In the other battles, DJ Raylan of Brazil beat K-Swizz in the head-to-head match-up for DMC Supremacy. In the DMC Scratch, DJ Aociz of France repeated his championship over DJ Keita of Japan. For the DMC Open, Australia’s DJ Beastmode partyrocked his way to the title, winning over Peg from Thailand and Silver DJ from the Ivory Coast.
DMC’s 40th anniversary wasn’t just about battles, though. The whole weekend had exceptional performances by the best DJs in the world. Keeping to true Japanese style, the DJ sets were only 10 or 15 minute showcases, but each great in their own right. Japan’s DJ Ta-shi is well respected in the DJ community because he keeps it real and in Tokyo he started off the day with the realness. DJ Rena deconstructed Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ and then rebuilt it with incredible beat juggling skills. JFB showed the DMC world why he’s a scratching machine. France’s DJ Fly had a killer intro and proved why he’s in the GOAT race by being a champion in three different decades. DJ Kentaro brought out his whole [expanding] family for his Hall of Fame induction, and also brought out trumpet player Takuya Nakamura for an electric set of DJing and live music.
The mysterious DJ Honda got a lifetime achievement award, and it looked like he might not show up as they were looking for him backstage until he finally popped up from the crowd. Skratch Bastid brought the party with his feel-good showcase, and the Invisibl Skratch Piklz performed some of their intricate triple-trouble DJing. Japan’s Kireek came out of retirement to end day one as both of the DJs played on three sets of turntables.
On Sunday at the DMC Open, the DJs got to spread out a bit as Nasthug did a full hour of Baile Funk, DJ Craze showed why he’s beloved in the scratch nerd community as he said he would trade beers for routines. To end the whole thing off, Japan’s DJ Koco played all 45s for an hour that made a distinctly non-dancing crowd boogie to his whole set of boogie.
With 40 years of DJ competitions under his belt, the 81-year-old Tony Prince succinctly stated, “Here’s to 40 more.”
Check out the DMC World Championships social media below.
AloJapan.com