Now that the DMC's have only the Finals left for the main DJ Championships (the Visual DJ Championships just started its first year), many of the DJs who made an early departure have uploaded their routines online. Luckily for us, one of those DJs is Ruse from New Zealand. He placed second this year in the NZ Finals but he's already felt the glory of 1st a few times by winning Decknology (2012-2014), the premier DJ tournament in the largest city of the south island of NZ. A battle DJ turned pure showman, Ruse is also preparing an EP. But don't think that he's lost any bite in his routines. Ruse has skills to spare and he's not holding any punches.
Ruse starts with Mark Ronson's wildly popular "Uptown Funk" but keeps it fresh by beat juggling not only the original but a pitched up version that could be part of a long lost Kanye West sample. After a spooky interlude, he moves into a Jazzy Cookin' Soul scratch segment. It's not like his scratching techniques are lacking but his beat juggling rhythms are some of the smoothest and most appealing around. And just to prove the first half of that statement, he ends with "War Pigs" to tear up a vocal sample in between guitar lines and also turn the drum line almost into a New Orleans marching band drum anthem. He may not have won due to the disproportionate focus on juggling but he deserves all of the merit of a 1st place win in our opinion.
Stay up to date with Ruse on his Facebook page, website, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.