DJ Dan
Admist all of the negative feedback surrounding the musical selections for the Chicago's Largest Steppers Contest, DJ Dan reached out to ChiStepper.com to clear the air. Check out DJ Dan's account of what happened and where the music went wrong ...
T. Pratt: Welcome to ChiStepper.com for our very first interview. I know you want to address the Chicago’s Largest Steppers Contest. I know you wanted to make a point of clarification into the musical selections for the Chicago’s Largest. Give us some insight into how the music was selected for the contest.
DJ Dan: Well basically, when I was contacted to do the party, he wanted to keep a nostalgia of an old skool party, which is great in preserving the history of the dance and letting people know how the music was played back when the dance really started. But my thing is, you always have to look at the crowd and gage everything based on the crowd. When you look at the crowd only 20% of the people that were in there were old skool people, and the rest were new skool people. So I look on the floor and see what’s going on and I started playing some newer music. I was told by the promoter, “No, that’s too much new skool music, you got to bring back the old skool music.”
DJ Dan: Like I said, I was hired to play a certain style of music but throughout the party you will see that most of people in the party were new skool people so I wanted to cater to the crowd. Even the selection of some of the contest music, he wanted it to be more old skool than new skool and you have certain categories that don’t call for that style (old skool) of music. Then some of the old skool music [I played] wasn’t old skool enough for the promoter. That’s why he had me stop the music in the middle of the contestants dancing, which I thought was a terrible thing to do. I’m doing basically what the promoter is asking me to do. That’s what he’s paying me to do. I thought something went wrong on the floor, but when I stopped the music, I was told that the song wasn’t old skool enough.
T. Pratt: That was during Royce and Danielle and Kevin Nevals and his partner’s performance. When the music started back up, it went out again. What happened there?
DJ Dan: The second time?
T. Pratt: Yes, it made a loud sound … a lot of feedback.
DJ Dan: Uhh, something happened with the mic. At that point I was really thrown off. Then the guy on the mic [J. Minor Allen] was talking too much and I tried to shut the mic off and I might have slipped up and turned down one of the volumes of the music.
T. Pratt: I just want to make sure I get one thing clear for the people. You tried to play for the crowd – some of the newer skool patrons, but you were told both during the contest and during the party to play old skool.
DJ Dan: [I was told] that is too much new skool music, I want to hear older “Dungeon-style” music. I don’t have a problem playing that kind of music, because people understand and respect the music, but The Dungeon is dead. This is 2012. You can expose people to that kind of music but you just can’t pour it on them. Me being a DJ it just sheds a bad light on me.
T. Pratt: Let me bring up another point that was brought to my attention. The flow was missing. The music [in the contest] would go from like a fast up tempo record down to a slower record. The general process, at least from my understanding and a number of DJ’s that I’ve talked to is that you start off smooth, you go to mid tempo, and then you end on an up tempo song. So can you explain what happened to the music in that respect?
DJ Dan: Most of the music was pre set up in a playlist, but it wasn’t necessarily in that order. But throughout the night having someone in my hear constantly telling me what to play just threw my night off.
T. Pratt: It’s funny. I was talking to Pete Frazier about that and he sort of alluded in our conversation to the possibility of making an abrupt change leaving you scrambling to find music that you didn’t already have ready to play based on what you would have chosen.
DJ Dan: Well, I was given an opportunity to pick the music myself. I know what new skool likes, what beginner’s like, what old skool likes, and I know what the master’s would have liked. The master’s picked their own songs. All the songs that we played, they picked their own songs. But the lists that I put together all got switched. They all got changed. When you’re in a rhythm, that rhythm is flowing. But when you get interrupted, sometimes it’s hard to get back on track.
T. Pratt: I’m only bringing this question up because it was brought to our attention, but they were saying afterwards that you didn’t get paid.
DJ Dan: I got paid.
T. Pratt: Awesome! That clears that up for the people. Chicago’s Largest and Steppin Luther paid you. (Laughing) Luther is vindicated. (Laughing)
DJ Dan: After all I had to go through he better pay me right when the party is over. Pay me now! Because I know my reputation is going to be shot for this.
T. Pratt: Yeah, I think you took a hit, but I think it’s great what you’re doing now. Reaching out to give people and understanding of what happened.
DJ Dan: You’ve been to previous Chicago’s Largest. Were you there last year?
T. Pratt: Yes, I was there last year.
DJ Dan: Were you there the year before last.
T. Pratt: I was there the year before last.
DJ Dan: Not last year, but the year before last, the same thing happened. Luther got too involved with the music. I explained to him that I was done with Chicago’s Largest. I told him that I can’t have you jumping into the music like this man. So the following year, he didn’t even come on the stage. I don’t think there was a problem with the music last year. The problem people had was that it was a crowd applause [judged contest], and they felt other couples should have won. But the music flowed nice, I looked at all the videos.
T. Pratt: I’m going to tell you, last year I enjoyed the music. Now, I actually love old skool music and you played a number of classics last year that I had never heard. I don’t recall the new vs old skool music that was played last year. I don’t know if people who prefer new skool music would have enjoyed that but I enjoyed myself last year.
T. Pratt: I do want to bring up another point since I have you on the phone. I’m asking you the hard questions today. I heard that the contest that you DJ’d in Minnesota …
DJ Dan: I DJ’d the 50 and Over portion only.
T. Pratt: It was a 50 and Over contest?
DJ Dan: In Minnesota I was scheduled to DJ with J. Most. When I got there, he let Rodney Mack handle the contest. Rodney Mack … I guess he got a little tired and he said, “Dan, you can do the 50 and Over” piece of the contest.
T. Pratt: That’s a good point of clarification there too Dan. I’m asking these questions because a number of people felt that contest was DJ’d poorly and they reached out to me and I didn’t know anything about it but like you said, your reputation is on the line and I think it is taking a hit because people are attaching bad experiences to you but they don’t know the story behind them.
DJ Dan: In Minnesota Rodney Mack DJ’d the whole contest, I did the 50 and Over portion, which was only 4 couples. I gave them two set up songs and that was it.
T. Pratt: Okay. (Laughing) Now this is starting to make sense to me. Because a couple people said, “I don’t know why Dan did so poorly DJing when he does so well on the radio show.” This is sorta helping me understand things a little better.
T. Pratt: Do you have anything else that you want to say, or anything that I might have missed?
DJ Dan: I do want to give Luther kudos for trying to preserve the history of the dance and give people exposure to the history of the dance and how it evolved and how it came about. But it’s just not [being] done in the right fashion or degree, because today is 2012, it is not 1970. You cannot take a Stepper from today and drop them back in the 70’s and expect for them to be okay. You have to understand your surroundings. With that being said, you have to give just as much kudos to the new skool for evolving the dance as you do to the old skoolers who preserved the dance and brought it up to where it is today. That’s what I definitely want to say. Today’s music is different than yesterday’s music. You can get a couple of classics slipped in but you have to play for what’s happening today. But if you look at the videos which WILL be out for this event, you will see that I had the floor packed. I played Chris Youngblood, I played “Motions of Love,” I played, “If I” and the floor was packed. The promoter comes up to me and [and says] “Stop, don’t play that kind of music. That’s too much new skool music.” It just threw my whole night off.
T. Pratt: Thanks Dan for speaking up. I appreciate you reaching out to us.
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Tags: Chicago Largest | Music | Steppin DJs
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