Melo D on the mixmasters, the battles, and the junkies of the SoCal scene

This week I'm joined by DJ Melo D — a beat junkie, a world champion, and one of the most technically gifted scratch DJs to come out of Southern California. Melo D was born and raised in Cerritos in the early 1980s, right as hip hop and electro were landing on the West Coast, and he grew up hooked on KDAY airchecks, pause-button mixtapes and a friend's older brother's turntables. He got his first Technics 1200 for Christmas 1987, taught himself to scratch by ear on his dad's home stereo, and cut his teeth doing high school dances and quinceañeras as a mobile DJ before linking up with DJ Curse, Rhett Matic and J Rock — the crew that would become the Beat Junkies.

While studying sociology at UC Irvine, Melo D was quietly stacking up battle titles: a Vestax USA and World Championship, a DMC USA final with Babu, and an ITF World Championship with the Beat Junkies crew. That same run of form landed him a job as Quincy Jones' on-air DJ for the late-night talk show Vibe — a gig he says he only got because he had the nerve to force a James Brown routine on Quincy after his first set of battle routines fell flat. Alongside years on LA radio with Julio G at 92.3 The Beat, Melo D went on to co-found the Beat Junkie Institute of Sound with his crew, where he still teaches today.

We get properly nerdy in this one — the maths behind scratch technique, why J Dilla's swing breaks DJs, how the crab scratch was actually born in a Tokyo hotel room, and what it's like being handed a job by Quincy Jones on the spot.

In this episode we cover:

• Growing up in Cerritos during the first wave of West Coast hip hop and electro
• The KDAY Mixmasters and the birth of the West Coast mix show
• Getting his first Technics 1200 for Christmas 1987 and teaching himself to scratch
• Mobile DJing quinceañeras, high school dances and SoCal house parties
• Linking up with DJ Curse, Rhett Matic and J Rock and forming the Beat Junkies
• Balancing a sociology degree with Vestax, DMC and ITF world titles
• The golden era of turntableism and why vinyl forced so much creativity
• The origin story of the crab scratch, told first-hand
• Becoming Quincy Jones' DJ for the Vibe talk show
• Building the Beat Junkie Institute of Sound and what's hardest to teach beginners
• The vinyl renaissance and the case for BPM-labelling your records