NOTORIOUS International’s DJ Magnum added yet another DJ clash title under his belt last Saturday when he partnered with Seen Up to take the 2018 Empire Media Inc Art of War title before a thunderous crowd at the Sports Hall Tarmac, becoming the first DJ to simultaneously hold the Art of War and Armageddon titles.
“It was something that I was aiming for,0 so now that it came to pass I am very proud, because this is what we work for, to set records,” the DJ, whose real name is Dorrel Romeo, said.
But Magnum and Seen Up weren’t the only memorable act of the night, with young finalist Delly Ranks and his selector Selector Thunda coming for mad love from the crowd, even as the Berbicians bowed out against Magnum and Seen Up in the Tune for Tune final round.
The 19-year-old put some serious respect on his name and was praised for the height of his mixing skills at such a young age, especially prevailing against other Georgetown DJs on their home turf.
“I wasn’t surprised at all at how I did. I had confidence in myself that I would have made it to the final round,” Delly boasted, even though he admitted that he knew to get past the final round and becoming the champion was going to be a challenge. “The fifth round was the most difficult round for me because of the fact that the crowd had to judge the rounds and my opponent was in his territory so he had the home crowd advantage,” he said.
But it was more than home crowd advantage that saw Magnum and Seen Up survive the five rounds against the five other acts to not only walk away with the prestigious bragging rights but also pocket the $1 million winner takes all prize money that was up for grabs.
Though the crowd was anticipating a difficult job eliminating the tough acts that were coming out on stage, the job was made easy after the first two eliminations came about by disqualification after both acts broke the no playback rule, where the DJs are not allowed to playback any song they already played.
The night got started with a warm-up “On Enemy Lines (Anything Goes)” round that saw no elimination and gave the DJs a chance to get into their element. The only rule was that the DJs could not use songs with any profanity.
The competition really got started with the “Engage the Enemy (Anything Goes)” round which allotted each act seven minutes to wow the crowd and get their vote. Elimination was set to be dictated by the crowd based on a raising of hands, however, there was a review panel of judges comprising Selector Clive (legendary Selector), Nigel Canterbury (Sound owner), and Quacy Isaacs (Sound owner).
The first man sent walking was Spotlight Sound, who wasn’t keeping track of his songs, making it easy for the other acts to automatically move forward.
Round three sent Skinny Hype and Platinum packing after their playback mishap, leaving just Magnum, Delly Ranks, Turf Teacha and DJ Nico to move closer to the finish line.
Round four – the “Challenge Round” – saw two eliminations so it was the end of the line for Turf Teacha and DJ Nico. That left it down to a battle of experience against youth and in the end, experience proved to be the better trait.
An outcome that Magnum says was just inevitable.
“I wasn’t surprised. I was 100 percent confident that I was going to win it. The only way how I could’ve lost the clash was by red card disqualification, and I know that I wasn’t going to red card and so long as I made it to the tune for tune round, that was it,” Magnum explained.
