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DJ K.C

by Beatsy

As a kid growing up in suburban Sydney, KC found a passion for Funk and Hip Hop at an early age. He loved the whole culture and was embedded in all elements but when he heard “Adventures on the wheels” by Grandmaster Flash in the early 80’s, he was immediately hooked as for the first time he heard how songs could be dramatically manipulated by a DJ. He could not afford turntables at the time so he experimented with dual tape decks which he later used to make mixed music for the choreography and rehearsals of his break dance crew “Electro Breakers”. The crew used the mixes for the shows and regular gigs at shopping centers across Sydney, suburban clubs, and even at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. This was his first taste of performing in front of thousands of people at a young age of 16 and after the huge injection of adrenaline he knew that performance and music was going to be his lifetime passion.

At the age of 17 he was given a mixer as a birthday present, but he had no decks so he took apart the home stereo and to make a DJ coffin. From that point on he was obsessed, constantly making mix tapes for all his friends at school, doing private parties, functions and started to make a name for himself.

KC was determined to excel in this new found art of DJing but he found that he could only go so far teaching himself through experimentation as DJs were scarce at the time. However when he stumbled on a worldwide DJ community called DMC which branched in Australia 1988, it opened up doors for him to progress in this art. He was now able to learn from videos of DJ champions worldwide performing the scratches, fast mixing and tricks that could only be heard on imported audio tapes in Australia at the time. Through this inspiration he trained day and night non-stop for a year and in 1989 he entered a local DJ battle in Sydney’s west where to his surprise won first place.He was now more confident and decided to enter the dmc national finals in 1990 where he came second in the state. He persisted and in 1992 he won the Australian Championships by perfecting the new found beat juggling technique and utilizing 4 turntables. KC kept winning all competitions and DJ Battles up until 1996 when he teamed up with DJ A$K (1990 Australian DMC Champ) and Skizo (Italy’s renown hip hop dj). He ended up representing Australia 3 times with a 5th placing in the world in 1993 when he performed with 4 turntables at the “Ministry of Sound” U.K and went up against the likes of Q Bert, Mix Master Mike, Crazy B, Noise, and Rectangle. That same year KC was also awarded “Best Creativity in Mixing” at Australia’s first R&B Awards hosted by Mike Scott of “Ten Wedge”.

KC retired from battles in 1996 but kept on rocking all major clubs and parties across Australia with mind blowing club sets that always left the crowd in awe. Being a lover of all music and genres he was able to play all styles from underground hip hop jams to club house and major raves. However KC never lost his grass roots and kept a funky soul flavor to all the different genres that he played. KC was also well known for his 4 deck demos during this period and in 1995 he was approached by a rep from DENON to launch their new mixer. He did not know it at the time but he became the first Australian DJ to be officially sponsored by a corporation to showcase their products: DENON (1995), Technics (1996), Intimidation (1997) and Vestax in (1999). DJ KC was also the first DJ to showcase and perform at corporate tradeshows like ENTECH EXPO in 1997 and found himself in demand from all major companies that wanted to push their products.He did many national tours for these companies and promoted their products in various clubs in each state. He was featured with a tutorial CD Insert in the cover of Australia’s highly acclaimed magazine for music technology, “Next Music”. He also started his own weekly column called “Hot Stuff” in the popular street press “3d world” as editor and reviewer of latest DJ equipment. He contributed his work to other urban street mags “On the Street Magazine” and “Request Mag”. In radio he did a weekly show “Turntablistics” to dedicate pioneering DJs that put scratching on wax with DJ Mark Walton on “Radio Dex”. On TV he has appeared and showcased on BBC UK’s “Club Choice”, Channel V, Arena, “Australia Uncovered” (Sky U.K), and Ground Zero (SBS).

KC has played alongside pioneers like Jam Master Jay (Run DMC), Kool Herc (Founder of Hip Hop), Ca$h Money, 3 X World Champ DJ Craze and A Track to name a few. As a party rocker that could play to any crowd, KC is in high demand in all genres of music in diverse clubs and festivals across Australia which has kept him extremely busy throughout the 30 years of his DJ Career. He now focuses on teaching the art of DJing to upcoming DJs and appears as special guest at clubs and parties across Australia and Melbourne where he now resides.

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