The world of music has come a long way in the past two decades and DJing has become a walk in the park since the ’90s. DJs now need only press a button and a song plays with pre-programmed scratches, fade outs and the next song lined up. DJs have become so common that most of them stop putting ‘DJ’ in front of their name.
But while most DJs rise and fade away, one who has stuck it out and stayed strong is Mix Master Mike. A legend in the DJ world, coming to prominence in 1992 after winning the DJ Battle for World Supremacy; Mike has taken what most see as a half-baked idea and turned it into a lifelong career.
Striking it big when he became the resident DJ for the Beastie Boys, Mike has continued spinning tunes through the age of compact discs, the rise of iTunes and mp3s, and shows no signs of stopping as the technological revolution brings us to the world of the Cloud. “Technologies have changed everything so much, especially in the last ten years,” he notes.” It has it’s good and bad sides, I mean, I miss record shopping, but it has allowed us simplicity and access, so it’s hard to say one way or the other.”
But with ease and simplicity also comes apathy. An entire generation of listeners, forgoing the rich history of music in exchange for the ‘what’s hot’ and ‘fresh from the press’. “I feel listeners are getting a bit lazy, not as a whole, but there are a lot of people who only take a passive role with music. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I see a lot of people just downloading music without much interest or reason. Things aren’t as wide open as they used to be. Growing up, music was about exploring. We were explorers. It was a challenge to find something worth listening to, to be the one who found it and shared it with everyone.
“That’s the reason why I do what I do. I’m here for the education. I’m spinning all this music; bringing back the ’70s with the ’90s and new stuff; it’s an opus, a stew that mixes and ties all these sounds together so that people can experience it and learn from it and hopefully go out and explore. That’s education.”
But even most teachers begin to lose interest in their teachings after a few years. Mike, however, has maintained his passion and drive for over 20 years. In that time, he has become a three time-consecutive winner of the DMC World Championships, worked with musical greats such as Fela Kuti, is often credited with inventing the ‘tweak scratch’ technique, and still believes his best lies ahead. “My career is based on reinvention year after year and it gets tiring. There’s never an end to this music thing. It’s a heavy addiction for me. But I love finding new ways of bending and shaping music. I am always trying to create my own path, and sometimes it makes me wonder ‘Is what I’m doing a bit too crazy?’ But crazy is good. Starting something is never bad, even if it means that others copy it. I love sometimes when I’ll hear someone say, “I remember when Mike did this thing and everyone jumped on it. I mean, I discovered dubstep in 2007 and brought it out to the states and made my own concoction of it. And that’s what I love doing, I wanna find the new stuff or create the new stuff and tell everyone ‘Hey! Check this out!’ And hopefully I create something relevant, because that is the ultimate goal with music: it’s to make something relevant, that lasts.”
But in a world full of DJs, clicking away on their Macbook Pros and trying their best to mix Michael Jackson with Frank Zappa, Mike still believes in what he does, and that the art of DJing is still as strong as it has always been. Even when every second person with a half decent music collection decides to try their hand at it, Mike believes that it only serves to make the art form strong. “Everyone can say they’re a DJ, and it doesn’t matter. But it’s the DJ with the right mindset and the right intent who connects with the audience and makes something special because of it. It only makes the art stronger. Technology has made it easier to be a DJ, but DJing isn’t about the technology and knob-twisting. There’s enough knob-twisting going on already in the music industry. If you’re going to be a DJ, just be honest and make sure you’re about the music.”
BY DANIEL PRIOR
