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House in a hip hop environment
I DJ a lot of fraternity parties at my university, but i am having a bit of a problem with music familiarity. Most people at my school aren't into house music. I am usually able to fill the dance floor but consistently have people coming up to me asking if I am going to play something besides "techno."
Does anyone have any tips on how to deal with the situation?
Last weekend I used some house remixes of hip hop songs (akon, lil wayne, etc) and that seemed to go over pretty well. Any good resources to find more hip hop house mixes?
I appreciate the help, thanks!
i feel u man...i have the EXACT same problem...and it fucking sucks.
the best thing to do i find, is play a lot of hip hop and stick in a popular house track once every half hour...u can plan ur set so that u build up and peak every half hour...and the top of that peak can be a house track...but it has to be something popular...like rise up, destination calabria, shine on, or something of the sort.
generally id say if ur a good DJ...dont bother dj-ing campus parties...i feel embarassed everytime i listen to my set and the shit im forced to play...otherwise u could just organize parties that are "raves" so people come knowing that they're gonna hear "Techno"
which school are u at btw?
there's a lot of good hip hop + it will make you better as a DJ when you compare mixing hip hop to mixing EDM, go to beatsource.
oh and also...if i want to find hip hop house remixes...or house that is relatively popular...i just look up the billboard dance top 10...and look for remixes. tony arzadon, spencer & hill, and jody den broeder remixes usually work very well...i.e.:
- way i are (tony arzadon remix) - timbaland
- just dance (tony arzadon remix) - lady gaga
- disturbia (jody den broeder remix) - rihanna
-disco lies (spencer & hill remix) - moby
xpress2 has some pretty good hip hop remixes.... check them out.
Something I've been messing around with for a while has been including 30-60 second long sound clips of house then transitioning that into hip/hop, and then ending with the house sample again. For example; a real basic one would be daft punk harder, better, etc into Kanye's stronger, Jay-Z stuff works well too with Ferry. MIA paper planes...you can pair that up with almost anything. Not a lot of combinations I am good at yet, but at least it is different to throw in once in a while, and play to your tastes more then hours of straight hip/hop. The suggestion about the dance remixes off bilboard is good too, your crowd will recognize the song, and you will like a different beat.
BTW- I also hate it when people come up asking 'are you going to play something different then techno?"
jacques lu cont
| quote: |
| Originally posted by amp3 BTW- I also hate it when people come up asking 'are you going to play something different then techno?" |
evil nine
find different gigs that cater to the music YOU like to play. problem solved.
Jay
http://www.crack4djs.net/ that should help you out a little bit with some hip hop remixes and what not to throw into your sets. Just a disclaimer bout that site. Anything you get from there is for you to spin out to people. You cant use what you get from there to cut a CD ect, ect, ect. Its just to add to your mix.
I am a huge hip-hop fan. So usually I know the underground side of things for when I do more open DJ nights just to screw around and the more Rap/RnB side for clubs/parties. You can use house but use it like a seasoning. Maybe ease the transition with something like Dj Laz "Move, Shake, Drop" and midway through mix into the songs sample Benny Bassani "Satisfaction" or use a song like Ne-Yo "Closer" which already has more of a eurodance feel to it. One of the newer songs you can also use is Pitbull ft. Lil Jon "Krazy". Lil Jon has been on a house sound since he released "Yeah" with Usher and Ludacris. So that "Krazy" record can help get you into a period of more house focused things.
If you wanna know any more tracks that can help you out with rap get on the local Rap/RnB stations websites and see what their top 20 requested songs are and that will give you a good indication of what people will expect to hear through the night. Or just shoot me an IM and ill try to think of every song I can throw at you to use and help give you some more glue to bring people more into house music using rap.
BTW if you wanna go with more of a rock feel to something get ahold of some Travis Barker remix's (Soulja Boy "Soulja Boy", Flo-Rida "Low", Busta Rhymes "Dont Touch Me" are 3 of them for ex. Check them out on Youtube) or a new song that has been out by Kevin Ruldolf ft. Lil Wayne called "Let It Rock".
Also for up above. Why not DJ campus parties. Yes the crowd will put you into a box of "play this"... "play this song because I haven't heard you play it"... but any time spent playing out to a crowd is experience gained. Worthwhile trade off for a few nagging questions you get at pretty much any gig your at the same level as the dance floor.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by veezee find different gigs that cater to the music YOU like to play. problem solved. Jay |
The problem with house remixes of hip-hop or pop tunes is that they're neither house or hip-hop.
In my (limited) experience playing college parties and school dances...very few people actually like dance remixes of pop tunes. Most people just want to hear actual pop, hip-hop or house.
Think of them like the tofu burgers of the music world. Real vegetarians probably would prefer a real serving of fresh vegetables and every else would prefer a real hamburger...
Hey everyone, thanks for the great response. I found some pretty good stuff on limewire (Jody Den Broeder, Tony Arzadon, etc). I'm also finding that more and more pop tunes are blurring the line, which makes them easier to mix into house sets. Stuff like Rihanna, Lil Jon, Akon, Kanye, Justin Timberlake, Lil Wayne and more is making it fun for me, while I am working on changing the scene here bit by bit 
.
I'm going to continue playing here because I actually think the environment, despite the lack of familiarity, is great for a novice dj. I get to play with the crowd and feel out audience tendencies. At the same time, if I screw up at any moment, it's rarely noticed, which lets me hone my chops in a relaxed environment.
If anyone wants any specific tracks I've found, feel free to hit me up.
Also Imu, check your private message inbox for the response to your earlier questions.
I will just say this. If your using in a sense "stolen" MP3's to play parties your just wrong.
Fork over the cash, buy the song legally and then use it to your hearts content to play to people for cash in return.
Play house :P
Ne-Yo, Usher, 50 Cent (especially 'In da club') and Nelly have songs which are awesome in clubs.
Katy Perry. 
funny you should mention katy perry. I actually made a remix of "I kissed a Girl" by sampling "Du What U Du" by Yoshimoto (Prydz remix) that has been going over really well.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by jupiterone jacques lu cont |
i still play his remix of depeche mode's, pain that i'm used to
sick sick stuff
whoa...depends what kind of hip hop your crowd listens to too...i mean, if you're playing lil wayne, which is not considered as hip hop to the five percenters, they would rather much want you to play house instead.
but yeah slip in a house track every now and then, shouldn't hurt
being in high school, and mixing house parties, i have pretty much the same problem, the fix that i have found is relatively simple, remix on the fly 
. its fun, and the crowd really gets into it. if you start with a hip hop track that everyone knows, and bring it out to sandstorm, calabria, etc then as the set progresses mix stuff that most people dont know, it works well. as long as it sounds good, and people dance to it, its all good.
Meet them halfway and play breaks.
im not sure how well breaks would go over with high schoolers, the girls always whine that they "want something they can dance to" and they are rather close minded on the subject.
First off, you really should pay for tracks, not only to support the artist but for quality. Most of the stuff available for download on limewire or other share sites are not quality MP3's (I personally prefer at least 256kbps.) but rather 128kbps. While this is fine for the average I-Pod or computer, the files aren't high enough quality to play out. (Although most of the house parties I go to have an I-Pod hooked up to someone's stereo system.)
Second, I have learned that people either really love, or just don't like, electronica. I would love to just show up at a party, play a slammin' set and have people appreciate those lesser known but monster white label tracks but it doesn't work that way. I am not a big pop music fan, even when it comes to hip-hop I much prefer more obscure, lesser known artists/ tracks. People at college house parties want to be drunk, play beer pong, sex people up and then grind on them to some Fitty-Scent. (Misspelled on purpose.)
Third, a story. I live in Athens, OH, and last year at Halloween I my roommate told his boss I would DJ the party if he wanted, which was true. My roommate didn't really get across the point that all I had was happy hardcore and drum and bass. So I explained to him that's ALL I had to play, and still he wanted me to do the music. I agreed. That night a few amazing things happened. Since ravers tend to find each other there was a mini-rave in the office, and after some Jagerbombs and a few more Red-Bulls I went berserk and played a killer, balls out set for about an hour. Half way through the set this girl comes up to me and asks "Are you going to play any 'real' music tonight?" Since I am new here, I need to explain something. I love electronica. I love everything about it, in fact I am sure my hard drive is going to hate me for finding this site. When I am not listening to some new CD I just bought (I am currently rebuilding a CD collection stolen from me 7 years ago.) I am listening to DJ mixes. So when she essentially said it was not real music, she pissed me off. I had some popular songs on my laptop (which happened to be hooked up to the line-in of my Nuo 2) but I simply looked at her and said "This is real music. I don't have anything else." The moral of the story? People should keep an open mind about music, and they don't. I have seen a fight almost break out between roommates because one of them played a few trance tracks between the normal music, the guy came in and said "Dude, no one wants to hear that raver shit!" Meanwhile, there were 5 girls dancing and rubbing each other in the room...to the "raver shit." Go figure.
- Quyn
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