Fabriclive.39 - DJ Yoda
Author: Inertia
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Along with the greats Grandmaster Flash, Steinski and Jazzy Jeff, there is one DJ from North London commandeering the cut n paste fight - the irreplaceable, definitive hip hop protagonist, DJ Yoda.
Originally DJing under the name DJ Beiny (actually his first two initials and surname), it was a Yoda toy that sat by his turntables that ultimately gave him a DJ name that stuck when he was 19. His combined loves of quirky pop music and '90s hip hop became fused and intertwined on home-made demo mixtapes. They caused such a stir on the underground hustle that, by the year 2000, over 5,000 were being distributed when it caught the attention of Antidote Records, through whom he released three consecutive volumes of an official mixtape series titled 'How To Cut & Paste'.
Entertaining, sentimental, kitsch and musically unbound, the mixtape series brought an accessible sense of humour to what had essentially become the serious, elitist world of hip hop.
While Yoda continues to battle the constrictions of genres and tight-lipped conformists with his DJ sets around the world, he keeps busy with each finger in a different pie: producing, compiling A/V shows, writing, even more surprising mixtapes and, even projects as unexpected as classical music ('A classical composer wrote a concerto for turntables which I performed with a 40 piece orchestra! It was an avant-garde piece - obviously totally different to the music I normally play').
With his skills being set out, it comes as little surprise that on Fabriclive, DJ Yoda manages to effortlessly bring everything and anything into the mix: from the most unpredictable to the stone cold classics. All concepts aside, this is straight from the club.
Yoda provides a fusion of old meets new, pulling together beats, bass and sounds from streets around the world - from London to Brazil to Jamaica to Baltimore. With New Jack Swing giving Baltimore house a twirl, Minnie Ripperton grabbing drum'n'bass by the hand, Salt N Pepa getting down with Baile Funk and dubstep grinding up next to Lord Kitchener, DJ Yoda brings it all together for some straight up fun times. Tags