JAYFORCE

Last night I had a chance to attend the Red Bull Thre3style DJ Battle at Club Opera. The event is touring the country in search of DJs to represent their respective cities and compete in Las Vegas, NV, for the national finals and possibly the international finale. Judges in each city will grade DJs for skills and for crowd response. Atlanta DJs in the contest included DJ Jelly, DJ Tron, Martina McFlyy, Speakerfoxxx, DJ Justin KO, DJ Forge, DJ EU, and Club Opera’s resident DJ Chris Rimby.
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Red Bull also featured international DJ Z-Trip as special guest. The crowd ranged from hip-hop heads to corporate types, b-girls to five-star-chicks, and any and everybody in between. Each DJ had a 15-minute time frame to present their skills. As I watched the battle begin, I realized the event was more of a showcase with DJs playing mash-ups, dubstep mixes, and quite a few mainstream songs that would encite the crowd to dance.
Some DJs had pre-recorded mixes while others performed a combination of both pre-recorded mixes and live mixing. I personally expected the battle to be an actual turntable competition (scratching, juggling, other tricks) with a chance for contestants to make the crowd party, but realized the format Red Bull set up was different. However, I did watch the majority of the crowd throughout the night to see how they responded to this battle format.

Most of the party-goers were excited to dance to the hit songs they knew. The crowd really seemed to enjoy themselves as DJ Z-Trip performed, incorporating mixing, scratching and live remixing on stage. At the end of the night, the hosts re-introduced each DJ and announced DJ Jelly as Atlanta’s Red Bull Thre3style winner. He will compete in the national finals in Las Vegas, NV, later this year. –Kool Kila