DJ BABU hosts DMC again…

DJ BABU

He is recognised as the grandmaster of turntablism, when Babu enters the room, you know it! And a DMC World Final wouldn’t be the same without him! We grabbed five minutes with him as he packed for Tokyo and DMC40…

True or false? It was you the mighty Babu, who first coined the phrase ‘Turntablism’…?

Hahaha yes that would have been me! Somewhere around 1994-95 I made a mixtape called ‘Comprehension’, and on that tape I had a track called ‘Turntablism’ featuring Melo-D and D-Styles. That was the first time I had seen anyone use the term. At that time, we all felt like we were using the turntable more like an instrument, I remember saying to the guys, “If someone plays the piano we call them a pianist. We play the turntables so we should call ourselves Turntablists”. I used to do all the duplication and packaging of these mixtapes myself, so I would hand write on each tape ‘Babu The Turntablist’. And the rest my friend is history.

Your father was in the Navy, your mom was a nurse. What were some of the ideas circulating around your head for your own career as you were growing up…?

Looking back, being that my father was in the Navy, he was always away doing duty on an aircraft carrier, so he was always travelling to crazy places and he would come back with so many gifts and stories. So I think that definitely planted a seed in my mind to want to travel the world. My mother and father were both music lovers, so I always remember us having a record collection and my dad had a pretty decent sound system. My mother and father were both very good with their hands. My mom loved to sew, crochet and knit. My dad loved woodworking - he actually built all kinds of stuff around our house such as a patio roof, mantle and entertainment consoles… all of this apparently left an impact on me.

How happy were your folks when you chose music?

Actually, they tried having me take piano and guitar lessons early on. My older brother and sister were both very good piano players, but it didn’t click with me. It wasn’t until I was 16 that I started DJing and to be honest, my parents weren’t that enthusiastic about it. They probably just thought it was another phase. But it wasn’t until many years later that they saw a Dilated Peoples video on TV, or a Dilated bus bench ad, that they really understood what I was doing with my life. They got it.

2023 saw DMC bring the whole of the West Coast to San Francisco’s Midway venue for a sold out Final, where the Dilated Peoples performed and you hosted with Rhetmatic. What was your highlight of the show?

It was such a dope night! Hard to say… but what I can say is that it was a beautiful event, one of the best World Finals to date. SF has been one of the most influential DJ cities historically so it was dope that a DMC World Final was there. The Bay Area really showed out that night, what an amazing audience and event. I was honoured to be a part of it.

Many say that Paris in 2024 was DMC’s finest ever event – the whole of France’s turntablist community joined us for three days and night of pure joy. What was the big moment for you in the city of love?

Once again, a true honour and blessing to be involved in the 2024 DMC World Finals. It was an amazing event but I especially loved how France’s greatest DJs were honoured and celebrated. But it was amazing to witness DJ Fly come back out of nowhere and win the Classic in Paris…legendary.

When did DMC first appear on your radar and how?

I guess it was around 1991ish? DMC vids were an import for us, so not only was finding the videos difficult, but they were expensive as well. But it was around that time that bootleg videos started getting around - a copy of a copy of a copy. The first video I saw was the DMC 1989 World Finals. I was a huge DJ Aladdin fan so it was dope to be able to see a DJ that I was only able to listen to on a rap LP {Low Profile). But I watched this video over and over, mad respect to the champ and homie Cutmaster Swift who smashed it, but I was really pulling for Aladdin!