Local music: Four turntables and no microphone

Last Word was on the road with Prof and couldn't be there. Plain Ole Bill just got back from a Brother Ali gig in Duluth. Jimmy 2 Times and Fundo led the Bomp dance party at a packed Varsity Theater a night earlier. And when the three of them met up at the Triple Rock last Saturday for Dre Day, Bill and Fundo had to cut out early for a gig at Honey.

Who says DJs aren't rock stars?

Thanks in large part to their monthly Get Cryphy dance night -- which moves into First Avenue's main room Friday for its fourth anniversary -- these turntablists have become four of the most in-demand performers in town. They've been spinning up big crowds at local dance parties while keeping up appearances behind some of the scene's best known rappers.

Unlike their always-bragging rapper brethren, though, they are humble enough to credit their success to two other factors besides their own talent: The lack of competing dance nights and a shortage of aspiring local DJs.

"All the kids coming up in hip-hop either want to be rappers or producers, and none of them seem to want to be DJs," Bill Hebl (Plain Ole Bill) said, hanging out in the blue-painted green room at the Triple Rock.

Widely recognized as P.O.S.' DJ (and now sometimes Ali's), Hebl got into a little braggadocious spat with his Get Cryphy co-founder Dan Marcoulis (Jimmy 2 Times) over what they planned to play that night for Dre Day. When Hebl mentioned a mix he had, centered around Dr. Dre's "Let's Get High," Marcoulis cracked in his upstate New Yorker accent, "That's cool. I've been doing that for three years now, but whatever. You can steal my act."

Outside of Dre Day, one of the things that sets Get Cryphy apart is how fresh and current its playlists are. Some of the titles in the latest Get Cryphy mixtape -- available for free at GetCryphy.com (they legally can't sell it) -- include new cuts by Drake, Rick Ross, Shawty Lo and Tyga mashed up with the likes of Prof and P.O.S.

"When we first started the party, a lot of people were like, 'What are you guys doing?!'" Hebl recalled.

Said Marcoulis, "Because our indie-rap scene is so strong, a lot of people are leery of anything mainstream. There was a lot of, 'Is this OK?' at first. Us as DJs, we never discriminated. If it was an awesome track, it's an awesome track."

Hebl and Marcoulis started Get Cryphy (pronounced "cry-fee") after losing a weekly gig at Foundation when that club closed. They jokingly named it after two of the trendy hip-hop sub-genres at that moment, crunk and hyphy, but they were serious about maintaining the hyper, nonstop energy found in those styles. There are no slow jams here.

Held the first Friday of every month in First Ave's upstairs Record Room, the parties are "probably the favorite thing we all have to do," said Marcoulis. When Hebl is on the road with P.O.S., he sometimes flies in just for Get Cryphy.

But their busy schedules guarantee they can't always make the show. Which is where Drew Erickson (Last Word) and Christopher Young (Fundo) come in. Those two -- who often share duties DJ-ing for Prof, M.anifest, MaLLy and Desdamona -- officially became Get Cryphy members a year into the party but were always a part of it.

Young believes Get Cryphy works better as a four-man operation, if only because it becomes more of a party for the DJs, too.

"When it's the four of us, we're standing there next to our best friends having a blast doing what we love to do," he said. "We get as excited as [the fans] do, too. That just ups the level of the show."

A big part of the Get Cryphy "show" is four-turntable sets, with two DJs manning two record players apiece. Hebl and Marcoulis started doing that before DJ-ing became more of a digital/laptop profession. They do it for the musical benefits of classic turntabling, but they also believe it adds to the entertainment value.

"There's a strong visual element to turntabling, and it can be more of 'a performance,'" Hebl said. "A lot of kids will come up and just stare at what we're doing."

That could be their future competition staring at them. The shortage of DJs might soon be a thing of the past.

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