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ChUCKiePhotographed by sean mac andrew

is your CD missing?Chuck a tantrum at your newsagent

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child’splay

He’s the Suriname-born Dutch DJ who took house music to Vegas, brought hip hop attitude to house and who throws some of the most incredible, energy-filled

parties on the planet. Meet DJ Chuckie, the new international superstar who’s making it all look easy

Wo r d s P h i l D u d m a n A d d i t i o n a l r e p o r t i n g D i g b y

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The quickesT rouTe from the suites of the cosmopolitan hotel to the Marquee Nightclub on the 17th floor is a complicated one. The first sight to emerge from the maze of staff-only short-cuts and service elevators is an MTV cameraman, walking haphazardly backwards, one arm stretched behind him in warning. Next come two burly security guards, muttering into their earpieces. in their wake, striding purposefully despite the fact that he’s just woken up, comes chuckie.

Wearing T-shirt and jeans and standing about 5’5”, his name is emblazoned on a pair of custom red Adidas sneakers and spelled out on the side of his V-Moda headphones in the case in his hand: ‘chuckieTM’. in bold white lettering on black, it’s a logo which, with the opening of a final door, becomes amplified like the volume around us – splashed across TV screens, pillars and huge LeD displays which shine like the expensive diamond stud in his left ear and the sparkling lights seen through the plane window just three hours earlier as Mixmag flew into the madness of Las Vegas.

“DJ chuckie’s in the building!” hollers one fan, clasping the DJ’s hand with brotherly bravado, before chuckie takes to the stage and opens his set to an explosion of glitter cannons, dry ice, whooping calls from the crowd and raunchy dancing girls in suspenders and stockings, as a Dutch flag swoops left and right from the balcony above. ‘Who is reADY To JuMP’ reads the chuckie’s T-shirt; he bellows the question into the microphone, leaving a sea of red glowsticks to bounce their answer.

Yet ‘What happens in Vegas’, the title of chuckie’s huge collaboration with fellow Dutchman Gregor salto, sums up the euphoria around a DJ who has turned a boyhood dream into an incredible reality, injected-big room house music with hip hop attitude and built his brand, Dirty Dutch, into one of the biggest parties in the world.

Mixmag joined the 33-year-old DJ, real name clyde Narain, for a tour of the us West coast, taking in four bass-crunching sets in Las Vegas, san Francisco, san Diego and Los Angeles in just three nights. his ambition, drive, and knack of turning both questions and situations to his advantage resembled a game – one in which, true to his hip hop image, he’s one hell of a player…

“A s i ToLD you earlier, if you don’t demand things of these people, they will never do anything for you,” chuckie tells us – having previously

mentioned this motto to us in private. But this time he’s in the midst of a perfectly choreographed moment, verbally tearing a very sheepish looking promoter a new one at a live venue in small-town usA. The party, the third show in about 40 hours so far, has resembled an amateur night on the technical front, with some ‘recommended contractors’ rigging up a god-awful soundsystem, failing completely with one of the dry ice cannons and inexplicably being unable to find chuckie a working microphone – a fundamental part of the chuckie experience, and part of his tech rider – for the first hour of his set. Yet here, in the lift back up to the hotel room, as the poor man stares apologetically at his shoes, chuckie fires over a cheeky wink to let Mixmag know he is just having a bit of fun. Just as he did with the staff on the phone at united Airlines when his privilege card wouldn’t let him queue jump, knowing full well there had just been an airport power cut. or when he passed Mixmag a flash-looking bottle of water in the middle of his set at ruby skye in san Francisco, suggesting it was vodka, only to actually fill one with vodka later so that Mixmag got the shock he was hoping for, thus testing our gullibility for perhaps the fourth time in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, back in the lift, “You have to sort that shit sound out,” chuckie tells the sheepish promoter. “You paid for me to come here, and now we all look shit.” suddenly, though, he suggests that everything will be cool again if he can steal the guitar- embroidered pillow from his room, which then accompanies him to two image-perfect interviews en route to our ride to LA. “oh, i’m going to be sooo comfortable,” he tells Mixmag, knowing full well who’ll get all the leg-room in the car to hollywood…

it’s a window into chuckie’s knack for generating amusement while getting exactly what he wants – understandable for a man whose schedule, in just the three days we spent with him, allowed for a maximum of 12 hours sleep. But when your house beats and DJ shows lie at the heart of the mainstream electronic dance music craze that is sweeping the us – a pulse only a select few others such as skrillex, Deadmau5 and David Guetta can claim to be in touch with – it pays to play ahead of the game. Furthermore, chuckie seems set on increasing his momentum. “i don’t have time to waste,” he says, describing a

routine where a whole day to take in any particular city becomes a virtual vacation; “Plus i plan my tours wisely.” he picks his gigs by region – his London show for Mixmag Live on March 16, for instance, is set to coincide with recording his continuingly successful In New DJs We Trust show for BBc radio 1.

As we leave san Diego and drive towards the final show of the weekend in LA – the Dirty Dutch Grammys afterparty at supperclub – he tells us how he turned some of the pitfalls of this relentless schedule on their heads. having once hated touring, clyde now sees a long- haul flight as a chance to bash out another remix; and he’s learnt how to travel light, too, adding with mild mockery how he packs his bag “with military precision, so i know at a glance that everything is there.” Then he checks Twitter on his phone, plugs his in-ear headphones into a wristwatch iPod Nano with FM radio, and instantly nods off on his new pillow.

C huckie’s ecLecTic sTYLe, business acumen and inherent versatility can be traced back through a huge number of circumstances and events. Born in the

proud but thinly-populated former Dutch colony of suriname in south America, chuckie’s parents are of mixed indonesian and indian-creole descent. his mother impressed upon clyde her love of 60s records, while chuckie remembers his dad, a DJ for radio which, at the time, was highly influenced by music from America, playing him the electro-boogie dance of shannon’s ‘Let The Music Play’ in their car when he was five.

having moved to holland when he was seven, by his early teens chuckie had gone from messing around, recording music from the radio and making tapes, to discovering breakbeat and drum ’n’ bass on pirate radio at the age of 15. When his mate became a DJ, clyde helped set up his turntables for a school party in the cafeteria and “accidentally mixed two records together that blended perfectly” during a soundcheck, a ‘wow’ moment that led to his mother laying down the 25 guilder (£10) deposit on his first mixer, thereby starting clyde’s love affair with DJing.

From that moment on he remembers being “always on the grind to make money” so he could buy the freshest records, often expensive imports. he cut hair in his brother’s barber shop to earn cash while DJing at house parties with friends and carting his equipment around in a supermarket trolley. When his brother brokered a deal to let clyde spin for 15 minutes at a promoter’s party if he handed out flyers, clyde stepped up, smashed the place with another guy’s records and got asked to come back the next day to talk to the promoter about building his career.

chuckie remembers it well. “so i went down with my brother ryan, and the guy was sitting in his office, acting all big time, and he said, ‘i want to book him and he’ll get 25 guilders a night’. At that point i’m looking at my brother, and my brother is looking at me, and he’s like, ‘Yo clyde, let’s get the fuck out of here. We’ve gotta do this for ourselves’.” ryan now promotes the 30,000-capacity Dirty Dutch events.

on the trains back and forth from The hague to Amsterdam, the pair’s interest in iD&T, the promoters of the massive sensation nights, quickly turned to inspiration. “For the earlier raves the flyers always se

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“If you don’t demand things people will never do anything for you”

The cowboy frog: tiny

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looked like Hellraiser or styles like that, so we thought the name chuckie (clyde’s youthful nickname for being ‘a little rascal, the evil one” in his group of friends) would fit right in there for a similar kind of party, and we came up with the name child’s Play.” They quickly adapted it to their own, more urban market, “playing breakbeats, hip hop, dancehall, reggae and maybe one or two house records – more Detroit stuff.”

Around the year 2000 chuckie briefly ran his own record store before starting a company with a friend, designing flyers. he sold it off in 2003 and achieved enough success with a record label project to go solo and sign, again briefly, for eMi – an episode that left clyde in no doubt that his route to success would involve retaining complete creative control over both his music and his brand. he also began a more serious love affair with house music.

initially succumbing to peer pressure, chuckie recalls how “back in the day it was a no-go to switch to house music”, but his love for house, a genre that he felt incorporated just as many influences as hip hop, saw him playing sets of both by 2006. But he kept the same circle of friends, and often turned up to DJ house nights only for the door staff to say, “sorry guys, r’n’b night is tomorrow”. “My own agent even suggested that i shouldn’t bring all my crew down and i should get rid of my cap”, recalls clyde.

“in the early days, house music parties were almost entirely caucasian,” he says. “With Dirty Dutch i had to bring those two crowds together.” he did it by creatively mixing between records of both genres. “it was a challenge for me – making it work – and when we started selling out venues i knew we were on to something really cool. Now the scene’s all mixed up again; it’s not about where you’re from, it’s about having a good time and listening to great music.”

And so, with his hat on and hip hop attitude intact, Dirty Dutch was born, growing quickly from a modest tour of parties in 2004 to sell-out 20,000 ticket shows by 2007, its hip hop meets house ethos injecting a new freshness into the Dutch scene.

Now, in 2012, chuckie’s taken to the international dance circuit like a duck to water, despite admitting that his focus as recently as 2009 was on “building things in holland – doing over 300 gigs a year.” it was a surprise for the man who took him global too. sergio of club class, manager of a plethora of electronic acts, had heard chuckie’s ‘i’m in Miami Bitch’ record at the Miami WMc 2009 with Mark Brown of cr2. Mark signed it, and later that year it hit No. 8 in the uk charts. sergio, meanwhile, went straight to Amsterdam on his return from Miami – and was astonished to discover chuckie’s Dirty Dutch brand running events for 30,000 people. A deal was struck, and the rest is history.

Back in the present, chuckie is one of two headliners lined up to celebrate the 12th anniversary of san Francisco’s cool, theatre-styled club ruby skye. “he’s the next generation”, says old-school dance head and club owner, George karpaty. “one of five superstars on their way up who can bring

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“Back then it was no-go to switch to house music”

glowin- thedarkAlbert Harvey and Kevin Ramos grew up surrounded by diverse musical influences. kevin’s father is a well-known Latin artist and his mother is a soul and jazz singer. Albert was also influenced by church gospel, soul and folk. “They’re so versatile,” says chuckie.

Forget what you think you know about Dutch house music...

dirty dutch

Suriname probably doesn’t feature much on your radar, though the more zoologically minded of you

will be excited to note that they regularly discover new species here – among those believed to be new to science are the cowboy frog and the armoured catfish. it was here that Dirty Dutch label boss Chuckie grew up. “my family lived in a village and i’d spend time between my parents and my Grandma’s house,” he says. “life was so free compared to europe, where a lot of my time is spent inside. When it rained i’d go and play in the mud and pick mangos off the trees. The weather was incredible, the food was amazing and i used to love going into the jungle on little adventures.”

as you can see, Suriname is no regular country. a Dutch colony with a slightly rocky political history, it retains very close ties to the netherlands, and Dutch is still the official language. but despite its european flavour, Suriname is anything but derivative. instead it is a vibrant melting pot, throwing in Caribbean, asian and South american influences to create a unique vibe that’s unlike any other. With spicy cuisine, beautiful beaches and stunning Hindu temples, it’s a wonder anyone would leave. luckily for us, Chuckie managed to extricate himself long enough to bring us some of the dirtiest house music around.

Nestled between French Guinea and Guyana lies Chuckie’s

birth place, and South America’s smallest country

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betatraxxlA-based Tim nelson is one of the rising stars of the dirty dutch sound. The 23-year old’s bootlegs of Daft Punk and Justice vs simian received tens of thousands of hits on YouTube, and his first release on Dirty Dutch – ‘shuffling And Looking Dumb’ – was picked up by DJs worldwide. chuckie first heard Tim’s music when the

south By southwest promoter played him some tunes. “it blew me away,” says chuckie. “Betatraxx makes electro and dubstep, but because of his classical background he has a lot of depth to his productions – they tell a story.” Thankfully, unlike the video medium of a similar name, it doesn’t look like Betatraxx will be made obsolete any time soon.

genairo n’villagenairo has been wowing crowds with his turntable skills since the tender age of 16. having moved on from the urban scene, the Dutch DJ/producer now brings his own brand of tech-house to many of Amsterdam’s top clubs. his sets and productions have

won him the nickname ‘king of Drums’ thanks to their drum- heavy, tribal nature. “Genairo grew up in suriname too,” says chuckie. “You get that vibe in his music.” in 2010 he released ‘The Nvilla Anthem’, a driving, beat-heavy testament to euro- house. it was huge, and a host of names got behind it, like steve Angello, Fedde Le Grand and of course chuckie himself.

gregor saltogregor was hit by the house bug when he heard Royal House’s ‘can You Party’ at a school dance. Producing since 1994, he is recognised as one of holland’s most successful dance artists, with his own label G-rex. his recent collab with chuckie, ‘What happens

in Vegas’ – out on cr2 – hit No. 1 on both the Beatport main chart and the electro-house chart. “i love him because he really does his own thing,” says chuckie. “his tunes incorporate Latin, calypso and dancehall – that strikes a chord with me.” A popular remixer, he’s held in high regard by everyone from Axwell to roger sanchez and Bob sinclar.

“They can do any type of sound. i’m even co-producing a lot of my pop productions with them – that’s how much trust i have in them.” With releases on selekted, Dirty Dutch and cabellero the music and hype really do go hand in hand. With dynamic live shows to boot, GLoWiN- TheDArk will be lighting up dancefloors across the globe.

gregori klosmanWith remixes of Kaskade, david guetta, lady gaga, nicky Minaj and Avicii in the last four months alone as well as releases on ultra usA, cr2, Armada, Nero and spinnin’, as well as Dirty Dutch, Paris-born Gregori klosman is the very definition of a rising star. “he

has all the ingredients to become the next superstar DJ,” says chuckie; “he’s an amazing producer, with his own distinct sound, and he’s also the nicest guy in the world.” his 2011 productions include ‘Jaws’, ‘Low Battery’, ‘Bounce’ and ‘kameha’, and late last year he teamed with chuckie on ‘MuTFAkTA’, a Dutch house banger that hit No.3 in Beatport’s main chart.

White Beach, a riverside resort

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these crowds together” – before suggesting that there are two types of crowd in the us at the moment: people who get it, and people who just get in.

it poses a question about how chuckie’s increasingly influential role might shape the future of the current trend for commercial, mainstream dance music in the states. That’s something Jason strauss, managing partner of the Marquee Nightclub & Dayclub in Vegas (where chuckie is not only resident but was a consultant in its design) seems to have identified. “What we’ve seen this year is evidence that dance music is about to be, if it’s not already there, a fully legitimate mainstream sound. it’s clearly going to continue to morph and breed with hip hop, pop and rock to become part of the standard cultural music landscape,” he says. As for chuckie himself, strauss is more than aware that other people can play the kind of music chuckie plays, “but nobody can deliver his showmanship or his unique, inventive ability to engage the crowd and create some of our most energy-filled nights,” he says.

chuckie’s manner behind the decks is without a doubt one of his strengths, ripping from bassline to bassline, poised for a shout-out at every drop, and bringing the crowd up to his own, relentless energy levels. “There was no house before in Vegas,” he says, when we ask what he has brought to the city’s evolving party scene. Put in context, after David Guetta arguably married us pop and chart hip hop to house production with The Black eyed Peas (one of whom was sitting next to chuckie in the green room after his Grammy night gig in LA), chuckie’s DJ journey from hip hop to house put him in the perfect position to orchestrate the honeymoon.

clyde, laughing, points out how some of his 157,000 Twitter fans call him ‘David Ghetto’. With his rapper-like clothing, marketing muscle and sheer presence of personality, chuckie is someone both the mainstream of America and the club kids at Ministry of sound can relate to. Ministry even had to turn over 600 people away from the debut Dirty Dutch show in the middle of January, a notoriously quiet month for British clubland. There, chuckie’s seven-hour back-to-back sessions with Gregor salto and knife Party showcased a technical versatility in chuckie’s DJing – toying with dubstep, electro and d’n’b – that matched the breadth of his ambitions.

indeed, he’s met a few of his heroes already. Forget having Diddy on speed dial (which he does), when you get introduced to Jay-Z through ‘Blueprint’ producer Just Blaze, who tells Jay-Z that “you really need to meet this guy [chuckie], because he’s the man!” it’s a measure of how relevant chuckie has become to so many circles of music; recognised as someone whose true value is bringing them together.

And just like Jay-Z, chuckie sees himself as an entrepreneur, developing a DJ and a cookery app for the iPad, a new clothing and merchandise line and branching his Dirty Dutch label into new territories. Asked if he sees himself less as a DJ and more as a brand, his business logic takes over.

liv miamiThe club where Jay Z allegedly spashed out $100,000 on a bottle of Champagne and Joaquim phoenix debuted his mC skills, liV is a regular haunt of the rich and famous. Despite the lavish decor, the 900-capacity club is notorious for its crazy nights, especially during Chuckie’s party sets. Generally, he keeps his sets housier at liV. “Compared to the rest of america, miami already had a great house music culture,” he explains. “i wouldn’t drop dubstep there, for example. The crowd is really diverse: you have the house-heads who come strictly to dance, and then you have the miami ‘a’ crowd.” expect a similar mix at Chuckie’s Dirty Dutch party at the 2000-capacity amnesia to be one of the highlights of the miami Winter music conference.

marquee las vegasChuckie helped design marquee’s multi-million dollar DJ booth, and consequently, he feels totally at home playing to the packed 5000- capacity venue on a monthly basis. before he started his residency he played gigs at Tao beach – a huge outdoor pool party – and that served to cement his name into the local scene. “There wasn’t a massive electronic music scene before,” he says, “So i tend to play tunes that are a little more accessible in las Vegas – but it’s still my sound.” in Vegas, of course, you have to put on a show. “Whether its the rat pack or a modern-day DJ, Vegas is about showmanship,” says marquee’s managing partner Jason Strauss. “Chuckie’s the perfect choice. He has amazing energy and knows how to read a crowd.”

lavo new Yorklavo in new york is a plush, intimate little club with sumptuous decor, leather seating and marble tables. on east 58th Street, in midtown manhatten, it’s a favourite of the city’s celebrities and social elite who want to party in an environment where they’re not harassed for being famous. “you’ll see a lot of models and people from the industry at my party in new york,” says Chuckie. “a lot of DJs decline requests to do Vip clubs. i said yes because it’s a great club and it allows me to bring underground music to a Vip crowd that might not have heard it before.” playing the club also has its musical perks for Chuckie: “in new york you’ll get the likes of ashanti and Grandmaster Flash hanging out in the DJ booth – which is cool.”

Over ThereChuckie’s US residencies are some of the biggest around

“All the tracks are held together by a gritty Dutch sound”

Chuckie explains the Dirty Dutch sound

THE DIRTY DUTCH SOUND

“While there are similarities in the noises used, the dirty dutch sound differs in many ways from the dutch house sound. (for those unfamiliar

with dutch house, think Sidney Samson’s ‘Riverside’.) dirty dutch is a more open format. We might start the night at 100bpm, build it up to

house and electro and finish with techno. There may be hip hop breaks and dubstep breaks, but all the tracks are held together by a dutch sound that’s gritty and very jump-up. i’m influenced by the likes of Armand Van Helden and Kenny dope, who also had a love of hip hop. for me, nervous Records was as much a hip hop label as a house label. generally, dirty dutch dJs like to keep it diverse – just as The neptunes appealed to hip hop heads and skater kids alike, the dirty dutch sound kind of does the same thing. obviously, we dirty dutch dJs have to adapt our sets to

the different places we play. for example, the way i play Buenos Aires is different from the way i play Miami, which is different

from new York. These days people like dJs for their productions, which is cool, but i don’t want to just play fifty of my own records –

there’s so much good music out there and i want to share it. To be honest, i could have made five cover cds for Mixmag!”

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Want to DJ like Chuckie? There’s an app for that

Chuckie’sNoisepad

oF THe ipad DJ apps knocking about these days,

few are as useful for the professional DJ as Chuckie’s latest, the noisepad. This isn’t just a toy to pass the minutes while you wait at a bus stop (though there is an abundance of fun to be had with it), but a practical DJ tool that Chuckie himself uses extensively in his sets. The noisepad has 12 sample pads, each

storing a soundbyte that can be triggered by tapping it. There are a variety of sample banks to choose from – for example, Fedde le Grand has his own bespoke set that you can download and play with. you can also make and upload your own into the app. What’s more, each sample you trigger can be manipulated with a multitude of FX: delay, reverb, crush, phase and pitch. These can be

synced to the speed of the tune you are playing with the ‘tempo tap’. For a DJ like Chuckie who moves from hip hop to house tempo it’s a valuable tool. To get a piece of hardware that does the same job you’d pay hundreds of dollars. This is $2.99 from apple’s app Store. if you want to emulate your heroes or add a range of individual samples to make your sets stand out from the crowd, this is the way to do it.

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“Yes, i do kind of see myself as a brand because you can do lots of different things with a brand. Positive things, like charity. Because i have the influence.”

chuckie recognises exactly where he’s at – he knows he gets paid silly money and so do all his rich friends. More to the point, he knows it’s a privilege and says he balances living ‘the high life’ by staying grounded through his roots, his long-term girlfriend and two children, and a good deal of philanthropy. he puts much of his wealth and influence into projects to help development in haiti, also working with unicef and raising awareness of hiV in kenya. characteristically, his desire to have more control over his charity and the donations he can cajole from his many wealthy friends has inspired him to start the Dirty Dutch Foundation later this year, through which he can play a more direct part in giving something back. Not like robin hood – the man’s just bought a house on the white sands of Aruba, for goodness’ sake – but like any wealthy individual with a good degree of conscience.

sure, there are sticky champagne marks on his iPad when he starts showing Mixmag his apps, and he’s happy to pay the fine for smoking in his hotel room because, quite frankly, it’s peanuts to the man. But chuckie’s work hard play hard ethos and trademark versatility have earned him his rewards and the authority to shout “Time, muthafuckers!” at his entourage, ordering them out of the hip LA supperclub so this relentless DJ can sneak the power nap he needs before two more gigs in Atlantic city and Boston, followed by a carnival tour of Brasil, as he surfs a huge wave of momentum from one continent to another.

shannon let The Music Play (1993, emergency Records) “as a kid in Suriname, i loved listening to my father who was a DJ at a big radio station in paramaribo. He played this especially for me because he knew i’d be listening. Kids in the street used to breakdance to it where i lived. in that same era, movies like Beat Street really helped to shape the local breakdance scene.”

James brownfunky drummer (Bonus Beat reprise) (1970, King Records)“The legendary ‘Funky Drummer’, originally performed by Clyde Stubblefield, has always fascinated me. in the new Jack Swing era, breaks and beats like these were fundamental. Same goes for lynn Collins’s ‘Think’. That’s probably why i’ve always loved breakbeats.”

black sheep The choice is Yours (Revisited) (Mercury, 1991)“This record really represents the era of hip hop i loved the most. as a youngster it was all about watching YO! MTV Raps straight after school for me. Groups like black moon, onyx, a Tribe Called Quest, run DmC and epmD were always on my Walkman.”

“We realised – we gotta do this for ourselves”

saoto soupThis is a shredded chicken-based dish, with vegetables and a bit of hot sauce. When i arrive in Holland after a heavy tour, the first thing i do is go to a Suriname restaurant and have a bowl of this. it’s my power soup; it keeps me going.

her’heriThis is a meal that my mum would make once a month on a Sunday. it didn’t necessarily have to be a special occasion, but she made it when she wanted to prepare something extra nice. The recipe includes fish, potatoes, boiled eggs and rice.

nasiThis is a fried rice dish. it was the first dish i learned how to make, and it’s really easy – you can get it done in less than 30 minutes. it’s pretty versatile, too; what you add depends on your mood at the time.

arriVinG For Chuckie’s Dirty Dutch party at ministry, it’s clear that there will be more than a few

disappointed people tonight. not those who get to experience Chuckie’s unique ‘and friends’ performance: seven hours of Chuckie and guests, from pendulum side-project Knife party to collaborator Gregor Salto. not the DJs, who revel in an anarchic, free- flowing way of playing that sees Chuckie liable to drop in on them at any time before his headline performance for a spot of b2b DJing or a big up on the microphone. not even the film crew, briefly lost in the scrum to get Chuckie, Mixmag and Chuckie’s entourage into the venue via the guest list entrance and a short-cut through the silent moS offices. The people who will walk away tonight in disappointment are the 5–600 who have turned up without advance tickets in the hope of seeing the Chuckie phenomenon up close, and who will have to seek their clubbing fix elsewhere tonight.

inside, a Dirty Dutch logo, backlit in red, adorns the far wall of the box. inside the DJ booth – an 18’ bank of six spanking new CDJ 2000s, Technics and mixers galore twinkling with orange, green and red lights – stands

Chuckie’s new Dirty Dutch residency at Ministry of Sound may soon become the club’s flagship party

ready to jump

Chuckie, wrestling a pair of CD decks from the angled stands down to the table top as an engineer swarms around him, checking the wires. With a nod of his baseball cap, Chuckie whacks on a beat, jerking the awesome soundsystem into life – a starting gun that sets a race of smiles loose across the 14-strong crew looking on from the side. Then the doors open and the punters scramble in, running, jumping and racing to clamber atop the huge speaker stacks and fill the floor, transforming it from zero to rave in 60 seconds. Whistles pierce the hubbub and a round of “Chuck-ie, Chuck-ie, Chuck-ie!” elicits an emphatic electro breakdown as Chuckie lifts two fingers to his mouth for a shrieking whistle, revealing a T-shirt emblazoned with his trademark slogan: ‘WHo iS reaDy To Jump’.

later, as Chuckie joins Knife party on the decks – the three firing through a selection of electro, dubstep, drum ’n’ bass, the works – even the ministry photographer is reeling from the scene inside the box. Shaking his head in disbelief, he leans over: “it’s the first time in three hundred events i’ve seen a mosh pit in here,” he says. That’s the Chuckie effect. Chuckie’s next party at Ministry of Sound is on April 28 with Sub Focus, Zedd and more.

dust brothers chemical Beats (collect Boys own, 1994) “one of those records i could listen to over and over again. The combination of big drums and acid sounds made it really special. back then i used to collect lots of breakbeat and drum ’n’ bass records. i remember paying 175 Guilders (€90) for this on vinyl because it was a really hard to find record.”

Fourrecords

that changed

Chuckie’slife:

Chuckie’s three favourite Surinamese dishes

Cooking up a storm

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sm

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Dirty Dutch at ministry:

poppin’