•
DJ Shadow a dad. QBert @ Vibe Awards. Kit Kat exits End Up.
KUSF downsizes its hip-hop DJ show Beat Sauce.
Bay Area DJs on new Amoeba Music Compilation Vol.
V 2CD set
• Number of Bay Area DJs continues on upward spiral in 2005
• Ratio of Female-to-Male Bay Area DJs Highest in USA
• Art & Design: DJ themed Bay Area Flyer Art Profilerated
in 2004
• Bay Area DJ Classic: Jim Hopkins
• Bay Area DJ Profiles: DJ Seven, Linden, & Goldilox
and list of future DJ profiles
BAY AREA DJ NEWS HEADLINES
by DJ Dank
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In late December legendary SF turntable talent Jellybear and
his dedicated crew of talented DJs from the infamous long-running
Kit Kat club in San Francisco got abruptly terminated
from their Thursday night engagement at the End Up
after several years at that particular venue. Conflicting reports
were given by both sides (the promoters and club insiders) for
the sudden cancellation at the Harrison/Sixth Street club but
whatever the reason the immediate absence of the weekly (which
is promised to return at some other TBA SF venue in the near future)
will be felt by the legions of diehard Kit Kat fans
who showed up religiously every Thursday at the End Up. Ironically
the sudden bad news came after Kit Kat (one of SF's longest running
parties) had celebrated their 15th plus years of throwing the
party. But isn't that's how it always seems to go? When something
is doing well: it gets the shaft or gets hated on.....Reinforcing
this point, the powers at KUSF abruptly downsized its long
running, extremely popular weekly hip-hop radio show recently.
Beat Sauce - produced and hosted by the super-talented
trio of DJs/producers J-Boogie, Raw-B, and Wisdom
got chopped down to 75% of its airtime with no notice and for
no good reason. In fact the DJs found out right before going on
the air before their first 2005 broadcast when they happened to
look in the new KUSF program guide. The radio show, which
has been on the air for over ten years, had recently won numerous
awards and accolades including a "Best of the Bay"
from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Beat Sauce now
airs from 6PM to 7:30PM Sundays on 90.3FM....
DJ QBert, widely
acknowledged as the best-scratch-DJ-in the world, was the main
DJ at the recent Vibe Awards in Los Angeles....
and no he wasn't in anyway involved in the big fight that erupted
midway thru the nationally broadcast event. QBert, who doesn't
perform too often in the Bay Area, will be headlining a DJ show
titled "History of the Scratch Tour" along
with DJs Jazzy Jeff, Grand Wizzard Theodore, DJ Flare, DJ Jumi,
Deeandroid and Celskiii at the DNA Lounge
in San Francisco on January 29th, 2005...
Longtime hip-hop/dancehall DJ Rolo 1-3 - formerly of the
Pirate DJs - is as busy as ever these days. In addition
to hosting the monthlies Reggae Gold at the End Up and
Give Thanks at Club Six he holds down a weekly
radio show on KMEL, heads the Untouchable DJs (who
include DJ Backside), and produces tons of music including
dope dancehall/hip-hop mash-ups and dancehall mix CDs....Props
to such local diehard battle DJs/turntablists as Mr. B
(4 One Funk crew) and Tek Threat who are consistently
putting it down on the local hip hop DJ battle front.....
Also props to B-Sides Records in Berkeley (Dwight near
Shattuck) who -besides being an incredible indie retail vinyl
outlet with nothing but luv for the DJ - hold regular DJ battles
- the last Sunday of every month....
Endtroducing twins. Congrats to DJ
Shadow and his partner who in December became parents
to cute baby twins.....
Talk about a load of garbage! DJ
Zeph and his San Francisco record label, Wide Hive
Records, recently had a run-in with the Sunset Scavenger
garbage company who objected to them using a photo showing
two of their garbage trucks as his new album cover-art. Originally
titled "Sunset Scavenger" both the album title
and its cover art had to be taken off the shelves and changed
following a nasty cease-and-desist letter from the garbage company
to the San Francisco record label.....
Other recommended new DJ produced CDs include 'Ear Infection"
by Golden Chyld
of the Finger Bangerz crew and "Bangzilla" by
Mix Master Mike
(Beastie Boys/formerly Invisibl Skratch Piklz).....
Also highly recommended are such CD mixes as "Rainy Day
House" by Ed Mazur (edmazur@yahoo.com),
"Make the Magic Happen" by DJ
Seven (djseven2004@yahoo.com),
and (if you ever are lucky to come across any of them) the limited
edition monthly mixes (live from the T-Dance at
the End UP) that Charlotte the Baroness puts out.......And
which Bay Area club has the best sound system? We asked DJ Toph-One
(one the hardest working DJs in SF who holds down the decks four
to seven nights a week at such SF clubs as Tunnel Top
and Dalva and who also pens the "Lucky 13"
column for XLR8R magazine). "The End Up where I used
to host 'Strawberry' until recently has a great sound system although
the DJ booth is not hip-hop oriented. But Club Mighty,
which just celebrated their one-year anniversary, has the best
sound system in my opinion. They brought it over from the now-defunct
King Street club," said Toph-One....
The highly recommended new budget priced 2/CD Amoeba
Music Compilation Vol. V features some SoCal and
numerous Bay Area DJs including DJ Platurn (Oakland Faders),
Raw-B (with Luke Sick & Aram), and DJ
Zeph (with Boots). The enhanced CD portion of this
39-audio/8-video track collection includes brief clips with DJ
Luis and J-Boogie both talking about shopping for records
at Amoeba, a killer live Amoeba Music Hollywood
instore performance by the Beat Junkies (Babu, D-Styles,
J-Rocc, & Melo-D), plus a political anti-war/anti-Dubya
video collage produced by Nausea Grl and featuring the
DJs of Mass Destruction
with DJ Pone, A-1,
DnZ, Shing02, Dawgisht, Billy Jam, and Munkifunk. The
2/CD diverse music collection is priced at the low low price of
only $5.98 and can be found at Amoeba Music's three
locations (Haight Street in San Francisco, Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley,
and Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood) and also online at www.hiphopslam.com.
Note that Amoeba Music has long given love to Bay Area DJs of
all genres and levels of experience. In fact their live instore
"Mandala" program (featured in the movie Scratch)
is a showcase for young, up-and-coming local DJs to get a chance
to spin live. (www.amoebamusic.com)
NUMBER OF BAY AREA DJs CONTINUES TO RISE IN 2005
by Billy Jam
Sales representatives at two Bay Area Guitar Centers,
recently reached by phone for comment, confirmed what has long
being common knowledge within the Bay Area DJ community - that
sales of turntables, mixers, and other DJ equipment is showing
no sign of slowing down as we begin a new year. "In 2005
we project sales of DJ equipment to increase even more than in
2004," said one employee. DJ Pone, who teaches at
the NORCAL DJ & Music Production Academy (www.norcaldjmpa.com)
noted a similar trend in registration at the San Francisco DJ
school for 2005. "Since last summer the number of new students
has been on the increase," he said, noting that the median
age of new student DJs is "between 15 and 32....with all
races and kinds of people now wanting to become DJs."
As the number of DJs in the Bay Area continued to grow over
the past year so too has the number of venues to spin at, many
of them cool underground spots in San Francisco. Perhaps the biggest
DJ event of '04 was the big outdoor, October 2nd, Love Parade
SF (the first of hopefully many more in the city by da
bay) which included countless DJs spinning including DJ SOL
whose CD cover-art from the event ("Keep It Movin'")
offers a DJ-eye view of the fun day in San Francisco. Longtime
DJ associate of Sol's, DJ Seven has a recommended mix CD
from his set at the Love Parade, "Love In It"
(check out his recently posted Bay Area DJ Profile on this
website).
Another big DJ-attended event in 2004 was Burning Man
which, as usual, drew countless DJs - a great percentage of them
from the relatively nearby San Francisco Bay Area. While it was
hard to figure exactly how many DJs were at the huge arts/party
event in 2004, a survey at the 2003 Burning Man festival by HipHopSlam.com
guesstimated "approximately 1,000 DJs with their own set-ups
out of the estimated 34,000 Burning Man attendees." Even
more DJs and "Burners" are expected to attend in 2005.
But if you are interested in going to this year's Burning Man
(the week leading up to Labor Day weekend) hurry up and register
ASAP as the tickets increase substantially in price as the event
draws closer. www.burningman.com
BAY AREA HAS HIGHEST RATIO OF FEMALE-TO-MALE
DJs
by Vincent Vinyl
The San Francisco Bay Area is perhaps one of the globe's most
gender-balanced DJ scenes in terms of the ratio of female-to-male
DJs. Queen Agnes B of Sister SF (the collective
of female DJs) believes that the SF Bay Area is, "definitely
much more balanced here than any other city I know of and in all
genres of dance music. Plus it seems that females here play harder...more
funky music...than many of their male counterparts.
Maybe that's because being a female in a male-dominated world
you have to be really strong and hard." Whatever the reason,
the end result is that we are fortunate to have countless amazing
female DJs here in the San Francisco Bay Area in all dancefloor
genres including drum'n'bass, funky-house, hip hop, dancehall,
etc. etc. These include such turntable talents as DJ
Stef, Goldilox
(pictured above and recently added to the Bay
Area DJ Profiles), Charlottle the Baroness, Pam the
Funkstress, DJ Tracy, Amber, DJ Backside, and Deeandroid
& Celskiii who host the monthly hip-hop dance-meets-scratch-session
"SkratchPad" @ Sub Lounge the first
Weds of every month.. This Filipino female turntable duo recently
caught the attention of KRS-1 who invited them to join
him at numerous West Coast shows over the past six months including
at Club Six in November.
Of course, as in all other walks of life, it is still a male-dominated
field but at least we here in the city by da Bay are leading the
way. And with the NorCal DJ Academy reporting a
ratio of 45 to 55 (female to male) for new student registration
in 2005 it would indicate that in the not too distant future that
the Bay Area will be the first place on the globe to be able to
boast turntable equality!
AMAZING ART FORM OF BAY AREA FLYERS THRIVED IN
2004
by Gary Graphic
Check out these two collages that feature a mere handful from
the (literally) thousands and thousands of amazingly innovative
flyers that advertised Bay Area DJ events in 2004. Tip to anyone
who appreciates this inspired art-form: everytime you go out to
a club or record store - grab yourself a bunch of these beautiful
pieces of art that accurately capture this current thriving (albeit
underrated) DJ-driven musical movement- and put them in an envelope
for five or ten years and when you take them out at that time
I guarantee you you will be glad you preserved this slice of contemporary
Bay Area art & culture.
Click each image to enlarge!
BAY AREA DJ HISTORY: SAN FRANCISCO
DJ CLASSIC RELEASE
by William Marmalade
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This ten-track San Francisco talent-packed, CD release came out
in 1997 on V-Wax Inc. and was mixed by Jim Hopkins
- the pioneering SF DJ who back in the early nineties was part
of the legendary Toon Town parties. Around that
same time in 1991 he started the Twitch record label which
pumped out numerous cool limited edition, remix compilations of
dance music from that era (new wave, house, techno, ambient etc.)
Limited to usually 1000 or 2000 pressings these 45RPM double vinyl
(and CD) collections, while not legally licensed (this was before
mix-tapes were warmly embraced by the music industry) were well
worth getting by DJs. Sure not every choice of track or every
remix was a killer track but most selections were including the
Twitch remix of Future Sound of London's "Papua New
Guinea" and the early jungle track "Narra Mine"
by Genaside II. (Note that in recent years these compilations
have been reissued). Also noteworthy was the love that Jim has
always given to his beloved home town including many SF artists
such as Tasti Box. Jim is still active on the SF club scene
and we hope to interview him for this website in the near future.
Meantime check out www.twitchrecordings.com
BAY AREA DJ PROFILES: NEW AND FUTURE
by DJ Dank
New additions to the main part of this new website (BAY AREA
DJ PROFILES) include DJ
Seven, Linden,
and Goldilox.
And as this "worthwhile wee website with a ways to go"
(Muzik magazine) slowly builds and grows in content
look for upcoming "Bay Area DJ Profiles"
on such turntable talents from all musical backgrounds including
DJs Buck, Charlotte the Baroness, Celskiii, Doc Martin, Tracy,
Ed Mazur, DJ Sol, Pam the Funkstress, EFX, Queen Agnes B, Toks,
J-Boogie, DJ Denice, Miguel Migs, David Harness, M3, Rolo 1-3,
Jah Yzer, Moustafa, Sake 1, Sharon Buck, Galen, DJ Backside, Deeandroid,
Tom Thump, Tomas, Pete Avila, Donovan, Scott Carrelli, Jeno, Solar,
and I-Vier to name but a few.
And if you would like to see a particular Bay Area DJ or DJs
profiled on this site please email that DJ name(s) to list@bayareadj.org.
Also if you feel up to it email us your personal TOP FIVE
BAY AREA DJ list to that same address. Cool?
And remember if you don't like this site: be positive and helpful
in assisting us in building it into something better. Or else
go make your own Bay Area themed website. Either way be productive
and positive and happy 'coz like Oakland's legendary rapper $hort
dog says "life's too short" so don't be a little biaaaaaatch!
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