Black Music Appreciation Month: Marcus ‘DJ Maniac' McGee talks 20 year journey
Meet Marcus 'DJ Maniac' McGee.
The Wichita Falls native has been a turntablist for more than 20 years.
'I like to scratch,' McGee said. 'That really got me into it as well, like the hip hop side of it.'
Deejaying began when McGee heard the same songs repeatedly at nightclubs in Wichita Falls.
That's when he set out to buy his own turntable set, learning the fundamentals of scratching, beat juggling, and more.
'It all comes together as a really cool dish, like if I [were] a chef or something,' McGee said.
Mixing new beats by combining pop and rock hits to serve through his creative style.
'With deejaying and I thought hip hop was just with hip hop songs until I seen these other DJ mix with Led Zeppelin and Pantera. Even some old-school Jazz stuff too that goes into samples of 90s Wu-Tang and A Tribe Called Quest,' McGee said. 'If you find that one song that was hot for a minute and then you put it up for a little bit and then you just randomly bring it back. It will bring back memories to people like, 'oh my god, I remember this song'.'
Aside from beat sampling, McGee also takes influences from other deejays such as Wichita Falls' own DJ Sabor and DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Taking a little piece of them and mixing it with his own twang.
The veteran disc jockey has spent hours perfecting his craft to keep you grooving to the tunes.
'It's really, really fun to figure out what people want and what people need to hear. That's a big difference,' McGee said. 'People will want certain songs and won't even dance to it. When you play a song that they don't even know that they want it and they hit, and then you have a pretty good crowd.'
Bringing people together on the dance floor.
'Really awesome just to see what I love to do and showing people that I love to do it and be able to share it,' McGee said.
Turning tracks and heads.
'You really have to respect the culture to do it. Right? Anybody can deejay, but not everybody can actually rock the crowd or have a song that's playing that makes that one person get up,' McGee said. 'You have to know how to control your environment. Always learning, always trying to improve my craft. As long as I'm here, I'm going to respect that craft. Hopefully, if you ever see me out and about, I'll be rocking it.'
McGee jokes he's retired twice from deejaying to his gaming lounge, but his phone always rings for more gigs.
'It's kind of the same thing from deejaying to Maniacs Mansion. I just went out, tried it, did it and I'm still here doing both. So I must be doing it right,' McGee said.
DJ Maniac's still spinning the turntable and offering up the best tunes through his creations.
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