While the Red Bull battle gets all the attention these days (because Red Bull has a lot of cash to spend), there are other battles worthy of your attention. DMC is obviously the daddy of DJ battles for the last three decades, but the IDA World Final is a real grass roots things.
Coming out of the equally grass roots ITF battles, the IDA is now headquartered in Poland, and is run with love and passion by Tomasz Kubik, and has regional battles in many countries around the world. This will all culminate in the world final happening in Krakow on 5th December 2015. This will feature DJ QBert, DJ Woody, DJ Irie, and Ritchie Ruftone.
Speaking of which, this year’s promo video has been released, featuring QBert and Ritchie alongside DJ IQ and VaZee. Previous videos had featured Polish emcees, but this time the DJ battle focusses on DJs, and speaks the language of turntablism.
As far as regional battles go, obviously being largely UK based and knowing most of the battlers, it’s my duty to inform you of the UK finals. George GJiggy Francis is running the event which takes place on 22nd November at the Custard Factory in Birmingham. Here are the rules, and good luck to all who take part.
be cool if contests and product development could meet where the prize was to receive custom made gear designed by you, then the company/sponsor could go on to produce the same device
so this idea is stuck in my mind, because wouldn’t it be great to give all the past former champion battlers a reason to come back out and battle. If the prize were to chance to influence the direction of prod. dev. (a topic that gets a lot of folks attention); instead of just a reward for that individual dj, then they would be battling for all djs, and for the culture as they see it.
i’d be far more willing to accept the idea of new gear, if it were coming from a perspective other than “I was paid to promote it” And if they are battling for the culture in general, then they should have no qualms about taking the spotlight from newer djs. From the company’s perspective, there’s lots of free hype, that ISN’T just marketing hogwash. It’s bona-fide enthusiasm.
Plus, how great would it be to see “”insert your fav dj”” battle it out with the new crop for the chance to say what a mixer, in 2016 given all that we’ve tried digitally, should look and act like(and this is the best part, because who knows who would come out if the chance to battle some of the biggest names ever was part of the draw)
it would be a good idea to have sort of a mandate that the new device have some new/unique feature, for instance, 3 cross-faders(turn the input faders into crossfaders and place on either side of cf) or something that is “new”
A few points:
• Being great DJs doesn’t guarantee that they’re great product designers. And experience shows that they can’t keep a lid on anything either.
• Previous signature product haven’t sold well, because DJs aren’t that swayed by names. They prefer features.
• Some signature stuff hasn’t even been seen by the alleged VIP designer.
• The chances of getting VIP battlers to battle again are slim because they stand to lose too much and gain almost nothing. If Qbert or Craze were to lose a battle, their career would be damaged. And putting their name on a product is seen as a pure marketing move. And why battle again? They are already VIP DJs and as such have nothing to prove.
Ultimately the gear you’re talking about is niche. I feel that a better approach is to posit ideas in a public forum (like this), talk about them, and hope that they get developed with input from experienced DJs that form the give mind of the DJWORX community, and shaped enough that they’ll be more popular and not expensive niche product than few can afford or indeed want.
I really don’t care who makes them, or if they have a poster DJ promoting them. I just want the best possible DJ gear in the hands of DJs.
thats all true. much of it depressing, like a career being so tenous that not winning a battle would damage it, and niche being detractive; which is only true from the maker’s perspective(because it doesnt lead to big profits), but from the user’s perspective, niche is what we should want.
i think qbert would do it, at least a scratch battle, thats why hes the greatest ever, he still does it for the love of it.
Oh my god Ritchie killed it!
Nice! That spacehelmet is super dope.
What break is used for this video?
I hope they release video footage of the whole event and not just who won.DMC only posts one video of the winner…
You realize that the more of these vids that you post, the more Adam Stone’s opinion piece becomes invalidated?
Nice concept and shooting, better than last year’s, although the video/sound sync looks a little bit awkward at some points.
Nice concept and shooting, better than last year’s, although the video/sound sync looks a little bit awkward at some points.
Anyone notice, the event is supported by Rane but the video is all Z2’s