Vinyl Deejays Is a Part of Hip Hop (DJ Epps)

A deejay scratching on a vinyl record is part of hip-hop culture but the craft is being lost with time. When hip-hop came about, the deejay’s role was a major part. In fact, it is one of the 5 elements of hip-hop. You can find a lot of scratching and mixing from deejays on old school songs. But ever since the digital deejay came about, you don’t get that anymore in the new songs. DJ Epps has been deejaying since 1992. He talks about the first time he realized he had to learn how to use deejay software and a laptop. Although he wasn’t a fan of converting, he realized in order to stay relevant, he had to change with the times as there were no more vinyl records being produced.

DJ Epps recognizes the positive side of the digital deejay era. There are many pros to being a digital deejay like not having to carry crates of records anymore. DJ Epps tells a couple of stories of other deejays and how many crates of vinyl records they used to have to carry to gigs. He talks about how he became successful at learning the new craft of learning deejay software. Although he learned being a digital deejay, he still uses vinyl with the software instead of cdj’s. He explains that some of the new deejays do not know how to mix and it is a downfall of the digital deejay era. He blames the engineers of the clubs for only putting cdj’s in the clubs instead of vinyl.

Hip-hop clubs need turntables for the deejays to put on a show and keep the art of deejaying alive. You can hear the excitement in DJ Epps’ voice when he talks about the vinyl days. There are definitely great pros to the digital era of deejaying, but watching a deejay scratch on turntables is an important part of hip-hop culture.

#hiphop #deejay #dj #vinyl #podcast #turntables #djepps