DJ 8-Ball

28/07/2025

14/07/2025

Some quick vids of me at the annual Beats In the Park. I was actually 3 or 4 songs in of 80's 90's hip-hop when one of the ladies asked if I could play freestyle. I said "Oh hellz yeah!" and it was on after that!

14/07/2025

This past Saturday I was invited to hop on to the turntables at the annual Beats In the Park at Niles Community Park, Union City. Thank you to Michael T McCreery for the invite and Record Rockers Crew for even letting me touch their stuff! Lol
Had a great time and felt good to use turntables!

18/06/2025

32 years ago today, we were in a showcase battle in San Jose, Ca. facing 3 other strong crews from the Bay Area.
Billy Campero and I practiced for weeks on this routine while Richard Kim drew up and designed concepts of what our setup would look like. We didn't have the most uniform of equipment, with mismatching brands and looks. But it was handsdown the best sounding. We didn't have fancy crane lifts or lasers. We did have access to 2 very nice tricked out cars. I also recall that setting up took around 6 hours with all the unloading and setups. This all culminated into this mix and setup that night. The only advantage we may have had was my turntablism experience from various battles including DMC the previous year (this was before NMS). At the end of the night, we walked away in 1st place with a trophy and a check. Probably one of the greatest night of our DJ lives!


https://youtu.be/ONgztfeCvsI?si=WDsvxz4dodfe-ha3

01/05/2025

Finally combed through the entire mix and added the track listing (two of them are currently in question and will update later). Probably the one mix I am most proud of due to the amount of cutting and editing I had to do in order to get the lyrics to form a "Love Letter." Apologies for the "bassiness" 😅

Freestyle mix I made back in 1996 using two 1200 Turntables, a Numark 1975 and a Tascam 4 track cassette recorder. Tracks and lyrics of the songs were cut and arranged so as to form an actual love letter to an ex gf that had recently broken up with me. There is A LOT of a capellas layered over instr...

22/04/2025

Re-sharing another one of my older (vinyl) mixes from the early 2000's. This one was pretty much all hip-hop and some skratching too! Added the track listing.

Did this mix some time around early 2000's. Two Technic 1200's and a Vestax 05 Mixer all vinyl. And since it was a "battle mixer" I was able to showcase some light skratching as well.

21/04/2025

Modern rock/techno mix I did on vinyl back in the 90's. Now with track listings. 😀

My one attempt at making a Modern Rock/Techno Mix circa 1992. I used two Technic 1200s and a Numark 1975 mixer. This was another mix recorded onto cassette tape. All vinyl. I actually didn't know a lot about the music genre and just grabbed the crates from my groups library and started going through...

21/04/2025

An older mix I made 10 years. Needed something to listen to for a Thanksgiving road trip. No planning. Just off the head whatever the family wanted to hear. Was my first try at recording using Serato and a Vestax VCI-380 controller.

This was my first mixing using digital media with Serato and a Vestax VCI-380 controller. My family and I were actually going to out of town for Thanksgiving so we wanted a "new" mix to listen to on the roadtrip. I put this together the night before. No pre-planning. Just played whatever we might ha...

25/03/2025

This is one of the treasures from my VHS collection that I was finally able to find and convert.

Rare footage of DJ Q-Bert at a mix battle in 1989. This was at a battle called Expressions in Hayward, California. This was when Q was part of Livestyle Productions. One of the hundred or so mobile DJ crews of the Bay Area at the time. Q-Bert actually took 2nd place in this battle, losing to Jazzy Jim. Q said he wanted to make the routine danceable but of course, showcase skratching and beat juggling. A rare thing to do at mix battles at the time.

The significance of this routine is key to DJ history because it is one of, if not, the VERY FIRST time he showed off a test tone that can be done as song. Although Q-Bert was not the first to manipulate a test tone with the pitch (Robert Watz from Sweden in 1988 DMC was the first I know of), he was the first to make a tune (Mary Had a Little Lamb, followed by Close Encounters).

And it was this video, that was shown to me in a DJ shop in Pacifica, that inspired me to pursue the art of test tone skratching.

And we all know how it evolved from there…

This is one of the treasures from my VHS collection that I was finally able to find and convert.Rare footage of DJ Q-Bert at a mix battle in 1989. This was a...

13/03/2025

Bay Area freestyle legend!

BIO:Sam Maxion known also by Slammin’ Sam, DJ Slammin’ Sam or Slam, is a Filipino-American Dj, Remixer, Producer. During the height of the “West Coast Freest...

23/02/2025

My FIRST DJ battle (as DJ 8-Ball). 33 years ago today!
Check the video description for more info on and my take of that night!

Technically it was my 2nd battle. However, this was the first time I used the name DJ 8-Ball. Since I came in 1st I guess I was stuck with that name! LOLThe ...

23/02/2025

Late night post! Almost forgot the significance of today. 33 years ago today I entered my "first" DJ battle as DJ 8-Ball.
(Technically it was my 2nd battle but I was not going by that name yet)

To say I was nervous was an under statement given I was just a rookie and the talent and expectations in the auditorium.
Nevertheless, I pushed through and ended up taking first place.

The judges were none other than Q-bert, Mixmaster Mike and Appollo who didn't see my routine as a "bite" but rather an evolution of the test tone technique.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to dig out the flyer but I did find the ticket stub.

I will be posting the video up as soon as it's finished uploading!