back when i used to dj more often

there were a lot of yuppies in the scene. thats for sure. leather jackets. whitened teeth. designer money clips. open tabs. green liquid in a martini glass and a gentle, non violent sway. yeah. twenty something urban up and comers. the target market demographic. this is what i saw when i looked at the dance floor.

at the time everything was easy and the economy was booming and the internet was the future and san francisco was the eye. time was sliding at a ferocious pace, pre millennium decadence was in full effect. nightclubs teemed with the so called entitled.

they wanted something placating and watery. something that complimented their stock options. they wanted something casual and agreeable, that wouldnt fuss their hair. they wanted deep house and they wanted it missionary style. but fuck that pillow biting shit, imma bang it out son.

i admit, i used to clear the floor sometimes, because i would come out the box swinging. laying down my hardest joints and most epic jams too early. but i learned after a while, how to fool the crowd. see, its all in the entry.

i immediately chop up the baselines, getting a bouncy atmosphere going. by my third or forth track, i have that bumpty working their hips. i keep that going for a bit, quickening the tempo every other mix, and then strip it down to just the drums. now the knees are bending and the heads are falling back and the hands start feeling before them. they are beginning to get naked and im glaring and im glaring. then i start to up the jack. and their bodies start to snap. i wait for it a bit, letting everybody work, and then i break the beat into electro before i drive into some heavy shit.

and when everybody reached the same page and i could put on any record i pleased it was like hell had reached heaven and i was born again.

i played techno when they wanted house and house when they wanted hip hop and hip hop when they wanted techno and soul all the time. i made them ache for it. i was stubborn and challenging and got booked pretty consistantly even though i was always late for gigs.

im thankful, because for being such a difficult fuck behind the turntables, san francisco always let me shake its booty.

now i'm in new york and i play pop and rock and R&B. i play hip hop and punk and baltimore club. now i play grime and electro and disco from the 80s. now i'm in new york and i barely play out at all. now i go to school and my nights are occupied and i cant carry my records because of my fragile spine. now i've stopped doing as many drugs because it takes so much time to recover. now i keep the volume down so that my neighbors dont complain. but that doesnt mean ive retired.

im going to be playing at a loft party in brooklyn and a club in the east village and a club near Pratt all in the next few weeks. then we got a monthly starting and a fashion line wants me to keep things funky at their shop in Soho on the weekends. watch out tricks, the decks are heating up again.