This last Sunday, Commonwealth Bar and Stage hosted the Western Canadian Red Bull Thre3style DJ Championships. It was one of two runoffs leading up the National Championships in Vancouver this Saturday at The Commodore Ballroom. DJs from Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Vancouver, Interior B.C. and Calgary took the stage to compete for three spots in the national final and will join eastern qualifiers DJ D-Smooth, DJ Tom Fleming and PLAEBOI to compete for the national title.
Calgary was heavily represented in this competition, having three entrants competing. Ivan Rankic, longstanding HiFi resident, had to compete against his two other DJ partners, DJ Heebz and last year’s Calgary champion, C-Sick. Other competitors were Charly Hustle, winner out of Winnipeg last year and national runner-up the year previous to this, DJ Quartz (Regina), Kato (B.C.), Jamil The DJ (Winnipeg), and Vancouver winner last year, Nick Bike.
It was a well-fought competition that brought eight very different renditions of what they considered a “3style” set. That’s the great thing about the competition – as long as you play three different styles of music you can pretty much do whatever you want. This is not your DMC DJ championships where the credit goes to the DJ with the greatest technical skill. As much as that is very important, they are also judged on the originality of their track selection, creativity of mixing and crowd response. Over the past four years that this DJ competition has been a worldwide event, the DJ that takes the title is typically the one that does something that blows away his or her audience. Creativity and ingenuity are two very necessary skills to have in order to win this competition.
Check out Kyla’s article here to see the play-by-play of each DJ’s set. All of the sets are posted on that page so you can be the judge yourself on who you thought should win. As opposed to boring you with mundane details about the technical aspects of their set we thought it would be more fun to tell you our favorite highlights of the evening:
Smalltown DJs’ opening set. A lot of you may have seen these guys kill it at festivals but you can really see how talented they are based upon their track selection in order to warm up the crowd.
– Hustle’s amazing energy and his ability to pantomime every single song lyric while still staying on beat.
– Kato’s hate bombs – in true battle style he managed to call out every DJ throughout his 15 min set.
– Jamil The DJ’s smile – didn’t let up once.
– The host of the night, DJ Flipout, getting called out by co-host Skratch Bastid for saying Calgary is on the “west coast.”
– If you know anything about Ivan Rankic you will know that his Sunday night set is the fastest he’s moved while DJing in a long time. If seeing that kid with his signature look of banger hair and dark rimmed glasses behind that DJ table cutting a rug with an enormous smile doesn’t make your day, you’re a bad person.
– Nick Bike’s mix of “Patron in yo gut” into “Tequila” – well done, friend.
– Every year there’s a song played by a good majority of the DJs. It’s usually an amazing song and they all have very creative ways of mixing it in and out. Songs in previous years include “A Milli” or “Pon De Floor.” This year’s song is apparently ‘Fancy” by Iggy Azalea. Heebz did an amazing blend with that track.
– Quartz’s blend of party and retro tracks. Who doesn’t love 2 Live Crew, G n’ R and Motley Crue?
– The obvious highlight of the night was when C-Sick started and finished his set with a soundbite of his mom telling everyone that she thinks he’s the best DJ ever and she couldn’t be there because it’s too loud.
The night was closed off by an amazing set by two former world champions, Hedspin and Four Color Zack. When these guys get together it’s like watching two kids playing with their toys in the park. They have the best time jamming back and forth.
Then came the moment we’ve been waiting for all night: decision time. There were truly no duds in the competition so everyone was on the edge of their seat. Third place went to Calgary’s DJ Heebz – this will be his first trip to the national finals. Second went to Charly Hustle – this will be his third consecutive trip to the big one. Then it was down to one name – the winner. The title of 2014 Western Canadian Red Bull Thre3style Champion went to another hometown boy. C-Sick won the title and returns to nationals for the second year in a row.
What was amazing about this competition (and Thre3style in general) is the lack of drama and politics. Eight amazing DJs put everything into a set and three impressed the judges enough to move on to the next round. It’s natural for a DJ (or his crew) to get upset about the results of a competition, but that wasn’t the case on this particular evening – just a bunch of hugs and high fives.
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