hip hop set - order?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

hip hop set - order?

I dont usually play hiphop (I do listen to it tho) but I was asked to play at a friends party. I’m wondering if anyone follows any particular order when playing songs. Someone suggested that if you’re playing a hiphop set, you should break it up into 3 or 4 sections of the night.

In this case, that person suggested…

1 - underground and less known hiphop tracks but considered ‘cult faves’
2 - club bangers (all the popular tracks at the moment)
3 - old school, oldies but goodies that people reminisce to
4 - slow jams??

I’m bringing up the question here to see what your opinions are of this. Does this hold weight? In this particular genre (hiphop) how would you carry the crowd throughout the night??

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when I am doing a party I will start off with something old school just to take everbody back ya know, ie…run dmc, beastie boys, the humpty dance. Then I will crank it up into some club bangers.

But underground is touchy tho depends what kind of crowd you are playing for. I hate to bring it up race but when I am playing a majority white party I will actually play alot of underground hip hop cause they listen to it. But If I am playing for a predominantly black party I just play gangster rap and club stuff (ie. lil boosie, lil wayne and crap ass rap like that) because they are not that open to underground.

I really don’t play that many slow songs except the stuff you hear on the radio like usher love in the club which is not that slow. But I do play for the ladies tho as long as they getting down you are fine.

also a good song to play is colt 45 by afro man, i guarantee everyone knows the words to that song.

Also a good song is, this is how we do it- by montell jordan thats a favorite I like to play.

hope that helps

3

depnding on where you play, the crowd, etc…

I’d start off with some underground stuff, working my to some semi underground stuff - things like pharoah monch - simon says, and maybe some talib kweli - basically a lot of that rawkus / backpack stuff ..maybe even some college drop out kayne …

this gets the heads nodding, anything that gets the heads nodding, it’s cool at this point.

meanwhile sprinkling in some older smooth jam stuff - everything from current usher to blackstreet (yeah blackstreet)…

this gets the girls dancing. anything smooth and you’re good to go…

i’d build my tempo bringing it up, droping some recent club hits - stuff like t-pain and all of that. i’d building until the madness and once at 130-135 bpm, i’d drop some crazy baltimore club remixes. all at this time you can slip in some other recent club hits (any katty perry remix)…

this is when the real crazy stuff happens - should be 12:30 atleast by now (if you’re playing from 9-3)

after the crazy sing sing beat sample bmore awesome fest, slow down and end with couples dancing, new “friends” dancing, etc.

more smooth, more oldies, etc.

Some must have / party saves:

it takes 2 - rob base / dj ez rock
the jump stuff: house of pain - jump around, kriss kross - anything with JUMP JUMP in it.

blackstreet - no diggity and basically any of the “classic tracks” from the mid 1990’s. think who is in college / early 20’s now. they grew up with king puff daddy.

Oh yeah, it completely cool to play PRINCE, Madonna, or any good 80’s at a hip-hop night, if you got a brave crowd, you’d could even sprinkle on some house classics like MARRS - Pump Up the Volume, etc.

hope that helped. note: this is just my approach, work your crowd you’re way and pay attention the girls everyone else has their eyes on - make them dance and you’ll be gravy.

4

seriously, i played colt 45 at work and everyone knew the words.

also i forgot to add: dowhatchalike - digital underground. another good track.

and depending on the crowd, some 2 Live Crew, etc. i was surprised how many people dug that miami sound around here…

5

1 then a good mixture of 2 and 3 maybe 2 or 3 slow jams to let em rest a bit . But them slammem with a club banga or some dancehall .

6

well songs I have to play at parties.

Lil John and ying yang twins-get low
Florida-Low
Afroman-Colt 45
Lil Wayne-Lolipop
Pitbull-Shake

and if you want them grindin on the floor.
R-kelly-bump and grind
and any pretty ricky song.

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thanks for the suggestions everyone! do you know where I could find like the presently top 50’ish hiphop/dance/party tracks.

thankyou also for the playlist ideas…they will come in handy

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i dont spin rip rap…but i say your best bet is to go on craigslist.org click on your city and under the 4sale section type in Hip Hop Mp3 or something like that…thers alot of people here in San Diego and in LA who will sell you like 8 DVDs of all the hip hop / old school / whatever it is you play for like 100 bucks…

just helping out!

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itunes

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I will look at the local radio station top ten. Usually their club bangers but they also inform you the type of music that area likes to hear. Base your playlist on that information and the rest on the crowd.