Flattered and irked at the same time

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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Flattered and irked at the same time

I would like to start this off by saying my ego isn’t a huge as it’s about to sound.

Flattering part
So a lot of my friends like my music, and I have a pretty decent following of kids around where I live who’ll call asking for my newest mixes and stuff. It’s great. I’m genuinely flattered. Some kid who goes to the high school I went to has been into what I’ve done.

Anyway, this kid like 4 years younger than me starts using VDJ a week ago, and pumped out two mixes and threw them up on Soundcloud. Now, given the fact that I was in that position at one point (tho I held off on putting these mixes on Soundcloud for a while) I understand that he’s excited. I’m still a beginner myself. He doesn’t have any kind of controller or DJ interface, so you can imagine (especially without cueing ability) the quality of the transitions in these mixes.

Irritating Part
However, this kid is going around telling people that not only does he know me (which is cool, whatever) but also that I think he’s some great dj and that I’ve been doing these mixes with him. Neither of those things are true. At all. Especially the part that I somehow have something to do with what he’s doing.

To make matters worse, he’s ripping off my sets… I mean using almost the exact same songs I did and in the same order, trying to transition at the same parts, and he’s doing it out of time and off-beat because he can’t really cue it effectively.

Time to relax
I’ve been giving him advice and suggestions on where he needs improvement. I love to talk music and djing with people. But how do I tell him that I’m not somehow endorsing what he’s doing and to stop just trying to copy what I’m doing?

I understand he’s ambitious, and that’s great. My intentions are not to say something like “hey your mix is trash, your trash, stop talking to me.” You know? I don’t want to hurt the kid’s feelings.

I hope the entire DJTT community didn’t just lose a ton of respect for me, I think most of you can probably understand why this is upsetting. I’m not trying to sound elitist, but I put a lot of work into my mixes, and he’s just ripping them off.

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the same applies to dj’ing. id be bummed too

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Man DJs are fucking idiots (a lot of the time) especially new young ones.
I sympathise with your story/

If your new to the game it does you no good pissing off the other DJs in your school/town/city because it always comes back to bite you in the ass.

Why is it that so many DJs think they can get away with being such fools.

Short Story.
Was introduced to a “new young promising Dubstep DJ” in my town.
He was doing a warmup slot at a club i know. I had a 10min chat with him.
He seemed Ok if a little over confident . “Im the best Dubstep DJ in this town” he said when hes only played a few gigs thats quite a claim. Especially to make to someone who has (i have to say) played a LOT in my town an i can get DJs gigs at many clubs and have helped people go on to get residencies.
He offers his services to me “let me do some warm up slots for you” he asks. I have 4 Residences so i can make this happen for the guy. I say give me a mix cd and we will talk and ill try come down and see you at your gig (i even lend him some headphones as hes forgotten his for his slot at another club)

The next day my girls mate says “Yeah a guy i know was talking about you last nite. Says your giving him 2 slots at X club and Y club (no names mentioned). He said hes gonna wear a t-shirt with his own club nite on it underneath another tee and when your not looking hes gonna remove the top and plug his own nite, and if Karl doesnt like it he can go fuck himself.”

Im like i never said he couldnt plug his own nite. But he doesnt have his own nite to plug. I never arranged his sets anyway so what he said is all complete and utter LIES.

Not only that but my mate gave him a slot and he blew a fucking huge monitor because he was using it as a speaker all nite.

So… not only is he now banned from that club but he will never get a warm up slot in at least 4 clubs i work at and im now rubbishing him to anyone that mentions the little prick.

I live in an average size city. Gossip travels fast. You cant shit on your own doorstep. Hes 21 years old and no-one will give him a slot now and it will take him a few years to lose his bad rep just cus he couldnt just keep his mouth shut and play.

Grrr sorry , had to get that off my chest.

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I would talk to him straight up.

Tell him to use your style as a guide. Tell him how long you have been mixing and that he needs to BUILD his following in order to feel good about it and progress in it.

Or it will be fake…not really earned, and you will feel like an ASS at some point.

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@Karlos: I hate the “macho” aspect of djing, and your story is the perfect explanation why. People get in over their heads thinking their hot shit.

@Sarasin: I did talk to him since I first posted, politely. I told him I really have no problem with him using my mixes to learn from and stuff. But just not to steal my sets and rip them off and throw them on soundcloud and slap his name on it. I put a lot of time into my mixes, between finding the songs, figuring out transitions, etc. The fact that he just took my hours work or recreated it (poorly) in minutes is infuriating.

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I met this guy who really liked my DJing and was always with his mates right in front.
He tells me his brother is starting to DJ etc and could i show him a few pointers?
I say sure…and we arrange a night and I sat him down and I tutored him a bit.

I end up playing at this kids 21st and his brother is also going to play.

His brother ends up playing my set IDENTICALLY…all the trax I woulda played.
(He knew my sets and style real well)

Each mix…he would look at me and smile.

Man…this also GRATED me.

BUT!

I always have my contingincy plan…

I then played the REAL killers…and he was blown away.

No one else really knew what was going down, but he was put in his place and knows it.

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You can’t see it right now, but I am furiously scrawling notes of what to NOT do.

Not that most of this stuff isn’t common sense, but goddamn. I suppose internet-hanging-out with you guys has spoiled me, but I had no idea DJs could be such asses.

Maybe I should just stay in my bedroom.

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mmmmm…

yeah look, he is a kid…

We all do dumb things, trying to impress people etc when we teens. I can remember what it was like being 18.

So I would say rather guide and help him realise instead of kicking him to the curb.

I am a softee…yes …yes…

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I’d just talk to him and explain how people peg and lable you from the first time they hear ya. I teahc basic Djing @ my shop and one of the first things I say is don’t go out trying to get yer first gig or passing around Sets right after you get out of here. Poeple need time to mature they’re technic and music choices.
I got this frine that I haven’t seen in ages and he was teling me how this kid we know has gotten really good since he started using traktor, turns out that in fact we remembered him from the last 10 years where he totaly sucked… long story short… it’s not really that the kid got better from day to night, it’s just that we never really paid attention and now it’s been 10 years and we really mde ourselves pay attention.

The first gigs are very very important, if anything always lower people’s expectations so you always suprise them by beeing so much better than they thought. If you come out like your the next big thang, then even if you are good it always feel short…

Try and pass that to him as an advice,…

Z

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this reminds me of a dj i heard back in the early days of the l.a. “underground” scene. before they were even called raves. this guy played a lot of parties. back then we took who we could get cause not a lot of guys had access to techno records, let alone had enough to play a 3 hour set. were talking just post the acid house scene days. just after alices house.

anyway, this dj alot of people kinda poked fun at the guy.

one day he moved away and nobody heard from him for a year or so, maybe longer.

next thing you know he came back and was like 500% better, everyone in l.a. was like “wtf?” this guy is great now DAMN!

his name was dj dan

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I know Dan, or better I played with him on a big event on my country a while back (probably around 2000), he is a house DJ right? I was playing the back room (techno) but I had a brief talk with him for about 5m or so I remember he was a really nice and quiet chap… unfortunately house culture was really poor here at the time so it wasn’t like a massive thang… but on the same room come 5am and it’s all going crazy with Plastikman (before he took all the techno chill pills lol) and Jeff Mills on the 909 and 3 decks tip…

ahhhh the days lol

Z

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yeah dan was always a nice guy. i actually liked his sets even back in the day. were talking pre 2000. yeah im an old fart lol.

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Re: Flattered and irked at the same time

dude lambox I feel you. a lot of djs starting out these days don’t understand the concept of hard work and refinement of technique. they make their first mix and they want to play MoS or something. it just takes someone or something to put them in their place and give them a reality check on what the real deal is. and if no one else will, maybe it’s up to you. or if you can stand it just let him learn it on his own, but since he’s ripping you off, I may just call him on it, preferably in a social setting. but hey, that’s me :stuck_out_tongue: call me a dick, but I don’t believe in people jackin somebodys style, let alone their ENTIRE MIX.

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Shiiiiiit…

He has not developed his morals etc yet. He is just a kid…

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you guys are so polite :stuck_out_tongue: down here he’d get a slap and his beer and missus taken as punishment.

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@hipnotikk: I know. It’s garbage. I kinda called him out too. But it would be easier if I had even talked to this kid before. It’s not like I’ve ever see him anywhere. Haha what I’m I supposed to call him up “hey let’s meet somewhere so I can bitch you out.” lol :smiley: I feel kinda bad about the whole thing because I know the kid is just trying. I don’t know man.

@Jester: I reckon he’s too young for all those things anyway :slight_smile:

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If he’s old enough to be spreading lies and possibly creating drama that could effect you then he is old enough to be told where it’s at.

You can be polite in this at first, which it seems like you are being, but you need to remember that it’s your rep he’s threatening too, not just his own. Keep your nose clean, but keep him up to date as to what his priorities and place is.

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Amen to that, J!

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i love music. i love mixing music and playing it for other people to enjoy. but man, dj culture is riddled with wannabe rock star nut riders. young djs jump into the lime light WAY before they have the abilities, taste, discretion, etc to back it up…it makes the whole scene look foolish a lot of times.

people need to find the art in djing instead of: biting style, dropping nothing but this week’s top 20 club bangers, having no sense of the history of their sound etc

/rant

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If this is over Facebook or something just call him out online haha so everyone can see. Just say “keep up the good work, and just so everyone knows I had nothing to do with these mixes”. It’s fun being blunt.