In the spotlight is New ‘King’ of decks

By Matlida Nzioki

The moment the MC announced that DJ Nelly was the winner of the gruelling national deejaying competition, some sections of the crowd at Carnivore Grounds booed. The 22-year-old Nelson Isinga from Mombasa was all smiles as he basked in fame and glory after beating eight other finalists. Coming from Mombasa, DJ Nelly did not have any groupie to defend him as part of the audience rooted for the first runners up DJ Moh. Apparentely they felt that DJ Moh should have won the prize that comes with a Sh3million fully loaded van with deejaying equipment.

"Pilsner is a secular brand and probably they felt that they were wrong to have had a gospel deejay win, hence they chose to avoid repeating the same mistake," protested DJ Moh who played gospel accapellas on secular instrumentals during the competition.

The other judges comprised of DJs John of Homeboyz, Krowbar (last year’s winner of the competition), Gussy of Silverstar, Moorey of Inferno DJs, Stylez and Space. Contestants were judged on a slew of abilities including beat matching, scratching, innovativeness, equipment know-how, choice of music and connecting with the crowd, as well as swagger. After the showdown, Silverstar DJs were a great crowd tickler as they brought life back to the crowd with dancehall music till the night came to a close.

Success

This is the second competition of its kind, and Pilsner Brand Manager Dan Angima says the success of the first one led to the launch of the second one. This latter one however was marred with a bit of tumult, as there were claims of irregularities and incompetent non-DJ judges sent by the partnering DJ houses in the preliminary stages of the contest.