im sure mr M. Beezle may have some suggestions because from what ive read on here im assuming hes in the same type of city.

dress code? cover charge?
play some Skynyrd man!
-or maybe everybody should just get that surgery that makes your skin a lighter color like Michael Jackson had...

but seriously, what's wrong with getting blasted with two more whole clubs worth of customers, even if it's not the demographic you're trying for... I say read the crowd and play some "hood $#!+"
if it's what the people want. Just my .02 :)

"Their money is still the same shade of green" tell that to your douchebag manager next time he says some shit like that.

I don't think it is racist to point out what you have. It is a very touchy subject though. Did those other clubs close due to violence? Then your manager might actually have a point. Not about it "getting dark in here", but about the crowds that had a small minority of customers causing problems. Although, he obviously put it in a non PC way. If they closed due to competition between each other it seems there might be a good business opportunity for a new "urban" club in that area.

yup same thing but i cant really get into the subject on here. Ive already got in touble once for putting my opinions on the running of the club in the air. The one thing i will say is that in my city its proving my opinions on the subject are right, since i started workin at my present spot 2 high end spots have opened up. One was opened by a DJ who was tired of all the clubs playing thug hop and was meant to be an EDM club of sorts, that club ended up losing money so fast in 5 months it resorted to "urban promotion partys" which kept it alive until it recently closed and the other was opened as mobiles 1st vegas style high end club (ie read white people with money please come here) and they announced last weekend that their going "urban" which puts the club count in my city at 1 after hours spot, 12 urban spots, and 3 nonurban spots. If that dosent tell you where the money is then i dont know what to tell ya.


on that note everyone go to this site, www.misterpoll.com and nominate me as best club DJ on the gulf coast. Im totally not but i think it would be awsome for my icey white ass to be nominated for a hood award lol

@Howcome yea the other clubs closed due to violence, so the concerns are legit to a point. the big issue is the fact that it went from like a 80 to 20 percent white to black to 50/50 real quick so theres alot of good paying customers that just arent there now and who knows if we can get them back. like i said tough discussion but most of us have been through it

just rock out do what you do best and the people that like the music will stay. Stop trying to force a certain crowd to stay it never works. Just play good party music for the ladies it doesnt matter if its old or new music good music makes the whole subject a non issue. I use to believe that certain crowds like certain music. I tell you what when I discovered how to really play for the ladies and only for the ladies Ive never ran into a complaint from managers ever. I know this may not help you but in the same breath keep the ladies involved with the music. You dont have to play black music or white music just play good music...that is all

i feel ya Remy thanks. im probably just over thinking it.. Just gotta keep rockin it .. Thats always been my philosophy to play for the women.

i dont play black music, i dont play white music, i play fight music, for highschool kids

Its tough man. This is the norm for Boston. Every city is different. We have strict no reggae rules at a lot of clubs. Women love reggae!! Its gonna come to a point where the managers are going to tell you what genres you can and cant play. It absolutely does not matter if people are having a good time! What will matter is what the crowd "looks" like. They want to keep a certain image/clientele and will do so by any means necessary. They dont want to lose the customers they had before if a certain element starts becoming the majority. Be prepared to switch your style up. It sucks.



Lol.

i know every place is different but in my area this mentality wont work because the lil cute girls are wantin the same hardcore bang bang shoot em up BS that supposidley draws the "wrong crowd". It really makes me want to give up on the club and go back to spinnin in the room when im playin some high BPM top 40 ish and the hot girl i want to see shakin her ass comes up and says she cant dance to that she wants to hear steady mobbin or lose my mind

Thats the same type of area im at M-Beezle its like even 70 percent or more of the lil hot girls wanna hear steady mobbin type ish. so when we got the influx of the "wrong crowd" as the owners see it , its not that i played anything different to cater to that type crowd just that what was working before is now to "ghetto"

Same here. I'm pretty close to your neck of the woods Steve F. I was spinnin at Studio 909 in Steubenville. (I say was because it just recently closed) But I used to get bombarded with requests for Flocka, BMF, Gucci Mane, & Steady Mobbin by white college girls. Pretty much all they wanted to hear was radio hip hop & rnb and hood shit.



I hear ya dude. I've only been DJing for 3.5 years, and I'm not rocking huge venues; but honestly I'm almost already at the point that I'm not sure how long I'm gonna worry about playing out. Don't get me wrong on the good nights I feel like I could conquer the world, and that's a great feeling. But I'm so tired of playing the same shit week in and week out that the idea of leaving the bar/club scence and just regularly putting out mixes of the stuff I like sounds better and better each day.

So basically the owner does not have big enuff BALLS to just say no "DARKS" allowed even if your money is GREEN.

Why not? It's easy to find in this store! img651.imageshack.us

I recently said this EXACT same thing in another thread. Ive been giggin out for 6 years now and i feel in my area ive climbed the latter enough, accomplished enough, and earned enough that im kinda at the point where im tired of all the extra BS, the playing to crowds i cant stand kinda thing. Im not to far away from packin it up and being more choosy with where and when i spin, focusing on the more once a month genre specific kinda partys that pop up here and there. I love spinnin strictly EDM and you cant do that anywhere here unless its a once a month genre type party.

^^^^^ this how I am right now. I play out once a month and I play whatever I feel like but also I play for the ladies and do play all the radio stuff to. It takes a long time to find that balance to keep you happy the manager and the crowd no one said being a DJ was going to be easy. One day you find that style were you can play for almost any crowd with little to no preparation. Keep at it everyone dont pack it up don't quit. We as DJ are at a tipping were we need to stand our ground.

Beckys who want to hear hood shit are the worst, they're also the first ones to complain that it's too "ghetto" and go to a different spot, where they will in turn, ask for more hood shit.

It happens even where I live. I'm happy to spin for small non dancing crowds at my weekly where I clamp down the sound even a bit more than I should, but it's a mid scale(ish) restaurant.

You hear it from owners all the, and you either get used to it, tell them to fuck off and find somewhere else, or go and spin in your bedroom. If you're lucky, you can balance it all those choices out and have a happy DJ career.

Im not sayin that i cant play for any crowd because i most definatley have and can.....my comments were more in respect to playing for the kinda crowds i want to play for VS having to play all the BS im not into for crowds i dont care about day in and day out.

That's how I am now. I really don't have much of a desire to be in a club right now. If the money was right I could be interested in working in a club, but I'm not passing out demos and proactively networking to find a club to DJ at. I enjoy spinning records for myself and at parties for friends and family. I am doing a lot more mobile work than club DJing these days. I might try to get a bar gig, but it would have to be playing music that I really like. Doing it this way keeps me away from stupid club managers and promoters.

It is a very touchy subject. But I'll be completely honest the urban crowd in my area do not come to the club to spend money. Most of them don't have money and are trying to sell drugs to make money. They don't tip either. They go there to chill and request nothing but hood music and drown out the crowd that does spend money. Sad truth.

What it does boil down to is business and money. The owners should put it bluntly. "If you didn't come here to spend money or buy drinks then get the fuck out" They ruin one club and then flock to another. Why do you think most clubs have to change formats. It is a constant cycle that just keeps repeating in my area unfortunately.

THIS!!!!!!!!! The biggest problem weve been having at our spot is noones spending any damn money and it SUUUCKS because ill have a bunch of people gettin krunk as hell, im havin a blast and ill have the manager come up and say hey noones made a purchase in over an hour announce some drink specials, i announce and hype up drinkin and everyone looks at me like im an idiot, then 30 minutes go by and its aight do last call and cut the music....then everyone gets pissed because they were "havin fun" and were closing on them and im like look buy a damn drink sometime and we can keep it goin

Sounds like yall need a door charge. Weed out the chaff before they even enter, aint about race, its about broke. lol

I dont know where you guys are all at, but a bar where people aren't spending money? i havent seen that, ever. You've got your typical groups where one person is not drinking at all so they probably order a water or soda for no charge, but typically in any bar/club ive been in there are so many people spending money you can't get to the bartender to order one for yourself.

Generally anywhere i've been, working or hanging, if theres a crowd, the liquor is moving

Not being racist. But the majority of black aren't drinking at all in my area. They don't show up till 12:30-1am. If I can't count on my fingers how many aren't drinking then there's a problem or reason why.

Where do you live?

I live in a small town called Crystal River, Florida

Ok, that makes sense then. Most of those non drinking in the club people probably get their drink on at home or in the parking lot. I could probably go to a club out there and a look like a baller for buying 4 drinks in a night.

exactly. sometimes I have to wait dam near 10 minutes to get a drink. even announce it over the system. but I will put it this way and I'm black. I been to every type of club and there all the same. fights, drugs, etc. if the club don't have different day for different genre then blame them don't blame us. I see guy's buying a $10 bottle of champagne for $60 bucks all night long. I see grey goose get sold for $200 to $400 all night. I see people that work, sell drugs, go to school, and they buy drinks and bottles. all cuz they wanna impress a chick. now me I wont spend that much on a bottle cuz I know the store sells it for 10x less. if a bar or club is close to a store then that's there biggest mistake. club open at 8pm liquor store open all day till 2am. to me it's like this if you don't like to play hiphop, top40, r&b then don't apply at that type of club. I don't like house music or country music so why would I want to try and dj there. most club owner or promoter's have been to other clubs where they see Afro Americans spend big money and be like dam I want a cut of that. come on I mean if you get jay-z, snoop, ice cube, t-pain etc in a club spending $10,000 on a bottle of christol or Ace why wouldnt you want your club to be like that club.

I am in Columbia, SC. Moved here 1.5 years ago from Virginia Beach, VA and in both areas there are a lot of people of color, by this i mean they are not a "minority". I dont see any people standing around not drinking or spending money, nor do i see a lack of business on the part of the bar

Wasn't trying to take a shot at you. It's just my small part of town. There's not alot of job oppurtunity with the economy right now. Especially around here. I just call it like I see it when ppl arrive. My gf works at a restaurant here in town and only gets tipped a dollar or more on a $20 check and that's all races. People just don't have the money. Hell I don't have that much money but i'll atleast tip 3-5 dollars on a $20 check.

^^^ +1
if you can't afford to tip, you can't affor to go out...

Every city is different. The northeast has a lot of people with money, blacks and latinos I might add. We also have a big international population. So the issue up here isnt about people spending money. Its more of what Bezzle said. The Becky's gotta feel comfortable...

^ THIS, If I had to narrow down my venues issues to 1 source it would be that we dont have a cover....since we have a doorway to another club that charges a cover all we are doing is acting like a filter seperating the people who have money to spend and the people who dont. its not uncommon to find all types of containers people used to sneak in drinks and you can see groups comming in and out, going out to the car to drink their own drinks, toke up, snort up and do whatever else they do to have fun without spending a dime with us. I really dont understand the logic because the enitre point to not having a cover is to draw people in but if you dont have any drink specials then your drawing in people who look at a $5 cover as a barrier of entry and a determinate on where they want to go, those people dont wanna pay $8 for a shot of vodka or $4 for a beer. Personally id rather have a crowd of 10 people who dont mind payin a bit extra to show their station in life and avoid the riff raff spendin money at the bar than a packed house of 500 who dont have enough for a tank of gas between the lot of em.

wow thank god where i am alcohol is only legal in bars and clubs , no liquor store what so ever

....wow whats it like living in hell? lol jk....does that drive up the club\bar busniess there? I would assume if thats the only place to get liquored up it would be a million dollar industry

yup you guess it , we make shit loads of money from alcohol in clubs , thats why most clubs here are SOFA KING HUGE ! well small bars/clubs exist but they mostly play shitty crap dutch house and commercial , most of major clubs here prefer some edgier music/underground stuff

almost no drugs in clubs except in some clubs/afterhour spot , and yes some clubs opens nonstop from Thursday nite to Monday morning (1 example is Stadium Club jakarta , a total legend opens like 120 hours nonstop from thu - monday )

hiphop clubs also huge , some of em have like 4000 people capacity , playing nothing but hiphop music , well turntablism is dead though , thats like really underground stuff , if you scratch too much in a hiphop club here you probably got boo-ed of the stage ( i know this coz eventhough im not a hiphop dj's i love listening to hiphop , i spend most of my free nights hangin out at hiphop clubs)

come to think about it beer is legal in some stores , but local rarely drinks beer , only tourist i think

So the term 'getting dark in here' on this page looks like it means that the non whites dont spend that dough? Up here if you hear that term it means the ratio of non to whites are greater and the owner is scrambling because he/she thinks something is going to pop off especially with the latin group.

Funny thing is in the past 5 years, Ive witness 98% fights started by drunk white females both in the city and the burbs. The 1% is some wannabe white dude trying to be black that gets caught in a scuffle with another white wannabe. The rest is some stupid moron throwing out the racist talk (really, 2011 and we're still acting like its the 50s) and gets a closed fist to the dome. Milwaukee is the worst place for racial tension and is the most segregated city in the country.

For you guys that spin at a club that have a problem with the former, I suggest you have the joint 'Glamorous' line looped at the door blaring.

Yep I noticed this too in some cities ^^^^^^^ funny this that is that only blacks and Latinos feel that heat and when white people feel it they call it reverse racism like its racism is only suppose to work one way.....never mind I will get off my soap box

well last night was a night i was concerned about.. back at the club this initial post was about but have to say had a great night. just played more uptempo and had it rockin. serato.com

There's a lot of 30k millionares in the club scene. The kind of guys who want to look rich by buying bottle service but have to split it with 10 of his other buddies so they can sip the same bottle for 4 hours and not tip the bottle service girl.