The Doctor's Orders #250 featuring DJ Jazzy Jeff
The Magnificent DJ Jazzy Jeff crosses the pond on Saturday, April 13th to headline the 250th installment of UK DJ Spin Doctor's party "The Doctor's Orders," which has been satisfying London party & concertgoers since 2005! Joining Jeff for the event are Rich Medina, and the tag-team duo The Nextmen who will be rocking the party on 4 turntables!
DJ Spin Doctor's "The Doctor's Orders" are always legendary and we wanna give one lucky Londoner a pair of tickets to #250! Fill out the below entry form and you can win! If you aren't feeling lucky, you can always buy tickets online! The contest has ended!
THE DOCTOR’S ORDERS 250
Celebrating our 250th Party in style
10pm-5am Saturday 13th April 2013
@ Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, Kings Cross, London N1 9NL
DJ Jazzy Jeff (Philadelphia USA)
ft Skillz
The Nextmen (4 Deck Set)
Rich Medina
Mr Thing
Spin Doctor
Chris P Cuts
Mo Fingaz
Chris Read & Nickname (B2B)
& MC Prankster
An Interview with DJ Spin Doctor
OKP: WOW, 250, congratulations. When was the first "The Doctor's Orders" party and how did it come to be?
Spin Doctor: Thank you! The first party under the name The Doctor's Orders was in July 2005 with DJ Cash Money and was my birthday party.
Thankfully it went really well so they invited us back to do a monthly jam the second of which was with Bobitto and third with Maseo, we have been carrying on in the same vein of throwing unpretentious Hip-Hop led parties ever since.
OKP: What are some of your personal highlights from over the course of 249 events?
Spin Doctor: Probably the number of great people I have met and become great friends with through DJing and promoting parties. Another aspect has been the fact that the fan boy in me has got to work alongside some genuine heroes like Ali Shaheed & Phife from Tribe Called Quest, ?uestlove, Just Blaze, De La Soul and so many more.
In terms of specific highlights I would have to say the Dilla tributes we do every year stand out. The first one we did the year after he passed and we had no idea what to expect. We left is up to people what to donate and just threw the doors open on a Sunday night and the place was packed to capacity within an hour, it was nuts! Since then we have built that into an annual event that now brings in 1,200+ people and we have brought over Ma Dukes for the event. We try and do at least two charity parties a year of which that is one.
OKP: How would you say thing have changed from when you started until now?
Spin Doctor: Kinda hard to say. Our ethos has remained the same. When I first started going to Hip-Hop clubs most were playing incredible music, this was the era of Wu Tang, Nas, Brand Nubian, Tribe, De La, and so on but on the whole they were just full of dudes trying to look tough, standing around with their hoods up nodding and you knew the 5 girls in the place had been dragged there by their men so there was no point trying to chat them up anyhow. At the same time I was going to all kinds of parties whether they be indie rock or house etc that were straight up parties where people went to dance to the music they loved and it was always my intention to try and combine the two things. To make an environment where Hip-Hop felt fun and people came to shock out, have a great time with friends and not worry about how they looked or were perceived. I like to think we have done that.
While the Hip-Hop scene has changed considerably in that time, and in my mind a lot of the music has not been as great as it once was, one interesting change has been people's openness to different kinds of music. I put this down to what I call the i-pod shuffle generation. When I was a kid most people were really defined by the music they listened to; you were a Hip-Hop head, Rocker, Goth, Junglist etc etc. Now it seems that people are as well versed in A$AP as they are Coldplay which makes them much more open to throwing different things into the mix at the party which I love and find really exciting. I'm a sucker for playing Paul Simon at a Hip-Hop jam!
OKP: Serato is a sponsor of this event. Talk to us about the effects of DJ software that you've seen?
Spin Doctor: Interestingly I remember booking A-Trak when not only was he probably still too young to be in the club but was also road testing a prototype of Serato. It seemed like which-craft to me. I was like "it does what?" and just could not get my head round it.
I have to admit that initially I was skeptical and held out for a while insisting as many of us did that vinyl was king and that I would never swap over but as the technology advanced I saw the advantages and now I am all for it. I think it's a great thing that break through artists can have their music discovered and played without having the cost of getting it pressed up. On the whole I do try and only play stuff that I own in a physical format if available but now we even do an all AV (audio visual) party where we mix videos which would not have been possible were it not for Serato and the advances they have made.
In my mind there is no substitute for the knowledge of music and the skills of playing that music in a way that makes people want to dance. Whatever format you choose to play that music in be it 45's, MP3, CD or whatever it is all good by me.
