A fistfight broke out at the IMS Engage conference between representatives of Hashtag Management and Diplo manager Kevin Kusatsu, after a panel pairing Instagram founder Kevin Systrom and Diplo.

During the panel, Diplo hinted that DJ BL3ND — a social media phenom with over 133K Twitter followers and three million Facebook fans — might have purchased some of those fans, claiming that “he only plays shows in the OC.”

During the Q&A period after the panel, Hashtag Management founder and DJ BL3ND manager Steven Haddad addressed Diplo from the audience, saying that BL3ND had sold out events in New York and “hadn’t even played in the OC” in awhile. From the back of the room, Kusatsu shouted “Shut up,” seemingly unprovoked and out of context. But Diplo backtracked graciously, and gave BL3ND props for some of his early YouTube videos.

After the panel was over, Haddad and Kusatsu seemed to be having a civil conversation at the side of the room before an aggressive fight began very quickly. It was unclear who threw the first punch, but Satien Mehta of Haddad’s Hashtag Management — who was standing next to Haddad — was hit during the altercation. The two men had to be forcibly separated and continued to go at each other after IMS officials intervened.

Haddad returned to the hall after the fight and was seen speaking with security. Kusatsu did not reappear.

Both DJs shared their thoughts over twitter.

The IMS [International Music Summit] Engage conference is held at the beginning of the Ibiza season and is presented by Pete Tong.

Posted by Kerri Mason (via Billboard)

Will.i.am’s fourth studio album, #willpower, indicates strong electro-pop influences with lead singles including the Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello produced “This Is Love” and the Basto written “Scream & Shout.” Other than these collaborators, Will.I.Am had no other EDM producers come to his aid — at least to their knowledge. Today, Will’s VEVO uploaded the fifth track from the album, “Let’s Go” alongside Chris Brown, and the preview has the dance music community up in arms. ”Let’s Go” appears to be a blatant ripoff of Arty and Mat Zo‘s Anjunabeats release, “Rebound,” and not just a sample, the entire track. Listen for yourself after the break…

Will.i.am ft. Chris Brown – Let’s Go

Arty & Mat Zo – Rebound

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This Saturday we proudly present the return of Southern California’s #1 club night “House Of Dreamz” taking place at Yost Theater in the artist district of Downtown Santa Ana.

XS Nightclub (Las Vegas) resident DJ Dave Fogg returns to headline the night once again. For those who experienced our first “Lost Galaxy” party last year you know this event will not be anything short of a spectacle. For those in the Southern California area who have yet to experience a House of Dreamz we highly suggest you cancel whatever you’re doing this Saturday night and meet us at the Yost Theater! Dream, but don’t sleep!

Here are a couple pics from our last event in February inside the Yost Theater.

Photo credit: Taylor Layne

Photo credit: Taylor Layne

Photo Credit: Taylor Layne

Photo credit: Taylor Layne

DJ Alex Dreamz drops another certified banger tried & tested throughout the world. Two of the biggest club track in Las Vegas & Los Angeles come together as one. Drop this one at your next club event and watch the crowd go crazy!

Make sure you stay connected with Alex on Soundcloud. He is currently working on an all new mash up pack that will be released soon to the public as well as some original tracks we will be previewing on the blog soon.

– David Miller

As a DJ, one of your least favorite things to do is switch laptops in between sets. In this video the good folk at DJ tech tools share a couple cool ways to switch out. Worth the watch.

– David

Photo Credit: Dancing Astronaut

From the beach to the sandwich shop, from the hotel to the pool, and all the way to the airport, everyone was talking about Hardwell during Miami Music Week. The acclaimed number six DJ in the world was fresh off his weekend one Ultra Music Festival set turned phenomenon and was the instant favorite of all three days. Fans didn’t even have to be at Bayfront Park to experience what the commotion was all about. His entire set was streamed live from UMFTV and 80,000 viewers tuned in to share Ultra’s highlight outing with those in attendance and those on Twitter who contributed to the hashtag trends of #Hardwell and #UltraLive.

After delivering music from 7pm to 8pm, a speechless and sweat-drenched Robbert van de Corput walked off stage and referred to his set as “the best gig [he’s] done so far.” That’s exactly what he said last year on the same stage, but he didn’t hesitate for a second to acknowledge that he’s topped himself in 2013. The magic was felt on his side of the booth, but what made Hardwell’s set so illustrious for fans worldwide? Hint: It wasn’t Lil’ Jon.

Quick mixing, diverse selections, quicker mixing

Opening with the gracefully anthemic introduction edit of “Spaceman,” Hardwell was greeted by the main stage crowd with a warm welcome. He moved into its Above & Beyond bootleg, an upcoming collaboration with MakJ, the vocal mix of “Calling,” and “Apollo” with two of its brand new remixes. It may appear like half of a set list, but for Hardwell it was only the first ten minutes.

Before fans could even situate themselves within the body-to-body crowd, Hardwell brought a multitude of styles and touched upon sounds from orchestral to trance to big room to progressive to melodic to dubstep. That’s right, he covered almost every electronic genre in ten minutes to craft his signature unrelenting energy. Hardwell’s quick mixing through a variety of sounds had fans itching for more after mere seconds, anticipating the next drop before they’ve finished jumping to the previous one, curious to know what’s coming next and thrilled when it does. Where most DJs play out their records in their entirety and allow an audience to lose their spark, Hardwell doesn’t let a single fan out of his grips — not for a second, and surely not for the first ten minutes.

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World-renowned hotel reviewer, master DJ and owner of Fool’s Gold, A-Trak has just begun his new monthly short series titled Short Cuts. After the success of his prior montage and routine of Money Making, Alain Macklovitch, more commonly known as A-Trak has decided to begin this new series of these mini episodes, now debuting through POTATO – the electro audio-visual collective made possible in parts by Diplo, Skrillex and the shredding whiz himself, A-Trak.

If you haven’t been regularly following these wicked episode cuts where deconstruction is at the forefront, get on it; easily one of the most entertaining things to absorb on the regular! A-Trak also kicks off his ‘April Fools’ tour April 2 in Los Angeles.

The numbers are officially in. Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience” has managed to sell an impressive 968 thousand copies in its debut week, just barely missing the one-million mark on his third solo album.

After a week of building speculation, “Billboard” is reporting that the star’s comeback album earned him an easy number one debut on the album charts. It was also the best sales week of his solo career, topping his previous two efforts by a significant number.

“The 20/20 Experience” saw the best first week of sales since Taylor Swift’s “Red” sold one-point-two million last October. The album, which features hit singles “Suit & Tie” and “Mirrors,” also gave JT the third-biggest sales week ever for a solo male artist, after Usher’s “Confessions” and Garth Brooks’ “Double Live.”

Photo credit: Jrock McNasty

This past week we were back in Las Vegas to mingle with the DJs, promoters, and nightclub operators  at the Nightclub & Bar convention but, most importantly, we were in sin city for a special birthday gathering to celebrate a very important member of the Club Killers family JD Live! 

Special thank you to all the DJs who came out for the dinner and celebrated with us afterwards at JD’s residency, Surrender Nightclub inside The Encore Hotel. A very special thank you to the lovely DJ Jenna Palmer for bringing us all together. To say thank you for all those birthday wishes JD is hooking you up with an hot new bootleg pack. What a class act. Happy birthday JD Live.  CLICK HERE TO GO DOWNLOAD.

Connect with JD Live
Facebook – www.facebook.com/djjdlive
Twitter – www.twitter.com/jdlive

Photo Credit: Insomniac

Well, that was a bust. Beyond Wonderland proved to me one of two things: A) I’m hella lazy and B) I’m hella out of shape. And so was everyone else—and I’m not just talking about the girls who really, really, REALLY should understand walking around in your panties is a privilege for a select few, not a right for everyone.

I’ll back it up a bit. In case you’re out of the loop, Insomniac Event’s Beyond Wonderland was held on Saturday, March 16, making the move from its previous home at the NOS Center all us ravers have become so familiar with. But change is good, right? Eh, not so much in this case. While the new location at the San Manuel Amphitheater and Grounds was waaaay more picturesque tucked away in the hills (making cell phone service at a festival even worse than ever), it was those darn hills that posed the biggest challenge for sober and sauced partiers alike.

Photo Credit: Insomniac

If you’re like me, you enjoy bouncing around from stage to stage to soak in as many sets as possible. But I didn’t know “hiking stick” was an accessory I should have added to my arsenal because the sheer magnitude and terrain of schlepping back and forth, up and down a steep hill would suck up so much of my music-listening time. After about the fourth or fifth time nearly tumbling like Jack and Jill on the crowded hill, I gave up and parked my tired ass in the VIP area the main stage for the rest of the night.

But what about the music? Thankfully that’s where things got better, and least for a bit. One of the earlier sets of the day (and atop ye old big-ass hill) was that of Blake Jarrell, doing his damnedest to rock out on the Madhatter’s Castle stage and successfully drew ’em in. Though my friends and I did dub this particular stage the “Backyard BBQ stage” because of the ghetto-ass pop-up awnings that were put over the booth for shade. C’mon, Insomniac, you’ve built the largest temporary tent structure in the U.S. before! Spring for something with more pizzazz.

Photo Credit: Insomniac

Standouts of the day included deep/tech house spinner Trent Cantrelle—who’s already got dope productions and had the main Queen’s Domain stage rocking out without copping out. Bassjackers up next apparently didn’t get the memo and I could have dipped my over-priced nachos in all that cheese he was banging out. Thankfully Umek saved the day and educated the crowd with legit techno whether the crowd knew they just got an important lesson or not.

After missing all of Markus Schulz because a predetermined meetup was—you guessed it—back up that fucking hill, thus missing his entire set because walking back and forth took so long, the torture began with the same obnoxious outdated Dirty Dutch crap Chuckie was playing earlier in the day at Ultra. Dude. Your set was broadcasted on Sirius XM at the exact time people were making the trek from L.A. to San Bernardino and stuck in freeway traffic. Quit being as lazy as I am with my walking and mix it up a bit. Lord knows you make enough money to put in some effort. Oh and by the way, whatever song you shouted out as “your new track” sounds like all the other shit that’s out.

Photo Credit: Insomniac

The nightmare continued with David Guetta. Always willing to give DJs I can’t stand one more chance, I figure the vibe at Beyond Wonderland would tip him off that this is a festival and you can take some risks. Nope. Same Guetta, different day. Boring. And closing out the night, Steve Angello, who claims he wants to dig deeper, could have done that. But I didn’t stick around to find out because when debating to stay till the end to find out what direction he was gonna go, leaving early to try to beat parking lot traffic and get back to L.A. before the sun was up took precedence. I still think I would have gotten a lot more set absorption in (and BETTER sets from lesser-known DJs) if it was still at NOS and you could move freely throughout the festival. That or I’m just a jaded old skool raver whining about the good ol’ days. But if it’s at the same venue next year, I’m getting a fucking Hoveround and giving it another go.

-The Nightclub Ninja
@NightclubNinja

*These are personal views of Nightclub Ninja, not those of ClubKillers.com.

Photo credit: Rukes

First off, a big HELLO to all the Club Killers family worldwide. I’m writing this merely a few hundred feet away from the massive festivities that took over my block for the past weekend, known as Ultra Music Festival (UMF). I had the pleasure of attending all three days during Weekend 1 and I must say I had an amazing time. I’m excited to bring you a first-hand account from the eyes of a local DJ born and raised in Miami, who’s seen this festival grow and morph over the years into the behemoth it is today.

Day 1 I took it a bit easy, catching Nicky Romero, John Digweed, Afrojack & Swedish House Mafia.  As the sun set, Nicky Romero kept the crowd energy high, limiting his set to mostly familiar tracks and remixes of his own tracks. I wasn’t planning on catching Afrojack’s set, but I ended up there anyway to hear his bleepy-bloopy performance mostly composed of his own records, plus a few off-key bootlegs and even a sound issue midway through his set which allowed me a much-needed bathroom break. Swedish House Mafia kept the crowd engaged with an exciting video & light show while playing a collection of their hits with a dash of new tunes. Many people were raving over their performance the day after, but personally I liked their “set” at last year’s Masquerade Motel better. Although I wasn’t expecting to hear something new or groundbreaking, their set left me wanting a bit more, especially for their second to last performance as a trio.

Photo credit: Rukes

Day 2 started off more enjoyable with a high-energy set from Chuckie, although I could have done without him asking everyone to “Put your hands up, put your fucking hands up” literally every 2 minutes. He had a couple of rough transitions in his 1-hour set but at least he was actually DJing live which has to count for something nowadays. My favorite set of the weekend belonged to Hardwell whose awesome balance of new & familiar tracks brought continuous energy that didn’t let the crowd breathe for more than 10 seconds. I was surprised to hear him drop the Steve Aoki Remix of “Pursuit of Happiness”, but it shows how in tune he is with the people, serving up a brand new track and following it up with a crowd favorite. Hardwell is a sick DJ indeed, and I was very impressed.  After Hardwell, I was amped to check out Dirty South who did not disappoint. He played some dirty synths and grooves that had the crowd going nuts and packed in all his well-known records in a way that was meant to satisfy Dirty South fans as well as those who may not have been up on game. After this I ran to check out Kaskade at the Main Stage before I had to cut my night short to go DJ. I would say Kaskade played a set that was just slightly above average compared to what I’ve heard from him live.

Photo credit: Ask Media

Day 3 was my favorite day hands down. I started off the afternoon with Thomas Gold who completely tore the stage to shreds. His super clean transitions, quick mixes and build-ups really got the crowd engaged and didn’t allow for any downtime or lapses during his set. Mr. Gold played straight banger after banger all mixed with intention and precision like a true DJ. I stayed to hear Alesso for a bit although I had heard him play twice before and found it super boring.  This time, he actually surprised me and played a way harder set than I thought he was capable of. Kudos to Alesso for changing my mind about him with this set. Tommy Trash was a bit of a bore, playing mostly his own records to a 1/8 capacity Main Stage, which gave me the perfect reason to run over and check out Flosstradamus, who I had never experienced live. This was definitely the most packed this stage had been all weekend and everyone was going APE SHIT. Between a mix of Trap, Dubstep and God knows what else, they had the crowd going just about as crazy as they had been over the three days. Wolfgang Gartner served up a dope set, mostly comprised of his own music, but we all know how great that sounds. I stayed after to hear Steve Aoki play some dope new songs at the beginning of his set that were well received by the crowd, but regretfully I didn’t stick around long enough for any cake throwing. Major Lazer was up next and they had the Amphitheater going bananas, like a house party with 3,000 of your closest friends all losing it. They played a wild mix of music including Moombah, Dancehall, Trap, Hip-Hop, Electro, basically if it had a beat, they were open to playing it. The crowd went nutty when Diplo instructed everyone to take their shirts off and join him in a shirt-waving motion a-la Petey Pablo and they even got the whole place crunk by playing local favorite Ace Hood’s record “Bugatti”. Snoop Dogg took the stage right after and although I was scared he was going to do a whole Snoop Lion schtick, he actually stuck to his guns and delivered an incredible performance of all his hits, with the DPG homies Daz & Kurupt joining him for the first half of his set. I was surprised to see that many people at the Live Stage for Snoop with Tiesto on one end and Bassnectar on the other, but the crowd was really into it, myself included. I lost myself in a sea of people after that for Tiesto’s performance, but since I was packed in between an ocean of people I just dedicated myself to making it out alive rather than paying attention to his set.

Photo credit: Rukes

All in all I had a great weekend at UMF. I can definitely vouch for the proliferation of commercial House & Electro music at this year’s festival as compared to years past, but I’m also glad to see them embracing other genres by including Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd, Flosstradamus, Matt & Kim and a plethora of Indie acts. The only thing I’d like to see more of at Ultra would have to be local talent. There has always been local talent sprinkled in at UMF throughout it’s 15 year run, but with so many larger than life names in the EDM world nowadays, those days of Local DJ’s getting a shot to play at UMF seem to be long gone….

– DJ Obscene

(DJ Obscene is long time Miami DJ known for his popular weekend mixshow “Club 100” on Miami radio staple Y100.7 & a Club Killers offical DJ. For more info on Obscene please visit www.obscenesounds.com)

I’m sitting here at the KIIS FM studios in Burbank, California trying to think of what to write for my first blog post here on the Club Killers Blog. What really interest you? What do you really find intriguing? Same things that arouse my curiousity? I’d like to think most of us are essentially from the same cut, hard working people trying to take it the next level regardless of what level in your respective field you’re at. If not? Ask yourself “what did I do today to make myself better?”. Really, think about it. We “should” keep pushing our own creativity & consistenly be refining our finely honed skills, Right? (If you’re not a DJ insert your own career & apply it to your own trade, it works out.  Trust me. I’m not a journalist. LOL)

In my field, that of  a DJ (radio/club/etc) it  has changed so much since I started in 1996, the technology, the style, & in particular the ridiculous pay rates some DJs are garnering. One thing has not changed is my unconditional love & fascination with the DJ culture, music & a DJs mind. I’ve always loved talking to DJs, what songs they love, how people react to when they play them at different clubs, touring/city experiences, etc. ClubKillers.com has in actual fact made this interest of mine grow immensly. Because of this site directly, I’ve had a chance to sit across from local historic pub DJs in Ireland to worldwide traveling DJs in Singapore, have some drinks with them, shoot the shit, & step in to their minds a bit to share some experiences of the DJ life. For example, it’s rather amazing to me to contemplate how DJ Bento, who is American born, has lived in Osaka, Japan for 6 years making a living off being lawyer by day & DJ by night. And still managed to build his own brand to become a international touring DJ! Had the honor of sharing stories with him over some excellent sushi in the beautiful city of Osaka this past month. I wish him well on his next venture, leaving lawyer life and focusing his efforts on business in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

However, to get straight to the point & conclude this huge story I’m writing here I just wanted to take a few moments out & say thank you to the entire Club Killers faithful. This brand has truly been the underdog, nobody who was anybody believed in it at the fruition except for JD Live, John Cha, DJ Angle & David. We will keep changing the site, hopefully for the better (If not, we need to hear from you!). To me it’s like our Disneyland, it won’t ever be complete. I promise to continue to immerse myself in to the DJ culture & try to help bring to you what we feel is relevant to the working DJ. We will continue to take the extra step & put in that extra work to separate us from the pack, elevating our craft but at the same time helping yours.

Keep looking ahead.
– Alex