Being a Dj is definitely not easy – well better if I say “was not” easy when I was at the begining. Firstly, I had to possess my own equipment, then lets say sort of repertoire that you may play at the parties plus you had to build your own brand and reputation. Besides the dedication, all of the mentioned required lots of investments, which are definitely not one-off type but continuous ones. I was visitng my local vinyl store on weekly basis for a regular dose of music for sort of ‘digging’ in order to find out something new. After couple of years, lots of parties I played at and several battles as well, I started to explore the mystery of this skill and in the end I found that being a DJ comes with huge responsibility. Moreover, this title has to be deserved.

Therefore, I decided to name myself a BJ. To avoid any confusion or misunderstandings, it is not cause I would not consider myself a true DJ, but just because I show a fair amount of respect to all those DJs that dedicated their life to this way of living. There are several types of DJs which I would split into 3 groups: first are turntablers which handle their machines on 100% and their skill comes from hard work and hours of training. Second type are so called selectors – their skill is mostly based on track selection, mixing the music and digging for new records. And the last but not least are the followers. The people which are just free-riding on the DJ title, and do not possess any of the abpve mentioned skills at all. As a DJ I learned that being original and unique is extermely important but you cant push it way too much. You gotta have your own style, archive, overview and perhaps you have to be capable of mixing up different techniques in order to build up something new which is yours, only yours.

Diggin is more of a sport, or a discipline where every DJ is trying to search for something new. It is all spurred by a well-know desire and adrenaline which is being realeased during this search. Loving the smell of vinyl, the dust on the record, the cuts on your fingers from the record covers and bloody back-pain which you get when going through all those boxes with music. This feeling is amazing and it is unique for our generation of DJs, however it will never be fore about 90% of “DJs”. By the way, do you know what was so great about this never ending searching for smething you wanted find or get in the end? It was the fact that you never knew what you gonna find, or if you can afford to buy it. You could never have everyting you wanted either from financial or geographical point of view. Or you were just way too slow and someone else grabbed it before you.

Nowadays, in this digital era, becoming a DJ is question of 2 weeks.Purchase a digital sofware, download some songs and, if being less fortunate, you will end up playing at some shitty local disco, playing stuff on request. These are so called Safe DJs since they are playing tracks that everyone knows and do not have courage to kick it off with something out of this concept. Most of these DJs began playing about a year ago and have no clue about vinyl, or how does it feel like waiting for a song (lets say 2 weeks) until it comes out as a vinyl record, buying it since you have no other option of playing it. Moreover, when downloading mp3s you are supporting just yourself – besides the 3 minutes of your time it costs nothing. Then this type of a DJ walks into a club and charges ridiculously low price for his “service” (well, for him still attractive amount). But we, the real DJs, who sacrifice all of our income for buying the records (supporting the producers) cannot really compete with them.

I am not a turntabler, I am not spending hours in my room getting the best scratches out of my records. My prophecy lies in spreading the good music, especially new music, in opening people’s eyes showing them that there is something more out there to be explored. Naturally, when I was starting I had to train a big time for instance to mix one track into another, but it never grew into something such as juggling or scratching. I found my own path, selection and a mix that is original and unique. And that exactly is BJ – beat jockey, or battle jockey. Because I demonstrate my skill in form of track selection for battles and parties, and I always try come up with something new mixing it up with my old stuff.

Playing since 2004, I have to admit I am so glad I had the honour to experience everything I am writing about – the real essence of DJing. Both – fear as well as happiness – that it brings with it. I am happy to say that I am not greedy, and I dont mind spending the money allocated for my food and instead buying a record to support an artist I like. There were a few times when someone ran into me asking “Was it you playing my track at that battle? Well, thanks a lot. No one has ever done so.” This cycle of respect can be closed and mantained just through mutual respect and support of artists, because if I want to be respected, I must show a respect too.

WHEN YOU PURCHASE THIS EP, YOU AREN’T PAYING FOR THE ARTIST TO BUY A YACHT. YOU REALLY AREN’T EVEN PAYING FOR THE MUSIC HEREIN. WHAT YOU’RE DOING IS MAKING A DONATION TO SUPPORT THIS ARTIST’S FUTURE MUSICAL ENDEAVORS. SO, BE ASSURED THAT WHATEVER YOU DONATE IS HELPING TO REVIVE QUALITY MUSIC. IF YOU WANT TO HEAR MORE, GIVE MORE. – Diggs Duke