Serato & 15,000 Songs Doesn't Make You A DJ! (Comment on Radio Facts blog post-click this headline to read original post)

The problem with the statement "anybody can DJ a party now" is that assumes spinning is no more than slapping songs on any ole kind of way. Yes, playing the right music for your crowd is the most important thing. But matching beats, smooth transitions, scratching to accentuate the song, not just for show because "you're a Hip-Hop DJ," bringing in the right song at the right moment to hype up the crowd, knowing more than one genre of music… it's becoming a lost art.

Unfortunately, the standards for DJing has dropped, not only in the minds of promoters and club managers, but in the minds of club goers. Train wrecks don't make people snap their necks looking at the DJ booth. Cutting songs off in the middle of a verse doesn't prompt a collective groan from the dance floor. Galloping beats don't make the crowd walk off the floor in disgust.

I'm not some old school DJ that is still slepping around crates of records. I am a very proud Serato and Macintosh user who teaches other DJs how to use Serato properly. But spinning is more than "I have 15,000 of my favorite songs in my computer. I'm a DJ." What happens when your carefully premade playlists and mixes bomb completely, and you're left with hundreds of people waiting for you to make them dance? If you haven't mastered "transitions and matching beats from song to song on the fly," memorizing the songs so you can get the party jumping again, the crowd is going to leave thinking you are wack.

DJing is reading and reacting to your crowd, playing that perfect song to take the mood higher, reaching back for those classics (or dusties as my hometown of Chicago would say) that make the crowd throw their hands in the air, taking them on a musical ride that leaves them breathless and sweaty at the end. I don't want my crowd to say, "the music was good. Who was the DJ?" I want my crowd to say, "damn! Big Chicago put it down tonight! Where is he going to be next?"

Ban Wack DJs: Hiring "DJ WTF" For Cheap Loses You Money And Wrecks Your Reputation

Listen up: you can not have a great club night without paying a great DJ. Okay… that's not exactly true. You can have a great club night if you consistently attract A & B-List celebrities, athletes, models and 10s to your events. Other than that? You need a great DJ to create a great club night.

Chubby Chub made Tuesdays at Aria hot for 2 years. DJ Buck made Fridays at Jovans hot for 7 years. Ron Steele made Saturdays at Vertigo hot for 5 years. I made the DancePlex on Saturdays hot for 3 years. Back in the day, Jammin' Gee-Clef made Fridays at the Officers Club hot for 3 years. Kevin Lawyer made Thursdays at the Harbor Club hot for 2 years. Ron Boston made The Gallery hot for 2 years.

The common denominator? Each DJ was the only DJ for that night (no rotating DJs… what I call DJ Roulette). Each DJ consistently played the hottest music, kept the dance floor packed, and created anticipation for the next week. And each DJ was the highest paid DJ at the club (or in the city, in Chub, Buck and Gee-Clef's cases).

Why do top DJs charge so much? Because they know their value to a promoter or club. Their name on a promoter's flyer legitimizes the night. They have a track record of success in many different clubs, with many different promoters, with many different crowds. They can make 10 people or 1000 people have a great time. And they never, ever have a bad night.

Unfortunately, most promoters don't understand the power of a great DJ. DJ A charges twice as much as DJ B. Promoter says "hey, I can save some money by going with DJ B," failing to realize DJ B has never had a steady DJ gig. DJ B has only worked at small clubs. DJ B can't play to different crowds. DJ B doesn't know what to do if people are not dancing. DJ B can't keep people dancing, even when he has them on the dance floor. DJ B can't make the night so hot that the crowd can't wait for the next event DJ B is going to be at. DJ A can do all that, knows it, and charges for it.

You see it all the time: XYZ Promotions presents Ties & Timbs Night at Rodeo Bill's. XYZ did their job… hyped up the night… got a good crowd into the building. Rodeo Bill's is actually a nice spot. Parking wasn't bad; the bouncers were courteous; the line was long, but went quick. Get in, get a drink, walk around the club, give dap, pounds and hugs to your friends… find that right spot to see everyone… now we're ready to party!

But…

Everyone is standing around the dance floor like it's quicksand they can't step in. "It's midnight. The party should be jumping by now." "Who's the DJ?" "DJ WTF." "DJ who?" "DJ WTF." "Who is DJ WTF?" "I don't know, but if XYZ has him here, then he must be good.

12:30 am…

"What is this DJ doing? Cutting songs off in the middle, scratching over everything, and talking like he's getting paid by the word!" "What song is this?" "I don't know, I've never heard it before." "Oh, wait, that's my song right there!" (starts dancing and singing the lyrics) "NO! He cut the song off again! What song is this??"

1:30 am…

(Yawning) "Are you ready to go?" "Yeah, let's get." "Damn, there's a line at the coat room. I guess everyone had the same idea. This night was wack!"

4 weeks later…

Ties & Timbs night is done. It went from a good crowd, to a decent crowd, to a bad crowd, to no crowd. Why? Because the promoter hired a wack, cheap DJ to save some bucks on the front end instead of hired a great DJ and cleaning up on the back end.

What do you think? Am I completely off base or right on target? Let me know!

7 Tips To Make You A Better DJ

1. Know your audience
I’ve seen this WAY too often. A DJ is on the decks, playing music the crowd is obviously (to me) not feeling, but because that DJ is not reading the crowd, they keep playing what they think the crowd should want to hear. Not every Black crowd wants to hear hardcore Hip-Hop. Not every White crowd wants to hear Dance music.

Look up from the tables sometime. Look around the club. Even if people are not dancing, you can see if you are going in the right direction. Are heads nodding? Good. Feet tapping? Excellent. Are they singing along? Great. Hands in the air when you throw on the next song? You got them.

The opposite is true. Heads whip around like in a car crash? Not good. Eyes lasered on you like Syler slicing off heads (you have to be a Heroes fan for that one). Uh oh. People standing on the dance floor with their arms folded like “I don’t care if you are playing the hottest song in the city, I’m not dancing. Fuck you!” Time to start packing up your shit… you’re done for the night.

2. Play what your crowd wants to hear
This is something even big name DJs sometimes forget. Don’t play over people’s heads. Play to the crowd, not to the individual. You may be tired of T-Pain, but your audience is not. You may be sick of Beyonce, but your audience is not. You may be completely done with Lil Wayne, but your audience is not.

Oh, and this is a huge deal: don’t let the promoter, manager, owner, bartenders, waitresses or bouncers tell you what to play! Especially if you have a full dance floor. Just nod your head and keep doing what you do. “Yo, dawg, I got this honey who wants to fuck me in the coat room if you play a slow song right now.” Am I getting some pussy? No. Then you’re not getting any pussy!

3. Know what you want to play before you play it
This does NOT mean have your set of music already planned out for the night. It means thinking ahead to figure out how to get from song A to song F using songs B, C, D & E. If you are a DJ that goes straight from Snap Yo Fingers to Get Me Bodied because “it feels right,” you are a bad DJ. And if you can’t tell me why that is wrong, you too are a bad DJ. Point blank.

Thinking ahead also means having multiple options for every next song. I play I Just Wanna Love You almost every time I spin, but depending on the crowd’s mood, I could stay old school Hip-Hop and play Hypnotized. I could go Top-40 and play Get Right. I could get the ladies on the floor and play Single Ladies. I could go old school Dancehall and play Murder She Wrote or new school Dancehall and play No Games.

I love my DJ brother Jammin’ Gee-Clef, and he taught me a hell of a lot about finding the perfect spot to break into the next record, but the whole crowd knew what he was going to play next, and then could tell you what he was going to say next. That doesn’t make you a bad DJ, but your act can get old very quickly, and the next DJ who plays slightly different than you will take your job.

4. Know when and how to get to the next song
You know what grinds my gears (thanks Family Guy). DJs who cut songs off in the middle of the chorus, or worse, in the middle of the verse. Another pet peeve: DJs that get in and out of songs so fast but with no rhyme or reason, like they get paid by the amount of songs they play in the night.

I heard a DJ at Z-Square the first weekend I was back that was really good, but he kept cutting off songs before the part everyone wants to sing comes on. Sometimes he would just play the instrumental beginning, and then he was off on to another song. Example: he played the horn riff of They Reminisce Over You at the very beginning of the song, then went to the next song without letting a single word from CL Smooth play.

If you want to play quickly, play one verse and be out. One verse and one chorus and be out. If you’re really good and do the pre-work, just play the most popular part of the song (like skipping to Biggie’s verse in Mo Money Mo Problems or Foxy’s verse in Ain’t No Nigga like Chubby Chub does).

5. Understand what building momentum means
Why are you playing Pop Champagne at 11:30 as people are still piling in? Single Ladies at 12? Got Money at 10:30? I can’t stand coming into a club and hearing the top 5 songs in the country at the beginning of the night. That is a DJ who doesn’t know their craft well enough to build the anticipation in their audience so that when you FINALLY drop that track, the crowd is orgasmic. It doesn’t mean playing slow jams early and then increasing the speed. I’ve started a night with uptempo songs and built momentum by slowing the music down and making the night more steamy and sexy.

First point: don’t play songs twice. If you do, you’re scared that you can’t play other music to keep people dancing.

Second: save the top hot songs in the country until the final hour. Once again, if you are playing Top 10 songs at 11:00, you are not a good DJ.

Third: before the bulk of the crowd comes, your job is to keep people in the club until the crowd comes. If you are using Serato, you probably have at the very least 5,000 to 10,000 songs in your computer. You mean to tell me you can’t play anything other than the Top 10 songs? I’ll give you twelve 15 minute set catagories that you can use before you get to your last hour.
⁃ Old School Hip-Hop (late 80s-mid 90s)
⁃ Old School R&B (90s)
⁃ Old School Dancehall (90s)
⁃ Old School Uptempo (Hip-Hop, R&B, Dancehall and House)
⁃ Funk/Soul (late 70s into the 80s)
⁃ Early 2000s Hip-Hop
⁃ Early 2000s R&B
⁃ Early 2000s Dancehall
⁃ Big Hits from the past 2 years (songs that are not classics)
⁃ Party classics from the past 5 years
⁃ Hot R&B catering to ladies
⁃ Old School Hip-Hop featuring one artist
If you build sets of 10 to 15 songs for each set, you’ll never have to touch the Top 10 songs until the end of the night, when it will have the biggest impact.

6. Sandwich great songs around a new song
You have this great new song by MC Low Clearance that you just have to rock tonight. The best way to introduce it is to hit the crowd with 5-7 bangers in a row. If you know how to get in and out of songs quickly, that should be 8-15 minutes. Then bring in the new song just like you brought in the previous songs.

Here is the key: know what song you are going to go into after the new song BEFORE you play the new song. You are going to lose people on the dance floor with the new song (unless you have a crowd that trusts the DJ). But if you come back with a hot song, your dance floor will come back with a vengence. Then you rock another set of bangers before you slip another new song in.

7. The bar is your friend
Make sure you let this last point sink in: IF THE BAR DOESN’T MAKE ANY MONEY, YOU’RE NOT DOING YOUR JOB. I’m not just talking about getting people into the club. If people are not drinking in the club, the club is not making any money, the club will close (or at the very least close the night you’re spinning) and you’re out of a job.

Most DJs think “keep the dance floor packed no matter what.” And I agree… 90% of the time. But if everyone is on the dance floor and they’re not drinking, that’s a problem. So what, you say. That not my problem, that’s the club’s problem.

But think about it the opposite way. If everyone is drinking, they are more loose. If they are more loose, they get on the dance floor easier. If they are on the dance floor, you can be more adventurous with your music. Yes, you may lose some of your dance floor if you go left and they don’t go left with you, but they’ll most likely go back to the bar for another drink. You hit them with that next banger (see #6), and they’re right back on the floor.

So your goal is to get as many people drinking as possible because it makes it easier for you to get people on the dance floor. Plus the manager, promoter, bartenders and waitresses will love you because you are putting more money in their pockets, and they won’t bother you with stupid requests!

Now, by no means is this list complete, so add your own comments to this blog. I would love to hear if you agree, disagree, think I’m off-base or I’m dead on. Add your own list of what makes a good DJ better.