An Interview with DJ Fleg | The EQ Issue 5
If you are a part of the breaking community, then you would have recognized the DJ playing alongside DJ Plash in this year’s Olympics. DJ Fleg has been a staple within the breaking realm, rising in prominence over a career going on twenty years. We chopped this interview up as he was making his way to a record store to do some digging (because what else are DJs doing in their spare time?).
I had to ask him about where the handle “The Octopus” came from?
Yeah, what’s the origin? I think that was my AIM screen name and I just made it (a part of my name). It was called octopus leg, but then it also was the fact that I’m always bending over this way for like a knob, and going that way. And being a producer as well, also looking at DJing like a producer, because of that, my hands are all over the place and you know, it became “the octopus.”
Despite being a resident of the planet for the last ten years, his roots and his home are the DMV. We talked a little about his upbringing and how he became a part of the culture.
When I was a kid, because I grew up in a very musical family, my dad was a trumpet player and then my brothers were into hip-hop and that was the combination of a lot of things I do today. It’s like I’m somewhere in between jazz and hip-hop; perpetually, that’s my foundation for things.
So that was the start growing into that and then, by 2005, I DJ’d, my first jam and then maybe 2006 or 2007 I was Djing maybe one jam a year and then by 2008 it became a little bit more, maybe three jams, something like that and in 2009, I really tried to push myself out a lot more and I really started going full-on with it, so it was just this very slow process.
As we talked, it was clear how much the culture means to him, and how much he feels and embodies the culture. As a DJ whose mission it is to get the floor moving, there are traditional reasons we see and hear what we do.
I tend to look at this as those of us doing this are an extension of this culture as a whole. So, it’s like I’m not playing “Yellow Sunshine,” because I (DJ Fleg) thought, “oh, this is a great new song for me” no, this was established by people that had brought this onto the scene because they were all of that or just above that generation, when that music was created and that was the same generation that created hip-hop.
So it isn’t coming from nowhere. It’s coming from a very specific place. I just talked with Grandmaster Caz and I was on the phone with DJ Spinna, texting and whatnot and they’re like, ”whoa, that was ill to hear those songs at that level on that platform” and I thought so too. So, if there’s anyone that has something else to say, well, all right, take it up with Grandmaster Caz, you know?
I wanted to know a little more of what he meant as far as the choices on what to play, when to play and why? So I asked Fleg to give us a peek inside his approach.
Yeah, it’s sort of this thing where you’re trying to immediately activate, which also might explain why maybe some of my other sets will have these high-energy like transitions or something like that, because I’m used to this world of like an immediate activation, like. I play this joint and then all of a sudden boom, like people who know are like, oh, that’s my s*** and might even be before the dancers go out to battle. The hope is they’re getting hype. That’s the biggest, most important thing.
With the Olympics not returning in 2028, I wondered, given the unique position that Fleg found himself in along with Plash, what did it mean to be representing the culture on this stage.
Just a side note, it’s never been a sport. That’s never how the dances worked and operated culturally, and so I refuse to ever, you know, kind of back down or concede stuff. That’s something I make clear in every interview, because I think it’s very important.
So what did it mean for me to be there? You know, as a part of this community, I feel the need to be able to represent it right. I was really just trying to put on for the culture and make sure I was doing it in a way that was culturally minded, in a way that really represented what we do.
Being that this was a moment that may never come again, I also wondered if he had a particular favorite moment.
Probably the last round with Phil (Wizard), because I got to play the Mexican. I mixed it the way that I like to mix it in, and I have to give a shout out to DJ One Up, who was a big help in getting all the songs clear and making sure that it was all set to go. We could play those classic tracks and do all that and make it feel culturally relevant in the way that we did.
At this point, it was time for Fleg to hit the record spot, but I wanted to know if he had any last words to offer folks.
Shout out to my crew, Lines of Zion. Shout out to all of the people that helped me on my way. A lot of people helped me out, so it definitely takes a village. I definitely urge people in general to go out and visit a breaking event that’s happening in their community.
You can find DJ Fleg on spotify, and instagram as DJ Fleg
