A Real, Live DJ

Nas caused a huge hip hop debate in late 2006 when he released his album titled Hip Hop Is Dead. A year and a half later people are still arguing over whether "real" hip hop still exists. Then last week, the subject became the mortality of DJs when Jermaine Dupri declared that the DJ is dead. He talked about how DJs nowadays are more concerned with being celebrities and artists themselves rather than playing hit records and breaking new artists the way they used to. I agree with Dupri, even though that has angered some, including popular Atlanta DJ Greg Street who told Dupri to stop making wack music.

A moment of silence for the DJ, please.

Well, there's an alive and well and legendary DJ in Charlotte this weekend. DJ Kid Capri will be spinning the wheels this Saturday, June 14 at Club Tempo (4809 Wilkinson Blvd.). It's part of the Block Party series being presented by Q92.7. Doors open at 9:30 p.m.

I remember being 16 years old, working as a bag boy at Bi-Lo and having one of my coworkers sell me mixtapes for $5. This is when they were actually tapes and they would usually be by Kid Capri, DJ Clue, or Tony Touch. I loved these tapes because they always had music on them that we wouldn't hear played in South Carolina for another couple of months at least. That's when New York ruled hip hop and so that's where most mixtapes originated from.

Those DJs did break a lot of new artists and hit songs back then. I won't drift too far down memory lane but I'll just wrap it up by saying that hip hop music isn't the same anymore. Because of the Internet and sites like Myspace, everybody is a rapper or DJ now (not to mention what the iPod has done). And buried beneath all of the oversaturation is really good music. Good luck finding it. And props to the DJs who play it.