James Hype explains how he built a DJ career over ten years, starting as a resident in the UK, then traveling to Ibiza, Mallorca, and Greek islands. He paid his own way to gigs, asked established DJs for opening and closing sets, and learned that fast mixing sometimes upset venue managers.
Yo, just wanted to tell a story, hopefully inspire some people. So about 10 years ago, I was a resident DJ in the UK. I used to play in different city, like five nights a week. And then through the summer, all the clubs got kind of quiet, so I only played like two nights a week. And every summer I would make it my mission to go around Europe and play to as many people as possible. I used to go to Ibiza, Mallorca and all the Greek islands and I would just rock up to DJs gigs who, who I knew from the Internet. And I would say, yo, bro, can I play the opening set tonight? Can I play the closing set tonight? And a lot of the times these guys would let me play, and some of these DJs will even vouch for me in the comments that I did this. There's actually one story of a DJ in Mallorca who got in trouble because he let me play. And the manager was pissed because he didn't like how fast I was mixing the tunes. So I wasn't even getting paid for these gigs. I was paying for my own flights, paying for my own hotel, and just getting out there and trying to get my name exposed to the people who were dancing. So it's kind of mad to fast forward to ten years later.
