- - -
Long live hip hop — because it's certainly not dead.
There's proof of that in the ability of world-class rappers to continue selling out shows, the dominance of urban acts on mainstream radio and the sheer number of club nights dedicated to the genre.
But Lynn Valley resident Anthony Mar a.k.a. DJ Physik remembers a time when none of that existed, at least not in Vancouver.
"I started doing basement parties, house parties, things like that because there weren't any nightclubs that played hip-hop music at that time," says Mar, 33, explaining electronic music was much more popular at that time.
Amongst his friends, he became the go-to guy for all things hip-hop, inspired by acts like LL Cool J, Ice T, Ice Cube and NWA.
"I'd been into other genres of music too, rock and whatnot but as soon as I heard hip-hop I got pretty deep into it."
Mar had been collecting vinyl records from a young age, and eventually decided to try making some money off them. His first legit gig came in 1995 at Mars, a club which had dedicated Thursday nights to hip-hop.
"That was the first club that gave mainstream hip-hop a chance and it just took off like crazy, like 300 people lined up outside on a Thursday night," says Mar.
"After that it started to pop up . . . and then there seemed to be one really good hip-hop night on every night of the week, but now you have like five or six."
Currently, Mar is a resident DJ at three clubs in downtown Vancouver -- Joseph Richard, Tunnel and Canvas. He's also done a stint on The Beat 94.5 FM and has opened up for a number of high profile celebrities, including Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. He remembers opening for rap superstar Nas as a rookie at the B.C. Pavilion -- now known as Edgewater Casino.
"Before that I had only been in front of maybe 400 people and then to go in front of 4,000 people. That was my first really big concert," he says.
"I still get nervous at big concerts. I don't think I messed up but I did play one of Nas' songs, which I didn't know was a big no-no -- to play the artists' song before their concert."
Naturally, Mar has done a lot of travelling for work and says Las Vegas and Miami rank amongst the best cities to play in.
"My favourite is probably Las Vegas. There's always a huge hip-hop presence there, there are non-stop concerts, non-stop events."
It helps that technology and the use of software programs like Serato allow him to leave his crates of records at home while still using turntables.
"You just queue up the song on your computer, use the turntable and it plays pretty much just like vinyl," he says.
"Pretty much all urban DJs still use turntables, in the electronic scene some people use CDs but still a lot of them use turntables too."
As for the new school DJs, who only need their laptops to mix songs, he says it's "weird."