DJ Yoda: ''FabricLive 39''

We've all been there at one point: sat in our bedrooms, making homemade pause/record mixes with our tape decks, convinced that someday our names would grace music history books alongside Grandmaster Flash, Steinski and Jazzy Jeff. But alas, our mixtapes that could've made Spinbad sweat have been chewed up and acquired nothing but dust, and 'cut n paste' has sadly become a term that causes even the strongest of us to shudder, as we recall a grueling day in the office struggling with Excel. But one DJ, hailing from North London, held tight to his dreams; his undamaged mixtapes have only gotten more polished and famed as he continues to commandeer the cut n paste fight ? the irreplaceable, definitive hip hop protagonist, DJ Yoda.

Surrounded by music from his very onset, with both parents avidly working in the industry (his father a manager of legendary artists such as Eddy Grant and Eurhythmics; his mother working for various producers), even young Duncan Beiny's bedroom was no escape, being the storage space for his dad's abundant record collection. His father's cherished pop records were thoroughly ruined when Duncan began learning to scratch at the ripe age of 15. Originally DJing under the name DJ Beiny (actually his first two initials and surname), it was a Yoda toy that sat by his turntables that ultimately gave him a DJ name that stuck when he was 19 years old. His combined loves of quirky pop music and 90s hip hop became fused and intertwined on home-made demo mixtapes, at first modestly distributed amongst the smaller of record shops. They eventually caused such a stir on the underground hustle ? by the year 2000, over 5,000 were being distributed around the country - that it caught the attention of Antidote Records, through whom he released three consecutive volumes of an official mixtape series titled 'How To Cut & Paste.' Entertaining, sentimental, kitsch and musically unbound, the mixtape series brought an accessible sense of humour to what had essentially become the serious, elitist world of hip hop.

"From around 2000, hip hop went downhill for me. It was getting a bit samey ? for me, all the best stuff was out in the early 90s. It was the rawness, you know? Now I think a lot of middle class, happy people are making it, whereas for me a lot of the best music comes out of frustration, anger and difficult times. I just think that hip hop has become safe. To me, I'm a hip hop DJ but my understanding of hip hop means you play everything. The style you play it in makes it hip hop for me. It's why I'll play anything from TV themes to kid's music to religious music ? it can be anything. But I think if you know how to scratch or can feel a beat, then you're a hip hop DJ." ? DJ Yoda