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Locals Only

Doctor of rockin' it

By Wes Flexner

A master DJ needs to be an entertainer, a record researcher and a sound craftsman. Pos 2, aka 25-year-old Derrick Hill, meets all these requirements.

Pos 2 has a doctorate in rockin' it, with a concentration in Columbus hip-hop history. Class meets every Wednesday at Surly Girl Saloon, and at Bento Go Go on Thursdays.

He studied under heralded DJs Przm and Lo Zone at Bernie's hip-hop night as a member of the legendary local crew the Fonosluts.

Pos' devotion to the science of DJing has also seen him spinning at Red Zone, the Newport, Little Brother's, the Metro in Chicago and Top Cat's in Cincy. He's Spitball's DJ and he's opened up for Def Jux tours as well as Aceyalone, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien and Rahzel of the Roots.

Pos' next step is the release of the mixtape Bustown Takeover 2, which features unreleased tracks by Columbus pioneers like Da Intelac, mainstays like Meta4ce and Spitball, and young bucks like the Catalyst, V-Hyphen and Zero, an Alive 2006 Artist to Watch and the mixtape's host.

Perhaps most exciting is "Hmm...Brilliant," a rare collaboration between DJ Przm, Jakki The Motamouth, Flip The Early Riser and Copywrite. Envelope's DJ Amos Famous assisted Pos on the recording and arranging of the mixtape.

Pos said he fell in love with the mixtape format as a high-schooler, because it's "raw and dirty, and directly from the artist." He sold mixtapes by NYC kings like DJ Clue and Tony Touch in 1997 at the North Flea Market on Cleveland Avenue before making his first tape in 1998, called Super Hip Hop.

DJ Pos 2's Mixtape Release Party

When:Friday, June 2

Where:Bernie's Distillery, Campus

Web: cringe.com/bs/distillery.htm

Pos has been releasing mixtapes ever since, including his Bust It series, The Live 95er (a collection of hip-hop classics from the mid '90s) and The Roots: A Decade of Movement, which chronicled the live hip-hop band's rarities and B-sides.

Explaining his motivation for compiling the dusty gems of Bustown Takeover 2, Pos said, "A lot of these songs were really dope. I just want people to hear [them]. There was a lot of work done that not everyone knows about."

At the release party for the CD this Saturday at Bernie's, Columbus hip-hop artists Higher Learning will be in session, with Pos 2 spinning in between performances by Zero, the Catalyst and Akron rap group Team Tuck.

June 1, 2006