Originally from Nashville, DJ Equipt, born David Steven Goddard, now resides here in Murfreesboro.
As well as being a skilled DJ, he also expresses his talent producing beats. Starting at an early age playing drums and other instruments, he was inspired, and proceeded to see his future as a DJ after being enlightened by DJ Lethal in a House of Pain music video.
Now at the age of 22, also part of the Full Hows Crew, EQ has done some extraordinary DJing in the hip hop world. He has opened for various underground hip hop shows such as Cage, Sage Francis and Atmosphere. He’s been on tour and performed with MC Listener, as well as incredibly skilled groups like Glue, Mars Ill and the Animal Crackers. DJ EQ has also performed several times at Scribble Jam, one of the most prestigious events for MCs, DJs, B-boys and Graffiti Artist that takes place in Cincinnati, Ohio.
His newly released CD, Ozark Empire with MC Listener is a fine composition that every hip hop lover should have in their collection. EQ paired up with Listener (an Atlanta native who is part of the super crew Deepspace 5) after an exchange of beats for Manchild and DJ Dust of Mars Ill.
Ozark Empire has been reviewed and rated by trudatmusic.com, Renown Magazine and hiphopforthesoul.com and, on average, has received an exceptionally high rating. Each song title is about a sentence long, which is very unique, and if I may quote “like everybody else,” which comes from a track titled “You Are So Special Because You Are So Unique.”
The CD is a comprehensive work, that tells the story of a man and his ongoing struggle of making his life meaningful. The main character, which we can all relate to, searches for meaning through his career as well as through the importance of materialistic objects he’s acquired. By the end of the CD, his life has completely fallen apart and you, the listener, have come to appreciate music in another aspect. It may take a deep listening session for you to fully realize the story and its points, but it is well worth your time and your effort for that matter. Even if you don’t understand all the lyrics, I fully believe and expect you to hear a beat, cut or scratch that your ears will demand to hear again.
EQ has also performed on the Life is a Song EP with 247, Royalty, Exodus and Blackat Sylvesta; Wick-it the Instigator’s CD, Citizen’s Banned Radio, and Scribble Jam Vol. 3.
Currently EQ has plans to release his own CD, Handmade Music, sometime early this year.
In the meantime, you can catch his skills on the radio show Constructive Interference from 8-10 p.m. Thursday evenings on WMTS 88.3. EQ partners with DJ DVST8, DJ Smallhead and MC Kamoshin to bring you some of the finest hip hop.
Also, get out to Liquid Smoke every Thursday, it’s always free. Starting around 9 p.m. you can support your local DJs and MCs while they unleash some of their creativity followed by some relaxing jazz.
For more information or to purchase CDs go to: handmademusic.com, myspace.com/handmademusic or forthelistener.com.
