DJ Switch brings the trophy home to the UK
The 2014 DMC WORLD DJ CHAMPIONSHIPS held at London’s Forum in Kentish Town attracted a full house of fans. A professional audience who understood they were witnessing the greatest DMC Final for many years.
Report by Tony Prince..
After 13 years a UK DJ took the ultimate crown and the RANE GOLDEN MIXER. We knew him well. He was Mr. Switch – a three times World Supremacy Champion and the man who stood on stage at the Royal Albert Hall performing with the 150 piece London Youth Orchestra. Hot favourite going into the Final was DJ I-Dee who had two major titles already this year…USA CHAMPION and DMC ONLINE DJ CHAMPION.
But the UK legend who no one could ever beat in the 1 minute heats over the years, had arrived with a set no one anticipated and few would argue was one of the greatest performances ever witnessed.
Switch was 11 when he first entered a heat in the English Midlands. “I was not good and didn’t get through to the evening’s finals”, recalled the extremely likable Mr.Switch. “But Cutmaster Swift who was MC at the event gave me encouragement when he said to the audience I was someone with great potential” Those comments inspired Switch to persevere until he finally surfaced as one of the world’s greatest exponents of the art of turntablism.
There are many comments around social media from members of the audience. To a man, and woman, they understood that they were amongst those privileged to be witnessing the evolution of the art, a new and higher plane for DJ standards of execution of their art.
The atmosphere in the Forum, as usual, was one of a friendly gathering with stalwart supporters joined by those who were experiencing the DMC’s for the very first time. They will, undoubtedly, be back next year. They will never forget Sunday 5th October 2014.
The event commenced as the judges whittled down 16 National Champions from 16 to 8. So great were the performances that DMC decided to put 10 through to the evening’s live audience final. Those with the lowest points would perform first. Switch would go on 8th of the 10, he’d held back to secure his final position but left so much up his sleeve, what would follow would be nothing short of incredible.
The Battle for World Supremacy was as exciting as the old days when the pioneer turntablists took us to the birth of a new hip-hop art in the early 80’s. The head to head 2×1 minute saw one DJ after another eliminated. In this event, apart from having to knock out the DJ across the stage from you, you have to decide when to bring out your best attack. If you’re facing someone who has just blown you off stage in their first minute, you have a second chance to win the judges. If you then use the set you planned for the later stages of the knock out, you’d lost your advantage.
The last two men standing were from the USA IFTW (Image From the Wood) and VEKKED from Canada. It was the first time in DMC history that we were witnessing a North American play-off. To the delight of Christie Z, (DMC USA Manager), her boy came good in a very close final vote from the amassed team of Champion judges from around the world.
The DJ Team Championship was taken by France who rarely leave the DMC’s without a scalp. Defending Champions 9 O’Clock were the winning team and their win was announced…yes…at 9pm! Worthy of credit were the three man Czech Team who came in third. A giant leap for Eastern European DJ culture from a team who admitted the first time they came to the DMC’s they were almost laughed off stage. Now no one is laughing for them third placed was as good as a win and you can expect them back to knock the smiles off everyone’s face once again.
There were so many highlights in this 13 hour party atmosphere. Tigerstyle and DJ Nelson ran an amazing demonstration of the finer points of scratching and turntablism in the upstairs workshop where they were joined by various legends discussing and demoing the original scratch styles delivered by their peers over 30 years.
Afterwards the room was once again taken over by Pop Master Fabel who gathered able volunteers from their audience to teach them the moves and shakes that made him one of the world’s greatest hip-hop dance exponents.
The Beat Box Collective opened their workshops with a stunning assaults on the microphone. As in everything that happened on this warm London Sunday, they delivered completely original ideas mixed with traditional styles. MC, Beatbox, Dance, Turntablism, this DMC Final had so many of the elements hip-hop has to offer.
At the height of the evening, as DMC counted the votes to see who would be crowned king, the year’s big attraction, former World Champion DJ KENTARO, flown in from Japan, (the Land of the Rising DJ), to show he’s still out on a ledge. He raised the roof as everyone had hoped, a difficult accomplishment when you consider the magic everyone had witnessed from the previous 10 turntable disciples in the vinyl final.
The overall event is best captured in the Facebook post from competitor DJ RASP:
Rasp wrote: “The DMC World Finals was next level last night, the standard was very high in all 3 Categories (teams, battle & solo) Massive congrats to the homie Anthony John Culverwell (Mr.Switch) who smashed the solo category & Christian (Iftw) Chacon who smoked everyone in the head to head battle Shout out to Isaac DeLima Jake Vekked Meyer Mike Brace Ritchie Ruftone Spelly Spell you all killed it!!! I did my thing in the Battle for Supremacy & made it to the semi finals, unfortunately I had some needle skippage that I couldn’t recover from in the semi’s but that’s all part & parcel of the (vinyl only) comp I suppose ‘\_(”~)_/’ Big up everyone who was involved from the organisers, the showcase performers, the judges & the competitors. Long live Turntablism!!!”
Tim Deejay Myme Temple also wrote:
“What an amazing evening at the WORLD DMC FINALS. I feel so blessed to have been there. Every single Dj killed it! Massive salute to MR SWITCH the new WORLD DMC CHAMPION from the UK! KENTARO was crazy awesome showcase. So great to see everyone, sorry to everyone i missed. It was busy in there. Much love to Sally DMC who works so hard putting these events on. #DMC #HIPHOP #TURNTABLISM #SCRATCHYBIZ #VIBES — feeling blessed.”
A final highlight during the presentations was Cutmaster Swift becoming only the second DJ, (Cash Money was the first last year), to receive the specially created DMC LEGEND JACKET.
And then there was Sally, DMC’s new mum who left her 3 month old baby Jack for the first time since he was born, to join the revelry at an event that simply grows and grows in quality thanks to the creativity and dedication of those who managed to make it to London to deliver their magic and thrill the audience.
To establish the relationship between audience and DMC, Sally was overwhelmed with gifts for her little baby. And that’s what makes DMC so different from any other event in the world. It’s a family relationship that extends from the stage through to the competitors and on to the fans, many of whom can even remember Cash Money and Swift winning their titles.
Thanks to all our competitors and to those who organise National DMC battles and to our terrific supporters at RANE without whom we’d be putting on the event in a garage somewhere!
DMC World Final 2014 Results
DMC World DJ Championship 2014
Winner: Mr Switch (UK)
Runner Up: DJ I-Dee (USA)
3rd Place: DJ Vekked (Canada)
DMC World Battle For Supremacy 2014
Winner: Image From The Wood (USA)
Runner Up: DJ Vekked (Canada)
DMC World Team Championships
Winners: 9 O’Clock (France)
Runner Up: Fresherthans (Canada)
3rd Place: Trouble Team (Czech Republic)
For all Championship information head to http://www.dmcdjchamps.com
