Do you remember the first time you DJed? I’m not talking about your first club gig or first event in public or anything like that. I mean the very first time you touched a vinyl [or whatever your preference is], the first time you actually tried to line up two tracks [admit it, it was tough], or the first time you heard yourself scratch. Do you remember that moment?
I do. I was in college at NCSU, and one of my friends brought a turntable back from spring break from his parents house — it’s the one in the picture up top [and yeah, I know I look 12 but I promise I was closer to 20]. We put a record on the platter, I rubbed it back and forth and made a really primitive scratching sound, and from that very moment I was hooked. I don’t mean hooked in the sense of “oh this seems cool and I’ll do it from time to time” – nah. I mean immediately addicted. I mean the very next day I walked across the street to The Record Exchange record store [remember those?] and bought some used records so I could play them and make more scratching sounds. I mean that weekend I took my little paycheck from working at the campus bookstore and bought the cheapest DJ mixer I could find at the music store. I mean buying used vinyl every week to build my collection while reading anything I possibly could and watching DMC videos and hoping one day to be half as good as the DJs on the tapes. In short, a small spark led to a big fire, and that one moment has defined my life since!
DJs: drop me a comment here and let me know if you remember your first time!
