 "Photo: THE REVIEW/Nina Buckalew")
It's all about scratching, chirping and beat juggling with enough flare and originality to impress the judges within a six minute time frame. The goal is to receive the chance to represent the United States in an overseas world championship, but first contestants have to make it through the first round, the U.S. Disco Mixing Club Championship, a national DJ competition for willing participants from all over the country. This year the U.S. DMC Championship were held at Quest Night Club in Wilmington, Del.
The event, which took place on Sept. 9, was brought to the local area thanks to Sam Vaughn, a former DJ and current owner of Sam's Music Connection, who was originally born in Philadelphia, but now lives in Bear, Del.
"This is the first and possibly only time that the U.S. DMC Championships will be held in Delaware," Vaughn says. "Everyone is flying in from all over the U.S. to compete in this heat."
Vaughn started to DJ in 1979 and has remained so passionate he brought it upon himself to bring the DMC Championship to Delaware in order to give local DJs in Philadelphia and Wilmington a fair chance to compete. Because of his music store, Vaughn was able to form a relationship with well-known DJs in Philadelphia like DJ Jazzy Jeff and DJ Cash Money, and became familiar with Delaware DJs as well when his store relocated.
The idea to bring the DMC Championship to Wilmington came to Vaughn when local DJs used to tell him about their unsuccessful competition experiences in the past.
"They would always tell me how they had to travel to New York and D.C. to compete," Vaughn says. "They would always complain about how it wasn't fair that the local cat from other cities would always win because the crowds always favored the local DJ."
Vaughn then formed a group aimed at bringing the competition to Delaware so that DJs in the area could compete without any bias.
"I formed a little alliance, a little DJ crew," he says. "I started pulling judges from all over like D.C. and Jersey as opposed to just having local judges, too."
While Vaughn is responsible for bringing the DMC Competition to Delaware, he himself has never competed in the DMC.
"I'm more or less the promoter," Vaughn says.
Thanks to Vaughn's initiative, nearly 30 contestants put their DJ skills to the test to be named the U.S. DMC Champion. The winner, DJ Precision from Corona, N.Y., goes on to London in October to represent the United States in the DMC World Championship.
Charles Tuason, general manager of DMC World, says the concept of having only one U.S. Championship heat is a new idea.
"We usually have a regional for every city, but this year we wanted to do something different so we decided to have just one final," Tuason says.
Contestants from all over the country who were able to come to Delaware joined up, and approximately 29 contestants attended.
According to Tuason, contestants entered the competition through an online application and were judged in five different categories.
"Contestants are judged on originality, technical skills and tricks, creation of beat juggles, scratching and stage presence," he says.
Tuason says beat juggling is when you take two of the same record and manipulate them to make a beat.
Vaughn, a former club DJ, says the DJs incorporate many different kinds of music and different sound patterns.
"They basically use the record as an instrument," he says.
The contestants in the DMC Championship start in a group of nearly 30 and are then dwindled down to 10, after which a winner is picked. The chance to impress the judges with original style is short-lived as well.
Each DJ has a two-minute elimination set, Tuason says. The final 10 contestants then battle it out for six minutes per piece.
Renowned DJs and former DMC finalists, including DJ Jazzy Jay, DJ Steve Dee and DJ Jazzy Jeff, judged the competition.
The competition's venue is a location already associated with DJing as it holds its own DJ nights on occasion.
The owner of Quest, who goes by the nickname of Quest himself, explains while there had been DJ heats in the state before, there has never been a large competition such as the DMC Championship held within Delaware.
"Kahuna had a heat before and lots of other places have had heats across the U.S. and now we have the championships," Quest says. "It's a wonderful situation."
He says the fact his club was the first location in Delaware to ever host a DMC Championship competition is a great feeling, especially considering the large turnout the competition usually draws.
While winning a famous contest like the DMC Championship is an honor to many, for a lot of DJs including Vaughn, the best part of DJing is the relationship between the DJ and the audience.
"The best part of DJing is getting the crowd excited," Vaughn says. "Every time I've p
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