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A Brief history of D.J. Junk


I started to learn body popping and breaking in early 1984 when I was 14, I had seen some boys in the local under 18’s disco doing body popping to ‘Street Dance’ by Break Machine and from that time on I was totally hooked. I had heard the ‘Electro 1’ album on The Streetsounds label and loved Electro and Hip Hop the first time I heard it.  

 
From that time onwards I would spend many hours in my parents basement bar on the dance floor out of opening hours practicing my breaking moves, getting knackered and at sometimes getting no where but loving it all the time, electro albums or the ‘Wildstyle’ soundtrack on all the time or the odd ‘Mike Allen’ Capitol Radio tape from London.


In 1985 the ‘Second To None’ crew was formed and although I was in it at first I was thrown out for being too crap but after 2 years hard practice I got back in during 1987, the rest is history after that. ‘Second To None’ were breaking through the dark ages in the U.K. in the late 80’s and early 90’s, when most of the mid 80’s breakers had given up. We were going out to Europe from ’89 onwards and breaking with and battling top European crews like Battle Squad and Mauritzio.


               During the mid 90’s the U.K. scene picked up and many new breakers started to appear, we found ourselves at the front of this scene having won the U.K. Championships in ’96 & 97 and we did well in other jams and competitions as well. We battled U.S. crew ‘Style Elements’ in ’98 and from the early 90’s we breaked at countless jams in the U.K. and Europe, we also did a large number of T.V. shows, some were prime time major shows like Top Of The Pops and The Generation Game. We are still going today and in the 25 years gone by of b-boying we have been at the top of the scene and have been a major influence on today’s breakers.


In 1988 I got into Dj-ing, mixing up electro and double decking ‘Ultimate Breaks And Beats’. I’ve been collecting music since the mid 80’s and have and old skool hip hop collection to die for.


In the early 90’s I got into the rave / hardcore jungle scene and was dj-ing this genre, I also started a mix tape business, selling rave mix tapes all over the UK south coast. Those tape were known as ‘Junk Hardcore’
By 1992 with the rave scene at its height I wanted to make some jungle 12” vinyl so I got into a local studio and put a 2 track 12” together and got it pressed up and put out through distributors, it did ok so I went back and did more. Since ’92 I have been putting out vinyl ever since, the genres have changed from jungle to house to breakbeat. I’ve done over 60 vinyl releases since.


Being a b-boy and a producer the natural progression was to make b-boy music, based on  ‘The Lessons 1,2&3’ and ‘The Big Apple Mix’, in 94 I made my first breakbeat mix on cassette and in 96 pressed ‘Breaker Breaks 1’ and started ‘Second To None’ Records. This label has gone well and I have put over 30 releases plus had stuff out on other labels.


Today I'm still breaking, 'Second To None' and I still go out to jams and other events all over the place, we are not the best around now but we do have certain values we stick to when it comes to b-boying and that is what makes our crew well respected in the scene. We believe it's not what you do but the way that you do it that is important. A simple move done well is better than a hard move done badly.
When we break we break with speed, power and style. We finish of a set properly, not messing up on the floor, if we can't do something to perfection we won't do it in the circle, we will go and practice that move before showing it.


I also D.J. at b-boy events and hip hop clubs. When I D.J. I play a lot of my own remixes / mash-up's and tracks so my set is very exclusive, often I'll turn up at a gig with tracks I have made only the previous day or sometimes on the same day itself!
I also play a lot of old skool hip hop and electro, I don't play modern hip hop, not really into the sound of today’s stuff, I also don't play modern R&B either, I prefer 70's & 80's soul / funk & disco and will play a lot of this too, often in the same set as my hip hop or b-boy stuff.


I believe you should stick to what you know and love when it comes to music, I won't play types of music I don't like or know little about to get gigs, I play what I play and that’s what you get when you book me, I won't start playing other stuff just to please a crowd, the places I play are open to my music and if they are not I won't play them.


D.J.ing is not my main career so I don't need the money or the gigs, I'll only play where I want to and if I don't want to do it I won't.
I do have a large collection of rave / jungle / hardcore from 1990 to 1994 and will jump at chance to play this.


I started graffiti in 1984, doing t-shirts with simple bubble letters saying break etc, what I soon found out is I had a natural talent for it, i was always good at art before. I got the book 'Subway Art' in '85 and soon learned wild style lettering. I did my first wall piece in 1984 and from then on was doing regular walls through the 80's and early 90's.


I took a rest from walls in the early 90's when I got into music, just did not have such an interest in doing walls anymore although I have done some walls recently. Through the 90's I did a lot of stuff on paper for my mix tape covers and later records. In the late 90's i got into doing designs on computer, this way of doing stuff I found to be just incredible and the designs I did this way came out much better than previous although some purists will prefer my pre-computer stuff. It’s a matter of taste. I do lots of designs for my records, tapes and CD's now.