Meet Eight DJs With Very Impressive Degrees

Since the dawn of the dischoteque, DJing has been an almost exclusively self-taught sport. But fast-forward to 2013 and the world has witnessed an explosion of brick-and-mortar DJing and production schools, online academies, Youtube tutorials, and even DJ classes for the tiny babies of New York City yuppie shit heads. Granted, with all these intuitive MIDI controllers and the advent of the sync button, it doesn't seem that hard to master the basics. Below are eight DJs who earned degrees in fields other than the art of party-rocking, impressive achievements that inevitably contributed to their skills as master record selectors and producers. Proof that, no matter what method you use, DJing is far more than pushing buttons and picking records.

Kode9

Kode9—Steve Goodman—is the man behind Hyperdub, the artsy, cutting-edge imprint known best as the home of Burial. He also helped kick dubstep into gear roughly a decade ago with his own reggae-laced, heavy bass dubplates. The DJ, producer, and label head earned his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Warwick, and now teaches lectures on music culture and technology at the University of East London. He also published a book with that impressive degree, Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear—now you all know why Hyperdub's got that murky, spooky sound to it.

Shiftee

He's most well known for being the only American DJ to win the DMC Battle for World Supremacy. Before he ruled the DJing world in turntablism and was an official representative for Native Instruments across the globe, he earned a math degree from none other than Harvard University. To add to his impressive resume, he's also worked as an adjunct professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts teaching a course on DJ history, culture & technique. Needless to say, his battle mixing routines are off the chaiiiin.

Mason Bates

He may not be in the pages of FACT or RA but Mason Bates is a world famous composer and techno DJ. While we're not totally sold on his attempts to integrate DJing as an instrument into electro-acoustic orchestral arrangements, old people at Carnegie Hall and the New York Times clearly are. Anyways, the jet-setting museum DJ earned an impressive joint degree from Columbia University and Julliard in Comparative Literature and Composition respectively. Then he went on to get a little more schooled at UC Berkeley where he earned a PhD in Composition.

J.Phlip

Everyone's favorite Dirtybird earned a degree in Systems Engineering, which probably came in handy back in the day when she began DJing with two belt drive turntables and a mixer that had no EQ knobs. She's crafty and she can mix just about anything.

Nicolas Jarr

The mutant house prodigy was only just out of college when he began appearing in playlists from Pitchfork kids and club rats alike. His complex, beat-driven jams and multi-instrumental live performances changed the game forever, taking audiences on a ride from the melancholic to the dancefloor-friendly. You can hear the influences of the Comparative Literature degree that he earned from Brown University in his album, Space Is Only Noise.

DJ Spooky 

Like professor Bates, Spooky has made a career out of directing and DJing high-concept art events in museums, concert halls, art galleries, universities (read: DJing for old people). But he first earned a degree in Philosophy and French Literature from Bowdoin College. Now he teaches Music Mediated Art at the European Graduate School where you think about thinking. He's also done a lot of legwork amassing large amounts of grant money so he can go take field recordings of what ice in Antarctica sounds like. No—we don't get it either.

DJ Ripley

The Philosophy and Literature degrees of her peers seem like an obvious connection to music but DJ Ripley, the o.g. junglist and "global bass" bad gyal, is all about economics and law. She now lives in NYC, spinning with her Dutty Artz crew, working as an adjunct professor at NYU, and writing about the relationship between copyright, colonialism, and creative culture. Not only does she have a PhD in Jurisprudence & Social Policy from UC Berkeley Law School, but she was voted best dance DJ in the San Fran Bay Area, which is also pretty damn impressive.

Moby

He's known for many things—being an animal rights activist and a photographer are two. Being considered as one of the must widely known and successful dance music producers and DJs in the world is one more. But, like his peer Kode9, Moby also earned a Philosophy degree in college. So for all you philosophy majors out there, who think you can't make a living off of your degree, shut the fuck up.

Kate DJs and will also talk your ear off about music if you seem even remotely attentive. -@K8magic