I have been asked to DJ for a friends birthday party which is great since it will be my first gig but the problem is that she, and most of the guests like hip-hop and I don't know anything at all about it.
I usually play house, hard house or hard style, sometimes a little prog and was hoping that you guys here, since you are clearly in the know about this kind of thing, would be able to offer me some advice as far as tracks to play go and general tips since I am completely unfamiliar with this type of music.

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Pioneer CDJ-200s, Sony MDR-V700DJ,ASUS M51Sn Ableton Live 8, Behringer BCF-2000, Behringer BCR-2000, Vestax VMC-004FX

To be honest, I think you're on the wrong forum to be asking what kind of hip-hop should you play

Is there a hip-hop forum that you could ask the same question to?

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Afterward - July 2009 Mix

Fist gig!!

yeah, I'm not a great fan of hip-hop myself really, I was hoping to get some of the usual kind of music I play into the mix if I could, I was just hoping that someone here would have some idea of what to play, I guess I'll just have to do a bit of research by way of getting her to land me some CDs that she and the others like

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Pioneer CDJ-200s, Sony MDR-V700DJ,ASUS M51Sn Ableton Live 8, Behringer BCF-2000, Behringer BCR-2000, Vestax VMC-004FX

It's generally not a good idea to play music you don't understand or know anything about.

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Hip Hop music ranges in BPMs (60ish-130ish)

You generally want to play songs that are played on the radio, because the crowd loves to sing or rap a long to the music, they often do the dance associated to that specific song (Such as Jim Jones - Ballin, the dance move is like pretending to throw a basketball)

Beatmatching isn't as big of a deal compared to EDM music, like a simple backspin on a vinyl and changing the crossfader would do the trick.

Club anthems are key in hip-hop

Jim Jones - Ballin
Mims - This is why I'm hot
Lil Jon - Get Low
Cassie - Me & U
Usher - Yeah
Kanye West - Gold Digger
DJ Khaled - We takin over / Holla at me (very big songs)

A lot of hip-hop DJs like to play some grindin music or raggaeton so they can dance with girls.

Sean Paul - Temperature
Aventura songs

Yeah there's some more into it but I got tired of typing lol.

tell your friend to make you some cds with tracks he or she wants played out.
worked for me.

also, hooking up friends' ipods to your mixer is also a good idea since they have more of that kind of music than you do.

thanks a lot for the advice, I cant wait till I have played this, even if it isn't my kind of music.

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Pioneer CDJ-200s, Sony MDR-V700DJ,ASUS M51Sn Ableton Live 8, Behringer BCF-2000, Behringer BCR-2000, Vestax VMC-004FX

.

just get people at the party to bring you their cd's, then your playing their music, and you dont have to worry about playiong any of the wrong shit. problem solved.

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i'm sure there are many threads like this with the answers you're looking for

search "first gig" in the dj booth forum.



who cares if it's old - your crowd won't

if possible, also ask your friend if you can do like a thirty minute set of house music or something close to it so that you can have a chance to introduce them to that kind of music. the mainstream crowd usually don't mind it and if one person is dancing, then more will come to dance as well......most likely, lol.