DJ Aktive: Soul Activation

In life things change and grow, but at the core of everything is the soul of where it came from. How did we get away from the soul of hip hop music which started with two turntables and a mic? Today it’s two turntables, a laptop, cd burner and Kinkos and boom a DJ is born? DJ Aktive is here to display his craft which inherently brings soul and art of what he defines as turntabalism compared to DJ’ing

DJ Aktive, well the name is self explanatory, he never stops. Receiving his first set of Gemini turntables when he was eight years old, he’s been spinning ever since. Coming up under illdelphia greats like his cousin DJ Ghetto, DJ Cash Money, DJ Q’Bert and of course the incomparable DJ Jazzy Jeff in which Aktive states he learned the art of transformer scratch and the importance of being precise. With these mentors to learn from he had no choice but to exude confidence and take every opportunity offered to him and make the best of it with a sense of humility. Aktive broke onto the scene in 94′ from a DJ Battle competition held in Philly where he proudly came in third place taking a loss to DJ Roc Raida from the X-Ecutioners. In the current hip hop community where everyone puts DJ in front of their name because they drop a mixtape, I asked him his definition of what a DJ is and his response was simple, “A disc-jockey.” Something Aktive does not consider himself; Aktive would like to be known as a turntabalist who has the ability to scratch, create individual tricks, beat-juggling and blending i.e. DJ Dummy, DJ A-Trak who are equipped and practice the aforementioned characteristics in addition to entertaining and moving the crowd without the emcee.

To break down his 2006 resume Aktive had the opportunity to go on tour predominantly the whole year with the colorful and shape-shifting Kelis which resulted in a couple of spot dates with Mr. Nasir Jones, as well as opening up for Beatles of Hip Hop the Roots. Switch to 2007 Aktive has appeared on BET’s ‘Rip the Runway’ with Musiq Soulchild, and is currently working with Sterling Simms who is featured on Jay-Z’s ‘Dig a Hole’, a few spot dates with Kelis and moving into his second year with his 360 Mix Show on XM Radio…active enough? One of this Philly native’s goals is to put out a DJ album similar to that of Jazzy Jeff’s ‘the Magnificent’ but on a broader scale and let the world witness in Aktive’s words, “what dj’ing is really about.” Aktive stays away from what the radio and the other media outlets who have boxed up and labeled rap music and hip hop culture, unfortunately when he’s at the club, “I play it because they like it.” I’ll leave it up to you to decipher what “it” is. At the end of the day Aktive is bringing back the lost art and re-inventing the current misnomer of what would be regarded as today’s “DJ”.