Multi-platinum recording artist, DJ and producer Lil Jon brought the crunk to this week’s episode of SMIRNOFF’s MASTER OF THE MIX competition as a guest judge while the remaining six DJ’s fought for the title in their most creative challenge yet.
Following an initial battle that saw Tina T, who was eliminated last week’s, try to get a spot back on the show (she didn’t), host Amanda Seales filled the DJ’s in on there challenge for the week which was dubbed “the most technical.” “Invent or Get Sent” required the six remaining DJ’s to piece together a creative set using all the possible DJ tools like Serato, scratch drumming, cues and other inventive DJ tricks.
After some short time working on their sets in the lab, Lil Jon surprised the competitors and dropped some knowledge on them about his transition to DJ’ing and EDM. Most importantly though Jon shared his most important piece of information when he said, “you cant lose if you’ve got the whole place going nuts. Its all about the crowd.”
JayCeeOh, who tied for first place last week alongside Chris Karns, kickd things off first during the challenge with M.O.P’s “Ante Up,” Ol Dirty Bastard’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” and 2 Chainz’s “I’m Different.” Off of those three tracks alone he had the entire place rocking with him. Soon after he changed up the tempo and began mixing several other tracks together.
“I thought you chose great samples to loop and switch up,” said Kid Capri. He continued, “You slipped up a few times but covered yourself up with a good scratch or good blend.” Lil Jon had much more priase for Jayceeoh. “That was creative as a motherf*cker! You did a great job,” Lil Jon shouted. Jayceeoh responded to the praise by simply stating that he just wanted to have some fun.
DJ Locszi was up next and immediately got into mixing tracks from Kanye West, Carl Douglas, 2 Chainz and Deadmau5. Unfortunately his execution wasn’t nearly as on-point as he would have hoped. “Creating your own beat is one thing but making it sound flawless is another and that’s not what you were doing at all,” said Kid Capri.
The Bronx-born Incrediboi followed Locszi with a genius mix of Daft Punk’s “One More Time” that he blended with Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl.” Incrediboi also took 2 Chainz’s “I’m Different” to heart when he called out each of his competitiors following the line “middle finger up to the competition.” While most of the judges seemed entertained, Kid Capri didn’t share the same sentiment. “Today was your weakest set,” he criticized. However Lil Jon came back and gave Incrediboi an ego boost by stating, “Overall you entertained the crowd and that’s what’s really important.”
DJ Flyguy, who has seen his fair share of the bottom all season long, set out to prove that he still had skills and deserved to be in the running for the title. Unfortuantly, the DJ’s didn’t get to see any of them. Overall Flyguy’s set was sloppy and inventive-less. Ben Maddahi said point-blank, “that was one of the sloppiest mixes I’ve heard on the entire show.” “This is not the way I wanted to leave the show,” Flyguy cried backstage, knowing that he was at the top of the list of competitors to get sent home this week.
The show’s early favorite to take SMIRNOFF’s MASTER OF THE MIX title, Chris Karns, was up last yet managed to still wow the DJ’s following the five sets that played before him. Between all the scratching, mixing, cues, and blending, Karns officially won the crowd over when he dropped Dead Prez’s classic track “Hip-Hop” that had all of the judges on their feet. “Whenever I stand up, that means you were the s###,” shouted Kid Capri. Both Ben and Lil Jon felt the same way when they said “that was a flawless victory” and “you just killed it!”
There was little doubt that Flyguy, who was his own worst enemy during throughout the show, would be this week’s casualty, despite having to fight for his spot earloier on the show versus Tina T. The judges had a tougher time crowning the challenge’s victor. “Chris definitely did what was asked,” said Lil Jon. “But JayCeeOh made it fun for everybody from beginning to end.” Ultimatley, Chris Karns was celebrated for the most inventive set of the night and was crowned the challenges victor.
Next week’s challenge will find the remaining five competitors “bending the ten” as they are tasked with mixing ten tracks all of which have completely different song structures.
Check back next week for another episode recap!
SMIRNOFF’s MASTER OF THE MIX Airs Tuesdays at 12am only on VH1.
