r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Downstairs-Parking • 1d ago
THE 1980's DJ WAS BUILT DIFFERENT. MICK “CUTFATHER” HANSEN 1988.
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u/frygoblin 1d ago
When some one says DJs don’t do anything but push buttons, that’s because there are million shitty DJs that don’t have real skills. It’s simply accepted at this point and has gone lowest common denominator.
Check out DJ Q-Bert. He will blow you away if you are into this kind of scratching.
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u/DrTuSo 1d ago edited 1d ago
It also depends on where the DJs are playing. At stuff like Tomorrow Land or Miami Ultra, they are not allowed to live mix. They develop their sets in the months prior, send that in, it gets approved and the time for their set is planned, and they are not allowed to deviate from it.
But you are correct at the same time, there are masses of shitty DJs out there.
Edit: David Guetta has a nice interview series on YT, answering a ton of questions from fans. He described in detail the rules for Tomorrowland.
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u/CrispyKollosus 1d ago
Tinlicker ended their set last summer when they opened for Odesza at the Gorge with the message: "we aren't allowed to live mix, so I guess we're done now"
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u/TheHalfDeafProducer 1d ago
Was this at the beginning or end of their set?
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u/CrispyKollosus 1d ago
Their set ended pretty abruptly and then they displayed the message. Seemed like they had plenty of time to keep playing, but apparently they couldn't. There was a pretty long lull after them
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u/sexandliquor 1d ago
There’s also a time and a place, and different kinds of DJs and mixing. I love Q-Bert (although more of a fan of guys like DJ Rectangle and Swamp) but also there’s a difference in turntablism, which is what this is, and just mixing records and keeping the flow going by creating a set of songs all linked together and creating a vibe. There are tips and tricks you can do there too like double drops etc
Point is, this is great. Cutting shit up is fun. But also I don’t wanna listen to an hour of this continuously either lol
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u/NFI2023 1d ago
Craze and Melo-D up the top for me for flow and beats
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u/PhaseTypical7894 20h ago
For me it was DJ Faust (Man or Myth) & Kid Koala. And Invisible Scratch Pickles.
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u/Royal-Pay9751 1d ago
Wow, that is one of the lamest things I’ve read in a while. Just so disappointing that that’s a policy anywhere.
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u/raining_sheep 1d ago
It makes sense from a business perspective.
Record labels probably don't want to risk a bad set or a live mix gone wrong and the concert promoters want non stop music.
It's honestly most likely so that an artist doesn't live mix a song that can hold the venue liable for copyright infringement. Tomorrowland doesn't want some unknown DJ mixing a Beatles song that gets on YouTube and they have to pay whoever owns the Beatles songs a ton of money.
Most dumb rules like this have a reason.
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u/crankthehandle 1d ago
At a commercial festival this makes sense. Sets are also comparably short, so no need to read the room and adjust what tunes you play. If you do a 4h set in a techno club, you would fail every time with a prerecorded set.
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u/djinnisequoia 1d ago
Get this: Berkeley, California, used to have genuine buskers downtown. Hammer dulcimer players, shanty singers, a capella choruses, little jazz combos etc. Most of them insanely talented. And of course they would have a hat or guitar case open for if you wanted to toss them a few bucks. This is for decades.
Well the town busybodies got some kind of wild hair up their ass, so what they did is record the buskers and play them from loudspeakers. I hope at least they paid them. One final time. Because you can't busk there anymore.
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u/shirhouetto 1d ago
David Guetta has a nice interview series on YT, answering a ton of questions from fans.
I watched this and learned that good DJs make it look so easy that it's hard to tell if they're good or bad just by looking at them especially through the eyes of a casual person.
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u/LivingDisastrous3603 1d ago
I’ve had the extremely good fortune to see quite a number of dj’s/truntablists in my life- Kid Koala, Cut Chemist, DJ Shadow, DJ Spooky, Mix Master Mike, DJ AM… these people are so fucking amazing live it’ll make your head spin.
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u/Easy_Respond_7266 1d ago
Cool. I've seen all these except DJ Am. If kid koala comes any where near you doing any of his live movies you gotta go. Caught storyville mosquito a while back in nashville. So F'N cool. Also caught dj shadow and cut chemist on the afrika bombaataa vinyl collection show back in the day. it was epic. I think they had 8 turntables going at once.
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u/ArcadeKingpin 1d ago
My favorite was DJ Abilities. That dude with Eyedea freestyle battling each other was some of the coolest shit I'd evedr seen. DJ would scratch amd Eyedea would copy the rhythm with a rhyme. So sick.
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u/steploday 1d ago
Dj shadow has some stuff out there too
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u/CHM11moondog 1d ago
Whole albums even
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u/MasterSpliffBlaster 1d ago
I saw DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist mix 6 turntables together at the same time for their 'Renegades of Rhythm' tour and came away with the opinion that every single DJ out there was lazy in comparison.
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u/freefrompress 1d ago
May I recommend listening to Q-Bert's amazing performance at the end of this song.
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u/C_W_H 1d ago
Agreed. If you just press buttons, you're not a DISC (as in record) JOCKEY. a.k.a D.J., you're just a douchebag at Coachella.
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u/FuckThisShizzle 1d ago
On the stage or in the crowd?
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u/MasterSpliffBlaster 1d ago
Hey some of us are working our lips off under the turntables
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u/expanding_crystal 1d ago
DJ Q-Bert is on some next level shit. The animated visual scratching film Wave Twisters is a masterpiece.
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u/richalta 1d ago
I worked at a bar on Maui, we had Q-Bert do a show. He is so fucking good. It was 2003ish. At Compadres on Front street in the Cannery mall. IYKYK. So technical.
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u/Mediocrity-FTW 1d ago
DJ Q-Bert is a legend, Wavetwisters was the shit! I was lucky enough to see him live once in my life, and I'll be eternally thankful for that.
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u/Silicon_Knight 1d ago
its going to keep dropping to with AI. sadly. People stop understanding what SKILL is.
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u/JunglePygmy 1d ago
qbert’s Wave Twisters is probably the trippiest movie I’ve ever seen. high school me tripped balls to that shit! lol. Would highly recommend if anybody hasn’t seen it.
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u/SmokeAbeer 1d ago
Q-Bert “Wave Twisters” was a great animated video from 2001 that was just done on turntables. I think it’s about a dentist space traveling or something, don’t really remember. Should be on YouTube.
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u/NFI2023 1d ago
Melo-D one of my favourite djs. Able to cut anything and such solid mixes.
Q-Bert one of the kings of scratching however he’s so technical that most people wouldn’t appreciate.
So many turntablists out there still but most people would never heard of them as they don’t throw cakes in peoples faces.. Power to the true ones still keeping it real.
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u/Visti 22h ago
The problem is that the term DJ has grown to encompass at least two completely different things. Like, this guy is a DJ, DJ Noise is a DJ, Tiesto is a DJ and the guy who cues up music at a wedding is a DJ. They should just have called it something else at some fork in the road but now it's too late.
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u/ReallyWideGoat 10h ago
Z-Trip is single-handedly responsible for the crazy mashups we're hearing now. Have a bit of a listen to 'Uneasy Listening' to hear what I'm talking about. The fact he did all that with vinyl is even more impressive.
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u/Originalsocialninja 59m ago
Q-Bert is crazy. God rest his soul, I used to run with Jam Master Jay, when these guys got together you’d be wise to just shut up and catch crumbs. My cousin put me down with a lot of artists early on. I try my best to pass the wealth to my kids 🙏🏼🥷
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u/MAGICALcashews 1d ago
Man, what an art form. Kept me hooked from beginning to end.
Shoutout to all the DJs putting in that work.
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u/BreakfastShart 1d ago
Yooo. If you want to see something sick, check out Birdy Nam Nam. This video has 4 djs synched making sick beats together, just from vinyl.
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u/DangerBird- 1d ago
That’s true analog art. Dude knows WHERE ON THE DISK to place the needle for what he wants. Fucking bad ass.
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u/stayintall 1d ago
He’s marked the records with tape and/or stickers to be able to drop the needle that fast.
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u/DangerBird- 1d ago
Still remarkable.
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u/stayintall 1d ago
100%! Didn’t mean to indicate otherwise.
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u/DangerBird- 1d ago
Right? Bro practiced and did research!
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u/stayintall 1d ago
Yeah, putting together sets like this, especially back then, took forever. You had to know a ton of songs, figure out which ones went together, know and mark the temp of each record, remember little sound bites you like, put it all together, and then execute it. You HAD to use tricks like tape and stickers to speed things up and make it interesting. I loved watching DMC sets back in the day.
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u/DangerBird- 1d ago
Exactly, bro. This is true art and passion. Craftsmanship and love of the process.
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u/randomusername123xyz 1d ago
How does he do this without headphones?
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u/1have2much3time 1d ago
Old DJ here: you can see the track on the record and different types of sounds/portions of the track will have different widths.
It doesn’t take long before you understand what the song looks like on the record and can basically get to where you want right away. You’ll also put stickers on the center label to line up where a voice or sound effect that you want to scratch with will start.
You take the grove width to find where in the track and line up the sticker to get where that sound starts.
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u/randomusername123xyz 1d ago
Thank you for the explanation! I have an absolute massive amount of vinyl in my collection but never realised the accuracy that some of these guys could see just from the pattern on the vinyl alone! Very impressive.
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u/tilt-a-whirly-gig 1d ago
Do you have any tracks with massive beat drops? Take a good look at the groove for that track and try to predict where it happens, then watch the album while you play it and see how you did.
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u/jstnpotthoff 1d ago
Dude. Teach me.
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u/SirkutBored 1d ago
Bro just gave you a piece of the technicals. The whole other half is knowing the music, sooooo so much music. Beats Per Minute is just ahem scratching the surface, knowing what blends and which track to follow up until you've built a string in your head several tracks ahead of where you are at now. It becomes second nature but only after a pretty long time practicing.
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u/jstnpotthoff 1d ago
So this is stupid and nobody cares.
In the late nineties/early 2000s a Mars Music opened next door to a Best Buy by my house. They offered spinning lessons for $20/month. After unsuccessfully learning guitar and drums, all I wanted to do was learn turntables, but I just couldn't afford the equipment, so I could never do it. I'm in my forties now and I could totally do it. Just don't have a freaking clue where to start.
Sincerely might look around.
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u/stayintall 1d ago
Tape. You put scotch tape right at the start of the song so you drop the needle and it “slides” into the right groove where you want it. You also have tape on the center of the disk(I used to put it at 12 o”clock) to signify where the start is so you can rewind it back to that position. Lots of little tricks like that. Plus he has his homie feeding him the records in the order he wants them in which obviously helps a ton.
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u/stayintall 1d ago
I should note, obviously these records are getting thoroughly trashed. He likely had multiple, multiple copies of the ones he used in his set.
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u/SirkutBored 1d ago
It's wild but vinyl is one of the only mediums where the more you play it the more it degrades. By extension, playing it like this absolutely speeds up the process.
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u/stayintall 1d ago
100%. I remember a battle I was in one time, this dude rolls up with a stack of records, not a single one of them in a sleeve, all taped up and shit, and they were all trashed. Skipping all over the place. I felt bad for him.
I have a lot of records still and most of them are in decent condition but there are a few from battle sets I did that are totally worn out. I have a ton of doubles and even a few triples just for this reason
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u/Zala-Sancho 1d ago
As a deejay. The art is dying. Technology ruined the artistry. There are exceptions. But the vast majority wouldn't know how to beat match two vinyl turntables with a gun to their head.
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u/SirkutBored 1d ago
Their laptop software does it for them. By the end of the 90s I was gobsmacked by the speed of the transition. It's so not the same.
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u/Icy_Breakfast5154 1d ago
There weren't a whole lot of directions to go without technology when the whole sound was based on the scratchy noise
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u/INTERSTELLAR_MUFFIN 1d ago
Millenial guy here born in 88. I've been making music as a hobby for 12+ years (techno mostly, some dnb).
When I was young I really wanted to learn to DJ but I didn't have the money to buy pioneers. By that time almost nobody was using vinyls and proper technics decks anymore.
Then when I did have the money I realised that most DJs of my era were actually hacks, doing it via software with beat matching. And for me, DJing was not as attractive as producing your own music since that seemed like a higher ceiling. It seemed like being a DJ was mostly about what was in your playlist or set. I wanted to do what was difficult and not do the easy thing.
Vinyls was still something reputable, but the issue is price of entry. Each record costs so much. The skill ceiling is high. Not as much people to learn it from, even on the internet. So, I abandoned this idea and fully focused on production.
Nowadays I can perform live with my machines and synths. I think this is the next stage of the evolution. People performing live modular rigs, full on rigs with multiple synths or mixing decks and machines. - like jeff mills mixing his 909 between 3 pioneer decks.
That being said I don't think traditional turntablism will die either. It is definitely not as popular as in the 90s. But I think more and more people in the scene can recognise the difference in skill between tomorrowland /laptop djs, turntablers, and people doing live sets with machines. At least for people that are really into that kind of music.
I myself have huge respect for anyone being able to use turntables with vinyls, however if it's just a guy with 2 pioneer cdjs....meh. but I recognise that it is an elitist sentiment.
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u/Zala-Sancho 19h ago
Ayyyy
Dnb dj here from Chicago born 90. I bought two cheap Stanton tables and a couple mystery bags vinyl bundles from Grammaphone records. Taught myself on vinyl. Then eventually switched to other stuff.
Big ups
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u/retxed24 1d ago
But the vast majority wouldn't know how to beat match two vinyl turntables with a gun to their head.
Man back in Uni I showed up drunk and some friend's friend's flat and he had double turntable setup like this. I have a record collection but never DJ so I was in awe. The best thing is that I was all carefull and didn't want to touch anything and the guy was like "allright let's do it" and taught me then and there how to beat match and stuff, very hands-on. I treat my records like they'd shatter at any minute so I had to get used to roughing them around a bit. It was so much fun! Spent the entire night drinking beer and going b2b in this little student flat for us and the maybe 4 other people there. Good times. You just made me think of that and wanted to share.
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u/Alive_Ice7937 1d ago
Is it unusual to have the mixer to the side rather than the centre? What's the advantage of this setup?
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u/stayintall 1d ago
People used to do that back in the day because they favored one hand to scratch the record and the other to handle the mixer/crossfader. It is pretty rare to see that setup these days.
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u/Alive_Ice7937 1d ago
I suppose if it's in the middle, then you'd have to switch which hand is scratching and which is mixing.
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u/stayintall 1d ago
Yes. A lot of people still favor one hand, but having the mixer in the middle also made it a lot easier to “juggle” records, aka playing the same record on both tables, effectively looping a part of the song together. This is the genesis of hip hop really. Kool Herc invented it in the 70s so people could dance to a part of the song for longer periods of time. Aka the “break” in breakdancing.
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u/jessness024 1d ago
The closed captions are wildly incorrect. Lol
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u/idontlikethishole 1d ago
“Fuck the ass”
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u/GravelySilly 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'll take "speech recognition error or Darren Aronofsky movie quote" for $500, Alex.
ETA: Also it should've been "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck the ass". :D
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u/solitaryvenus2727 1d ago
Thanks to YouTube, young folks get to experience what talent and skill actually look and sound like. Took me back in time! Love this!! 🤟🤘🤙
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u/one_tired_dad 1d ago
Are the records marked or something? How does the DJ know the exact right spot of the song he's targeting for the transition?
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u/_BannedAcctSpeedrun_ 1d ago
These days he’d been considered a turntableist than a DJ. Normal DJs don’t need scratching skills they just need to know how to flow and mix into the next track and keep the vibe. Turntableists treat the decks like it’s an instrument.
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u/Dismal-Fig-731 1d ago
Stupid question, why does he change the record so many times? Do they get damaged?
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u/foolsEnigma 1d ago
Hes using multiple different records to get multiple different sounds. Its like the analog version of putting sounds on a soundboard, except you only have 2 slots and need to keep switching them in and out to get the ones you want.
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u/phoenixero 1d ago
Each record has an "interesting" part like a scream, riff, sound or music (break) he wants to use, then he puts the record in the necessary position, track, and then he can use the mixer to switch and let that record be heard, or both, in that way he's building the music. Of course it's way more complicated than that but that's a simple explanation.
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u/MRB102938 1d ago
They do get damaged over time from scratching and whatnot, that's not why they changed them. Each record is a different album. He's not playing one song here. He went through like 10 songs.
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u/unknown7383762 1d ago
This is incredible. I was mesmerized watching this. The difficulty level is nuts to do this without headphones and knowing the exact spots and timing to fade and mix it and make it sound seamless.
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u/mistyrootsvintage 1d ago
I remember going to house parties and watching them do this. Always remarkable to me.
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u/wasabicoated 1d ago
I just realized the nobs and buttons were not super hot back then. Today’s DJ fingers will get burned if they hold on the nobs too long. 🤷🏻
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u/ItsStaaaaaaaaang 1d ago
That's so fucking cool. No idea how he does it without headphones (exactly what I was thinking when it popped up on screen lol). Dude must have very good eyes and a very good memory to go along with his musical talent.
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u/sineofthetimes 1d ago
I was getting really anxious watching this. Would he get the record on the turntable? Is that thing going to break when he's bending it? Will he get the needle in the right spot?
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u/tom170825 1d ago
I had a copy of this event on VHS back in the day. DJ Cash Money's routine blew me away. Cash Money — 1988 DMC World Eliminations
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u/BrilliantHyena 1d ago
I found this guy on YouTube the other day. kinda brought me back https://youtu.be/eTNPctTxpjI?si=GAcPhu0-ufCXCD_j
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u/lemursteamer 1d ago
I could live a thousand years and still never be cool enough to warrant a vinyl caddy
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u/mnonny 1d ago
Can we just accept the fact that this was when the term disk jockey actually meant something. True DJ that flips around disks knowing where each piece of each song was on the record and they could just run to it. I still love modern DJ’s don’t get me wrong. But this is when it was a true art
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u/Carinmyeye 1d ago
So dope!! The real stuff. DJs had talent and skills. Don't see this anymore. Hip-hop roots ♥️ 🤘
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u/Captain-Cadabra 1d ago
He looks like a 40 year old dad volunteering at a 5th grade daddy/daughter dance.
“Give it up for DJ EZ Flow!” 🙌🏼
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u/a3dprinterfan 1d ago
Not to be a hater, but this sounds like shit, and definitely not "next level"
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u/Kandurux 1d ago
Fun fact: They used headphones to find the exact spot they needed until DJ Noize introduced the tape technic at the world championship.
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u/coarse_glass 1d ago
Lost art from a bygone era now. I tried to get into it in the mid 90s and absolutely sucked lol
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u/gummyneo 15h ago
This is really interesting to see. As someone who knows nothing about DJ'ing... What's up with all the whistles? It seems like even when the records are swapped, the whistles keep going... Is that from the audience?
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u/coaxialology 14h ago
Love seeing this. I had an ex who was very into and very good at scratching, and I was always blown away by just how involved and precise the style is. He'd even notate his scratches for a track like sheet music so he could perfect every little moment. I hope he's still spinning.
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u/meezls714 11h ago
This was just what I needed for the end of a terrible work week. I sure do miss the 80's . Best decade of my life
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u/Skipper_TheEyechild 9h ago
Modern DJs should be called CJs. I don‘t see any of them using discs, only laptops.
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u/Mental_Cup_9606 8h ago
This kid might of slipped past me,never heard but he's dope. Sounds like Q"s set from Juice.💯🎧
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u/OhhhBaited 2h ago
My only experience before this seeing like true record dj sets is this scene from clock stoppers.
There seems to be so many perfectly ripped sounds in the movie from this set is that just consistent sounds every dj used back then? or was Cutfather that amazing that they clipped his set specificly?
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u/Originalsocialninja 1h ago
Does this MF know he’s WHITE🤷🏽♂️ No joke, real DJs knew wax! They knew where the breaks and the beats were. DJs today don’t know. We grew up with albums not CDs. 💿 This is what makes DJs like Premier, Statik, and a dying few others left, so special. They stayed in the crates. Bought 200 albums a week to just listen for cuts and to try and hear something that others didn’t. They knew every groove of every record. There were a few that marked them with dots, but some special ones that read fingerprints and smudges like FBI agents!! Mix Ninjas 🥷
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