It’s been close to eight years since the 2Tuff Crew’s original members got together to throw a drum & bass event. That streak was broken on October 22nd with the return of the legendary Doc Scott (31 Records, Metalheadz Recordings, UK) at club Modern in Washington, DC, 2Tuff seeming to pick up where they left off. DC drum & bass heads recall 2Tuff’s long relationship with Doc Scott.
This special event also supported the new National Wildlife Foundation’s “Turn the Tables” campaign of electronic dance music artists and DJ’s helping to fight global warming. (For more information, visit http://www.nwf.org/turnthetables/.)
The night began with Modern’s resident dubstep selector, Jaybird. His selection consisted of dance floor-friendly tracks, including some original tunes and remixes. One stand out tune was his own rework of Jonny L’s classic anthem Hurt You So. Other tracks he dropped brought back the old school vibe of the breakbeat/hardcore era. Jaybird’s track selection and skills started the night off proper!
Next up was DJ Slant and Bjoo who spun a tag-team set of deep drum & bass tunes. The 2Tuff duo held it down while MC Mecha got on the mic, which got the crowd moving. Both DJ Slant and Bjoo’s sets consisted of new tunes from Alix Perez, Marcus Intalex, Calibre, and the like. Seamless mixing by both, of course. DJ Slant and Bjoo seemed to feed off each other very well and knew how to get the dancers moving!
My tune arsenal included unreleased tracks by stateside artists such as Calculon, Edward Oberon (formerly of Saburuko), and The Statesmen. Once again, MC Mecha spat his lyrical wizardry while the crowd started to get thick. I ended my set appropriately with one of Doc Scott’s classic tunes Technology.
Finally, the man of the hour, Doc Scott got ‘pon the decks. The 31 Records founder spun a very versatile set and read the crowd well, something a lot of DJs these days don’t seem to know how to do. Almost all the tunes he played were dubs from Commix, Lynx, Seba and more, with the exception of the seminal classic Pulp Fiction by Alex Reece. Talk about getting the crowd’s attention! His mixing was super-tight and was reminiscent of his sets from past 2Tuff events.
All in all, this 2Tuff reunion was a great night with great vibes. Many old school heads came out to pay respect to Doc Scott as well as lots of new schoolers. Watch out for more 2Tuff events in the near future.
By DJ Stress (Rich Seide, Secret Night of Science, 2Tuff, Brooklyn, NY)
Look out for a fresh DJ Stress mix of unsigned tunes coming out very soon.
http://myspace.com/deejaystress
http://myspace.com/secret_night
http://www.myspace.com/bjoo
http://www.myspace.com/djslant
2Tuff Group on Facebook
The Secret Night of Science on Facebook
Photo credit: Fitsum Belay
Check out more photos of this night by Fitsum Belay here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sexyfitsum/sets/72157608321384963/
