 2004
DMC World Championships @ Hammersmith Apollo – 4th
and 5th of September 04 - Review
article
0088 added
04.11.04 words K-Per
photos:
Elio Stolz technical:
QED
 It
seems that now more then ever it’s cool to be a DJ. But even better then
being a DJ, is being a scratch DJ or turntablist. Yet beyond the
mainstream’s appropriation of the imagery of turntablism and scratching
you can dig deeper and find a quintessential post-modern artform, which
for the last 20 years has steadily been growing and maturing. And as
with most artforms you can always find two sides to their development
and consumption: the mainstream and the underground. In the case of the
turntablist artform, the general differences today seem to be that the
underground is represented by a more musical drive and push to use the
turntable as a rightful instrument whilst the mainstream is exemplified
by the countless DJs propping up nu-metal and pop acts and
mime-scratching in the back. Sitting (un)easily in between both is the
DJ battle scene, a descendent of the DJ battles that took place in the
early days of hiphop and which has now become a platform for DJs
worldwide to showcase their skills and compete against each other for
fame and prizes. DJ battles are held on a local level to start with,
proceeding to national and international levels much like most sports.
They act as a great way for DJs to network and help each other but on
the other hand have in recent years been the subjects of attacks
claiming that it has become nothing more than an extreme sport far
removed from the early musicality and pioneering that made it into what
it is today. Whilst there is strength to both sides of the argument, DJ
battles are undeniably here to stay, even if year on year their future
seems to become more and more undecided. The most famous of those DJ
battles is the DMC, which started nearly 20 years ago in Britain as a DJ
mixing competition before being quickly hijacked by the burgeoning
scratch artform and becoming the flagship competition for turntablists
and scratch DJs.
Every year thousands of aficionados and hundreds of DJs converge in one
spot for the world finals, which have been held in London since the turn
of the century. And this year was no different with the Hammersmith
Apollo becoming the center of all things turntablists for the space of a
hot and sunny weekend. The competition is split over three different
categories: teams (2 to 4 DJs playing together) and supremacy (one on
one 90 seconds elimination battles) on the Saturday and solos (6 minutes
judged showcases) on the Sunday, with the weekend’s festivities also
including live PAs from the world of hiphop and DJing with the Jungle
Brothers, the X-Ecutioners (ex-DMC champions), P-Money & Scribe and the
Spit Kingdom all taking to the stage. This year both the reigning team
and solo champions, namely C2C and DJ Dopey, were defending their titles
whilst UK prodigy Tigerstyles who held the supremacy title chose not to
defend.
 The supremacy battle held the first, and only, real surprise of the
weekend as Japan’s Akakabe took the title after a six years battling
hiatus and in the process beat two of the favourites, the UK’s Silk Kuts
and USA’s I-Emerge, who both came out deserving of their reputation as
world class turntablists. The only other real threat was France’s Pfel,
who lost to I-Emerge in the quarterfinals but finished on a high note
with a very original and musical routine. Overall the supremacy event
was nowhere near the level it has been in recent or past years, further
reinforcing the beliefs of many that the battling scene is getting
increasingly stale as each competitor’s technical level is so high that
the only real way for them to stick out is to be original, something
which has seemingly got lost over the years. Ironically Akakabe was more
original than most this year, relying on old school records to gain the
crowd’s support and showing a more versatile approach to the short and
fairly rigid supremacy format, both factors which are probably
responsible for his win (that and the fact that he was also really
enjoyable to watch and listen to). An honourable mention should also go
to the Canadian Drastic who put on a very good show, reaching the semis,
considering he had been on the tipple all day!
During the break between the supremacy and teams event, I had the chance
to speak with France’s Birdy Nam Nam crew, winners of the 2002 team
event and who are currently putting the finishing touches to their first
album, an all-scratched musical excursion which will hopefully help to
further highlight the versatility of the turntable as an instrument. You
will be able to catch the album in January 05, with the first single
already available and a second one coming out in early October. Having
been able to listen to most of it, I can easily say that this will be
one album to keep an eye and ear out for! Much like other past battle
winners I have spoken to recently they all agreed that the standard of
battles today was so high technically and skills-wise that it made for a
less enjoyable show as DJs became more like each other and less original
in their approach of the different battle formats. This constant gripe
between high technical skills and a lack of originality seems to really
be the main obstacle that DJ battles need to overcome as a format and
DJs as competitors.
Following this it was back on for the team event, which was much shorter
this year due to the absence of the USA and Hungary representatives. No
real surprises there, as the reigning champions, C2C, held onto their
title with the other French team, La Guilde, getting second and
Germany’s Lordz of Fitness reaching third. Both French teams deserved to
win in all fairness, as they both came out with very musically driven
routines. C2C opted for a more eastern vibe in theirs, including a nice
tablas and drums section and finishing with a rendition of the Pulp
Fiction theme tune, ‘Misrilou’, while La Guilde went for a more rock
influenced routine and finished with a rendition of the Art of Noise’s
‘Moments in Love’. Special mention in the team goes to the UK’s The
Disablists who were highly entertaining and put on a good show, even if
it included a few too many gimmicks such as scratching blind folded,
smoking and passing a spliff along and finishing with a rendition of
Dillinja’s ‘Twist ‘Em Out’. The night was rounded off by the JBs, whose
showcase suffered from a tired and crackling system.
 And onto the Sunday and solo event. For the first time this year DMC
opened its doors to the public for the qualifications which take place
in the afternoon, as over 30 DJs are whittled down to 12. Again no big
surprises on the day as most favourites got through including I-Emerge
who was favourite to win, the UK’s Blakey who was hoping to repeat his
good show at the UK finals and Japan’s Taiji. Once more breaking with
their tradition, DMC got Killa Kela and the Spit Kingdom Soundsystem to
host the Sunday night, a very good move on their part as the boys kept
the crowd entertained and avoided any bad jokes. As you may have guessed
by now the event didn’t hold many surprises again, with I-Emerge winning
the title, followed by Germany’s Rafik second and Dopey from Canada
third. Blakey came a close fourth, much to the disappointment of the
crowd, but at such a young age he’s still got the time to come back and
take it. Rafik impressed greatly with a very entertaining and musical
routine, whilst Dopey did not look anywhere near as convincing as he did
last year. I-Emerge’s own brand of fast scratching and even faster
juggles won him the title without a doubt, and he still managed to
include a good dose of musicality even if it did get swallowed under all
the technical skills. His set may not have been to many people’s liking
but the judges saw differently. Overall the event once more showed that
the worldwide level of skills is higher then ever but that in turn the
amount of originality and differences between each competitor can be
lacking at times.
The night was closed in style by two performances. The first from the
Spit Kingdom crew who showed why they are one of the most interesting
musical outfits to come out of the UK in recent years as Kela, MC Trip
and DJ Skelectric blew the audience away with their combinations of
vocals, beatboxing and scratching. Their showcase was closely followed
by the X-Ecutioners who lived up to their reputation by dazzling
everyone with a 30 minute show that whilst not the most original remains
capable of rocking crowds the world over and prove that sometimes the
old tricks are the best.
And thus another DMC year ended. Now whilst the debates about the
relevance of the battling scene and its real value as part of the
constantly growing turntablist artform rage on, one thing is for sure:
they are a great platform on which to showcase the technical and
sometimes musical aspects of scratching and give DJs the world over a
chance to become a star, even if it is sometimes only briefly.
Below is a handy list of to do and not to do things at DMC:
 Things
not to do at the DMC
- Drink too much
- Mix drinks or mix drinks
and drugs
- Shout at Tony Prince
- Try to smuggle in a
camera without a press pass
- Throw up from the balcony
into the crowd below
Things
to do at the DMC
- Get drunk with your
friends
- Shout when drunk at Tony
Prince
- Getting free stuff thrown
at you
Reasons
why DMC are boring
- Too much scratching over
the same beats
- Too many people using the
same records
- DJs all look the same
- Crap hosts
- Expensive drinks
Reasons
why DMC are entertaining
- You get to laugh at the
hosts and Tony Prince
- You get dope showcases
- You get to see the
world’s best DJs in one place
- You get to meet new
people and see old friends
- You can get drunk and
actually sit down to watch the show
Peace
-
K-Per
 Gallery:
- Photo credit:
Elio Stolz
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