DJ Crews?

[BDC]

Back in the mid 80s, early 90s in Toronto - almost all the DJs I knew were part of a DJ sound crew.

Anybody else on here belong to a DJ crew before venturing out on your own?

[BASSTHOV3N]

I wish i was. I do respect, the old school music

[Mark_Spit]

Back in the mid 80s, early 90s in Toronto - almost all the DJs I knew were part of a DJ sound crew.

Anybody else on here belong to a DJ crew before venturing out on your own?

I remember there being quite a few in Toronto, TKO Sound Crew is the only one who's name I remember though. Do you remember the names of any others BDC?

[Waterbeat]

Not sure what defines a DJ sound crew, but I'm a member of a 10 DJ crew who hosts weekly underground parties and one-off events.

[Mark_Spit]

^^^^^

I'd say that qualifies. What's the name?

[BDC]

I remember there being quite a few in Toronto, TKO Sound Crew is the only one who's name I remember though. Do you remember the names of any others BDC?

Ya - TKO and Sunshine were big back in the day. There were also Maceo, Killowatt, Chic Dynasty, GQ Supreme Team - just to name a few.

I belonged to 3 sound crews from '84 - '92: Mid-Knight Mix (trio), Manifest Destiny (trio) and DZIRE (duo).

[Waterbeat]

^^^^^

I'd say that qualifies. What's the name?

The name of my crew is Give Productions. The weekly party name is Transit. One of the things we do at the weekly is create opportunities for new DJs to play out, usually in the opening set. That's why the name Give. Transit link at bottom of this post.

[dlove]

not a crew exactly, but the residents at our club have always got together to play regularly, in different yet complimentary formations, bringing together the clubnight 'crews' like a family gathering.

[Waterbeat]

At our weekly event, residents play roughly once every two months which works out to about one each week, except for our annual anniversary party and RAVE Prom events which are all residents. We occasionally do tag nights where our residents are paired with members of another crew. Each crew member tends to be focused on his favorite underground genre, and the full spectrum is represented from Deep House to DnB. We all play out individually at other area weekend events. So the weekly Wednesday event is kind of our home base and the party is frequented by other area DJ's and promoters.

[thatdanmoore]

It seems like now a days there are more loosely affiliated cliques. They may have a name for themselves but they aren't promoting it.

[dlove]

It seems like now a days there are more loosely affiliated cliques. They may have a name for themselves but they aren't promoting it.

sadly, it seems people are more about self-promotion than crew promotion these days.

[thatdanmoore]

sadly, it seems people are more about self-promotion than crew promotion these days.

Facts. It’s all about self promotion and biting off what you saw/heard your friend do nowadays. Back in the day your crew might rep a certain style but you weren’t all biting off each other and calling the others wackk

[dlove]

Facts. It’s all about self promotion and biting off what you saw/heard your friend do nowadays. Back in the day your crew might rep a certain style but you weren’t all biting off each other and calling the others wackk

I know. It's Dog Eat Dog, when we should be roaming about as a gang, name-checking the fk out of everything.

[thatdanmoore]

I know. It's Dog Eat Dog, when we should be roaming about as a gang, name-checking the fk out of everything.

Exactly. I’ve tried to preach it. But it falls on deaf ears. Everyone is just lookin our for number 1.

[dlove]

Exactly. I’ve tried to preach it. But it falls on deaf ears. Everyone is just lookin our for number 1.

totally get you. It's really horrible when you put time and energy into getting others up to speed, only to have them steal your grave in an instant.

[thatdanmoore]

That’s why you always have to keep a trick or two up your sleeves.

[djnotapplicable]

Everything in the world - you gotta work hard for it

[light-o-matic]

The value of a crew is two things that I can think of:

#1 if you are producing events of your own, having a group of people doing it together provides the manpower, money and promotional network you need.. especially for smaller scenes.

And #2: If your crew gets a good name then the promotional power of that name comes with you when you dj elsewhere, which increases your value as a DJ and gets you slots. And then it also increases the desirability of the slots you have for booking other DJ's.

But if you are not producing events as a crew then the value becomes a lot more dubious, I mean, if you are trying to get a resident slot working for a club why should they care about your "crew"? They only care if putting that crew name next to your name on a poster is going to bring people into the club.

Record label affiliations are often useful tho.

[dlove]

That’s why you always have to keep a trick or two up your sleeves.

Yep; share what you know and learn more.

[Waterbeat]

The value of a crew is two things that I can think of:

#1 if you are producing events of your own, having a group of people doing it together provides the manpower, money and promotional network you need.. especially for smaller scenes.

And #2: If your crew gets a good name then the promotional power of that name comes with you when you dj elsewhere, which increases your value as a DJ and gets you slots. And then it also increases the desirability of the slots you have for booking other DJ's...

Totally agree with light-o-matic's two points above, and that has been the experience in my crew. Some in the crew are better at getting individual opportunities than others and I think we all understand and accept that. But we also try not to step on each other. We'd probably all agree that by working together we've all benefited individually. And we have a good time doing it.