First of all it was in honor to travel to Atlanta to meet one of the people that would inspire me to dig and eventually spin. At this point everyone should already know how I feel about you and what you have contributed to the Chicago scene. With that being said, I traveled to Atlanta and Presyce was very happy with the S9 and even hinted of possibly purchasing one.

As for the questions I reached out to Chicago Tribe’s SNEEKS to conduct the interview portion because I felt SNEEKS had a different perspective of mine and he would be able to maximize his conversation with DJ Presyce. SNEEKS, thank you so much for your help.

SNEEKS: How did you get the name “DJ Presyce”? How did you get your start? What crews and affiliations do you represent, past and present?

PRESYCE: I started Djing in 93 but it wasn’t until around 96 that I got the name Presyce from my boy Manos who’s a really dope artist. We went to high school together and would practice tags and styles in class, but he was like this would look good tagged because of the letters and it sounded cool so I went with it.

I was in a crew called 101 Crew that was mostly cousins of mine and close friends who were ex members of the Southside graffiti crew WAR. I didn’t have a name at the time and my cousin Beto submitted a mix he did to JPChill from 88.5 WHPK a University of Chicago’s radio station in Hyde Park. He gave him a tape to get us on the radio. My cousins were DJ’s, my older brother was a DJ and since they were Graf writers before DJ’s, they just used the same names. My brother was Sake and my cousin’s names were Merge (now known as Submerge) and Seize (later known as Betorox).

I had really needed a name to go on air with and after writing it over and over and seeing a dope tag come out of it I decided to use it. That one submission changed my life. We ended up meeting DJ 3rd Rail and the Molemen that night at WHPK who are still very close friends of mine to this day. Through Molemen we got on WNUR met Kevin Beacham, met DJ Intel, through him met DJ Spryte, from Spryte I meet another lifelong homie Phil and the Bboy crew Phaze II.

Phil was in Phaze II and when we met there was a cool vibe since we both loved Hip Hop and the individual elements of it. Phil was Djing too at the time and one we started hanging out practicing together and he was like “you know what, you guys do this so much better than I can, you guys should DJ for us and I’m just gonna dance from now on” hahaha. So he was bringing us around and we just got tight with everyone else in Phaze II and from there started doing shows together and would rep as 101 crew, Phaze II’s DJ’s.

I was also part of the Molemen with Panik, PNS, Memo, Vakill and more during the late 90’s. From the day I met these guys, we had a mutual love and interest in hip hop and being around them so much they eventually asked me to be down with them. Wanted to add to Crews- Turntable Technicians which was myself Impereal, Perseus, Supa Dave and Gambit was a DJ crew late 99-02 that was competing and winning a lot of competitions back in the day. All those guys were very influential in progressing Turntablism to newer techniques and ideas.

I also did work with the legendary producer Dug Infinite under a team we called Sureshot Militia. This is where I learned more about music production and song writing along with being tech savvy. Dug is a genius and my biggest influence in continuing to work in music. He’s been involved in a lot of people’s careers from Chicago.

Currently I’m part of Salem Psalms Studios, which is my boy Amond Jackson’s studio name and I come in as a session worker. Whatever he needs me to do whether it’s scratches, editing, arranging, I can come in and help so that the project finishes. Working with all these guys was better than any school I could have paid for. I’ll always rep for any of them and we all still work with each other to this day, we just live in different states now.

S: How did it feel making the mix for Phaze II for their ‘Battle of the Year ’98’ showcase? Interesting anecdotes? Did you feel the pressure knowing you may help make Chicago b-boy history?

P: It was awesome! My cousin Beto and I put that together. The parties we would go to in Chicago had all types of artists and definitely the guy bringing the music to use and he was the one who was piecing it all together on pro tools which was still a really new technology for back then. We both worked on it trying to think of transitions between songs and being conscious of the time limit. Picking the music out was pretty easy for the most part since the crew was used to what we would play for them during practices and knew some songs they wanted to use too. Wicked had his song ideas for his solo, which was the Crystal Method song since it sounded futuristic and he was always calling himself the Wizard so it that song went with his style.
Kmel didn’t really care what song it was as long as it was something boogie. He loved boogie songs and really wanted to do a solo in the show that featured him doing other styles besides breakdancing. We used I’m in Love because the way the track drops in, made for a nice transition and an easy part to loop for a feature. Plus it had that vibe that he liked, synth bass lines on a drum machine beat.

Smokes part took a little longer to find because He didn’t vibe to breaks or funk tracks like that. He wanted hard hip hop tracks with breakbeat drums. The one cut he said who would dance to was Looking out my window because of the way Tom Jones sung it. He brought in a track that he was having a friend of his edit the track would playback at a faster speed which was End to End burners from Company Flow.

S: How did you get involved with the Scratch DJ Academy? Were you recruited or had to interview for the position? How does it feel to be a teacher?

P: I received a text one day from our brand director DJ Hapa inviting me out to the open house and to talk about teaching here. I have a lot of friends who teach at Scratch that brought my name up as someone who should be involved with the new location. Guys like Toadstyle Esquire, Sky which are people I’ve
known for a minute were apart of that as well as DJ Noumenon and Dirty Digits.

I like helping people understand how to get a technique down but I’ll also explain it in a way that you can relate it to other things you do so you have perspective. I’ve gained more just being on the instructing side while listening to someone learning. Same way I was taught by my mentors like Molemen and Dug Inf.

S: What are your career highlights and most proud of so far? Will we ever see DJ Presyce return to the battle scene?

P: Competing in all of the early battles like DMC, ITF and Scribble Jam with some great Djs is definitely high. Being apart of the growing Chicago scene in the 90’s would be another along with my crews Mass Hysteria, Molemen, Phaze II and 101. There was a feeling of unity with everyone just trying to showcase Chicago’s versions of what you experienced and seen elsewhere for hip hop.
I don’t see myself competing again but I definitely still like checking for competitions.

S: With the landscape of DJing increasing and evolving, what direction would you like to see the art of DJing and Turntablism go?

P: I think we’re seeing it evolve more into a part of the performance but not the main part of the performance the whole time. I think we’ll have more varieties of styles for people rondo that with to where more will understand and enjoy it when they here something being done in a mood that fits them.
Besides that I would like to see different swings and compositions with two records more often so that we don’t get too far away from it and forget how.

S: Do you have footage of when you battled Toadstyle in 90’s???

P: I need to see it. It’s on the net I think under Pirate Rumble?

S: What do you consider is your signature scratch combo or battle routine you are known for?

P: I think flowing with the cuts while letting the track speak too. I like to leave a lot of space so that the instruments in scratching on top of can sound like we’re all playing together. On the speed side I was always inspired by Djs like Disk or Babu, they would always have these runs of aggressive scratching to wake things up and I like to that too with combos like chirp orbits as an example. I just go cut according to the mood. No particular cut. The routines I’m always given props on are my Rahzel All I Know juggle, probably because it’s not the average swing pattern most people do with juggling and my Jay z Big Pimpin scratch routine for the juggle, in the middle of the cut routine. Little things like that make a difference when putting your stamp on a routine. Have a highlight in it.

S: In your opinion who would be considered the greatest Chicago battle DJ ever? Greatest all-around DJ (battles, party rocking, producing)?

P: For battling I think we’re still watching the city bring out some dope Djs, I’m really feeling what CTA is doing which reminds me a lot of what the Platter Pirates and myself were doing back then for Chicago and Pumpin Pete, Boogie Boy, DVS, Rick The Ripper and then the Djs before them were doing which was setting a standard of what dope skill shit is from here and to have it compete on a worldwide level. My favorite DJ’s from Chicago always did a lil of everything. I’ve always looked up to 33 1/3 for that balance of skill and crowd rocking. Djs PNS, 3rd Rail, Nonstop. My boy DJ Jaycee in Atlanta is crazy also for recent influences.

S: What do you think of the current state of Turntablism and what would you like to see going forward?

P:I think this was answered already in the other question earlier.

S: What can we look forward to seeing from Presyce in the future? Upcoming projects?

P: I’m always doing something it’s just not a DJ project most of the time. But more from myself on the DJ side. The past years I’ve been involved in recordings and studio work and hope to bring some of that out for my own.

Definitely check out some of the work I’ve done with Molemen, Salem Psalms, and Dug Inf with more to come in the future.