If you managed to stay on your feet through the entirety of South By Southwest, the intersection of 4th and Colorado is where you wanted to be on Saturday night. Though the gates didn’t officially open until 8pm, the line for the Red Bull Thre3Style had already stretched around two corners by 6pm. Weary ears desperate for a break from all the week’s rock ‘n’ roll madness were in for a serious treat as DJ-R, DJ M-Squared, Mick Boogie, DJ Qbert, DJ Jazzy Jeff, De La Soul and Z-Trip—with the help of a “supermoon” in the sky and a secret special guest in the wings—were set to move the crowd.
Red Bull Thre3Style is an innovative concept that gives highly skilled DJs a platform to battle, perform, gain notoriety and express themselves in a party atmosphere. Unlike other DJ battles that are based on more technical aspects, this is a creative and unique format that seeks to find the DJ that has best perfected the true art of “party rockin’.” Eight of the Bay Area’s top DJs will fight for the crowd’s favor, each with a 15 minute set that MUST contain at least three different musical genres. A panel of music industry judges will select the winners based on track selection, creativity, mixing skills, stage presence and crowd reaction.
It seemed as though every hip hop fan in Detroit made his or her way down to St. Andrews Hall last night to witness the National Championship of the most talked about emcee battle of the summer —Red Bull EmSee: The Road to 8 Mile. When judges Eminem, Mr. Porter and The Alchemist named 18-year old hometown favorite FowL as the national winner, the crowd of over 1,000 fans went bananas. Hip hop legends Bun B, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Xhibit were among the VIPs that came out to support.
Along with Mix Master Mike, DJ Jazzy Jeff is one of those dudes who lives by the credo if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And if it gets in your way, f–k it. Like Mike himself, Jeff never had much luck with school. He never graduated from John Bartram High School in Philly, but it must mean something when they have his head plaque-ified on the High School Wall of Fame, right? Then again, he probably cares less now than back then; the guy was throwing bloc parties while other kids were sweating gym class. Jazzy Jeff, aka Jeffrey Towne, ditched classes to learn the trade, much as Mike escaped city drudgery by traveling lone wolf style to learn whatever it took to acquire his trade. If you’re white like me, you may have tuned in to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air every week just to see Jazz get tossed out of the house by Will Smith’s Uncle Phil. But there’s clearly a lot more to the lad than that, as his darling status as regular at many of the Red Bull Music Academy Thre3 Styles would suggest. Feel free to get a listen of his latest set here, where he mixes everything from classic Marley to jazz of olde to Biz Markie. There had to be more to the guy besides Nightmare on My Street.
