The quick-wristed, 2-time DMC Champ talked to us about technology, turntablism, and performing with creator DJ Wordy in Beijing. Instructions to win a master DJ starter set from Traktor plus Shiftee's schizophrenic set are both in the brain-scrambling video above.The Creators Project: How did you get started Djing?
DJ Shiftee: I was getting really into hip-hop music. I saw DJs on MTV and in pop culture, and I thought what they were doing looked pretty cool. I was listening to hip hop scratching, and I was like, "Wow what is that sound?" And so I went and got some turntables. I got this video with all the old school champions on it from DMC. I'd never really seen anything like that before and it was sort of like an epiphany. I thought, "I have to do that. No matter what, I must become one of those guys."So what was your first time performing like?
It was at a car show in queens with bikini models and pimp-my-ride cars. I came in with a technically difficult set and it was like "Go!" and the next thing I knew I was finished. I didn't know what happened. Like a deer in headlights. In 2007, I won the DMC World Supremacy. It was after I had taken a long break from battle DJing and I kind of just entered on a whim, not really caring as much as I did before, and that was the time I won everything. It was sort of unbelievable. After I won that though, I sort of rededicated myself to DJing.How exactly does one win a DMC Championship?
It takes skills in different areas: how technically skilled you are at scratching, another area called beat juggling which is remixing two records live together, overall how original they are, a fresh current sound and stage presence, and how you interact with the crowd.That sounds uber old school. What kind of equipment do you use now in comparison?
I'm using two new Technics turntables, a Rane mixer, my laptop, and two midi-controllers; one is Native Instruments Control X1.We recently watched the Turntable Tricknology videos you did for Traktor where you juggle 35 tracks in 90 seconds.
Those Turntable Tricknology videos are part of a series Traktor is putting out. The idea of those videos is taking turntablism, sort of a heavy skill set, which is usually two tables and a mixer, and seeing how it can be expanded using the technology and midi-controllers, and in particular some of their products. What's going on in that routine is that I'm doing more traditional moves and combining them with stuff that wasn't possible before until this new technology came out.What can you do with the new technology that you couldn’t do before?
Oh, all sorts of stuff. For one you'll only see DJ’s with a laptop now and what's going on is that the laptop is hooked up to the turntables and the discs on the turntables are now controlling the sounds on the computer. You can now scratch any audio file anywhere or make it part of your DJ set. I could take this conversation and put it on my computer and scratch it. Also, with midi-controllers, instead of hitting a button on your keyboard or hitting your mouse, you can hit a button on the controller and do all sorts of crazy things like jump all around your song and still scratch it. You can add in all sorts of wild effects, you can control all those effects live, you can have four decks going, you can have things mashed up that could never be mashed up before. The technology has really taken the possibilities of what you can do in a DJ set and blown it wide open.Who are some of your biggest influences in the industry?
From a DJ perspective, Craze and A-track are big influences; both of them were two of my favorite DMC champs. Other DMC guys, Roc Raida and Qbert are kind of on the Mount Rushmore of turntablism. And I can’t forget my own crew. When I was 15-going-on-16 I hooked up with one of the better crews in NYC and they kind of took me under their wing.You recently played with one of Beijing's finest, DJ Wordy. Did you notice a difference in the turntable scene over there?
Yeah, it was at a totally commercial bottle club, but he has one of the coolest parties out there, Hotpot — like the food. I think in Beijing it's probably like the premiere electronic dance music party. I think a lot of the turntablists there are really more excited about what's going on with electronic music and Dubstep. To me too it seems like that's where all the creative stuff is coming from. We did some scratching, but a lot of it was trading music and talking about different music on that scene.In addition to being a DJ, you also happen to be a Harvard grad. So what's the house party scene like at Harvard? Did you DJ a lot in college?
It's pretty ok. I would get asked to do a lot of the big dining room parties. So it was sort of fun. It was good because it paid in college.It seems like there's a big shift in focus from more musical to more technical turntablism.
That's one of the biggest complaints about turntablism and battle DJing, is that the technique of it has gotten really advanced — a lot of times to the point where the average audience member doesn't understand what's going on. Whereas maybe ten years ago the techniques were still really advanced but the ways DJs presented them were more accessible. I think a valid criticism of the current state of battle DJing is that DJs are doing stuff that's just so hard and not really taking the time necessarily to help their audience understand that it's hard or what part of it is hard. It's become much more esoteric, much more niche-based than it was ten years ago.Why the transition?
It's partly due to the technology, but not for the reason that technology is making it harder for people to understand. DMC doesn't allow you to use any of the new technology in the battles, even though pretty much all new DJs starting out are starting out with a laptop and computers, they're not starting out on vinyl, which is what the DMC is. Which means that all the new talent, all the new ideas are going elsewhere. Scratching a bunch of records is almost old-fashioned these days. So maybe one of the reasons that turntablism has gotten so esoteric is because it hasn't gone with the technology. Nowadays when you go to the club, you see a DJ with a laptop and that's sort of what the DJ has become.
DJ Shiftee: I was getting really into hip-hop music. I saw DJs on MTV and in pop culture, and I thought what they were doing looked pretty cool. I was listening to hip hop scratching, and I was like, "Wow what is that sound?" And so I went and got some turntables. I got this video with all the old school champions on it from DMC. I'd never really seen anything like that before and it was sort of like an epiphany. I thought, "I have to do that. No matter what, I must become one of those guys."
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It was at a car show in queens with bikini models and pimp-my-ride cars. I came in with a technically difficult set and it was like "Go!" and the next thing I knew I was finished. I didn't know what happened. Like a deer in headlights. In 2007, I won the DMC World Supremacy. It was after I had taken a long break from battle DJing and I kind of just entered on a whim, not really caring as much as I did before, and that was the time I won everything. It was sort of unbelievable. After I won that though, I sort of rededicated myself to DJing.How exactly does one win a DMC Championship?
It takes skills in different areas: how technically skilled you are at scratching, another area called beat juggling which is remixing two records live together, overall how original they are, a fresh current sound and stage presence, and how you interact with the crowd.That sounds uber old school. What kind of equipment do you use now in comparison?
I'm using two new Technics turntables, a Rane mixer, my laptop, and two midi-controllers; one is Native Instruments Control X1.We recently watched the Turntable Tricknology videos you did for Traktor where you juggle 35 tracks in 90 seconds.
Those Turntable Tricknology videos are part of a series Traktor is putting out. The idea of those videos is taking turntablism, sort of a heavy skill set, which is usually two tables and a mixer, and seeing how it can be expanded using the technology and midi-controllers, and in particular some of their products. What's going on in that routine is that I'm doing more traditional moves and combining them with stuff that wasn't possible before until this new technology came out.
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Oh, all sorts of stuff. For one you'll only see DJ’s with a laptop now and what's going on is that the laptop is hooked up to the turntables and the discs on the turntables are now controlling the sounds on the computer. You can now scratch any audio file anywhere or make it part of your DJ set. I could take this conversation and put it on my computer and scratch it. Also, with midi-controllers, instead of hitting a button on your keyboard or hitting your mouse, you can hit a button on the controller and do all sorts of crazy things like jump all around your song and still scratch it. You can add in all sorts of wild effects, you can control all those effects live, you can have four decks going, you can have things mashed up that could never be mashed up before. The technology has really taken the possibilities of what you can do in a DJ set and blown it wide open.Who are some of your biggest influences in the industry?
From a DJ perspective, Craze and A-track are big influences; both of them were two of my favorite DMC champs. Other DMC guys, Roc Raida and Qbert are kind of on the Mount Rushmore of turntablism. And I can’t forget my own crew. When I was 15-going-on-16 I hooked up with one of the better crews in NYC and they kind of took me under their wing.You recently played with one of Beijing's finest, DJ Wordy. Did you notice a difference in the turntable scene over there?
Yeah, it was at a totally commercial bottle club, but he has one of the coolest parties out there, Hotpot — like the food. I think in Beijing it's probably like the premiere electronic dance music party. I think a lot of the turntablists there are really more excited about what's going on with electronic music and Dubstep. To me too it seems like that's where all the creative stuff is coming from. We did some scratching, but a lot of it was trading music and talking about different music on that scene.In addition to being a DJ, you also happen to be a Harvard grad. So what's the house party scene like at Harvard? Did you DJ a lot in college?
It's pretty ok. I would get asked to do a lot of the big dining room parties. So it was sort of fun. It was good because it paid in college.It seems like there's a big shift in focus from more musical to more technical turntablism.
That's one of the biggest complaints about turntablism and battle DJing, is that the technique of it has gotten really advanced — a lot of times to the point where the average audience member doesn't understand what's going on. Whereas maybe ten years ago the techniques were still really advanced but the ways DJs presented them were more accessible. I think a valid criticism of the current state of battle DJing is that DJs are doing stuff that's just so hard and not really taking the time necessarily to help their audience understand that it's hard or what part of it is hard. It's become much more esoteric, much more niche-based than it was ten years ago.Why the transition?
It's partly due to the technology, but not for the reason that technology is making it harder for people to understand. DMC doesn't allow you to use any of the new technology in the battles, even though pretty much all new DJs starting out are starting out with a laptop and computers, they're not starting out on vinyl, which is what the DMC is. Which means that all the new talent, all the new ideas are going elsewhere. Scratching a bunch of records is almost old-fashioned these days. So maybe one of the reasons that turntablism has gotten so esoteric is because it hasn't gone with the technology. Nowadays when you go to the club, you see a DJ with a laptop and that's sort of what the DJ has become.