DMC World Finals 03 @ Brixton Academy, London

The 2003 DMC finals was the first major event covered by Spin Science. This review is complimented by interviews with contestants including Tigerstyles, Noisy Stylus, C2C, M Rock and Ty who showcased on the night. You can also find a special feature which looks at a range of questions & answers from different competitors. All these can be found in our Interviews archive.

Another year, another DMC World Final in Brixton. DMC seem to have finally accepted it as the best venue for the event, especially when you consider previous choices. This year we had the chance to get in and interview many of the contestants as well as take some exclusive shots of the events. This is the first of many features, as we bring you coverage of the best turntablist events, as well as documenting and looking at the evolution of the battle DJ. And so we start with the oldest competition of all: the Disco Mixing Club. As always the event is hosted by Tony Prince, which you either love or hate, ‘89 winner Cut Master Swift and fellow DJ Billy Bizniss.

Once again crowds flocked into the Academy to witness two days of pure turntable funk, with the world’s best battling it out in 3 different contests. The first of which is ‘The Battle for Supremacy’ (based on the old NMS battles) which saw the UK’s Tigerstyle take the crown, beating Canada’s M-Rock in a furious 2 rounds battle, with both coming out worthy of the title. The rest of the Battle for Supremacy was again of a higher level then the previous year, with Sweden’s Kid Sid the youngest DJ to battle since A-Track, at age 14. He did amazingly well, getting to the second round, and pulling some nice routines.

France’s DJ Pfel lost to Tigerstyles in the semis, but put on a good show, with some really funky juggles. Last year’s winner Jekey from Spain, also put up a good battle but didn’t come through to the finals. The 2 rounds each format of the battle make this an excellent event for DJs to really showcase some amazingly quick and technical routines, as well as giving the opportunity to have some quality battle routines with disses and fingers aplenty. Not many of those this year, but nonetheless a good show, which has proved more successful each year since DMC re-introduced it at the 2000 world finals.

Between the Battle and the Team events, we had a PA from Klashnekoff, one of the best and most promising UK Hip-Hop artists. Normally the crowd at the event is not always the most receptive, but Klashnekoff and Kyza put on a good show making the best of their 15 minutes. Doing his latest single ‘Murda’, and some freestyles. They were backed up by last year’s under 18 DMC winner DJ IQ. After that it was onto the Team Finals, my personal favourite, with the sad announcement that last year’s winner Birdy Nam Nam from France would not be defending.

Ah well, still loads to look forward to, with Belgium’s La Guilde defending the title and the UK’s Truecisians, firmly expected to make a good stand. But the first surprise of the night was from Spain’s Fundamental Noize, who came with a routine based on speedy drum breaks, DnB juggles and fast scratching. They tore it up, with some nice interaction between both DJs and got the crowd rocking in no time. Australia’s Dirty Duo also had a tight routine, with a very nice homage to Jam Master Jay at the beginning. As they cut up his name and various rhymes from old Run-DMC joints they proceeded to cut in Full Clip’s ‘rest in peace!’ vocal until the crowd was roaring and they burst into some fast scratching and juggling routines, but it wasn’t enough to capture the audience’s and judges’ attention. Germany’s Noisy Stylus also put on a good show, which I managed to miss most of, but caught the end. From what I saw of it, they were the first team to really show some nice orchestrated routines, with all four of them coming together in the purest turntablist tradition.

The first team to really catch my attention were Canada’s Funky Teknicianz, composed of M-Rock and Bizkit. Hard to describe in words but they really blew the place up with a very funky (pardon the pun) routine. They started by cutting up Busta’s ‘Make It Clap’, and went on to switch places behind the decks, playing cross handed across 4 decks with their arms interlocked, doing juggles and scratches. They also did a wicked juggle of Alicia Key’s ‘Fallin’, breaking the beat down, and reworking it before dropping back into the original. They finished with Bizkit juggling some raggae vocals as M-Rock tapped a beat on his decks using both needles (turning the turntable into a glorified drum). The place blew up and they placed 3rd overall. The French team’s (going by the name of C2C) routine was also another highlight. With some very tightly organised orchestration, the 4 of them did a live remixing of the Beastie’s ‘Sure Shot’ and Herbie Hancock’s ‘Rockit’, altering the instrumentals and recreating the scratches live. Their set was very musical, with less emphasis on technicality then others and a lot of visual interaction (no body tricks but a lot of posing and jumping around) which seemed to have paid off as they bagged the world title, showing that the French are really up there right now, after years of repeated failures at the world finals.

Evolution DJs, representing the States, had a very technical set, with some furiously fast scratching and nice orchestration, but again not enough to catch the judges’ attention. The last but one set was from the Truesicians, who did well, with their Dillinja routine (a must for DnB fans) and again nice orchestrated performances. Unfortunately they didn’t rank (the first year the UK hasn’t won or ranked in the top 3). La Guilde went last and were really impressive, with a reworking of ‘Rockit’ (the second of the night) which went down really well, some nice orchestrated scratching and juggles and a finale based around Stevie Wonder’s ‘Masterblaster’. As they brought in the original melody they proceeded to rework it, building up the tempo until the melody had transformed into a blaring, electronically pumped hard house beat and then fading it back into the original and walking away from the decks… They got second and it was time to head home for some sleep before round 2.

Sunday evening and its round 2 for the DMC world finals, with 12 of the world’s best battling it out in 6 minutes battles, with the judges deciding who will replace last year’s winner, DJ Kentaro from Japan, who decided not to defend.

Once again the place was packed, and as is usual now, Tony Prince spent half an hour getting little kids on the stage to come and show some skills. This year though, him and Swift actually managed to convince a woman to come on stage and give her an accelerated crash course in scratching… Queue laughs and shouts from the audience, Biznizz also swapped shirts with a female member of the audience, especially amusing as she had a skimpy vest on!

On to the first PA of the night courtesy of one of the world’s most talented beat boxers, Killa Kela, backed up by none other then…Daniel Bedingfield!!! Now that was truly a sight to behold, as both Bedingfield and Kela launched into an improvised routine, with Bedingfield coming across as quite talented even if the thought of him doing beatboxing is quite scary in itself…It had to be seen to be believed.

Following this was the winning routines from the previous night’s winners, C2C and Tigerstyle. Both routines again getting lots of love from the audience, especially C2C’s routine with its reworking of ‘Sure Shot’ and ‘Rockit’. After this we had another PA from one of my favourite UK MC, TY. Backed up by Billy Bizniss, TY did a very impressive performance, going through a few of his classics as well as some of his new material from the album ‘Upwards’ (which you must get if you haven’t already). He once again proved why he has become a fixture of the UK Hip-Hop scene and why he is respected as one of its most talented lyricists. Funky as hell, lyrically on point as he made the most of his short time on stage, giving praises to the competitors and fooling around with Bizniss.

After all these live performances, it was on for the 6 minute sets, with Germany’s J Bounce the first DJ to make a mark, with a very neat routine including scratching to and juggling happy hardcore, which went down really well with the audience.

New Zealand’s CXL, Australia’s Staen and Ireland’s Tuki also all came across really good, but did not make as much of an impact on the audience or the judges, even though they had plenty of skills.

The next two competitors, Jekey from Spain and Gero from France both also had really tight, very musical routines. With Gero using some very innovative breaks, and doing some incredibly funky juggles which got the crowd roaring in no time, but which were again not enough to place. Gero was very impressive, as are most of the French tablists at the moment.

Next up was Japan’s DJ Yasa, whose routine was based around some really good and intricate juggles, really fast execution and a good choice of breaks which ensured his routine was varied. After him we had the first UK contestant, DJ Quest, who really did not disappoint. He came out with some very fast scratching and juggling, using electronically beefed up breaks, and using bits of DnB, his routine was very technical but still got he crowd bumping and he rightfully placed third, in an event whose higher quality then previous years was becoming more and more apparent.

And onto Denmark’s Turkman Souljah, who I was really looking forward to after speaking to him on the Saturday when he told me he would do a routine based around Mozart’s ‘Eine Klein Natch Musik’ if he got through. Well he surely did, starting with a routine based around the instrumental of Jedi Mind Trick’s ‘Animal Rap’, which uses strings and vocals inspired by classical pieces. He followed this with his Mozart routine, which made the whole academy blow up. He juggled the melody from Mozart with a slow beat until he speeded both up and had the classical melody riding on top of the beat and he finished it off with some nice tight scratching. He really deserved to place but unfortunately didn’t.

The last three DJs for the night were Enferno from the States, Dopey from Canada and Skully defending the title in the absence of Kentaro. Enferno’s routine was very technical but relied on funky, upbeat breaks, including this year’s favourite: Busta’s ‘Make it Clap’. Again as with Quest’s routine, his technicality didn’t stop him from getting the crowd bumping and his scratching and lyric cutting got the place really going. He finished second, in what has to be the most disputed battle for a few years, with the last 6 DJs showing some seriously dope skills. Dopey’s routine was highly anticipated, having heard that he really impressed the judges in the qualification rounds, and knowing that he is one of the most talented and underrated tablist on the scene. He surely didn’t disappoint, with a very funky routine, heavily jazz inspired. Some nice lyric cutting, incredibly tight juggles and very funky needle manipulation ensured that he got the first place, with a set that will be remembered for many years to come. Lastly Skully came out and did his bit, with a routine that had a lot of good points, but he somehow didn’t give the impression he was counting on winning too much, as his last sample played out exclaiming that: ‘I don’t give a fuck…’. He was good, but not enough to compete with what has to be the closest world battle in many years.

As a last treat before the results, DMC brought us 3 French Battle Champions, Kodh, Netik and Troubl. They did a very impressive showcase, really hammering home the fact that at the moment the French are wrecking it on the tablist scene. Stupidly fast scratching, tight juggling and booming beats kept the crowd entertained. Look out for Kodh and Netik showcasing at the BeatDown World Final next month, a review of which can be found in our archive.

All Photos by Ella Cooper. Check our full picture gallery of the event in the Gallery section. Thanks to Gareth @ zzonked for hooking us up