Stuart McMillin, aka Sound-boy, has high hopes for his
“Old School vs. New School DJ
Battle” Friday, June 27th, at
Neil’s, he just doesn’t expect to crown a winner. “This competition
isn’t your average DJ battle,” he explains.
“I want people to come showcase their skills in a positive environment.”
“Memphis has so much untapped talent,” McMillin enthuses, “but so
many of my friends are [so] discouraged by the drama that they forget about the
music. There are so many different cliques, [the overall DJ scene] gets divided. I’m
not appealing to one clique. I just want to get the people who like the music.”
Many of the promoters and players on the Memphis scene are people you
may not have heard of. While the Memphix collective and such people as
Jason Sims, Brad “Stylus”
Johnson, and Graflin are familiar names around town, folks
like Merlin, Double-O Dave, and Mary
Jane remain virtually unknown outside the insular DJ community.
“Mary Jane Smith is one of the most respected figures around town,”
McMillin explains. “She’s been spinning for 10
years, and she’s one of the most recognized names in the Memphis underground. She
knows her business,” he says, noting that
Smith ran Millennium Records for years. “Mary Jane has really nurtured the
scene,” McMillin adds. “She’s starting up her
own record service, Elektrik Soul Patrol. She’s a real connoisseur. Her DJ style is very
versatile, but she’s best known for techno and trance breaks.”
According to McMillin, Smith will be one of the old-school DJs on hand to
judge Friday’s battle. “She’ll be there, along
with Brad Stylus, Jason Nix, Graflin, and
DJ Armis,” he says. “We’ve also got
Jacob Braden, Brian Clark,
Analog, Merlin, and G. Dellous representing the old
school, while the new school includes Indo,
DJ Josh, and Fresh Bake. I’m hoping
these judges can give some pointers to the kids who are spinning now, just get people
focused on their music and make something happen in Memphis.”
As Soundboy, McMillin has been involved on the local DJ scene for
more than a decade. “I was a spectator on the rave scene for the first five years,” he
says. “There was so much drama associated with that scene that I went
underground. I moved out to the country —
Fisherville — and got my own equipment and learned how to play.” He threw his
first party, “One City under a
Groove,“ at the Last Place on
Earth in 1999.
“Since then, I’ve done about 25 one-off parties at 10 different
clubs,” McMillin says. He lists the Shell
Entertainment Complex and Fantasia as
two of his favorite venues. “It was a
reunion,” he says of one party held at Fantasia,
the beleaguered former hotspot near Madison and McLean in Midtown. “I
brought out the DJs who spun there when it was Red Square. All the heads came out,
folks who hadn’t been going out for years,”
he fondly recalls. “Any club scene is gonna
be wild,” he says, when I ask him about the potential problems that go with the
territory. “All my parties have been 18 and
up, and all my venues have been legal venues.”
“Today, the Memphis scene is divided by promoters,” McMillin claims.
“They only book DJs who are working for them, which keeps Memphis from blowing
up. There are so many extremely talented DJs here, people want to see who is the
best, not necessarily who your best friend
is.” Nevertheless, McMillin is full of praise
for several local organizations, including
Soundshock, Circuit Playground
Productions, Tha Movement, and Memphix.
He cites local promoter Treefish as his
main model. “They threw parties that were
cheap — not just a thing for teenagers to get out of the house,” he says. “People who
worked for a living could get in for $5 or $10.”
Ironically, the house music and hip-hop that McMillin spins is on CD, not
vinyl. “I’ve spun 12-inches at raves, but I like
CDs better,” he says. “I’ve gotten most of
my music from Tower Records or off the Internet, but I’ll dig anywhere that
sells CDs.” His big picks include sides from
the Quannum collective (DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born, and Blackalicious’ Chief Xcel),
Mark Farina, Basement Jaxx, and “anything”
on the After Hours label. “At the party, I’ll
be playing my own original music,” he says, “including a house mix of Missy
Elliott’s ‘Work It’ that’s pretty funky.”
“Whether someone is curious about the music or they’re already into it,
they can come have a good time,” McMillin says. “Expect 20 DJs at their best,
playing all different styles of music from house to hip-hop, drum-and-bass,
and techno. There’s gonna be a positive vibe and probably a lot of people who
haven’t been seen at these DJ events before. Old-school house heads, people from
Red Square, Fantasia, Club Visions — folks from the old Memphis rave scene.”
His number-one goal for the event? “Leaving aside the drama and focusing
on what we do best, which is playing music and dancing. We have tons of good
DJs who are just sitting in their bedrooms, getting better and better,” McMillin
says. While he’s already filled the slots for this competition, he wants to urge anyone
who’s interested in the local DJ scene to get in touch with him. “Look for
‘Old School Productions‘ on
MidSouthRaves.org, or come to the party Friday,” McMillin
says. “It’s gonna be standing room only.”
“Old School vs. New School DJ
Battle,” Friday June 27th, at Neil’s, from 8:30
p.m. until 4:30 a.m. Admission is $7 or free with four canned goods for the Memphis
Food Bank.
