DJ Damage
| DJ Damage | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Darren Pearson |
| Origin |
 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
|
| Genres | Australian hip hop, Turntablism |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Labels | Red Tape Renegades Unkut Recordings |
| Associated acts | Towering Inferno Big Rigs Terntable Jediz The Optimen Step It Up |
DJ Damage (born Darren Pearson) is an Australian hip hop DJ and turntablist from Brisbane, Australia. He started in hip hop culture via breaking and buying records in 1983. DJ Damage was in Brisbane mid 90s hip hop group Towering Inferno, and a member of the Big Rigs six turntable DJ team from the same period. DJ Damage is currently a member of The Optimen. He was a member of the turntablist crew the Terntable Jediz. He is also a member of Brisbane new jazz and funk band Step It Up.
From 1994–7, DJ Damage was a member of Brisbane hip hop group Towering Inferno with Lazy Grey and B-Boy Flex. The members of the group met at Burnt Toast, a jazz/hip hop/funk night in Brisbane, organized by Hams and Felicite. Towering Inferno performed at the first Annual East Coast Funk Festival on 1 July 1995 at Festival Hall, Brisbane. The band also appeared at the first B-Boy Kingdom "all ages hip hop jam", Friday 9 February 1996 at Lighthouse, corner of Ann and Creek Streets, Brisbane. Towering Inferno released a tape called The Toowong Sessions with Brad Strut in 1996. Towering Inferno performed alongside fellow Australian hip hop groups Def Wish Cast (Sydney) and also representatives from Finger Licking Good (Adelaide) and Brethren (Sydney). Bevan Jee, from Bomb Hip Hop Australia, noted in his Towering Inferno article that,
"The name Towering Inferno seems appropriate given the way the group blew up when they first entered the local hip-hop scene. "Fire is a symbol of hip-hop, if you can't cut it you get burnt" say's [sic] Damage the group's DJ."
Tony Mitchell, in his 1998 Glocal subculture paper commented on this quote saying, ". . . although US rap was the inspiration, the local scene caught fire on the fuel that was already there."
DJ Damage was also a member of the Big Rigs DJ team with DJ Katch and DJ Frenzie in Brisbane in the mid 1990s. Big Rigs debuted at The Bomb, an FRS (Flavours Radio Show) party held in Brisbane in January 1996. They also played at Vibes on a Summers Day Festival in 1996. DJ Katch, Geoff Jigzaw Boardman (who worked on Towering Inferno's recorded material), Dave Atkins and Chris Bosley went on to form Resin Dogs in 1996. DJ Frenzie mentioned Big Rigs in an interview with The Late Show in 2011, saying that,
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