"When I was a young kid I was the one that was always taking the chances, I was never afraid of anything, pretty much the way I am now. If there was anything crazy or dangerous to be done I was the one who would do it." DJ Chance has seen the highs and lows that come with being such a risk taker. He had become a local superstar before he finished high school, "I was 18 with a Jag," he notes, but high school went a little longer than planned, "I was in high school for seven years, did every year twice except Freshman year." Now all grown up, DJ Chance, a member of the Zulu Nation, is one of the most highly respected DJ's in the world.

Chance has DJed in nearly 80 countries, and up next on the itinerary is Amsterdam. "We'll be there for four days this Halloween weekend for the Amsterdam dance event," he notes, adding "that's the biggest dance music event in the world outside the Winter Music Conference in South Beach. This is my first time going so I'm really pumped up about it."

The people of Amsterdam can expect something special when they go to see Chance spin as he explains "I've always had a weird, almost psychic like, connection with the crowd and can tell what they're ready for. You might see me switch records in the last ten seconds. I don't necessarily play what's popular on the radio or what's popular on the mixtapes, you gotta feel out the audience. I think the Nervous Records logo came from me, the guy getting his hair cut off from a flying record, my boy said they must have seen me DJ because records go flying everywhere."

Though he expects a good time, and some crazy partygoers, in Amsterdam, a city known for being a virtual adult Disneyland, it will have a tough time topping his all-time favorite place to spin, London. Chance explains his love of city saying, "I think the best time I've had overall was in London, (because of) all the different types of music. Ibiza was all the House and Trance, and when you go to Japan it's old school Hip-Hop with break dancers and graffiti artists, but the UK in general, in Sheffield and Manchester, England, was really really well received with everything."

Never one to forget where he came from, Chance still resides in Bridgeport, CT, and he's making sure to spin near his home as often as possible. "Now it's fun to do it because a lot of people in the past five, six, seven years, when I started doing bigger things, a lot of younger DJ's were inspired by me to get into it. I've opened a lot of doors for a lot of people. I've helped a lot of DJ's around the state. I was able to do other things DJ-wise in the state that no one else had done in the state. I brought Hot97 here ten years ago, I brought Afrika Bambaataa here."

Chance actually has an interesting relationship with Bambaataa. Not only did they do the Old School at Noon together on Hot97 with DJ Hollywood, but Bambaataa's son, TC Izlam, recruited Chance for the Zulu Nation. Recent events may have people confused as to the type of organization the Zulu Nation is, but Chance breaks it all down, explaining "Zulu is really a worldwide organization that Bamabaataa started 30 years ago to promote and teach Hip-Hop culture, to show it as a peace and unity thing. At last count we had 6-700,000 worldwide." Being a member of the Zulu Nation has had a positive effect on Chance as he points out "before I got down ten years ago I had no idea all these people were listening to our type of music. There was such unity through Hip-Hop around the world. I wanted to understand more of the Hip-Hop culture and I wanted to help teach that to people who didn't understand. So many people turn on MTV and to them that's Hip-Hop, but I like to teach that this came from these kids who had two turntables and a microphone, nothing else. That's really what taught me to be more open with the music. Before that I was exactly like everyone else, I was a radio DJ, whatever was hot on the radio I had to have those records. I had no idea you could play a lot of these things around the world and people understood the songs and felt the culture of Hip-Hop and I got see that through Zulu."

Even the most war torn areas are embracing Hip-Hop as Chance notes, "we have a chapter in Bosnia," he continued "you think of Bosnia you think of bombs and suicide killings. You go there and they were listening to Pharaohe Monch and Black Moon before they hit here and they knew all the words, but then couldn't speak English. A lot of people always thought of (Zulu Nation) as a gang, (but) Bam said it best when he said 'if we were a gang we'd be the deadliest gang in the world.'"

DJ Chance went from being a local superstar who got into the game "to get girls, there was no noble reason," to being a true ambassador of Hip-Hop. If you haven't experienced a DJ Chance event yet don't worry, he's probably coming to a country near you, again, in the near future.

Adam Bernard

Official site: www.djchance.com www.zulunation.com

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