Red Bull Thr3style: A battle will ensue at Elektricity Thursday night, but instead of fists, five local DJs will throw down beats for a chance to be recognized as the national champion of the Red Bull Thre3style competition, a contest to find not only the most skilled DJ, but an entertainer who can also get a party started.
DJs Godfather (Brian Jeffries), Captn20 (Nick Haddad), Mark EP (Mark Picano), Prevu (Justin Serra) and Young Mase will showcase their talents during a qualifying round at Elektricity. They will be judged by 2012 World champ Four Color Zack, 2011 Red Bull Thr3style Champion Big Once and local producer Mike Chav who has worked with Erykah Badu and is currently working with Yancey Media Group, a label formed by JDilla’s mother Maureen (MaDukes) Yancey. The event will be hosted by Pontiac native and Sirius Satellite radio host Rude Jude.
“I agreed to enter the competition because I have been trying to reinsert myself back in the metro Detroit club scene for some time now,” says Mase who has been a tour DJ for Obie Trice, D12 and Royce Da 5’9. “Being on tour for the past five years has kept me away from the city’s club scene. Performing well and wining this competition would help build more of a presence for myself back where I belong.”
Qualifying rounds are being held at nearly two dozen cities across the country including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta. Each competitor in the six-year-old competition is handpicked by Red Bull.
“Red Bull events are known all over the world to be unique and over the top, so it would have been hard to say no” to the invite, says Captn20, a regular face at club events and the resident DJ at V nightclub in the MGM Grand Detroit.
The winner of the Pontiac showdown will go on to compete in the Midwest Regional final in Chicago on Feb. 21, and one DJ from Midwest Regional will go on and compete for the national championship in L.A. in the spring.
“They had a lot of talented DJs to choose from in Detroit. To be one of the chosen ones, it feels great,” says Godfather who is looking forward to “rock a crowd doing battle tricks. You usually can’t do that kind of stuff on normal club nights around Detroit. I only do it overseas on gigs.”
Each DJ will be judged on track selection, creativity, mixing skills, stage presence and crowd reaction. They will each have 15 to perform minimum of three genres.
“I’m hoping just for a really excited crowd with an open mind who is ready to dance,” says Prevu adding that the most difficult part of the competition will be “prepping, finding the combos and tracks that people want to hear and making sure to differentiate myself from the competition.”
In addition to the title, the winner will also receive a cash prize be qualified for the world finals in December.
9 p.m. Thursday, Elektricity, 15 S. Saginaw, Pontiac, 248-599-2212. Free.
Three Floors of Fun: One of Detroit’s longest running club nights will reemerge this Friday at St. Andrew’s Hall.
Three Floors of Fun ran for about 13 years with old school and hip-hop on the main floor, techno and dance on the top floor and alternative and new wave in the Shelter.
“I went there my senior year in high school (1990-1991) and it was a blast,” says Sam Fotias, operations manager for Paxahau, a producer of Three Floors of Fun. “It was the beginning of the alternative music craze. The entire main floor was alternative dance. A few years later, the floors switched.”
The format change “didn’t go so well,” says St. Andrew’s Andrew Schuster, and the series ended.
The new set-up, which begins Friday, will have techno in the Shelter, top 40 and dance on the main floor and a revolving genre on the top floor.
“We haven’t had a club night going for a while now,” Schuster says of the return of the weekly event. “We just wanted to open up that avenue at this club again. We’ve been mainly focused on concerts and we’re just trying to add some regular programming.”
AMP Radio (WDZH-FM, 98.7) DJ Ryan Richards will be in the main hall spinning dance and hip-hop, Third Coast Kings will be bringing their deep funk and soul sound from Ann Arbor to the Burns room and the Shelter will mainly feature electronic music by Ataxia and Secrets.
10 p.m. Fridays, St. Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit, 313-961-6358. $5.
