DJ Muturage To be a good disc spinner or turn-tablist, you must actually know what turn tables, wheels and discs are. Otherwise you are just a PC DJ and are simply wasting our precious time. Who can’t play music off PCDJ and Virtual DJ and Raduga? You must also be the people’s choice, and by this I mean that you must play what people want, not what you want. In other words, if you are a DJ and are playing at a kid’s event, and the kids want you to play Bruce Melodie’s Ndakwanga and Roberto’s Amarulah and Knowless’s Baramushaka ten times each, you must comply. Who are you to not comply? And should you happen to play to a crowd of Turbo King drinkers, know that these folks will force you to play Ama G the Black’s Nyabarongo at least fifteen times. DJ Ichumi If you are DJ Ichumi, know that you will play second fiddle to DJ Muturage because your name technically suggests that you can’t be number one. If in doubt, consult your Kinyarwanda-English dictionary. DJ Bisosso This inevitably takes us to the age-old question –what’s in a name? Well, in the world of showbiz at least, to which you DJs belong, a name is a matter of life and death. That is why most musicians go by concocted stage names in lieu of those given to them at birth. And it works. Because as a celebrity, your first hustle is to brand yourself different from the competition. You must stand out. Musicians have been known to spare no effort when it comes to crafting colorful stage names. I know a musician from a neighboring country called Junior Terrible. Another is called Junior Raid, and there once used to be a rapper in the US called Junior Mafia. So pick a cue from your musician buddies. Go for that stage name that when called, it reverberates with devastating effect. Like Bisosso. DJ Makeda Should you happen to be a girl in this otherwise male-dominated job, all the better. After all, it’s a known fact the world-over that most people still view disc jockeying the same way they do other manly jobs like soldiering or chopping up meat in the butchery. DJ Adamz As a professional DJ worth his hype, your duties will extend a little further than just playing us hit after hit after hit. Instead, you will also meddle into the politics of the industry. In short, you will also be a talking head. As a talking head, your job will be to expose the evil and scam and deception in the local music industry. Yes, the public surely deserves a little more than just consuming the records you play. We also need to know which musicians are in the habit of “washing” other musician’s songs and calling them their own. DJ Cuppy Finally, DJ-ing is not just a ghetto people thing. It’s uptown to downtown.
