Kim Dezen

Kim Dezen is an Adelaide DJ and turntablist active since the late 1990s. A competitor in the 1999 SA Repertoire DJ Battle, he became known through Wozone and Minke, playing party breaks, hip-hop, funk and soul with a technical edge. Reviews praised his scratching with live funk outfit the Beat Smugglers, while turntablist Reflux remembers the pair performing freestyle four-deck sets together. In 2003, Dezen appeared at WOMADelaide’s WoZone and the South Australian Dance Music Awards. After moving to Melbourne, he co-founded the Good Things DJ collective with Jumbo. Their genre-free sessions joined golden-era hip-hop, funk and disco with Detroit house and cut-and-paste club music, putting quality ahead of stylistic boundaries. Dezen has since returned to Adelaide line-ups supporting turntablist and bass artists including Craze, Dillinja and A.Skillz. His broad selection, battle-tested technique and improvisation give him a distinct place in Adelaide’s breaks, hip-hop and bass history.