And the winner is…

DJ Rickman representing the beautiful island of St. Lucia.

Erm…how do I begin this?

*Scratches head*

Ok. Soca Frenzy. I love what you guys have achieved, where you have come from and the direction in which you are going. Your fete’s have the most unique vibes and some of the most crazy fetters on the UK soca scene. We support you guys and will continue to do so in the future, but last nights Island DJ Showdown was a mess.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES FROM SOCA FRENZY ISLAND DJ SHOWDOWN

It was a great concept. It had a great line up of DJ’s repping their respective islands, but they didn’t have an organised platform on which to fairly display their skills. This lead to confusion, unfair dismissals and the wrong group of DJ’s being put through to the final round.

There should have been 2 fixed decks set-up, tested and ready to go for the DJ’s to use. They should have been shown how to work the decks prior to the start of the clash and told the exact time they were due on.

The 10 minute round time per DJ should have been stuck to more ‘sincerely’.

There should have been 3 independent judges who would score each round based on the vibe the DJs created and the ‘actual’ crowd response they received. This score would have gone 50% towards the final vote. Crowd reaction / noise would be the other 50%.

As crowd noise was used as the gauge by which to measure success a proper sound measuring tool should have been used and placed in a fixed central place.

Had these small yet pivotal processes been put into place the whole night would of had a different vibe and outcome.

However, we live and learn. On with the review.

The Clashing DJ Line UP

1. DJ Rickman | St. Lucia – the winner
2. DJ Bones | Grenada – 2nd place runner up
3. DJ Flex | Antigua – 3rd place runner up
4. DJ Bostman | Guyana – made it to final round
5. DJ Spice | Montserrat – made it to final round
6. Mad Pineapple | Jamacia – disqualified for repeating a song
7. DJ Redboy | Dominica – disqualified for playing a non groovy song in the groovy round
8. DJ Bliss | Barbados – disqualified for repeating a song
9. Triple M | Trinidad – knocked out in the first round (that was unbelievable, more on this below)
10. Tiney Winey | St Vincent | disqualified for repeating a song

So above is the winning line up.

Now Let Me Tell You Who Really Won

The best sets on the night (in my opinion) were played by:

1. DJ Bones – Killed it in both rounds he played. A true clash DJ who came prepared and easily took on the other 9 DJs on the decks and on the mic. It came down to a split decision based on crowd ‘noise’ which determined his loss to DJ Rickman.
2. DJ Bliss – His first and only set was on fire. I would of loved to have seen him in the final against DJ Bones. Unfortunately he did play a song which was previously played by another DJ so he was disqualified.
3. Triple M – His only round had the most vibes by far. The crowd were singing, dancing, rocking, wining, wuking-up and fully loving his selection. He lost out to DJ Flex when it came down to the crowd making the most ‘noise’ for who they wanted to go through to the next round.
4. DJ Flex – Played a good first round. His selection was intelligent and well timed.

Now, I mean no disrespect to DJ Rickman or the other DJs. They represented well and provided good entertainment. DJ Rickman, although his set wasn’t that inspiring he won because of his work off the decks. He promoted the event hard to his followers and fellow St Lucians and they came out in their numbers to represent and support their DJ. They screamed the loudest, stomped their feet the hardest and generally created as much ‘noise’ as possible for their DJ and well done to them they got the result.

Lesson To All DJs: When going into a clash work just as hard on bringing your supporters as you do on your music selection.

On The Plus Side

What Soca Frenzy has done with this clash / island DJ showdown is provide a stage for up and coming DJs to preform. There were DJs who I had never heard play until this night. Its was also good to see people come out and truly represent their island.

I have made note of the DJs who impressed me the most and I will make every effort to go to where they play and support them as much as I can.

Frenzy, you guys should turn this into a yearly event. The winner has to come back the following year to defend their title. This could become a great yearly event for the UK soca calendar.

All-in-all: We have the makings of a great event here. Amend the holes in the current process and structure and grow onto bigger and better.

Shout out to DJ Tyrone and DJ Tate who had Frenzy rocking before the clash started.

Look out the video of the clash which will be coming your way very soon.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES FROM SOCA FRENZY ISLAND DJ SHOWDOWN