Dubai DJ scratches, spins way to fame
9-year-old’s goal is to one day beat her dad for the glory
Michelle Rasul had just learned to read and write and was already spinning turntables, scratching hip-hop records and making the beats drop. Four years later, at the age of 9, she’s one of the world’s top DJS and competed in this year’s global championship.
At her home in the skyscraper-studded city of Dubai, the turntable whiz from Azerbaijan nodded her baseball cap-adorned head to the beat and showed off her skills scratching, cutting and fading. Her tiny fingers flew across the turntable as she created a sizzling landscape of electric audio effects and recalled how she got her start as a child turntable celebrity — which, in fact, wasn’t all that long ago.
“I looked at my dad while he was practicing Dj-ing and I saw him and was like, ‘Wow, is he doing magic or something? He’s a real magician, bro!’” Michelle said earlier this week, bubbling with enthusiasm. “When I turned
5 on my birthday, I told him, ‘Dad, I want to be a world famous DJ. I’m going to start practicing.’”
As though recounting a decades-long career, she grinned and added: “And the rest is history.”
Michelle, the youngestever contestant in the DMC World DJ Championship, ranked 14th out of 85 DJ stars from around the world in the “Portablist” category this year, the global portable scratch competition. The 2021 competition was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Although she didn’t advance to the next round this time, she’s determined to beat her father, Vagif “DJ Shock” Rasulov, a professional who taught her the tricks of the trade and made 9th this year, in next year’s competition.
“I love competing in battles, I just love Dj-ing,” she said. “It’s my passion.”