A product of the late 1990′s Washingon DC rave scene and later hip hop community, Just Charlie has gotten around, musically and geographically. After years of playing in bars and house parties with records bought locally at Yoshitoshi in Georgetown, he worked his way up to playing (solo and with his crew, 2econdLevel) at local DC superclub Buzz which was voted best party in the USA four years in a row by URB Magazine. He performed in Philadelphia at Platinum and then Baltimore at Sonar, opening for sought-after acts like drum & bass DJ legend and label-boss Fabio and DMC champion DJ Perseus. With a few years of experience in the DC area obtained he played in front of crowds in US mid-western cities like Columbus and Cincinnati before going west to Los Angeles.

Musical Methodology

The one thing that has always changed is the music. Originally, it was disco house luminaries DJ Dan and Bad Boy Bill who inspired Charlie to buy 1200′s and start collecting records. After recording house music mixtapes every night and listening to them on the 40-minute daily drive to work for a year, he started also buying and recording drum & bass and trip hop. A few years later another switch came – this time to underground hip hop like Stones Throw and J-Dilla while focusing on turntablism in the DC battle DJ community. Since 2005 though it’s been a mix of everything, playing whatever the situation calls for, whether it’s trip hop at a rooftop pool party on a sunny afternoon or drum & bass in an underground club in Shanghai.

Inspiration

Having been inspired by Los Angeles DJ’s like Haul & Mason and Z-Trip and DC jocks like DJ Enferno and Tittsworth, Charlie started musically diversifying his sets and energetically mixing dub reggae with uptempo electronic, classic rock with crunk hip hop, and incorporating his own remixes into live sets and DJ mixes. Since the beginning Charlie has been rocking Technics 1200′s and still it continues although he’s been employing Serato since 2006 to play custom remixes and fulfill the promise that the current-generation of digital DJ technology allows.

Since 2006 Charlie has been performing in Asia after traveling the world and subsequently relocating to Chengdu in Southwest China. After taking four years to tour China multiple times in every major city and hosting monthly events in Chengdu, Charlie has been focusing on producing new tracks and DJ mixes, as well as recording a Chinese language hip hop album with a local rapper.

Mixtape Culture

Creating and distributing mixtapes has always been critical to keeping DJ culture alive and JC has produced more than ten mixes over 8 years. You’ll notice that although the mixes embrace different theme, they always remain varied, unpredictable, and with plenty of flair. Some, like Hip Hop Heroes, are multi-tracked turntablist mixes recorded live and then fed into Ableton Live, while others like liquid drum & bass mix Looking Up are recorded live on turntables, unedited. You can download all of the mixes for free at his site, www.justcharlie.com