Andel James, a Toronto DJ, is shown in this undated handout photo providing the soundtrack to a breaking event.James will be providing the music Friday at the national finals of Red Bull BC One Cypher Canada, billed as the largest breaking competition in Canada. And in the guise of
James, a youthful-looking 42, started as a breaker himself in 1999 — a dancer who loved music. As he grew older, he had his own take on the music at competitions. “Me as a dancer, thinking that I had a better sense of what dancers would like to hear, that’s what kind of propelled me into learning how to DJ,” he said. “I already knew the songs that breakers would like to dance to. And then the next step was actually learning how to DJ, which is a whole other skill set.
“Almost every breaker knows that song. If you played it in a venue where everyone in the room is a breaker, they’ve heard that song a million times, they might respond to it differently. You play it in a crowd where no one really knows about breaking … you get a different reaction.”James says there are some 10 DJs in Canada, all former dancers, who provide the music for showcase breaking events across the country. He also DJs on non-breaking events.