The results of the Boomerang Battle are in... well the Top 3 at least.  There were a lot of people who entered and Q really had a hard time picking who was the best... so he picked his 3 favorites and now it'll be up to YOU, QSU to decide! Whichever video in the Top 3 to get the most people to comment on their video will be declared the winner.  So check out all the entries under "Recent Video Exchanges" and be sure to show support for your favorites.  Click on the student names to go right to their entries:

• Mr Cerdan
• Supaphonik
• JB Wizardry

We'll decide a winner next Tuesday (July 2), stay tuned for the announcement and click 'read more' for the details about the next QSU battle!

UPDATE 7/3/13: Congrats to Mr Cerdan - he's now a 2x QSU Battle Winner! 

The results for the first ever "IDA North America Scratch Battle" are in! VERY proud to announce that of the top 8 finalists, 5 are affiliated with QSU: DJ IQ, DJ Vekked, Kodac Visualz (aka Lacerator KV), DJ Spiderman, and DJ E-Na! DJ IQ took first place, which is fitting since he was the 2012 QSU Valedictorian after all!  Honorable mentions go out to Stevie E and Akiko Luv for entering the battle and giving it their all, that's what it's about!  

Stevie E puts it like this: "Well I didn't make the top 4 but it was a dope experience to be involved. This was my first "major" skratch battle and it definitely won't be my last. It was fun participating and I learned a lot. Major props to IDA Canada for putting this together and everyone who took the time out to watch my video. Congratulations to everyone who made the top 4! Everyone involved had crazy skills. Must have been crazy to judge!"

Indeed, the judges included some heavy hitters for sure: D-Styles, Yogafrog, Kitty Kutz, DJ ND, Paul Skratch, DJ Raedawn, and the guys from C2C.  Check out all videos below! 

DJ IQ - 1st place, USA

And the winner of The Funny Battle is… Mr. Noisy! Awesome video man, really well put together and great fun!  Thanks for everyone who entered The Funny Battle, we had some interesting entries to say the least… But Mr. Noisy's video definitely stood out as the best so he gets the Class Clown distinction at QSU.  We'll get a badge for your student page and he's also won a brand new pair of Sennheiser Headphones, so congrats to Mr. Noisy!

Moving on… This next battle is gonna be a good one because it's something we talk a lot about here: Boomerangs.  Whoever can display the best Boomerang skills in a one minute video will win a Top Secret Prize… Here's some things to think about:

• Variations - incorporate different rhythms and speed
• Syncopation -  skratch in between the notes, study the Turnaround lessons
• Swing - swing it! 

If you can incorporate all those things you'll be on your way to winning for sure.  If you need help finding the older videos on Turnarounds, Boomerangs, or anything else for that matter - just hit me up and I'll send you links! The deadline for this is Monday, June 24th - BOOM! 

Alex Sonnenfeld has been busy! In addition to his exclusive "Real Instrument Skratching" series on QSU, he's been steadily releasing a new skratch tutorial each week on a variety of topics.  If you haven't been following him, here's what you've been missing:

1. "Fundamentals"

Alex's first tutorial in the new series deals with some basic movements & fundamental turntable techniques. 

• Part 2: http://youtu.be/0hiZDpLTbdE

This is a great article that was recently published on the Rane website.  It's a history of the hamster switch and includes an interview with DJ Quest, who legend has it was the first to coin the term "hamster style".  I wrote a blog about the differences between hamster and regular scratching a couple years ago, which you can check out here.  I used to wonder why there were so many hamster skratchers out there, and if I was missing out on something because I was on the traditional setup - but I don't worry about that anymore.  It all comes down to personal preference in the end. This article isn't about that though, it gets into the history of mixers and how they came to start including a "hamster" switch, and also how the term itself came to be.  Click on the mixer picture to read the article, or just click here!

I first came across ThatKidNamedCee on the internet through some mutual DJ friends. He was always posting stuff about skratching which was what initially caught my attention. After I found out more about his background, I discovered he'd been skratching since 1982, before I was even born! Read this interview and you'll see why he's not planning on stopping any time soon.

QSU:  You started skratching in '82, and I read that you won a battle in '89? Tell us more about that!

Cee:  Yes. I started in 1982. And until around 1987 or so, all I knew was how to skratch. I couldn't mix and didn't care to learn how to. Records like "Buffalo Gals", "Rockit", and all the records Mixmaster Ice skratched on back then furthered my love for skratching. But after hearing more of the mixshows back then and hearing some really cool mixes, I decided I wanted to learn how to mix. So after a few years of practice, I actually got good at it. Then listening to the radio one day (Majic 102 FM), I heard them announce that they were having a mix contest and the winner would get their mix played on the air. So I entered! The only "big name" guy I remember entering went by the name of "Dr. Pepper" at the time. 

Alright and we have a winner of the Beat Juggling Battle! The winner is… DJ Spiderman!  Here's why Qbert picked him: "Level of skill was crazy, took risks, straight killed it, super funny, entertaining, all that… He even broke it down slow and we want to see that - the real original OG funk when you swing it with the X-Men Style, Steve Dee type New York breakdowns…" So congrats Spidey, you got a rare platinum record coming your way!

Ok, the next battle! Q was so entertained by DJ Spiderman's entry that he wants to do something totally different this time… so for the first time in QSU history, this next battle will incorporate the aspect of being entertaining as a DJ.  Because whenever you're performing,"it's all theatre" as Q says, so let your best character shine through for this!  We're calling it "The Funny Battle", and although it's not exactly skill related it would be dope to showcase your turntables skills in a fun and entertaining way. But it doesn't even need to even be turntable related, just show us your most funny and entertaining video! Although if it's close, the tie breaker will go to the one will more turntable skills in the video. The deadline is Tuesday June 4th, and please limit your videos to 1 minute!

Billy Jam (HipHopSlam) interviews DJ Quest after judging last month's DMC Regional Battle in San Francisco. Hear him speak on how the battle went, his own music and background, collecting records, teaching his kids to DJ, the importance of practice, producing records for DJs, and much more! Quest is a living legend on the turntables - a pioneer of the hamster style and all around insane skratcher. If you don't know his contributions to the turntablism scene, let me just emphasize here that they are many. Read more on the Amoeblog!

Photo by Christie Z-Pabon: DMC USA

Great news! QSU Honor Student DJ Traps has won the SF DMC Regional Battle!! I was there and can testify that it was well deserved. I'm really excited about the upcoming DMC US Finals in August - where Traps will face fellow QSU student Chuck Flava (who won the Denver DMC Regionals). You may recall that Chuck Flava battled Traps in the Dirt Style Challenge last year, so it will be a great rematch to say the least. 

I plan to do an interview with both of our DMC Regional winners sometime before the finals but for now, check out the Official Write Up from Billy Jam on the Amoeblog!