The Tap: Showing Egypt’s DJs Love on International DJ Day

The 9^th of March marks the 16^th “International DJ Day”, a day for celebrating the world’s music mixers, mood-setters, and hard-working entertainers that have brought energy to dance floors across the globe. Respect needs to be paid to all kinds of DJs and The Tap has cooked up something special for all DJs on that day.

In 1935, American radio commentator Walter Winchell coined the term “Disc Jockey” to describe radio announcer called Martin Block, the first radio announcer to gain popularity for playing famous recorded music over the air.

Around the late 40s, specialized DJ equipment such as mixers and direct-drive turntables began to emerge in the market, together with techniques like beatmatching, scratching and cueing. DJ Kool Herc, Kraftwerk, Afrika Bambaataa, Larry Levan, and Grand Wizard Theodore are considered to be some of the most influential musicians of the early years of electronic music.

The most common types of modern DJs are radio DJs and club DJs; the first introduces and plays music on air, and the latter mixes music recordings from two or more sources to produce a seamless flow of music at live events. Turntablists use techniques such as scratching, as well as audio consoles such as a DJ mixer to manipulate sound and create new music and sound effects.

Egypt is blessed to have many talented DJs of all types, be it radio or club, and some who do both such as the master of Hip-Hop and RnB DJ Feedo from “Friday Night Flavas” radio show, as well as Safi who is well-known for his “Nile Bazaar” show.

Local DJs vary in their own unique musical genres and styles; from Hip-Hop and RnB like DJunkie, DJ Mobbz, DJ AK as well as rising ones, like DJ Fedde, DJ Doggy Dog. Also, on the electro side, we have DJs like Ouzo, Sebzz, Aly Goede, and the list goes on.

There are also Different styles of deejaying be it old-school like Vinyl DJs who don’t strictly play vinyl only: Ahmed Samy, DJ Mazen Hamdy, Zeina, Sewwes, TATA, and several others. Furthermore, we have “Disco Misr” who introduced VJing (Video Jockey) to the Egyptian party scene.

Although there clearly is dominance in male DJ line-ups or even an all-male line-up during a club night. But there is a rise of female DJs and producers, Such as Akladios, Bosaina, Nur, Zeina, KidMims, PurplPitch and noticeable others who are paving the road for more female DJs to follow.

The local DJ scene is thriving, and promising to flourish even more with immense talent emerging onto the scene by the day!

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