DJ Def Rok and DJ G-Wizard

With the genius of turntablist DJ Def Rok and the production talents of DJ G-Wizard combined on the 11th installation, clubbers nation-wide are promised the biggest and best offering in R&B and house yet.

“The entire genre has changed in a massive way,” states G-Wizard. “It’s become influenced heavily by pop and house. You’re seeing so many collaborations between RNB artists with big house producers or with pop vocalists. It’s such an interesting fusion. It’s not a positive or a negative thing, its jut a sign of the times, if anything. All you have to do is have a listen to what was considered R&B about five to 10 years ago, there were these massive distinctions between the genres. Now everything is fast and poppy. I’m personally really liking it.”

And his partner in crime, DJ Def Rok, agrees. However, as the DJ adds, acknowledging the roots of RNB and more old-school sounds has been just as important as catering to the more recent and commercial side of the genre – hence the inclusion of some classics at the back end of the compilation.

“So we’ll start with the major tracks, the ones that are just huge right now,” explains Def Rok. “First up we’ve got Chris Brown and Usher, then we move onto the more poppy stuff like Ke$ha, but it’s all mash-ups with the big house producers. Alexis Jordan would probably be a good example of that because her vocals are RNB but Deadmau5 produced it. Then you’ve got David Guetta and Rihanna, which is another example of the same mash-up. Because the CD is called RNB Superclub we wouldn’t have just David Guetta or something because it has to have that common RNB thread throughout. Towards the end we’ve put some tracks that are not really commercial, but they are what RNB was considered six or seven years ago, so it gets more underground and back to the roots.”

But as both Def Rok and G-Wizard agree, it’s the more recent hits that get both DJs excited the most. We live in exciting times musically, and according to G-Wizard, things can only get more interesting when it comes to artist collaborations.

“A big fusion like the collab with Chris Brown and Benny Benassi on Beautiful People is really exciting to hear,” says the producer. “They’ve turned it into a really up-tempo electric set; it’s got an amazing vibe. I’d love to hear more of that in the future! It’s amazing how far RNB has come. I remember being 13 years old and collecting walkmans and cassettes and records, and it’s all so different with digital music now. Back then anybody who was having a party would call me up to make them a mix-tape. I was 16 when I went into Cash Converters and bought myself some turntables because I started doing mobile DJ mixing CDs and tapes. Then at 21 I started doing house parties and uni parties before I started getting the club sets.”

Now G-Wizard is the producer, audio engineer and DJ for Australia’s biggest RNB brand. Having attracted legions of loyal fans around the nation and New Zealand thanks to its massive live events, G-Wizard likens RNB Superclub to the Ministry Of Sound imprint. “It’s pretty much the same thing, except it’s RNB. It’s the same approach but it’s just a different genre. This isn’t just promoters putting out a CD or a live show, it’s bigger than that. We’ve also been going for quite a long time now which proves that we’re about the quality – this isn’t as cheesy as the So Fresh releases. We’ve also got DJ Def Rok who is a legend when it comes to turntables. My skills are more in production and I use the CDJ 2000, while he uses traditional vinyl and Serato. With the compilations we fuse both of our dichotomies and our styles. We’ve never done a separate CD 1 or CD 2 between us; it’s always been a mash-up of us working together.”

With Def Rok’s growing passion and interest in production, however, the relationship is about to flourish even more. According to the DJ, it’s been a natural progression over the last seven RNB Superclub compilations. “I’ve been wanting to do it for a while now and I’ve been spending a lot of time with G-Wizard in his studio. I’ve been learning so much from him about production and I really see myself going into that direction. The next step for me is to finish off my little studio that I’ve started working on. I grew up loving other people’s music so I think it’s time that I started making my own. I’m really digging house music at the moment. I just feel I’ve done just about all I can as a DJ.”