Houstonians packed out Avenida Plaza running in front the George R Brown Convention Center. The streets surrounding the downtown greenspace were blocked off with fencing and orange barricades. The city was full of sports enthusiasts either wearing Red Bull racing shirts or Astros gear. Customized race cars zoomed around a makeshift racetrack, roaring past fans in the stands, performing donuts for onlookers, and sending smoke and the smell of burning tires into the afternoon sky. Fans pressed against the barrier by the Marriott Marquis while above even more snapped pictures from the balcony of Biggio’s. Everyone was trying to get a glimpse of the People’s Champ, Paul Wall, as he stood on the track which took up Avenida, McKinney, La Branch, and Lamar Street.
“H-Town we got something special for you!” yelled the MC as his jewelry glistened under the blistering sun.
Behind him two large military style vehicles adorned with speakers parked on the corner. As Paul spoke DJ Mr. Rogers and DJ Hed popped up on the top of each vehicle and had an impromptu DJ battle. Fans cheers as the two DJ’s went back and forth playing classic Houston and West Coast hits.
“You can expect even more tonight at the Red Bull Turn It Up!” yelled Paul Wall before the trucks cleared the track and the cars took back over.
This weekend Red Bull shut down the Houston streets during the day and then shut down the club during the night with two events, Red Bull Showrun Houston and Red Bull Turn It Up. The Showrun is an exhibition of professional racing as legendary F1 driver David Coulthard and junior driver Arvid Linblad show their skills on a track surrounding Discovery Green downtown. Meanwhile Turn It Up is the beverage company’s inaugural crowd-judge DJ competition putting two teams led by Houston’s DJ Mr. Rogers and Los Angeles’ DJ Hed against each other.
Coulthard competed in 15 seasons of Formula One, taking home 13 Grand Prix victories and 62 podium finishes. Linblad is new to the sport, beginning his career in karting in 2015 but since then he has won the 2020 WSK Suer Master Series, the 2021 WSK Euro Series, and in 2023 joined Prema Racing for the Italian F4 Championship. Saturday the two gave Houstonians a taste of the sport they have each dedicated their lives to winning. It is a sport that is gaining significant traction in popularity stateside thanks to exhibitions like the one held Saturday.
“I went and did a show in New York twelve years ago,” says Chris Gregory, the Heritage Team Coordinator at Red Bull Racing & Red Bull Technology. “Back then no one really knew what the cars were or what we were doing. Now everyone knows the cars. It’s brilliant. It’s like there’s a whole new generation of fans that know so much more about the sport.
Meanwhile that night DJ Mr. Rogers and DJ Hed continued the battle they started earlier that afternoon. Fans lined up down the street and packed into NOTO Houston on the east side of downtown ready for the after-party Paul Wall had promised earlier that afternoon. As they entered each was given a wrist band that could be lit up blue or red with a button press. Team Rogers consisting of DJ Maiya Papaya, Don Rey, Vrywvy, and DJ Gallix went toe to toe with DJ Anarchy, Tony Styles, Mark Cutz and DJ doesitall led by DJ Hed.
DJ Mr. Rogers has produced and worked with Houston artists like Le$ and Paul Wall while also helping to push the city’s sound in the clubs and on worldwide broadcast stations like Sirius XM’s Sound 42. DJ Hed has pushed his hometown’s west coast sound, working with artists like Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg while running HomeGrown radio and establishing a reputation as “The Coast Guard” for his place in the industry. The two DJ’s represent their city’s unique culture and Saturday Red Bull brought them together to display their styles through competition.
“During my entire career Red Bull has always pushed the DJ culture to the general population, “says DJ Mr. Rogers as he sits alongside DJ Hed at rehearsals before the competition. “They are showing people parts of a world that they would normally never see. I remember a lot of those Red Bull freestyle battles and because they had such a big platform and appealed to a lot of artists a lot of people got into DJing because of events like this.”
Rogers describes the competition as “the aux cord awards”. The idea that if you were riding in the car with your friends whoever was the best song selector in the moment would win the competition. Red Bull takes that idea and puts it on a large scale.
“You have be the best song selector while at the same time they’re giving us themes,” chimes in DJ Hed. “Our teams have to prepare for those themes like Jeopardy while still selecting the best possible song in the moment.”
Throughout the night themes would be displayed on the screen behind the competitors giving them only a minute to prepare. Stand outs Don Rey and Maiya Papaya kept the crowd on their feet during the BeatKing themed round and decidedly were able to advance to the finals with their control of the crowd. The duo helped team Rogers pull ahead and secure a win for the inaugural battle.
“This is my fourth DJ competition. I won two and I actually didn’t prepare for any of them,” said DJ Maiya Papaya during a meet & greet a day before the competition. “This competition is the kind of thing you can’t really prepare for. But I’m constantly practicing with the crowd when I DJ. Most of the times when I go into rooms, I have never seen any of the people in there, but I have to figure out what they like. That’s part of being a good DJ. You need to learn how to read the crowd, know how to pivot and maneuver through the music, and read the crowd’s reaction.”
Showrun and Turn It Up showcase the skills of two competitions with their own deep-seated cultures. The fact that the two were able to be presented seamlessly together gives promise that even more events like Saturday’s will be happening in the Bayou City.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
