DJ Sneak: "If you never touched a piece of vinyl in your life, you're not a DJ"

Do you have the credentials to earn the respect of DJ Sneak?

According to the long-serving legend, "if you've never touched a piece of vinyl in your life, you're not a DJ."

In a new interview with Pioneer radio, the legendary DJ explains what he reckons is essential to the art of DJing.

While he namechecks turntable legends like Grandmaster Flash and Jazzy Jeff as DJs who are keeping the spirit alive, he laments that some newer DJs are creating "zero feeling".

"In the last 20 years, there was a gap where kids just didn't care about the craft anymore. They just wanted to be famous, they wanted to be popular, they wanted to do whatever they could to be in front of all those people. They skipped things to get to that level," he said.

Sneak admits he's met younger DJs who know their shit but, perhaps taking aim at the 'press play' generation, says that you need to have put in time and effort on the ones and twos to be considered real.

"If you're a DJ you learn how to mix with decks first... I don't care how big you are, in front of a million people, if you never touched a piece of vinyl and actually mixed that and created something with that, you're not a DJ in my eyes. I look down on people like that," he said.

"The popularity means nothing. I'd give the local kid more love because he's hustling and DJing [with vinyl] and putting his heart into it every day... You've got people who do it for love and you've got people who do it for other reasons," he added.

So there you go... Do you make it into Sneak's good books?