DJ D-STYLES (Invisibl Skratch Piklz/Beat Junkies)

KILLA KELA: Talk to me about about a young D-Styles, how did you start? 

D-STYLES: I grew up in about 40 minutes outside of San Francisco in a small city called San Jose, but San Francisco is where the scenes were, that’s where all the events and culture were. I would go there and try to absorb everything. I was lucky to be around that and be around Hip Hop in the 80s. I was studying the b-boys, studying the the DJ’s, all the graffiti and I tried it all but and for some reason DJing stuck with me. Scratching in general felt natural and I felt I could express myself best through that.

KILLA KELA: The Hip Hop Culture is very addicting, isn’t it? There is a rush to it.

D-STYLES:  Totally, I mean I compare the high from DJing to the high you get from graffiti. Just going out on the highway or the freeway bombing and getting that crazy rush knowing that you could get arrested or killed and then seeing your piece the next day, there’s something great about it.  I think that’s the same for every element of Hip Hop, if it’s djing you’re putting out mixtapes back in the day or records. You’re just kind of cementing your stamp, your tag, your legacy. It becomes a high that you always chase.

KILLA KELA: Who were your inspirations back then?

D-STYLES: In San Jose there was one guy called Peanut Butter Wolf and he’s a few years older than me but, I went to school with his sister. He was working back then with Charizma and other mcs, so whenever I got a chance to see him DJ live, I would definitely go. I was I underage back then, so I’d have to sneak into the events, but he was definitely the hometown hero. I also was inspired by Sway and King Tech, QBert,  Mix Master Mike, Apollo 

KILLA KELA: Tell me about what the scene was like then, it was still pretty fresh.

D-STYLES: Yeah, it was. It’s funny a lot of our influences back then was from watching old DMC videotapes and it was hard to to find these these videotapes because they weren’t selling them at your local store, you had to get you had to get a copy of a copy of a copy from someone. We learned from watching videotapes, we were rewinding it 100 times, trying to copy what these guys were doing. These DMC battles these were the Olympics, every country had somebody and it was just interesting and dope to see how someone from Greece or Japan or the Netherlands would use their own flavor and their own style with cutting or beat juggling. The whole DJ battle scene was a very small scene. it’s very niche. If you went to a couple battles you kind of meet everyone, all the key players.

KILLA KELA:  I think in the early 90s lot of heroes were were forged in that time but there was just something about the bay area DJs, when they got on board it became a whole another thing, would you agree?

D-STYLES: We had our own Bay Area roots but, we were influenced by New York of course and Miami, we embraced it all. We just kind of took it and made it our own little thing. Back then I felt like New York didn’t really mess with with upper tempos, 115, 120 130 bpm type beats and Miami was all about that. I feel like we embraced New York and we took what we liked about Miami, and we combined it made it our own style. I mean this goes back to likes of Mix Master Mike and Qbert and DJ Apollo. In my opinion they laid the the blueprint for turntable music and the whole turntable band, orchestra style. 

KILLA KELA: How did you feel when The Scratch Perverts came on the scene?

D-STYLES:  It was a huge disrupt and and by that I mean there wasn’t any characters quite like Prime Cuts and Tony Vegas at the time. I felt like if you want to compare it to wrestling, I feel like those guys were like the bad guys who came in and started talking talking trash and they were hyping up their battles. I remember when Tony Vegas first came to San Francisco and he was scheduled to battle Babu in the scratch category, there was so much hype around it because he was online talking saying he was gonna fuck up Babu, he was gonna take scratching back to to the U.K. Everybody was like what the fuck, who’s this guy? He has the balls to say this, but now I look back and he was so ahead of his time. He was just hyping up the fight or the battle almost like a UFC fighter and he can back it up of course. I just remember when they the Scratch Perverts came into the scene it was just something I had never seen before. I think we need more of that in this day, now everyone’s very pc and and cordial but it’s nice to have these guys who have zero filter and just say whatever they want.

KILLA KELA: Your contribution to turntablism and scratch djing is incredible. I find your style interesting and the expressiveness in how you cut. The tenacity and confidence that you have and how you express yourself in that way is amazing.

D-STYLES: I think with any like instrument or any art you have to say something but, especially in Hip-Hop. we have that that golden rule of no biting. For the longest time I was such a bedroom DJ and bedroom scratcher. I didn’t want to go on stage and and go in front of the public eye until I felt like I was original enough and I had something to contribute. I started battling around ’88- ’89, when I first saw myself on video, I realized that I’m not original, I was just a biter and sounded like my influences. I got disgusted with myself and I figured I need to go back to the drawing board. I stayed away from the scene from until about ‘97 and that’s when I kind of felt like I had something to offer. I have really tried to find myself and I finally figured out I can’t chase Qbert, I’m not as fast and technical as him. I can’t do it like Mix Master Mike because no one else can sound like that guy, so I need to be myself. I took some chances some risks. I figured I was going to go the opposite route, if everyone’s going to be fast and crazy and and like hyper speed I’m going to go slow and I’m going to be funkier, try to say something and be more melodic. My style is still an ongoing thing because I’m still trying to find my voice, that will never end.

KILLA KELA: Talk to me about your studio and production work?

D-STYLES: I was I was lucky enough to be around Qbert when he was recording Wave Twisters and to see workflow and creative process was amazing.  I was able to kind of learn from that. Ultimately that inspired me to to make my own album and then I realized battling isn’t for me, that’s not where I shine. I always felt like I needed more than three minutes or five minutes to express myself, so I figured let me take it to the studio and just start producing a recording and making music. 

KILLA KELA: You also teach as well?

D-STYLES: Yeah, we we opened a DJ school, me and The Beat Junkies in Los Angeles California called The Beat Junkies Institute. We teach everything from the foundation of DJing to trick mixing to scratching to beat juggling. We have actual school in L.A. and then we have an online school as well.

KILLA KELA: What would you say your secret is? 

D-STYLES: I really feel like the key to it is to have a strong foundation. I understand why a lot of the the Jazz players studied Blues because I think was their foundation and then they took it to the next level with Jazz. I feel like with cutting or scratching you have to know where everything came from, and you have to study the legends that came before you. Basically, I’m taking what I learned from the greats and their style, I’m not trying to copy it but I’m trying to turn it into my own version of it. I’m trying to channel their energy and put it into my style. However, there really is no formula and there is no secret sauce it’s just constant trial and error and trusting your ears.

KILLA KELA: What’s the future?

D-STYLES: I have another turntable band group, it’s called 545, it’s myself, Prtyvet Peep Shows, Mike Boo and DJ Excess so there’s four of us. We basically do turntable music. We just recorded in Hawaii a couple months ago. Five songs by four turntables, in five days. Basically, we gave ourselves this sort of goal so that’s where the name comes from. I also got another record coming out soon, next month with an MC called Nowaah tTe Flood, so I’m excited for that as well. 

Todays Podcast we are heading across to Las Vegas, to chat with an original pioneer in the early 00’s Turntablist/DJ movement – Beat Junkies & Ivisibl Skratch Piklz style don DJ D-Styles 🔥👊🏻🔥 We’re talking a life as a DJ; Early years of battling, Early DMC DJ culture, Skratch Piklz , Beat Junkies , the DJ Techniques, Production, DJ school and way more.. 🔥♥️🔥 this is an up close and personal chat with the one and only D-Styles, enjoy!