DMC 05 World Finals Hammersmith Palais Now in its 20th year as the world’s foremost DJ and turntablist competition, and its fifth year of holding the world finals in London, DMC is not looking very good it has to be said. I’ll get on to why in a minute, but in short the last weekend of September saw some of the world’s finest tablists once more gather together in West London to battle it out and find out who the daddy is. The 3 elements of the competition were once more present, the Supremacy battle (short 90 second one on one bouts), the Team battles (6 minutes with 2 to 6 DJ crews) and the solo title (6 minute solo sets). Around all this DMC laid on what was the most impressive line up of performances so far with Scratch from the Roots, Gza and Muggs, Foreign Beggars, Birdy Nam Nam, Q Bert, Roll Deep, Shameless and DJ Yeah (a 7 year old * cough * prodigy * cough * paraded on the world stage by his parents, more on that in a bit also) all showcasing throughout both nights. Oddly DMC opted for a Sunday/Monday approach this year, breaking from the traditional Saturday/Sunday of previous years, still that didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the people who rammed the venue on the Monday, but then again maybe that was because Q Bert’s name was on the flyer. Before I carry on I need to make a few things clear. I don’t hold any bad feelings or anything like that towards DMC, I’ve been a fan for ten years, I’ve religiously attented the finals for the last five years, covered it for 3 years in various sites and magazines and I do a lot of work within the tablist community. However in recent years as I’ve become more and more involved in the scene on various levels, one thing I’ve come to realise is that the way I used to look at and think of battles is now firmly behind me. Call it growing up, realisation, whatever, battles don’t hold much magic for me anymore and I’ve become increasingly dubious about them. Don’t get me wrong, battles can still be dope and they still serve as a great platform for young DJs and tablists to sharpen their skills, meet up, work together and generally show people some of what can be done on two tables and a mixer.   However DMC itself has lost a lot of its popularity, both in and out of the scene, since the new millennium and each year serves to only re-inforce my belief that something needs to change if it’s to survive in any shape or form. Attendance is down, entrants are down (only 5 teams made it to the worlds this year) and overall things aren’t looking too rosy. While DMC still lays claim to being at the forefront of this artform, people around the world have moved on from battles and are making music, and showing that tablism isn’t just about tricks and wow factors, but is about a musical frame of mind and using the turntable as just another instrument, be it to create music entirely that way or just using the tables as another tool for your productions, or even just cutting on people’s tracks etc… And to prove that, frankly you don’t need to battle anyone, just go and make some music. As was pointed out by a friend of mine recently as we debated this, “what DJs need more than ever are venues where they can interact and work together with other musicians, visual artists etc not more rules and limitations and corporate control.” The Sunday night started on a pretty high note for me as I got the chance to meet and get some words with the one and only DJ Disk, a legend in this scratch game and ex-member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. While the name may not mean much to most people, Disk is a true pioneer of the artform and it was great to hear his thoughts on things today. Apart from this it was all pretty standard fare, the new venue was the other highlight, smaller, cosier and with a much better sound than the previous ones (the Hammersmith Odeon, the Dome and Brixton Academy). The Supremacy battle was by and large not very memorable, though it did provide some highlights including sets by the UK’s Matman, Japan’s entrant and the winner, Pro Zeiko, from Germany who served everyone with some ridiculous juggles. Come to think of it the guy pretty much juggled his way to victory, leaving some people to wonder if he could actually scratch that well. It didn’t really matter because his juggles were pretty tight and funky. He beat Holland’s Irie in the final and made way for DJ Yeah’s first showcase of the event.   Now I have nothing against this 7 year old kid, but I just cannot understand why you’d want your kid on a stage at that age showcasing. I’m sure it’s great that he has an interest and seeming passion for tablism, but he is a kid, and most kids don’t do this type of thing out of their own will at that age, especially when you consider he’s been doing this for 3-4 years. What’s more, when you know his dad is an ex battler you can’t help but think that this is nothing more than a parent living his dream through the child. This suspicion was confirmed on the Sunday as the dad actually was on stage with his kid. Ok the kid can cut, he can juggle and he seems fairly clued up on most things he should be, but it still looked like he wasn’t too sure of himself, hell he’s only 7, and it was really disturbing to sit through 15 minutes of him and his dad showcasing. Mind you I don’t think the majority of the audience shared my opinion as they cheered and clapped everytime he got something right. Frankly these feelings where reinforced after I witnessed someone interviewing him in the practice room on the monday and saw his parents trailing him around with a cloth over his face all night long; it just doesn’t feel right. Hell, A-Trak was 12/13 when he started, and he didn’t come from a family of DJs, he fell into it, loved it and became good at it. This kid, just seems like he’s been pushed to it, and that can’t be good for his future. Following on from this was Scratch from the Roots who put on a remarkable little showcase as you’d expect from one of the world’s finest beatboxers, and then the Team battle event was up. Again this was pretty surreal, with the first entrants, the Indonesian team, giving us a time warp back to the early 90s with a show that was so bad it was good. In a really bad way. It really was one of those moments, where you look around you and think, am I seeing this or is it just a dream. After them were the UK crew, Disablists, a second French crew, Fresh Dope, and the US team, Battlestar, who all put on decent shows, but nothing that really caught the public’s attention, though the recent trend of doing live remixes of tracks seems to still be strong, with Fresh Dope remixing RATM’s Killing in the name of, and Battlestar doing ‘Welcome to Jamrock’. Finishing off the proceedings were the title holders C2C, who you knew were going to keep the crown because they’ve had the teams on lock for 3 years and are a talented bunch who know which buttons to press in order to win. Cue 6 minutes of pretty flawless showmanship and musical creativity that left the crowd cheering and happy and pocketed them their 3rd title back to back, a new record for DMC history. Funnily enough I was with some friends, who aren’t into tablism, when they were on and they both agreed that this was what DMC should have more of: a good show with good music that doesn’t focus on skills and trickery but on giving the audience and judges a good time.   So C2C won again and then Tony Prince (the man who invented DMC dun ya know) continued a fine tradition of putting his foot in it by introducing Gza as Rza, prompting the genius to correct him with a few explicit words before him and Muggs put on a tight show that pleased the crowd. And that was that for the Sunday, nothing amazing but then again I wasn’t expecting it to be and frankly it just further went to show that this competition needs to be rethought because it seems to really have lost the sparkle and interest it once generated in both fans and those who went along for the show. It was then time for Monday and the solo finals alongside showcases from Beggars, Roll Deep, DJ Yeah again, Birdy Nam Nam and Q Bert. DJ Yeah opened up the evening’s proceedings, before Beggars stepped up and smashed it as you’d expect them to. The crew was once more in full effect and even brought Wildchild down for the occasion, to perform their new single. A tight showcase from them that got the crowd nicely hyped up. Oh and I forgot to mention DMC’s attempt at showcasing their CD deck before Beggars came on, which consisted of some dude (I hear a respected dude in the electronic scene) playing house for 10 minutes, awkwardly at that and not very on point either for most it as he wasn’t used to the gear. I’m still waiting to be told as to what mixing house as to do with a DJ battle/turntablist competition, so if anyone from DMC fancies clearing that one up for me please do. At least some 40 year old guy from Austria was loving it.   It was then time for the solo finals, with the USA’s I-Emerge defending his title for the second year running and the venue absolutely packed to the rafters. His biggest threat was France’s Pfel, member of C2C, as well as a few others who appeared on the night, namely Kid Sid from Sweden and Izoh from Japan. Elsewhere Drastik from Canada had some good moments but overshadowed by too many problems, Muzzell from the UK also came out good but again not good enough to make the top 3. Sid was a crowd favourite by all accounts, but failed to make the cut as well, Uncut from Germany was touted as a possible threat but didn’t materialise and so it was left to Japan and France to provide the best moments of the night. Izoh played a crowd pleasing set, full of energy. You could tell when he’d finished that he was gonna be in the top 3. Pfel for his part had the title as far as I was concerned, with an incredibly enjoyable 6 minutes, reminiscent of the C2C routines but also packing the right balance of skills and musicality. So it was all on Merge to show whether or not the title would shift back to Europe or Japan. And after 6 minutes, most people would have thought that it was going back that way, but no Merge kept it even though his set felt slightly rushed at the time. I did check it again a day after and I’ve got to admit it had some incredibly funky moments and I can see why the judges put him first, however in the eyes of the crowd things didn’t go according to plan and Merge got a fairly frosty reaction when accepting his prize. Still he did the double and I hear he’s been busy setting up his label and working on music, so I’d assume this might be the last time we see him compete. The night was rounded off with Roll Deep, who didn’t go down very well with the crowd, which I guess is one of the side effects of putting on showcases at an event like DMC, you’re not always gonna win and I personally thought they’d do quite well seeing their recent popularity and the fact that this was held in London. Poor stage presence didn’t help them. They were however followed by French crew Birdy Nam Nam who were the highlight of the weekend, with a tight showcase of tracks from their album and some recent new bits, all performed on turntables, with everything scratched. Showing that there is more to tablism than just scratching, juggling and skills. These guys are amongst the most talented in Europe right now and hopefully their soon to be released self-titled LP will help them move on to greener musical pastures. Q Bert finished things off with – shock – a set performed on two turntables and not on his QFO. A nice change then but unfortunately I had to miss in favour of my bed.   So that’s it for another year on the DMC battle front. All personal arguments and grudges aside, I realise that ultimately if things haven’t changed for 20 years, it’s because they’re not as bad as we might think from our point of view, however I do believe some of the points I’ve raised earlier on do need to be seriously looked into by those responsible for this event. As a fan, and a pro-active person on the scene, I do hold a certain bias and understand that while some of us may feel DMC is becoming more irrelevant to the majority of people today, we are not always the majority, even if the event is aimed primarily at fans and practitioners. But the fact remains that DMC still claims to be at the front, or to be an integral part, of this scene because of their history and pedigree, yet in truth this is quite far off and there are many artists and events happening worldwide that do more to truly represent the changing aspects of this artform, scene and music. It’s high time someone seriously rethought the format and realised that there is a wealth of talent out there in this scene, talent which unfortunately more often than not gets overlooked in favour of marketing pushes, gimmicks and others. - K-Per  Related Links: DMC Home www.djiemerge.com C2C Home www.spinscience.org.uk © ukhh.com 1999 - 2005