Man, who the hell isn't a DJ in the Bay Area these days? Every other person you bump into is on the tip. Just being a DJ isn't good enough anymore. It has to be, "I'm an intelligent down tempo booty rock electro-clash mash-up glitch-IDM DJ. Oh, and I also play Duran Duran."

When was it decided that any jerk with 10 records (or 100 MP3s and Serato) is a DJ, and when was it decided that just being a good old-fashioned hip-hop DJ is passé?

DJ Platurn is way beyond all of that. He's a real deal hip-hop DJ who rocks the party the original way: nothing but top-notch track selection and skills to back it up. Give the man two turntables and a mixer and stand back because you're going to witness some classic DJing. He'll not only serve the crowd what they're hungry for, he'll keep 'em dancing with all kinds of tunes they didn't even know they wanted to hear. Cutting up breakbeats, doing blends live and on the fly, scratching, mixing…the guy's got the full skill set to be a fully-rounded DJ, and he's good at everything. Not only is that increasingly rare in today's "instant DJ--just add water!" world, it's a strong and important tie to the Hip-Hop tradition Platurn comes from: In order to get on and really do a good job as a DJ, you have to be well-rounded.

Being a good and well-rounded DJ also means being a top-notch selector.  Platurn ain't fakin' the funk when it comes to his record collection and what he plays for the crowd. Well-known cuts, obscurities, remixes, hip-hop, funk, rock, disco, soul, and pop all expertly woven together. You want B-boy breaks? He's got you covered. Slow jams? Awwww yeeeeaaaah. Do you want old-school hip-hop? Break out the Gazelles, fool! Wherever the party needs to go, he is prepared to take it there.

Word certainly spreads quickly; besides having been voted Oakland's best DJ by the East Bay Express and winning Scions’ Free Up Your Mix competition along with fellow Oakland Fader DJ Spair, Platurn has devastated crowds from coast to coast and internationally. In doing so, he's shared the stage with folks like Z-Trip, Krs-One, Mixmaster Mike, The Beat Junkies, DJ Premier, Slick Rick, Maseo(De La Soul), ZionI, Jazzy Jay, Quest-Love(The Roots), M.F. Doom, A-Trak, Afrika Bambaata, Pete Rock, and a whole bunch more.  Not too bad for that tall skinny white boy from Iceland.

- DJ Enki

DJ GOLDENCHYLD:

www.dj-goldenchyld.com

I hate writing about myself…but I guess I'll start at the beginning. I'm an 80's baby that grew up in San Jose, California. I have early memories of Mom listening to records like the Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Joan Jett, AC/DC, Queen, and Bruce Springsteen. I guess this is pretty typical of lady in her 20's in the 80's. I remember being maybe 6 or 7 digging up Dad's old Led Zeppelin self titled album. I guess you could say I developed an early fascination with music. I didn't have the patience or attention span to really take up an instrument like guitar, or piano. I tried sports like baseball and basketball growing up, and wasn't bad, but they still didn't satisfy me completely. I knew I wanted to do something musically. Where I grew up in San Jose particularly, there were a lot of kids that were into hip hop and breaking, and there were an abundant amount of dance crews around. (I.E. Jedi Clan, D.I., Jughead, Boogie Unit, etc) At the time, I sort of saw this as my way in. Of course I gave it a try, but me being the clumsy guy I am, I guess it never really panned out the way I really wanted it to. Now, looking back, if I hadn't gotten into dancing, and hip hop, I probably wouldn't have been exposed to one element that really defined the next stages of my life…djing.

Like a lot of the dj's in the Bay Area from my generation and before, I started out as a mobile dj with my boy Nick (Ngobility) and Germel (G-Wrex) doing house parties, school dances, cotillions, and any other events that we would be able to convince people to hire us for. Literally anything we could get into. I went to my local high school (Silver Creek) where I would meet the rest of what would become the Fingerbangerz Crew, which if you don't know was the crew that pretty much put me where I am in terms of djing now, specifically in regard to production, style, attitude, and general outlook on djing.

Soon after we formed the Fingerbangerz, I started doing competitions. I've always said that the whole reason for me to join battles and competitions was so that I could use that to gain some type of credibility so that I could dj at more places like clubs, shows, etc. So I started out doing local battles with the rest of the Fingerbangerz at various hip hop functions, car shows, etc. To be perfectly honest, when I started battling, for a long time, I was horrible, completely wack. I don't know too many people that do great at their first battle (with the exception of my boy Replay). But I honestly wouldn't change that, because it put me through a process of growing pains and paying dues, which seems to be a lost concept now days but that's a whole other topic. So I kept at it, just bombing at my first 10 or so battles running into mistakes that could have easily been avoided, but me being the rookie that I was, didn't know or think of at the time. It was a learning process that continues to help me to this day. Fast forward through those first 10 or so battles and I began to pick up on things and began winning a few of the competitions such as some of the Zebra Dj Battles, DMC SF regional, ITF Team Competition etc. I have always been pretty happy about that but I didn't want my djing career to just end there so after that I focused on taking that and building on it.