10 Crazy Stories from the Red Bull Thre3style World Finals

Don't ask me how I wound up in Toronto being a judge at the Red Bull Thre3style World Finals this past week alongside DJ Jazzy Jeff, Kid Koala and Canadian legends Scratch Bastid and Grandtheft, but it definitely happened and it was definitely awesome. For some reason Kenneth Macintyre (AKA Kenny Mack) believed in my competition-judging abilities so all last week I found myself partying in hotel rooms with members of De La Soul and now Narduwar is following me on Instagram. Best believe I am stoked as hell. I also hung out with most of the DJs featured in this video about Toronto THUMP made a few weeks ago.

3Style is one of Red Bull's biggest programs. Kenny started it in Vancouver in 2007 as a more party-rocking alternative to traditional scratch DJ battles, and it has since spread like wildfire throughout the rest of the world—finalists this year included Chilean DJ Byte, DJ Acorn from South Korea, and Shintaro from Japan (who ended up winning), plus contestants from as far away as Azerbaijan, Croatia and Malaysia. Like all DJ battles, each contestant has 15 minutes to prove their skills and confidence, win over the crowd, and show their originality—the difference is that in 3style DJs have to play three or more different genres of music seamlessly. The end result is a lot more about making-people-danceability than just watching some dude with his head down run through crab scratches and flares.

The 3Style is massive in Canada—nearly all four nights were sold out—and after each battle was a big performance by hip-hop heads including A-Trak, Maseo from De La Soul and A Tribe Called Red. I barely heard one Rihanna or Drake song the entire time I was there and I definitely didn't hear any Avicii, Zedd or those other go-to EDM hits. What I did see (and hear) was hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of people going bonkers to Golden Era hip-hop. Forgot about Mos Def? Toronto didn't. I also heard the Major Lazer song "Watch Out For This (Bumaye)" in nearly every DJ set. If there was an anthem of 3Style, this was it.

You can check all the "official" recaps on the Red Bull Thre3style website, but I put together a list of my favorite moments from behind the scenes of what we were all calling "DJ Summer Camp." While you read the list, you can listen to this live mix from Four Color Zack and DJ Hedspin, the winners of the 3Style World Finals in 2012 and 2011 respectively. And if you think you are a badass DJ and want to enter the Thre3style next year, all of the info is here.

CHILLIN' WITH MACKLEMORE WATCHING GROWN MEN CRY
On the first day of the competition, we headed to the Toronto Raptors vs. Miami Heat basketball game before the show. Jazzy Jeff, Scratch Bastid, Four Color Zack and Hedspin all DJed at halftime. The people at the stadium introduced Jazzy Jeff by playing a video clip of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on the screen (facepalm) and then all of a sudde Macklemore was down on the court throwing t-shirts into the crowd. Macklemore ended up rolling with us to 3Style so I ended up chilling with him watching DJ Byte from Chile win round one of the competition—it was surreal, to say the least. After the battle was over, Kid Koala performed his Vinyl Vaudeville show featuring puppets, dancers and throwing records around, and I definitely saw a bunch of grown-man DJs cry to "Moon River." You know who you are.

DRAKE NIGHTS
You can't talk about Toronto without talking about Drake… The Drake Hotel, that is. The Drake has been a popular party spot for the last however many years and it was definitely popping during 3Style. Jazzy Jeff and Thugli played a surprise set downstairs to 250 lucky people while the opening party turned into a total DJ bonding/nerd out session with some of the best sets we've heard in years. SF's Shortkut (Invisibl Skratch Piklz/Beat Junkies), NYC's Cosmo Baker (The Rub), and Calgary's Smalltown Pete (Smalltown DJs) joined Hedspin and Flipout in a back-and-forth set on 45s that made a bunch of veteran DJs scream "Oh shit!" every 10 minutes or so. And by 45s, I mean the little records… What? No computer? Yeah dog. Four Color Zack and Hedspin showed off why they both won the 3Style World Finals, everyone was drinking out of champagne bottles and singing along to reggae classics and it's all kind of fuzzy after that. Kenny said it was so fun that it "felt like the send off party" instead of the start of the whole thing.

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE'S ON ECSTASY
During the day, 3Style had a number of guest speakers come through (Red Bull Music Academy-style) to talk about music, the city of Toronto and how they got started in music. DJ/author Denise Benson explained her incredibly detailed and informative Toronto music chart, which stayed up on the wall of the hotel throughout the entire week. Jazzy Jeff talked about what DJing was like before slipmats were invented and A-Trak gave a pep talk on keeping a Positive Mental Attitude. But the kicker was Brendan Canning from indie gods Broken Social Scene, who told us he got into DJing after taking Ecstacy and going to see Sasha and Digweed.

DJ INFERNO CLOWNS ROB FORD
Although Jamaica's DJ Inferno didn't win the competition he definitely won everyone's love this week. Not only did he arrive a day late due to visa issues (cue Jamaican joke here), but he really brought it at The Hoxton. He played a crazy dancehall party set that made the crowd erupt and finished it by dropping an edit of Jay-Z's "Tom Ford" making it say "Rob Ford" (the name of Toronto's crack-smoking mayor) instead, with a recording of the mayor's speech from the day before. When he finished, he just shrugged nonchalantly and said, "Someone had to do it." Zack and Hedspin also touch on the issue in the DJ mix above.

BATHTUBS & SANDWICHES AT THE AFTERS
Every day before the competition there was a hotel-lobby happy hour where all the participants would hang and regroup, but the real deal was the penthouse hotel room after parties, which sometimes lasted until daylight. There were so many heads in one spot that going to sleep after the club closed wasn't really an option. Everyone from competitors to Red Bull reps to members of iconic rap groups wound up together showing off their scratch tricks, dancing, playing pool, drinking, laughing and recapping. I don't think the hotel was ready for a room service order of 25 sandwiches and an infinite amount of beer followed by DJ Ayres jumping into a bathtub on a Wednesday night at 4am.

NO COMPLAINING, NOT EVER
I go to a lot of music festivals and I am around a lot of DJs. It can get dark. DJs love to talk shit and complain—a lot of times you want to remind them they play music for a living and they should just be happy already. I don't know if it was all the Red Bull we drank or maybe all the construction in the city is giving off some kind of weird fumes but everyone involved in 3Style seemed extremely happy to be there. Everyone was excited to meet one another—whether performers rapping with shuttle drivers or contestants helping each other out with their routines and showing each other new tricks. The vibe was strong. Maseo from De La Soul and Ali Shaheed Muhammed from A Tribe Called Quest even stayed a few days to hang out with everyone and party. When does that even happen? Never!

DJ FLIPOUT IS THE HOST WITH THE MOST
When I first met this dude I thought, "Wow. How am I going to spend a week with this fucking guy?" But DJ Flipout wound up being the funniest and most perfect Thre3style host. Whether he was on the mic MCing the events or downstairs b-boying with all of the finalists until 7AM or in the Thompson Hotel diner winding down, he was never not cracking jokes or seeing what you did there.

COSMO GOES WILD WITH BEAMZ… AND GREG NICE
The fourth night of the competition was held at Toronto's Danforth Music Hall and it was pretty insane. It began with Toronto's DJ Numeric followed by Cosmo Baker bringing out Greg Nice from classic rap group Nice n Smooth as a surprise guest. He had called Greg at noon that day and flown him up last minute, but not before rush ordering a bunch of Flo Rida's lolz-worthy BEAMZ consoles—a sort of fake Theremin-meets-Serato virtual DJ thing—for his performance because… well, do you really need a reason? Greg Nice jumped in the middle of the crowd and got it #turntup old-school style, then Maseo and Ali Shaheed played and it was fiyahhhhhh (duh).

DAY 4 AFTERMATH
For the last night of the competition, Red Bull rented out a club, gave Cosmo and Ayres turntables and a "safe and responsble amount of alcohol" (by their standards) and let them go in. They played a ton of soulful R&B, house and dancehall classics, letting the records ride out, which was good becasue everyone had their share of DJ tricks by then. "I don't know how to do any of that anyways," said Ayres. "Greg Nice, Posdnuous, and of course all these champion DJs from all over the world were there so when they would react to a song like the new Mapei or Joe ft. G-Unit it got everyone more into it. I blacked out some of the night but I definitely remember signing a $3800 bar tab on someone else's corporate card and heard funny stories the next day about hijinks I don't remember. I'm not going to say who woke up with a gash on his head… but it was DJ Flipout."

THE WINNER'S REACTION
I am pretty sure that DJ Shintaro from Japan had no idea that he was going to win the Red Bull Thre3style World Finals. When they announced he won, he looked like he was going to faint and stood there staring into space and looking really confused. He hadn't won any of the four rounds and was actually picked as a wildcard, which made it even better. He could barely even say anything while DJ Flipout was pouring champagne on his head and shaking him and handing him gifts. We were so moved by the whole thing we almost forgot to hand him his giant trophy.