King of the QC DJ Competition

The Forum

May 24, 2010, 8 p.m.

The Deal: Local DJ's come together with Smirnoff and The Sol Kitchen to let the turntables decide who's the King of the Queen City.

The Good: DJ Complete came out with tons of energy, powering through a brief equipment malfunction, he cranked out Biggie, Big L & Big Pun before touching some Baltimore Club and classic Booty Bass tracks, he even managed to mix in some Maze and the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

DJ Gabie The Gift had crazy hands the Brooklyn-born, Charlotte transplant just looked a split second faster than the others, but he lost steam as some songs rocked a little long.

One DJ got my undying respect for asking, "where the ladies at?" then after they screamed, he replied, "that shit was corny!" Too bad his set ended up being a complete meltdown of technology, sad part was the few seconds he actually got to rock with no issues was really good.

DJ Red went from Headbanger's Ball to hip-hop to dancehall. He was actually one of the only contestants to hit the three different genre requirement legitimately but next time, he'll probably save the heavy rock stuff for the end (at least with an audience of hip hop heads).

Had to enjoy the performance by old school hip hop MC and Charlotte transplant, Special Ed, who graced the stage and did two tracks, including his hit, "I Got It Made."

The Bad: DJ Skinner had all the pressure of going first and decided to go all vinyl with (kudos) but he had a rough time winning over crowd with his seemingly Jedi focus on his records instead of the audience. Bright spots? Sure. But no energy otherwise forgettable. Free pass for going first, maybe?

DJ Precise started strong (who doesn't love Chappelle's Show quotes), but that steam disappeared almost immediately. His set was cool but he had to overcome audible repeat track questions (repeating a track meant instant disqualification) and zero crowd participation. Shaky cuts on "Petey Piper" didn't help either.

The Verdict: Cool competition, DJ Complete won by a mile. The technical difficulties and long pauses seemed to stunt momentum every time it started to build.

Judges:

DJ Dummy, Common's DJ

DJ Rowshay from Suite

DJ A-Huf from Butter

DJ Bro-Rabb

Mr. Incognito from Power 98