DJ Jazzy Jeff Speaks on Tonight's Red Bull Thre3Style Finals in L.A.

Find out what he looks for in potential winners.

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Tonight, the Red Bull Thre3Style competition is going down at L.A. hot spot LURE. After a search across the States, it's finally time for the national finals.

We got a chance to talk to Jazzy Jeff, one of three judges for the competition (the others are A-Trak and Z-Trip), and he spoke with us about the details of the contest:

"RedBull Thre3style is pretty much a DJ competition that they get DJs from all over the world. This is basically the US portion. They have 15 minutes to show what they can do. They have to play a minimum of 3 genres of music, and they’re judged on creativity, mixing skills, stage performance, play selection ... so it’s probably one of the most well-rounded DJ competition that I’ve ever seen or been a part of."

Jeff also spoke about his experiences judging last year's competition, when he judged the World Finals in Chicago:

"It’s almost like being a professional basketball player listening a bunch of the new guys and watching new moves and just ways that they transform in the game and it definitely gives you inspiration. At the same time, you have all your peers that are coming so you’re swapping war stories on the road and swapping music."

If you're wondering what not to do in a DJ competition like this, Jeff also gave some good advice.

"Sometimes, people want the easy way out. They’ll prerecord a lot of their music, or a lot of their set, so that they are not actually doing it live. It’s easy to prerecord two records that are playing together instead of actually doing it [in a live setting].
"Sometimes you get DJs that will consistently play just all the same music. That’s why I like the criteria that you have to play at least three genres of music. Sometimes you get the guys that think that playing a hip-hop beat over a reggae record consists of a genre of music, and that’s not quite what it is. Some of the new guys will try to cut corners, but they also bring a lot of extra stuff into the fold."

You can find more information on the finals at Red Bull's website.

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