D.J. Junk's page

D.J. Junk or known as John to his friends is a b-boy since 1984 and member of top U.K.b-boy crew 'Second To None',

a Graffiti Artist who designs all his own record and C.D. sleeves ,D.J. and producer with 5 albums and over 30 singles/E.P.s

released and also many tracks on compilation albums.

John started D.J.ing in 1988 to mix tapes for breaking to,mixing Old Skool Hip Hop,Electro,Breaks and Soul. In 1990 started

playing techno/hardcore but continued with the Hip Hop D.J.ing as well.

In 1992 he started to distribute his tapes around the south coast of England and these were know as the 'Junk Hardcore' tapes,

these,90 minute mix tapes with graffitti covers featured the most underground techno/hardcore/early jungle white labels

around which John had picked up in London after doing his Saturday afternoon tape selling in Carnaby Sreet and Oxford Street.

These tapes were not just sold on the street though ,they also had wide distribution in record shops all over the south coast

of England and were one of the first mix tapes on sale in the 1991 rave boom before the big rave organisers dominated the tape

scene later on.

John carried on with these tapes for a few more years but this was a foundation for his career in record producing and in May 92

hooked up with Roger from the group 'Tone Def' who were the first artists to be on the label 'Moving Shadow' owned by Rob

Playford.

John commisioned a studio session with Roger as engineer and produced his first track 'Don't Stop' ,an amen brother break

based hardcore track ,then followed it up with 'Rush Higher'.He later got 1000 white labels pressed of these two tracks with

money from the tape business.This record did well and sold most of the copies and 'Rush Higher' even got a daytime Radio One

play in a Slipmatt and Lime dj mix much to the amazment of his friends.

John followed these up with 'Junk 2,3 and so on' these became popular on the U.K. rave scene and 'Junk 2' received an excelent

revue from Dom Phillips in the 'MixMag Update'

Later on as the rave scene transformed into the jungle/drum and bass scene ,John sent unreleased tracks to DJs Grooverider

and Bukem to cut as dubplates and in 93 had Carl Cox continually playing Junk03 'Doit Doit' and Grooverider continually playing

Junk04 sometimes both at the same events.

With the money aquired from the sale of his records John bought his own equipment, an Akai S950 sampler & an Atari computer.

In 1995 produced and released a series of House music singles under the name of 'Blister Sisters' with the label name of

'Completely Suitable'.'Blister Sisters volume one' was a favourite of Judge Jules and he was interested in signing it to

'Manifesto Records' but later on declined due to sample clearance problems.

Some of the other 'Completely Suitable' releases became big on the house scene and John enjoyed widespread DJ ing under the

name of 'The Blisters Sisters' around this time with his brother Colin acting as manager.

In 1996 John returned to his roots in Hip Hop where as producing music is concerned and produced and released

'Breaker Breaks volume one'.

Under the label name of 'Second To None' with a Graffiti cover this album contained a pioneering style of B-Boy/Breakbeat music

with plenty of never before used breaks,scratching and old skool hip hop samples.These became popular amongs b-boys and

scratch D.J.s and sold all over the world. John followed up the album with another 3 volumes and all 4 volumes sold all over the

world and are still selling.

His work in B-Boy/breakbeat music did not go un-noticed,Beggers Banquet subsidery label 'Mo Wax' became interested and

commisioned a remix of Major Force's 'The Original Artform' .Some of his tracks have appeared on B-Boy compilations

'Battle Of The Year' (MZEE),'Revenge Of The B-Boy' (Bomb) and 'King Of The Beats' (Funkin' Pussy) .

Released in December 2000 is a 12" single entitled A side 'Big Mouth' B side 'Big Bread Winner' .

'Big Mouth' features a rap by 'Whodini' over hard b-boy breaks and 'Big Bread Winner' is a breakbeat track with electro

influences.Both these tracks have torn up breaking battles at the U.K Championships where they have been played.

Another project John has started is a series of hip hop and funk compilation albums called 'B-Boy Anthems'.These feature

very rare classic old skool hip hop and funk tracks and so fare volumes 1 to 4 have been released.

John has just completed a best of Junk album which has been release on Mzee's Strictly B-Boy Breaks label a remix of Blade's

'On The Run' which has been released on the MZEE Strictly B-Boy Breaks Label and has also been released on the Second To None label in October 2001 as a white label promo .

For the b-side of the Blade 'On the run' 12" John has done a track entitled 'Girls' .This features an accapella by The B-Boys over a break from the soul classic 'I'll Be Good' by Rene and Angela.

John has just finished 'Breaker Breaks 5' and it is on test press right now due for release in December 2001 / Jan 2002.