This Friday, The Lab, Shanghai's only cost free/non profit hip hop/ turntabalism studio, celebrates three years of operations. Founded by two Shanghai DJ's, V-Nutz and Fortune, The Lab has been at the center of the growing turntabalism scene in Shanghai, and it's also the base of operations for China's forays on the international circuit in the DMC Championships. For their three-year anniversary party, four-man The Lab Crew takes the decks at The Shelter, joined by two new comers DJ Ryan and DJ Sense.

SmSh caught up with V-Nutz to talk about three years of science at The Lab, the DMC, past triumphs, and future plans...

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V-Nutz: Well, we used to be open to the public from Wednesday to Friday, 3pm to 9pm, but them we figured out that it's hard for people to go on the weekdays -- they're in school or they're working -- so we changed it to Sunday, from 3pm until 8pm. And so during that time people can just go. If they want to go at another time, they have to call us and book it.


V-Nutz: These days... it's kind of slow after the first two years. The first year we had a really great rooftop space, and we had a barbeque, so like a hundred people would show up, bring their booze and their meat, and hang out. So that was popular, but now these days it's really focused on if you want to learn something...


V-Nutz: I have three partners and if I'm not there, they're there working with people.


V-Nutz: Mostly college students...


V-Nutz: Completely new to it. But we're also getting different people. Like foreign DJs will come in to ask if they can practice, and also people asking if they can do live recording. But we can't do it because we don't have sound-proofing in the room.


V-Nutz: Well, at the time I was a resident DJ for Pegasus, like every Thursday night. And three years ago it was kind of like... hell.

Because three years ago, it was all that bling, bling shit, and every month a new bling, bling club would open. So everyone was playing all that kind of bullshit. And so around then Pegasus was getting old because new venues were opening up and people were always chasing the new thing.

It was hard for Pegasus to keep going, and I wanted to leave, so I talked to Fortune about doing something, but this time not just playing in a club. I thought that we have to really do something. And if we tried to make money, it wasn't going to work, so fortunately we found a cheap space that we could afford, and that's how it started...


V-Nutz: Yeah. [Laughs.] I guess you could say that...


V-Nutz: Well, you know, when we had The Lab, it was at the same time as a lot of other people doing stuff -- like Michael with Antidote and the PAUSE party -- it all happened around the same time. So in Shanghai a lot of promoters wanted to do something different from the mainstream. And that all happened over the past two and a half years. For people who are into the pop shit, they will never be into it -- it's a different world. But I think that more and more people are looking for something good, and then you can have The Shelter and The Lab...


V-Nutz: Well, always the anniversary parties I guess. Our teamwork sets, and we get guest DJs to come in. The first and second year anniversary parties were both huge. Last year we had Kentaro, so that was like 900 people showing up. This year we have two new kids -- one guy from Xinjiang. He took a train to Shanghai for like 48 hours on a hard seat...


V-Nutz: [Laughs]. Hard fucking seat from like the border of Xinjiang and some country I don't even know...


V-Nutz: Yeah. It was a 48 or 52-hour train ride -- I forget which -- and he showed up and was like, "yo I want to DJ." So yeah okay... and the other guy goes to college here and he's our door ticket guy here at The Shelter, and he's really into good hip hop stuff. So he's playing tomorrow too.


V-Nutz: Uhm... You know HBD will surprise me. Well, compared to a year ago he used to surprise me in a bad way [Laughs]. But now he's surprising me in a good way, you know, like 'wow, that's your set.' It's really good.


V-Nutz: The DMC is always so tiring because it costs a lot of money to host that shit, and also it's really... well, to be honest the DMC final in London is pretty shitty because all the people there are assholes. They never recognize us and it's been like six or seven years. Last year they thought I was Japanese.


V-Nutz: It's fucked up. Yeah, they into protecting the European DJs and the European style, and the judging system is really bad too because over half the judges are European and they give all the Asian DJs really unfair, low scores...




V-Nutz: Totally, totally. Well, Japan represents the Asians because they have their own style and their skill level is just really, really high. But like... there was this French DJ guy, like a French techno producer, I can't remember his name. He produced like an electronic battle breaks thing but all the sounds were actually on the vinyl. So when you played it, it sounded like he was beat juggling but actually he was doing nothing. [Laughs.] Like he was still doing things but it sounded much busier... so anyways the French and the Japanese kind of have a beef right now. Well, not a real beef because the Japanese always keep it real...

But I still want to keep doing it because a lot of kids come up to me and want to compete. So I'm in this tough position in the middle. We do all this hard work, go there, have a terrible experience, and then when we come back a lot of kids ask me about doing it again next year.

So this year we'll do it again but maybe it will be the last year. I'm not sure. I'm thinking about doing like an Asian Pacific one, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand.


V-Nutz: I think it's grown in China but worldwide it's going down.


V-Nutz: I think one big reason is the digital advancements. You know. That shit fucked things up because before you had to buy the vinyl and then the skills developed around the vinyl and now its like, "fuck that shit, I don't need to buy vinyl, I can just do everything digital and its easier"... everything on a laptop is easier.


V-Nutz: I order online.


V-Nutz: Well, you know I like Serato and Scratch Live because it gives you of possibilities and things are easy. You can do like live mash-up stuff and things like that, but if you're new and you want to become a DJ you should start with the basics...


V-Nutz: Well, at least three or four hours a day.


V-Nutz: I always like DJ Revolution. Beat juggling I would have to say Kentaro is the best.


V-Nutz: No, never. I think we just do bad promotion for ourselves and if people don't know you, they won't book you...


V-Nutz: Yeah, people know who I am but then it's hard to be like, "and I also have three guys with me and you have to pay for them too." [Laughs.] They're thinking, fuck those other guys.

But yeah at the end of this year the lease is up so we might move. But I'm also thinking about doing like a boutique as well for like sneakers and combine the two, you know. So we'd have the workshops and do the music but people can also come in and buy sneakers and things or just hang out to see the music.


V-Nutz: [Laughs.] Yeah, we also have a guy coming from the UK -- DJ Two Hands. And also el nomo, Blaise, and Jay Soul.

So it's like hip hop all-stars.

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To the hip to the hop: The Lab celebrates three years of non-profiteering turntabalism at The Shelter this Friday. Click here for the event listing. Check out The Lab on MySpace here.

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