DJing

As with the other elements, DJing began in the Bronx in New York City. It was to the Bronx that a young man called Clive Campbell arrived in 1967. Due to his height, he got nicknamed Hercules, which got shortened to Herc, and morphed again to become his tag "Kool Herc" recognised now as the "father of hip hop". A recent immigrant from Jamica, he brought with him a knowledge of the big sound systems of Jamica's dancehall/reggae styles. In the early 70s he began to get alot of attention for his DJing and his sound system, and so Kool Herc started playing not only block parties but also parties in clubs like "Twilight Zone" and "T-Connection". His success was due to two reasons, firstly his philosophy that a sound system should be huge and heavy and secondly because he didn't play whole tracks just the bits that made people "freak out". These parts of a song were only seconds long, so he'd mix two records together in what we commonly now know as DJing style. This break style was the music that got the b-boys moving and started that movement we know as b-boying. MCing arose as the DJing got more complex and it was no longer possible to dj and mc (master of ceremony) so Kool Herc got two of his friends in on the action, the first MCs as we now know them. In the 1970's Kool Herc found that by needle dropping and backspinning he could extend the drumbeat of a track, so starting break beat.
Afrika Bambaataa was already DJing when he caught one of Kool Herc's shows in the early 70's. A gang member of the "black spades" he had a large and immediate following and he got more involved in DJing after seeing this early Kool Herc set, basing himself and his sound system in a community hall in the Bronx. His gang began breaking up, he got more heavily involved in his community and began starting up hip hop groups. He saw the gang culture around him as limiting, and tried to get as many people as possible into hip hop culture, the four elements so they could use their energy for good and not continue the self-damaging cycle of gang culture.
Another of the founding fathers of djing was Grandwizard Theodore. In 1977 when his ma told him to turn down the music he was listening to, he put his hand down on the vinyl to stop it, the record turned back and forth and made interesting noises. He went on to experiment with these noises, and became known as the creator of scratching, that's the music made when a dj manipulates a record with their hands playing on the beat made by the scratch-like sounds this causes.
After this we saw a young man by the name of Grandmaster Flash come along. He developed this scratching technique and hooked up 2 turntables to his extended mixer so that he could mix one record into another with ease, and so all the elements of modern djing were born.

Nowadays the staples of a dj's gear are two turntables linked to a mixer and often a microphone. The turntables arms (the bit that the needle sits at the end of) are weighted so they can handle moving back and forward easily and don't jump off the record. The mixers are purpose built to enable a dj to hear what's happening on both turn tables, change pitch and bass and the dj can switch from one turntable to the next with ease. The microphone is not a constant, but is used by the mc to rap over the top of the music the dj mixes.

The scene in which the dj lives has moved huge amounts since these early djs in the seventies. Now djing is in almost any style of music, it's a respected form of music making. The styles of dance music have evolved over time so that now not only do we have the hip hop styles but also trance, house, drum and bass, dancehall, jungle, two step, break beat the list is almost endless and all these styles have distinctive sounds and shows the diversity of sounds possible from djs, our collection of electronica cd's holds over a 1,000 titles.

Within the library we've got lots of material to give you a helping hand starting you off djing or helping you out on styles.
Turntable techniques: The art of the DJ By Stephen Webb
How to DJ (properly): the art and science of playing records By Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster
Dj's complete guide: All you need to know Video
How to be a DJ By Janet Hoggarth

As for websites, there's no shortage but a few good ones are
Berklee Press This site is amazing it's got pages on almost every form of hip hop, and lots of advice on DJ technique.
Also try World DJ for lots of news and equipment info. For NZ news and reviews try Resident Advisor full lists of New Zealand DJs and lots of fresh info.