Cash Money, Other DJs Get Their Star Turns

Although hip-hop is a discipline consisting of four parts, rapping has easily surpassed the other elements in terms of popularity, with DJing coming in a distant second. Break-dancing and graffiti have been, for the most part, relegated to underground status.

Even though hip-hop DJs who emphasize their turntable wizardry receive far less mainstream attention than those who either produce songs or host radio shows, there’s a segment of the hip-hop community that champions these turntablists as much as the mainstream loves DMX and Dr. Dre.

Those DJs are the stars of the Deep Concentration v.3 Tour, which stopped at the House of Blues on Wednesday. The concert, named after a DJ compilation series and headlined by pioneering Philadelphia DJ Cash Money, featured the DJ as musician.

During his tricky, high-energy, 40-minute set, Cash Money demonstrated why he’s still a viable performer after an illustrious 15-year career. He’s credited with inventing the popular “transformer scratch” and being one of DJ Jazzy Jeff’s (Will Smith’s partner) main influences. On Wednesday, he toyed with the bass line from Gang Starr’s thumping “Full Clip” until it sounded like the drum section from Audio 2’s bare-bones “Top Billin’,” before making a sound effect from A Tribe Called Quest’s “Lyrics to Go” come off like a flurry of punches from a heavyweight boxer. To close his set, Cash Money manipulated LL Cool J’s “Rock the Bells,” making LL sound as though he were stuttering while spelling his name.

For all the brilliance of Cash Money and the rest of the acts, they performed in a virtually empty club. It appears the DJ movement will remain in the background as long as rappers rule the charts.