The Phuture DJ Battle (PDJB) is not a new thing – it’s been a part of the nightlife circuit since 1997, when veteran turntablists of the time set up the competition to commemorate the severely underrated art of turntabling.

Despite moving into a sleek new venue this year, it is clear that the veteran DJs/turntablists of Zouk haven’t forgotten their roots – they've brought back the PDJB and made an open call for entries this year.

Contestants had to submit a roughly 3-minute long video of their best set on the event’s Facebook group, after which the judges, who are local DJ pioneers DJ KoFlow, DJ Rattle and Andrew Chow, went to work evaluating the originality, skills, and track selection of the championship hopefuls.

As of last night (17/05), the five finalists were announced by DJ LeNerd (the MC for the event) on the event's Facebook page, where you can also check out the entry videos of the finalists: 

PHUTURE DJ BATTLE ONLINE RESULTS:

1st: Mad Jester: 29 Points
2nd: TMO: 28 Points
3rd: P-Xi: 16 Points
4th: Mr. J: 15 Points
5th: Ethan Lian: 12 Points

FINALIST PLEASE SEND OVER:
- FULL NAME + NRIC NUMBER
- ALL YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
- A HIGH RES PHOTO OF YOURSELF
to lenerd@zoukclub.com by end of the week

JUDGES SCORING BREAK DOWN:
Koflow:
1st - TMO: 10 Points
2nd - Mad Jester: 9 Points
3rd - Jozy: 8 Points
4th - P-Xi: 7 Points
5th - Hanif: 6 Points
6th - Mr. J: 5 Points
7th - Ethan Lian: 4 Points
8th - EBOY: 3 Points
9th - KOHSH: 2 Points
10th - Czure: 1 Point

Andrew Chow:
1st – Mad Jester 10 Points
2nd – TMO 9 Points 
3rd – CADEN 8 Points
4th - John Shaker 7 Points
5th - Ethan Lian 6 Points
6th – P-Xi 5 Points
7th - Jonathan Tay 4 Points 
8th – KOHSH 3 Points
9th – Mr. J 2 Points
10th – EKO 1 Point

Rattle:
1st - Mad Jester: 10 Points
2nd - TMO: 9 Points
3rd - Mr. J: 8 Points
4th - K Faith: 7 Points
5th - KOHSH: 6 Points
6th - EBOY: 5 Points
7th - P-Xi: 4 Points
8th - John Shaker: 3 Points
9th - Ethan Lian: 2 Points
10th - Caden: 1 Point

The five chosen finalists will be given a 7- minute set on the night of the 14^th of June at Phuture – a beacon of old-school and contemporary hip-hop, hosted by DJ LeNerd.

There, they will go head to head in the race to become the champion of PDJB 2017, who will win an array of attractive prizes, including the chance to spin at not just one but two Zouk events: Zouk's Escapade Overdrive and the Zouk x W Singapore's Endless Summer pool party.

The contest has had a total of 24 entries, all of which exhibited contestants with a significant amount of skills not only in DJ-ing but also in turntablism. Maybe turntablism isn't such a forgotten art after all.