A 20-year-old Kiwi has won the biggest DJ competition in the world for the second time, defending his 2022 title and claiming his 10th world championship.
Kalib Strickland, professionally known on stage as DJ K-Swizz, returned to Auckland from San Francisco this week after winning the Disco Mix Club (DMC) World DJ Championships, the longest running global DJ competition, last Sunday.
He told 1News winning the DMC championships was already hard, but doing it back-to-back "is next level".
"It feels awesome, I'm so glad I could just defend my title," he said.
"I've been [DJ] battling since I was nine years old, I came eighth at my first DMC championships... to be here now is awesome."
At the competition's finals, K-Swizz and eight other turntablists - DJs who utilise turntables - from around the world were given six minutes to impress a panel of judges by showcasing originality, sound manipulability and technical mastery.
The nine judges - all former DMC champions - then ranked their top six acts, eight of them placing K-Swizz at number one.
"I try to keep it super original, but on stage I try mixing it up... I don't wanna double anything up so I make sure every track I use has different styles, different creativity behind it, y'know?"
DJing runs in K-Swizz's family, his dad being Jacob Strickland aka DJ Reminise, an established DJ in Aotearoa's music scene.
"I go for originality, but I get some help here and there from my dad, he helps me tweak my routine, then I grow my style out of that. He's kinda like a manager too," he said.
K-Swizz's victory was rewarded with a US$4000 (NZ$6780) cash prize and new DJ gear, and is also immortalised by a golden record trophy and a DMC winner's jacket.
The win also makes for K-Swizz's 10th world championship title, six of which came at the DMC championships while four are from IDA (International DJ Association) championships.
From here, K-Swizz wants to play more shows ahead of future competitions, but also hopes he can inspire more of New Zealand's old-style DJs to come out of the woodwork.
"I wanna play at some festivals and show what I've got... compared to other DJs these days, there's not a lot using turntables like I do, especially my age."
Putting a spin on NZ music
Though he takes great pride in his successes, K-Swizz acknowledges that his style of DJing - utilising vinyl scratching, an older form of the art - is not as popular as it once was.
His artistry is influenced by his dad, whose performances are emblematic of music from the golden age of hip hop, such as Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys.
"I try to use all kinds of music from different years," K-Swizz said, "but yeah, a lot of stuff I use comes from the 90s and 00s.
"I try to make my sound my own, but yeah, definitely some of that taste comes from my dad."
Turntablism is a much more physically and technically demanding form of DJing, however its prevalence has faded over time as music production has become more digitised and less focused on physical instruments.
Outside of New Zealand's DJ scene, K-Swizz said he feels a lack of recognition for the firsts he's accomplished as a Kiwi.
"I'm the first person from New Zealand to win the DMC Championships, the youngest to win it and also the first from the southern hemisphere... I dunno, I feel like it's something more people should be talking about."
Endorsing his thoughts is Elton Noyer, a music producer professionally known as Scizzorhands and a former hip hop and turntablism tutor at the Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand (MAINZ).
Noyer knows New Zealand's DJ scene well, saying he used to jam with K-Swizz "when he was maybe 10 years old".
As a MAINZ tutor, he noticed a gradual decline in interest in students wanting to use turntables.
"DJing has also been about what the new 'thing' is about, it's always at the forefront of what's becoming popular... as the years went on, students started shifting more towards trap and the drum and bass route," he said.
"We still taught the fundamental elements, but people definitely gravitated more towards the newer stuff."
Though being a DJ using modern technology still requires some degree of skill, Noyer finds it can simplify the creative process - detrimentally, for some.
"I always feel as though people are taking the easy route instead of the more visually or audibly interesting route," he said.
"You can get more creative if there's new kinds of technology to play with, but I find some of the best creativity comes from limiting yourself, it forces you to become more creative to make something happen. That's tried and tested throughout time."
He said New Zealand has plenty of turntablists like Reminise and K-Swizz, but the community's drive to advance the culture is lukewarm.
"Its dying popularity is mostly our fault, a lot of turntablists don't really push the art form as we could or should to keep it alive," he said.
"There's a lot of DJs here who maybe can't compete at that competition level, but enough to be in the limelight and make their sound familiar in New Zealand. I think because we don't have that established foundation culturally, the general population doesn't get to celebrate the likes of K-Swizz, and he doesn't really get the recognition he deserves.
"If you look at rugby for example, the culture is huge in New Zealand but it's tiny globally, compared to a sport like football. But that pushing of the culture makes it seem massive in our minds.
"Because turntablism isn't in our faces all day every day it doesn't get that push, but again that's our fault as a community for not pushing it harder."
With better publicity and broader discussions of the art form, Noyer hopes more people will learn about K-Swizz and help broaden New Zealand's deceptively broad DJ culture.
"I'm hoping his big wins inspire that next generation, especially people about 10 years younger than him, to follow in those footsteps. I hope they get inspired to learn more about it and see that it isn't easy, but it's super rewarding."
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