Tips for battle style DJ competition

[MODUS]

I am currently in a battle style competition with 15 other DJ's. Four DJ's per night, 30 minute sets. I'm basically looking for certain tips, tricks and techneqes that could help me WOW the judges. Right now I'm a pretty decent scratcher. Working on juggleing, cueing, and blending. But if you guys could either write some suggestions, give links or post videos of some cool things you have done or seen done that would be great. Just looking for ideas so post anything you think is cool. Even if it is very song specific and not just a general technique. One other thing I should mention is that it is pretty much completely cross genre. I am however really trying to get some good turntablism techniques. I also play on tech 12's.

Thanks a bunch!!!

[RaphaelJohn]

I've done 3 battles, placed 5th out of 30 the first one, 2nd place the 2nd one, and 2nd place in the most recent one. It's all about trial and error. What you could do is go on youtube and search Redbull Thre3style competitions and watch some of those guys. I wouldn't copy someone's routine, because if its a well known routine, you may get boo'd, I've seen it happen with someone biting off one of AM's routines. Word play is pretty good. Using loops, cue points, acapellas. I put together a dope set the other night for a thre3style similar battle. Anyways, go to my youtube and I've got a couple videos djing www.youtube.com/itsmearjay Don't steal my ideas HAHAHA. Good luck though, and if you've got any other questions, feel free to ask.

To be honest, the battles I've done concentrated more on party rocking and getting the crowd hype. If scratching isn't one of your strong suits then try to stay away from it. It might work against you. Be sure to bring a lot of friends to be in the crowd to cheer for you. I would have placed higher in my first battle if I had more people show up for the crowd participation aspect. And that was 3 months into my DJing career. I got a lot of props for doing it. Just have fun with the crowd. The view I had coming into the competitions was "OK, no one here knows who I am, If I kill it, then good, if not, I didn't lose anything. I had more to gain than lose.

TL;DR : Be original, have them remember you, have fun.

[Austin GoGreen]

I've done 5 party-rock, club, "battles" so far. The most recent one I made it to the semi-finals round out of 45 total DJ's (8th overall) in an area where there are some VERY talented guys/girls.. In my experience scratching is always what it comes down to. Music selection, tricks, and scratching are what put people in the finals.

Pick good songs, then do tricks. Here's one that will fuck people up - Drop "Jackson" by Johnny Cash, loop the part where he says Jaaaackkson. Manual slow the record down using the record speeds in SSL and on tt's. Once your loop is around 95, drop in "Sorry Ms. Jackson" by Outkast and do like a 4 bar scratch out of Jackson.

Another one I like, and this song is a BIG sleeper, sometimes curveballs are nice to throw at an unsuspecting crowd. "Make it Rain" uptempo 808 remix. Not the Fat Joe-Lil Wayne song, I think it's by Travis Porter? But drop that then loop the part where he says "I'ma make it Rain." Slow the record from 128 down to 95, bang in "Candy Rain." Then go off on an oldschool Hip Hop banger set building up to some new Hip Hop bangers around 100bpm.

In my experience, Hip Hop prevails. But you still want to take it uptempo. 30 minutes is a long set for a battle, too long in my opinion. Break it down into mini-sets and blur the lines of genres, think of mashups. Take them on a journey but mostly play bangers!

[MODUS]

Right on guys, thanks for the tips I really appreciate it! One other question. I'm very versed in tech house, electro, dubstep and top 40. However I'm not particularly adept with old/new school hip hop bangers ie. be faithfull, rack city etc. I would love a few songs that are a MUST play in a banging hip hop set. I think I have a good idea but I would love some other opinions.

Thanks guys!

[DjFloMatic]

I've done 5 party-rock, club, "battles" so far. The most recent one I made it to the semi-finals round out of 45 total DJ's (8th overall) in an area where there are some VERY talented guys/girls.. In my experience scratching is always what it comes down to. Music selection, tricks, and scratching are what put people in the finals.

Pick good songs, then do tricks. Here's one that will fuck people up - Drop "Jackson" by Johnny Cash, loop the part where he says Jaaaackkson. Manual slow the record down using the record speeds in SSL and on tt's. Once your loop is around 95, drop in "Sorry Ms. Jackson" by Outkast and do like a 4 bar scratch out of Jackson.

Another one I like, and this song is a BIG sleeper, sometimes curveballs are nice to throw at an unsuspecting crowd. "Make it Rain" uptempo 808 remix. Not the Fat Joe-Lil Wayne song, I think it's by Travis Porter? But drop that then loop the part where he says "I'ma make it Rain." Slow the record from 128 down to 95, bang in "Candy Rain." Then go off on an oldschool Hip Hop banger set building up to some new Hip Hop bangers around 100bpm.

In my experience, Hip Hop prevails. But you still want to take it uptempo. 30 minutes is a long set for a battle, too long in my opinion. Break it down into mini-sets and blur the lines of genres, think of mashups. Take them on a journey but mostly play bangers!

how the hell do you manually slow a record from 128-95 and have it sound good? lol

[Austin GoGreen]

how the hell do you manually slow a record from 128-95 and have it sound good? lol

A veteran in my town tought me it, it's really pretty f'n sick dude but i can't really explain it. Maybe I can try to do a video of it... It actually sounds better than you think. The NS7 is very easy to pull if off with +/-50 but you can do almost the same in SSL

[durtyjerzy609]

scenario..tribe called quest , 900 number...mark the 45 king ,jump around...house of pain , step into a world...krs-one

[RaphaelJohn]

how the hell do you manually slow a record from 128-95 and have it sound good? lol

THIS..... I was wondering the same thing lol. I'd like to see a video of this manual transition. I have never seen anyone do this before.

[MODUS]

You can't even slow down that much with tech-12's. Only go 8%... That from about 128 to about 118.

[Maikky]

Walk over to your enemy when its your turn, spit in your opponents face, pull out a white glove, slap him/her then proceed to drop heavy bass .

People love that kinda stuff .