Can You Dig It? Vol. 19: DJ P

Name: DJ P

Claim to Fame: I guess as far as style goes I’m associated with the whole mash up trend, but I’m not a huge fan of that term. A mash up really is a blend. But yeah, taking 80’s, rock, electro, and fusing it with hip hop…that’s more my style. I’ve also toured with MTV and 311.

Representing: I started out in my hometown of Springfield, Missouri. I’m out in Las Vergas now. I work for the Palms Casino where I spin Thursdays and Saturdays. You can catch me at Club Moon, which is right above the Playboy Club.



Years in the Game: I started buying records when I was in 6th grade and I didn’t have much money back then. I had to mow yards for cash. I’d get five bucks to mow a yard. Back then you could buy 12”s for $3.99. It was kind of hard to accumulate a lot of records, especially in Springfield. We didn’t get a lot of the cool, hip stuff. In the 80’s there were more records, but we didn’t have massive record stores like New York or California. A lot of older DJ’s would drive to St. Louis or Kansas City because they had more bulk and selection.



Sometime around 1986 was when I started casually buying records. I started seriously buying records when I was in high school, around 1990. I got my first quality turntables in ’89. I’d been messing around with some crappy turntables before that when I didn’t have the money for anything better. ’89 is when I got serious about DJing, and the rest is history. Now I’m sitting here talking to you while I go through 40,000 records that some guy in California owns.

Best Digging City or Town: I’ve found a lot of dope stuff for cheap in Philadelphia. I found a lot of good hip hop, rare funk, and soul in Philly. It was all $5-$10 a record. It was just outrageous. I got some really rare stuff out there.

Most Prized Piece of Wax: Into Battle with the Art of Noise by the Art of Noise. To me that record was way ahead of its time. It came out in 1983 on Island records. It’s one of my favorite records of all time. I’m really into electronic music and that’s one of my pride and joys.



Another prized set of records that I own are my horror movie soundtracks. I have

The Shining



Phantasam



Dawn of the Dead



Day of the Dead



Friday The 13th



Halloween 1-5



Nightmare on Elm Street 1-4



Omen 1 and 2



Exorcist 1 and 2



And I got a sealed copy of Re-Animator online the other day. I love that kind of stuff. I love to sample it.



I also have to say the records I got handed to me on the school bus in 7th grade. I still have those same records today. When you lay the needle on most of them, they sound like complete shit. But it puts chills down my spine to listen to them. They’re the same copies I got on the bus back then. Those records mean a lot to me, and I wouldn’t trade them for a mint copy. Those are my prized possessions.



Favorite Album Cover/s: Mantronix’s “Needle to the Grove” 12”. That’s kind of a rarity. If you see it, pick it up. It’s hard to find. You know that song by Beck, “Where It’s At"? The part where the song breaks down and the electronic voice says, “Two turntables and a microphone” was sampled from “Needle to the Groove.” That’s one of my favorite album covers.



I also have to say Kiss’s Rock and Roll All Over.



Dollar Bin Miracle: Let me think about that for a second. Most people wouldn’t get too excited over this, but I like soundtracks and I’m big into horror films. I found a copy of Friday the 13th Part 1, 2, and 3. It still had the 3-D glasses in it and was sealed. I found that back in the day at a flea market in Missouri.



Total Records Owned: If I end up buying this collection of 40,000 that I’m looking through, I’ll have around 70,000. So I have close to 30-35,000 records right now. I’m starting to weed out stuff I don’t like, like the Nelly and 50 Cent records, because I finally bought Serato. I’m going to keep the stuff I actually like and rip the stuff I don’t to Serato.



(As we are talking, P becomes distracted by the records he’s looking through.) Holy fucking shit, I cannot believe he has this in here. Holy shit…Too Short’s very first album, Don't Stop Rappin'. This shit right here…wow. I never knew that fucking existed. There are so many great records in here. Look at that, Vanilla Ice’s full length album. I’ll just put that back where I found it (Laughs).



Best Digging Story: There was a girl who was a go-go dancer for me when I DJ’d in Portland. A limo would pick me up with these four go-go dancers and we’d go into Washington and do a show every now and then. One day she told me, “I have this roommate who moved out. He left his records. Anything he left down there, you can have.” I thought it was going to be a bunch of garbage. I went down there and he had DJ Shadow, horror movie soundtracks, break beats, and all kinds of good records. I was bugging out. I ended up getting about six crates full of shit. I’ll never forget that.

Here’s another good one. I went into a pawn shop once, and they had a brand new Technic 1200 with a $100 price tag on it. I walked in and told the owner that I thought 100 dollars was a bit steep. He said, “Well, we could do $75 instead.” I was like, “Ok, fine.” I paid $75 for a brand new Tech 1200. I ended up selling it for $400 because I already had a setup and everything.



To find out more about DJ P check out his My Space, website, and YouTube page.