Disc jockeys keep it funky-fresh

Florida A&M University students, DJ Clean and DJ Venom, have demonstrated a unique sense of style by positioning web cams around the club that broadcasts live through the Internet every night they step behind the DJ booth. The duo hopes that their promoting technique will further their careers in the music industry.

When setting up for their usual performances at H2O on Tuesdays and Mt. Zion on Saturdays, Clean and Venom position web cams around the club that broadcasts live through the http://Blogtv.com. The pair just started the hopeful trend.

“First we set up speakers and turntables,” said Anthony McLean, 20, a third-year business administration from Washington, DC. “Then we use a DJ Program SERATO and have web cams facing us. Most people don’t get to see the DJ. A split screen of the DJ and audience is shown.”

DJ Clean said by using a live feed through the Internet, people are able to see the DJ and actually request songs. A chatbox is available to worldwide viewers to interact with the two DJs during their club performances.

“If there is someone from the U.K. who wants to request a song, we can play it right there,” Clean said.

Both DJs have interacted with people from Canada, Detroit, and New York, just to name a few.

When they first premiered their live broadcast, they had the third highest rating out of all videos in the music category.

While continuing to use different ways to promote themselves through technology, their style, the say, will always remain the same- one of a kind.

In three words, Clean describes their style as “hot, crazy, and unique.”

“We are the freshest DJs down to the way we dress,” Clean said.

Clean recalled a night when they wore costumes during a performance.

“We act kind a weird. Venom wore a mask and I dressed up like Napoleon Dynamite.”

Even though their style is not traditional as far as deejaying, Anthony Washington, better known as DJ Venom, 23, a fourth-year business administration student from Lakeland claims that their approach is a crowd pleaser.

“It’s just like seeing an artist perform, we will hop out of the booth and go into the crowd,” Venom said. “We don’t just play music, we entertain the crowd.”

And the two have proven to be a crowd pleaser, according to Sean Mitchell, 20, a third-year business administration student from Fort Lauderdale.

“They know how to manage the crowd,” Mitchell said. “You don’t want to come to a party and no one is there.”

Even getting the crowd to come out to a party using commercials, evokes a unique style Clean and Venom consistently use.

From using the “annoying Myspace smiley” advertisements to panning music left to right, Clean and Venom try to promote themselves differently.

“We come up with crazy ideas all the time,” Clean said. “We like to push people’s buttons.”

Both Atlantic Records college representatives have been a duo since the unexpected aneurysm of former known MC Malcom “Bigshot” Parkinson, a FAMU student, in April 2006. As a result, Clean, who was originally partners with Parkinson, searched for a DJ and three weeks later decided to ask Venom. From then on, both DJs have created a style that sets them apart from other DJs in the Tallahassee area.

Even though Clean and Venom are in the club twice a week, schoolwork is priority.

“We play hard and work hard,” Clean said.

Eventually, Clean hopes to produce professionally and manage his own music production firm. Venom would like to venture into the real estate field and become a tour DJ. Both have readied themselves for success and encourage others to do the same.

DJs Clean and Venom can be reached at http://myspace.com/cleanconnects.