It was one of those laid back nights, I was DJing in a bar in Paris called the Bottle Shop...

The weekend before, I had DJ’ed and MC’ed at Fete de la Musiq - a day in France where everyone plays music everywhere, the whole country becomes a massive festival and it is absolutely crazy! I played Michael Jackson at some point, not knowing that five days later the king would be gone...

Back to Bottle Bar... I was busy spinning some kwaito and someone comes up to me and says that Michael Jackson has died. I thought, ‘You don’t have to go that far to make a request mate’! I don’t normally do requests, but decided to do so since I do love the gloved one and I was going to play it anyway. But before I could play it, another person said that Michael was dead.

I couldn’t believe it, I grew up to this guy, used to want to be this guy when I was a kid. I remember way back in the townships of SA when we used to sing ‘keep up with the force don’t stop, don’t stop till you get enough’ changing the lyrics in to ‘shiba ka di potsotso, Christmas e fedile’ which means here they are with their smart jeans, Christmas is overЙas if!  Damn, poverty was so rife, if you were wearing Christmas clothes after Christmas, you were not cool...

I then found the CD in my selection... and when I played it the whole place erupted! Felt so proud to be a DJ that night. I later DJed at the after party of a fashion show and played Michael to death... After that day when I heard other DJs play it though, it just sounded way too cheesy, like someone rocking Christmas clothes the day after. Not cool. But anyway, keep rocking with force, don’t stop, cos you never know when your time will come!