or like a “best practice” type of thing. This is about the basics.

First, “She’s Got Legs” does not suddenly become an amazing song when you add a dance beat under it. As a general rule, listen to shit before you take it out of the house. Not all of your genius “blends” are gonna work. Get off Z-Trips nuts already.

Second, it’s not about what rare ass 45s you have or what crazy modern remixes you have of old 80′s hits – it’s about what you do with the songs you play. Don’t be playin “Premier breaks” just because you want to drop science on people. Everyone knows about the the-breaks.com and can carry around a lists of records that have been flipped into great songs. It doesn’t mean those sampled songs are all great too. You are not your record collection.

Third, you are not playing for just yourself – you need to know how to keep people engaged. If you’re at a spot and you look up and people are giving you the ice grill and shaking their heads, take note cause your game is off. Know what you’re walking into.

Fourth, you can’t be everything to everyone, so don’t try. If you’re all over the place with ODB one minute, Duran Duran the next and then Justice it will just sound like a mess and people who normally like those songs will be irritated. If you’re gonna genre jump, please do it gracefully. Just cause you got Serato and are rolling with 40,000 songs doesn’t mean you have to try to play them all.

OK, now let’s be a little more helpful. Here’s some cuts I dig that are by, about and for DJs. Consider this homework and some big ups for the DJs out thero who should get more credit than they do.

Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel (1981)
Start here. Repeat. read more
[audio:gmf-wheels.mp3]

Dimples D – Sucker DJ
Straight classic and a big up to Marley doing his thing.
[audio:dimplesd-suckerdjs.mp3]

Sparky D – He’s My DJ
Is 85 in the house? Red Alert been in the game for a while.
[audio:sparkyd-hesmydj.mp3]

Fat Boys – Fat Boys Scratch
What, the Fat Boys had a DJ? Yup, Doc Nice. You ain’t heard of him? That’s OK it was just The Human Beat Box anyway.
[audio:fatboys-fatboysscratch.mp3]

Marley Marl w/ MC Shan – Marley Scratch
Again, classic. Man, Marly got a lot of DJ love. “All you other DJs are a bunch of jerks”.
[audio:marleyscratch.mp3]

Run DMC – Jam Master Jammin
Run DMC had a few DJ tracks, but this is the one i dig.
[audio:rundmc-jammasterjammin.mp3]

Grand Wizard Theodore – Gangbusters Scratch Mixx – OG
I’m sorry, this beat is just SO damn raw. They were cutting shit back in 82. I’m going to include the OG version as well (un scratched) so you can practice at home.
[audio:wildstyle-gangbusters.mp3]
[audio:wildstyle-gangbusters-og.mp3]

Hamilton Bohannon – Rap On DJ
Figured I’d end this on a kinda different note. This is a personal favorite of mine that made it on one of my mixes a while back. This isn’t on the album everyone sweats by Bohannon, but i dig it.
[audio:hamiltonb-rapondj.mp3]

Reuben Bell – Super Jock
Man, people BEEN having love for the DJ for like ever! The Brainfreeze boys blew the lid off this jam.
[audio:reubenbell-superjock.mp3]