This year’s event is the 21st Anniversary of the championships and after being graced by many illustrious names as well as grooming champions of the next generation; this is a vital date for any budding superstar DJ. Whilst the individual event for DMC World Champion and The Summit (turntable showdown) was saved for Monday, the first night hosted the team and battle events as well as live PA performances and a break dancing competition.
It all kicked off at 5.00 with the first two rounds of the Battle for World Supremacy. The premise of the competition was simple; each DJ gets 60 seconds and two rounds to show their skills and stand a chance of claiming the $10,000 prize. Early rounds were tight but the DJ’s who drew the most crowd support usually went through. The mixture of sounds was intriguing as hip-hop, pop, drum and bass, rock and jungle were thrown together and left the floor and our bones rattling.
The sets that worked the best were the ones that included familiar tracks for the crowd to get into. DJ Mikey from Hong Kong stripped the familiar beat of “My Humps” bare and DJ Coma of Japan created the unlikely partnership of Fatboy Slim and James Brown. Those who didn’t use popular tracks instead chose to play snippets of vocals that wound opponents up and any free second their hands had was used to flip off the other. DJ Needlespit (Denmark) and DJ Etronik (USA) especially looked like they were willing to forgo the battle and have a fight, though when Etronik smashed his records it only managed to brake the turn table and not his victorious opponents spirit.
After three hours of battling the final was France V Japan and although both were worthy of the title, DJ Coma emerged victorious with a flurry of lightening quick scratching and mixing that had the crowd bouncing. As if $10,000 wasn’t enough, his award was presented to him by a bunch of Playboy bunnies.
The Planet Hop Dance Off final was a welcome break and all 7 participants showed some serious skills. Turbo threw in some theatrics by smoking on stage and drawing laughs with a brilliant impression of the “Charlton dance” whilst Lil Tim spent what seemed like forever spinning on his head. It was a tight final between Lil Tim and Tenacious D but Lil Tim just scraped ahead to claim the prize with some lightening quick gymnastics.
The team event gave teams ranging from 2 to 4 six minutes to impress. Italy’s Funky Bastards showed up looking like killers from the Scream films and Dangerous Combinations choreography was tighter than a Janet Jackson video. In the end, even a crowd pleasing display from the UK’s Noise could get the title off of the 3 times reigning champions. France’s C2C won for a record breaking fourth time in a row with a set that perfectly balanced technique with crowd pleasing creativity.
The entire night pushed the 7 hour mark so you either needed tons of alcohol or the attention span of a mathematician to get through it. Either way it was a great night for participants and admirers alike who were treated to some amazing displays and introduced to names for the future.
Words: Limara Salt
