Students in Free Enterprise (S.I.F.E.) hosted the DJ Mixx Off as a part of the “Hip-hop Expo: A dedication to hip-hop” Wednesday, Nov. 4 in the Opal Johnson-Smith Auditorium of the Memorial Student Center. “This is something that has never been done before, we wanted to just give a preview of what’s to come next year,” said Vice President of Programs Anita Jones, a senior English major and marketing minor. As program manager, Jones worked diligently since last spring to coordinate a successful event that needed to be brought to the campus along with executive board of S.I.F.E. and co-host of the hip-hop expo of S.I.F.E. Breona King, a senior electrical engineering major.
“There is a need and demand for students to be exposed to producers, artists, marketing promoters or anything that has to do with entertainment business on the campus,” said Jones. Her reason for coordinating the event was to make it known that this type of talent is occurring at Prairie View A&M University.
In S.I.F.E. there is criteria to be met when attending national competitions, the criteria met regarding the event was marketing economics. This is teaching the target market (that is PVAMU students) the aspects of business.
Five DJs participated in the DJ Mixx Off and the host was Chanse Jenkins, “DJ 1 Mo’ Chanse”. First place, cash prize was awarded to Leeland Bentham a.k.a. “DJ Wall”, of Cypress, Texas. “The competition was close between Mike Reed “DJ Mike N Ike”, a senior psychology major and “DJ Wall”, they both performed well,” said King. The runner-up of the final two was Reed.
The other participants were Trevan Brown ‘DJ Might-E-Mouse,”,Lance Hutchins “DJ Treal,” Marcus Torregano “DJ Dubs Deuce.”
King was very instrumental with selecting judges for the competition. “I have a very big passion for music. Also I had a friend who passed who was a DJ, who taught me to screw and chop music. Then I have another friend who is a DJ, who I travel with sometimes when he is working. Also I have a program on my computer that I play often. I picked up on how to select and use the proper transition when Deejaying a song,” said King.
The judges were Justin Rogers a.k.a. DJ Mr. Rogers, and musical producers B-Do (Bradley Davis), B. Don (Brandon Pitre), and G. Luck (Gavin Luckett).