|
|
|
|
Introduce yourself, how old are you and what you all about?  DJ Woody, born in '77, I'm a
Hip Hop
DJ/turntablist/musician so that's
what I'm all about; battling ,rocking clubs, mixtapes, working with MC's,
live
bands, turntable music etc. I'm just trying my best to contribute
something
positive and make my mark.When did you first get into DJing? Since I was a kid, I really wanted to DJ but I couldn't afford decks so I just used to scratch my RUN DMC 7"s on my mums hi-fi and rap and stuff, it wasn't until 1992 that I got the money together to get a pair of dodgy belt-drives. What was the first moment you thought 'wait a minute, I'm good enough to be world champion'? I never had this big master plan on to go far on the battle scene in fact I never really planned on battling, I was just doing my thing up in Burnley and around Manchester with my crew. Each year I'd go to the comps to check the other DJ's out and I noticed how much props the battle DJ's got compared to someone like myself, I fancied my chances at taking out the DJ's that I saw so I decided to go for it. From that competition I got to the UK finals and it all kind of snowballed from there. Once I got to compete on a UK level I decided that there was no point in getting to that stage unless I was competing with the best. It wasn't like I was aiming for a world title I was more aiming to come up with shit that none of the other DJ's were thinking about. The year I won World ITF I basically made sure that all my routines had something new in them whether it was juggling styles or scratch techniques and the same with the World Vestax comp the year after. Basically I never did a battle unless I had something different to show people, my aim wasn't to win world titles it was to make all the other DJ's wanna go home and think a bit harder.  "...shit you don't get much better than this, an ITF world champ from Burnley!..." How often do you have to practice to get to where you are now? The whole time I was battling I had to hold down a fulltime job so that really got in the way, on average I'd say that I was doing about 2 hours a day. But I'd be thinking about the tables a lot while I was at work and then try and have a short but productive session when I got home, I had to be really good with my time cos I knew most of the competition were on the dole or DJing for a living and had bags of time, it was hard but I got there in the end. You're in a crew called the table gimps, tell me about the crew?  The Table Gimps are me, Ritchie Ruftone and DJ Bunty, basically we all
came on to the UK battle scene at the same time and got on together
really well so we decided to form a crew. When we were all battling it
was good to have that support from a crew, we'd crit each others sets
and tell each other what was lacking etc we definitely learnt different
things from each other as we all had completely different styles so it
was good. Its been pretty hard to do much shit together lately though as
I'm down near Manchester and Ritchie and Bunty are up in Scotland, so
we're all just kind of doing our own thing at the moment.Have you ever entered any battles as a crew? do you plan to? No we haven't, the time and distance always got in the way, but never say never, a few things have been discussed with various people as far as team sets are concerned, so you can't rule it out. What DJ's do you look up to most? The people on the records that I'd listen to and learn the techniques off, DJ's like Supreme, Undercover, Renegade, Mada, White Child Rix, DJ Scratch, Jam Master Jay and Jazzy Jeff. My original crew the Handroids, Mr Tickle and Filthy Rich. The battle DJ's that totally raised the game when they came along, people like Cash Money, Q-Bert, Noise, Craze etc And also the DJ's making records like Kid Koala, D-Styles and Rob Swift. Basically people who made there mark and contributed something fresh to the art form. "...It's not about being technical or funky, its about being both and more..." What do you think of the UK Hip Hop scene as a whole? There's always been good DJ's, writers, bboys and MCs over here, but we've definitely seen a rise in numbers over the last few years. Since the mid nineties there's definitely been several things to trigger interest again in the elements. After that Jason Nevins, Run DMC remix video there were tons of new breakers popping up, same happened with Eminem and the 8 Mile film, a lot of new MC's. Since Rahzel and Kela have been touring the UK we've seen a whole new beatbox scene develop. I know of a lot of new writers and old school writers getting back into it, with new walls of fame popping up all over the place. I think its wicked that there's a new generation of heads, it doesn't matter how they got into or when, if their doing something positive then it all adds. There's probably more Hip Hop jams going on across the UK than ever and you got positive things happening all over the place, people seem to be hooking up more, I think the internet can be thanked for some of it. The good thing about the UK and the European scene is that you gotta be in it for the love, cos your a fool if your doing it for the money. Do you think there is any chance that a UK act can make it to the big-time? And if so who would you bet on doing it?  Depends what you consider big-time, is it getting on top of the pops or
is it
JAY Z. We've already seen Blade on top of the pops but at the end of
the day
the majority of the British CD buying public has shit-awful taste in
music,
so a credible UK rap artist on a major label is never really going to
last
too long. Most people who buy rap / r'nb in this country are buying into
the
bullshit bling packaging of commercial American rap, 'Hip Hop' has to
be the
most misused word in the English language over the last few years. The
majors
have their UK rapper, they call him the Streets, that's what the majors
want.
As far as selling UK rap to America, your always going to struggle,
people in New York don't wanna listen to music outside New York never mind from some
country where 'everyone wears bowler hats and talks like the queen. It
takes
more than the underground to make someone big-time and most of the non
Hip Hop
world just aren't interested in hearing a British person rap. The most
famous UK rapper there (Slick Rick and Monie Love aside) is probably Roots
Manuva,
but all the people I spoke to thought he was from Jamaica, Roots is
probably
as big as you can get there being a UK MC, which is still underground.
Apart from an artist making a fuckload of money why do we want them to
become big-time, cos that usually means having a short lived career based
around
pleasing a pop audience, I'd prefer our artists to keep their integrity
and
sustain a long, credible career on the underground.Do you think there is too much of a hardcore mentality in the UK, meaning that people are too stubborn to make that radio friendly tune? I think half the time its less about making a 'radio-friendly' tune, than it is about having some 'radio-friends', half of the music business is about how much money you got to pay this man to get this man to give you some hype. Its full of who you know type shit, if you throw enough money at something then you can get the hype/exposure and subsequent radio play and sales, no matter what it is, just look at the charts. Our problem isn't the music its the money side of things. It's about making good music at the end of the day, creativity shouldn't be tainted by thoughts of sales. "...at the end of the day, creativity shouldn't be tainted by thoughts of sales..." DMC, Vestax, ITF - is there one competition that is easier to win than the other? Depends how you look at it, it's basically all the same DJ's who enter the competitions, so the accuracy of the result is determined by the quality of the judging panel and how well the competition is set up. The ITF is the 'true Hip Hop' type competition and was set up by a bunch of heads from San Francisco who were pissed off with other battles and wanted to set something up that preserved the morals of Hip Hop and the integrity of the art form. So the ITF set up a stringent judging criteria in which you gotta show all-round skills from creativity, musicality, innovation, technique and performance. DMC doesn't have a judging criteria so technically you can vote for your mate and get away with it, in the UK it's the most famous competition so you have a very mixed crowd come to the events and so it is easier to gain a good response from using big tunes and doing more gimmicky type stuff. The Vestax competition is similar to the DMC in format but they also implement the basic judging criteria as in the ITF. I personally think that the ITF is the hardest to win because you really gotta show all-round skills to get taken seriously, the DMC is hard because of the lack of a proper judging system and the politics. Do you think that you have to be really technical or really funky in your set to win?  It's not about being technical or funky, its about being both and more.
Just
as I don't think you should be thinking of record sales when you make a
tune, I don't think winning a battle should be the main focus of preparing a
scratch
set. For me the thing that got me buzzing about DJ battles is when you
see
someone totally murder everyone buy coming with there own unique style,
whether its a new technique or its just how you drop something, its
about
representing yourself and coming with something new and dope and
stylish.
The only problem is that only people who know their history can
actually
identify something fresh, I've seen people straight up biting other
peoples
shit and get props from judges who don't actually know their stuff.
Look at
when DJ David beat Q-Bert in 1990 or whenever it was, Q-Bert totally
killed him
but David got the votes. A battles results is only ever as good as its
judging panel so I try not to focus on the end results."...'Hip Hop' has to be the most misused word in the English language over the last few years. ..." What was going through your mind when you won the ITF and Vestax worlds? It was all a bit surreal ,standing on the stage in the home of tablism, San Francisco ready to go into the final round of the World ITF's, one man between me and a world title, I'd seen this shit in video's but never thought I'd be there myself. I just tried to forget all that and get on with the job. Once they announced I'd won I was like 'shit you don't get much better than this, an ITF world champ from Burnley!', I was pretty proud as I was the first UK DJ ever to win that title and was following on from people like Babu and A-Track. Then winning the World Vestax the next year was just the icing on the cake, the set I had was pretty mental and had a lot of new ideas in it so was really cool to win like that. Do you ever get nervous knowing that you have to give 100% in a battle and there is a chance that one slip of a finger or hand can mess it up for you?  The more you think about nerves the more it messes you up, so focus on
something else, although normally I'm a pretty shy person as soon as I'm
on the stage ready to start I turn that nervous energy into aggression.
I just want to get on and murder everybody, that's my mentality when I'm
about to battle.Finally, any shout outs? I'd be here all day so ill wait 'till my album drops to make a full list but my girl, family, and all my friends and affiliates around the world. Fuck 'urban' music its all about rural music, skills from the hills baby! Peaace.
- Mr Hiz
|
ukhh.com 2004
DJ
Woody Interview
Related
Links:
