DJ’S VS ARTIST

THE GREAT DEBATE

BY: J-Prince(POTC)

   Recently there has been a great debate in Music about the importance of The DJ. In recent reports Jermaine Dupri has stated that the Dj is Dead, and just recently Lil Wayne set the Hip Hop community on fire by saying fuck all DJ's. The confrontations have even turned physical with Game attacking a DJ In Dc a while back. My question is who is more important the DJ or the artist? If you think about it one hand watches the other, because if the artist stoped making music the DJ would be out of work, and if the DJ stoped playing the Music the artist would be out of work. So cant we all just get along!

    We are now in a time where the DJ has become just as big as the actual artist; Look at the success of DJ Khaled, Who Kid, Funk mast Flex, and DJ Drama. These DJ’s have taken the art form to another Level. DJ’s are releasing albums, getting shoe deals, and becoming power players in Hip Hop. The DJ has become the new celebrity in music business,  But with the recent success of the DJ’s there has been somewhat of a downfall to the culture.

 Back in the days the DJ’s played the background and broke records. In those days DJ’s were not afraid to take risk, they just wanted to be the first to play a record. Some DJ’s of Today don’t know the true element of Breaking records and actually keeping a crowd rocking. Today’s generation of DJ’S never touched a turntable or even know what a record looks like, Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with laptops and I-pods, but today’s DJ Needs to educate themselves on the art form.

A lot of artists are frustrated with the DJ because of the politics they must go through to get their record played. Radio and Club DJ’S are not playing shit! Unless you breaking them off, and that’s killing the culture. If an artist gives me a record that’s dope I am going to play it! Today the DJ has become more corporate and developed the”what have you done for me lately attitude.

In a way the DJ Has become the competition for the artist, now DJ’s produce and make their own albums. Just last year DJ Khaled had three Top Ten hits on the radio, for a DJ that’s unheard of. Today’s DJ’s are managers of artist now, so that means they are going to play their artist music before anybody else’s. It’s a constant battle between the DJ and the artist. The DJ has been playing the background is it their time to shine? To be continued.