WAX WARRIORS
Mar 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By J-Smoke
The DJ battle is probably the most difficult, heart-pounding, gut-wrenching and rewarding event that I've ever participated in. It takes a lot to compete in battles, and only a handful of people are recognized, but it's a lot like life, which is hard and rewarding to those special few. The most important thing to realize is that there's a huge difference between battling and just being a good scratcher or beat juggler. Battling requires a whole different mind frame that takes into account a lot of factors other than being good on the cut or with juggles.
First, you need to assess your skill level. There is no real guideline to determine if you've been DJing long enough to battle, and the truth is, it doesn't matter: If you're good enough, you're good enough. How do you know if you are? That's something you have to ask yourself, and if you can answer without hesitation, then you've already gotten past the first step. If you don't have complete confidence in yourself, you're not ready. In my hunger to battle, I neglected to judge my confidence and entered battles when I was not ready — and paid the price for it.
With your confidence in check, you then need to figure out how many routines (scratch sets and beat juggles) you have. You may be the illest beat juggler or scratcher, but if you don't have many routines, you're not going anywhere. The more routines you have, the better. Also, the more diverse your routines are, the better. If you have eight routines and they're all the same style, that limits what you are showing people and may get boring. Variety is key, so mix up the beats you use, from old-school breaks to newer songs to whatever. Don't rely strictly on battle breaks! It will really hamper your style, because there's so much good music out there to flex on. Think broader by incorporating different styles of juggles and scratch sets. It's hard to say exactly what to do, as there aren't really any set standards to routines, but check out some videos or study others and then try something different or flip what they've done completely to a new level.
THE BATTLEFIELD
Everything that happens in a battle revolves around your set of routines, so your battle set must be as tight as a drum. Therefore, you need to determine what type of battle you are entering: Is it head-to-head with multiple rounds, or is it DMC-style, in which you perform one long set? For head-to-head battles with multiple short (60- or 90-second) rounds, I always start with an intro of some kind, flow into my routine and end with an outro.
Regardless of length, composing your set is almost as important as how good your routines are, because your routines need to flow into each other as though they were meant to sound that way. One of the most common ways to switch between routines is to just cut in the next one, but it always helps to make that extra effort by finding interesting ways to mesh them. For example, say you just finished a juggle routine; you take one record off the platter and put on the next record, which is the start of your next routine (whether it be another scratch, juggle or diss of some kind). Now, take a small piece of the beat that is already playing and a small piece of what you are about to put on and make them into a small miniroutine that may be only a few bars long. This can create a more consistent flow to your routine so that it introduces what you're doing next but isn't an abrupt change in your set.
ARMAMENTS
When you're battling, you have to prove to the judges and to the audience that you are the best one there. An intro helps this along because it is usually a diss (to either a specific competitor or to everyone is general), and it gets the crowd hyped. For that short amount of time, none of the competitors are your friends. You are there to win, so don't hold back. If you have some hard-ass diss that's going to make the crowd go wild, use it. Don't be afraid of upsetting someone — this is a battle. If you get dissed at a battle and your feelings get hurt, then you shouldn't even be battling. I find that funny disses are the way to go because everyone else seems to use the typical “fuck you,” but if you have one that is hard yet funny, that always does the trick.
Another enormously important factor to battling is showmanship. People want to see you up there having fun and looking like waxing all of the other fools in the battle ain't no thang. If you look nervous, you're done. Even if you make a mistake, your face shouldn't show it; make it look like that was supposed to happen. Don't hang your head after your set if you made a lot of mistakes; end your set with confidence — even if not one thing came off.
Some people are gifted with natural confidence (me not being one of them), but for most others, it's nerve-wracking to get behind the decks in front of a large crowd. At a battle, you're onstage, and everyone is staring at you. The lights go off, and a spotlight usually lights you up. All of the music is off. Everyone is waiting for you to bust something to blow their minds, so you have to practice. Practice so much that you can do your routines without even thinking, because, chances are, you won't be able to think. It all has to be automatic. Don't get flustered. Everyone deals with pressure differently, so find ways to keep your cool until you get comfortable in front of crowds. I used to force myself to remember that I was battling for fun, downplaying it in my mind so that it wasn't the end of the world if I screwed up in front of a crowd. Craze used to tell me that he'd try to put his mind somewhere else, like his stomach, and concentrate on that. He would just say to himself over and over, “My stomach, my stomach, my stomach.”
No matter how bad or good you do, never stop practicing and never get down on yourself. So what if you mess up really bad in a battle? Use the experience to help you come off strong in the next one. The one thing to remember about battling is that the best DJ doesn't necessarily win. It's who is best on that day at that particular moment.
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