The Roll Of Honour 1999 DMC World Team Champion
What is your earliest memory of a DMC Mixing Final?
“I remember watching them on Video round at my friend Phil’s house before I could venture up into London to go to an actual final. So I think the very first I went to was the one at Hammersmith Palais in 1991 when DJ David won (he did the coke can trick that year), Reckless was in it for the UK – and Westwood, 3rd Bass and Public Enemy played – it was wicked!”
Why did you decide on your own name as a Turntablist artist?
“I was just DJ Thing for a long time, and chose that because I figured I could be the hand that did everything off The Addams Family, but I also realised that Thing in Fantastic Four was a bad-ass, so that took care of the battle side of it. But after a while, people kept calling me Mr Thing because I liked Mista Sinista from X-Men (now X-Ecutioners) so much – and it just stuck!”
Who is the best technical Turntablist of all time?
“Oh man…too hard. Q-Bert for scratching hands down, but there’s so many others! Rob Swift, Sinista, Babu – I could do you a whole paragraph!”
The most important records that you have ever used as a Turntablist…
“If we’re talking for battle routines…
Super Duck Breaks (Stones Throw)
Super Duper Duck Breaks (Stones Throw)
Any of the Dirtstyle titles
A Tribe Called Quest – We Can Get Down (Jive)
Steady – Alarming Frequency (Instrumental) (Tru Thoughts)
If we’re talking for club sets, then that’s a re-think…”
What track that when you hear up on stage spun by a rival, do you always think, ‘oh god not again’
“Ha ha! Not a track so much, but as scratch sentence – either the one with “run it” in off on of the early Dirtstyle records or sadly one of the super Duck Breaks, they got rinsed when i was battling!!”
What has been your best ever display on the wheels of DMC steel?
“I don’t think I’ll ever top my UK Finals set in 2000, I put so much into it.”
What is going through your mind as you are waiting to step up on the biggest stage of your life moments before you hit the stage?
“Please records, don’t skip” – and they did of course…”
Who in your opinion, has been the best ever DMC Champ we have ever had?
“Craze – the guy is amazing. He changed the way everyone put their routines together in a way that for me, no one has topped since!”
Best Hip Hop record ever made?
“The whole of Nas ‘Illmatic’ album. Start to finish. A classic.”
Which one Turntablist over the years has performed the ‘one piece’ of magic in his set that you simply had to look away in absolute disbelief?
“I think Craze again. When he was battling First Rate he had about 20 seconds left of a 6 minute set and THEN pulled off some crazy, ahead of its time backwards Drum N’ Bass thing – and still managed to get ANOTHER diss in before time was called. Wow.”
How many weeks/months before the big night do you start planning your set?
“When I was doing team battles with the Scratch Perverts, we practised every single day for months and months and months – and not for a couple of hours…maybe 8-10 hours a day! And when I was competing on my own in 2000 I did a similar regime for myself, but I actually started putting that routine together on tour with DJ Vadim about a year before and put all the links together when I got back. I can still hear my friend Gez now – “No, again. You can do that better!”
How many records do you own?
“Roughly … between 20 and 30,000. I’ve got issues!”
What did your parents think back in the day of your chosen career profession?
“Initially, not very keen. But once I started competing and getting work it was seen as a respectable thing to do.”
The DMC World Mixing Finals are 25 years young/old this year – how do you think the art of this craft has changed over the years?
“I was following it long before I started competing, so I’ve seen it from the body tricks and deck to decking phase to the technical madness and dub plates of the last few years.”
How did winning the DMC title change your life?
“It was a huge deal for me as I’d been following it since I was young and I’ve been all over the world and worked with some amazing people off the back of it.”
What country/city that you have visited after winning the DMC title has really blown your mind?
“The first time I went to Sydney was incredible, such an amazing place.”
Can you breakdance?
“Used to a little, but i’m much older and wider now.”
And finally, please give DMC a message of love for pioneering this amazing artform we have…
“Keep on doing it DMC – here’s to another 25 years.”
