In New York City this weekend there's a real treat in store for scratch DJs and fans of scratching and hip-hop DJ battles. Tomorrow (Saturday Aug 4th) the 2012 DMC US Finals National DJ Battle is taking place at Le Poisson Rouge in the Village. The winner of this anticipated DJ battle will go onto London, England next month to represent the US in the 2012 DMC World DJ Championships on September 28th. This Sunday (Aug 5th) in New York at the same Bleecker Street club will be the 2012 Grand Master Roc Raida Memorial Gong DJ Battle - bearing the name of the much loved X-ecutioner DJ who began the event years before he passed on in 2009. And to top things off for this NYC DJ weekend, that is been dubbed Ultimate DJ Battle Weekend, later today (Aug 3rd) will be the DubSpot Stylus Sessions # 2. Curated & produced by turntablist scholar John Carluccio this event will be video streamed live from the West 14th Street DJ school's headquarters.

At tomorrow's big US DMC battle, where competing DJs from all round the nation  will include DJ Sol Rising who won the 2012 Bay Area DMC Regional Battle back in April, the host will once again be the ever funny & entertaining Lord Finesse (of D.I.T.C. fame) while the Bay Area's DJ Snayk Eyez,  who is the 2001 DMC US Supremacy Champion, will do be among three DJs doing a special turntable routine performance. The others will be legendary 1986 DMC World Champion holder DJ Cheese, who after a long absence is back performing and recording over the past couple of years, and DJ Total Eclipse of The X-ecutioners. Meanwhile DJ Spictakular of the legendary Allies DJ crew will be doing a long partyrocking series of sets throughout the day long event that begins at 2pm and ends by 930pm tomorrow.

The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, LL Cool J, Whodini, and Jam Master Jay solo set all on the one bill? Wow! What a line-up that was for that historic hip-hop show at Philly's Spectrum Stadium back in July of 1986. This cool collectible item (a reproduction poster 14" by 22" that is printed on heavy cardboard) is just one of the many posters for sale from Amoeba - both in store and online from the Amoeba.com shop. Click here to find out more about purchasing it and click here for listings of more posters to buy from Amoeba's online store. The numerous posters on sale at Amoeba include rare, vintage, and current posters and include many genres of music including lots of rock and soul.

Rap/hip-hop artist posters at the online store include a cool 2Pac 1971 - 1996 poster, a 2Pac and Snoop poster, a Drake poster, an NWA The World's Most Dangerous Group poster, and both a Notorious B.I.G. commemorative poster and a BIggie Ready To Die poster. Please note that the amount of hip-hop posters online at Amoeba.com is relatively few in comparison to the range available in the three Amoeba stores.

At last night's prestigious DMC Battle at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City, DJ Precision was the winner of the DMC NYC Regional DJ Battle while DJ Esquire took the 2012 DMC US Supremacy Battle title. But as hip-hop legend/DJ icon, /creator of the scratch Grand Wizzard Theodore noted during his brief onstage appearance on mic last night, "All the DJs are winners" considering the endless amount of time each puts into tirelessly prepping for DJ battles like yesterday's in the Big Apple. "It's one thing to be a DJ in the comfort of your own home," added host of the night Lord Finesse, stressing the difficulty of trying to remain calm and repeat that same routine in a packed club/battle setting. That statement was one of the few completely serious ones made at the DMC by Lord Finesse who was the real star of the day-long DJ event that ran from 2pm until almost 10pm. The host had the crowd cracking up with his ever-entertaining, quick-witted on-mic banter. The DITC member/hip-hop legend, who has a career awaiting him as a stand up comic if he wants it, was cracking jokes at a rapid rate and keeping the battle moving along nicely even during the down moments of the event. On top of this, Finesse - known as both emcee and DJ (he has a new solo album dropping in late August) - broke out an impressive, impromptu scratch routine at one point in the evening.

Today, Thursday, June 21st, pioneering Bay Area turntablist Eddie Def (pictured belpw), along with his fellow Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters (later Space Travelers) founding member DJ Cue (pictured left), are both flying into New York City where, over the next few days, they will be performing at a series of DJ events, including this Saturday's big DMC DJ Battle for US Supremacy & NYC Regional DMC DJ battle at at Le Poisson Rouge where they will be the star showcase performers along with host/mc Lord Finesse. More DMC info here.

Upon their arrival today, the two veteran San Francisco turntablists/DJs will be heading directly to East Harlem where they'll be doing a special turntable performance at the prestigious and always fun Tools of War-produced annual summer True School Park Jams. This afternoon's Spanish Harlem Hop Park Jam (which is free like all the Park Jams) is in Spanish Harlem at White Park El Barrio located at Lexington and E. 105th Streets (NY, NY 10029) and is near the #6 Subway line (map it here). It runs from 3pm to 7pm with other scheduled DJ performances today by both Tony Touch and Lean Rock.  Then tomorrow (Friday June 22nd) at 7pm (EST) the two DJs, along with DJ ALF and other guest turntablists, will be performing live (a freestyle set) on WFMU on my weekly radio show Put The Needle On The Record.

           


1) Big K.R.I.T. Live From The Underground (Island/Def Jam)

2) Curren$y The Stoned Immaculate (Warner Brothers)

3) Casual He Still Think He Raw (Hieroglyphics Imperium)

4) The Jacka The Sentence ( Siccness)

5)  El-P Cancer4Cure (Fat Possum)

As outlined in both the chart and accompanying video above with E-Lit at Amoeba Berkeley, the new number one on the Amoeba Hip-Hop chart is the major label Def Jam/Island debut from the phenomenally popular Southern mic wrecker Big K.R.I.T. Live From The Underground. The arrival of this guest heavy album, including the surprise guest spot by blues legend BB King, follows hot on the heels of a series of mixture reissues such as Return of 4Eva from the Mississippi MC that fans can't seem to get enough of. Another artist that commands a diehard following is prolific Bay Area rapper The Jacka who returns to the Amoeba chart this week with The Sentence, which as E-Lit notes, is the final/third part of his ongoing rap trilogy.