DJ Megadon
DJ Megadon
DJ Megadon, otherwise known as Christiaan Cocroft, lives to entertain folks across Milwaukee with a wide variety of music. He learned to DJ a few years back by attending DJ Bizzon’s Scratch Sessions and would spend many hours and many months practicing in his basement. Now he’s become a premier DJ to know in Milwaukee and has performed everywhere from Cactus Club to Mad Planet to Quarters Rock ‘n Roll Palace to The Back Room at Colectivo plus he’s been involved with Midcoast Collective as their house DJ and as part of their record label.
Music was a huge part of growing up for Megadon. “I’ve loved it ever since I was born,” he said. “I grew up in the late’90s and early 2000s during a creative peak of a lot of hip hop and R&B, but also during a time where older stuff and newer stuff were being played at the same time. I would listen to a lot of music from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s; I also grew up watching a lot of music on channels like MTV, BET and VH1.
“I’ve always tried not to pigeonhole myself into one box because first of all, we as Black people can listen to all types of genres, and second, all music is created by and influenced by Black people anyway. The record industry tries to separate different music types when all of it’s just music, and everybody can do their thing with it as long as they come correct and respect the culture.”
Megadon attended UWM and made friends who played music which would bring him out to local shows frequently. Meeting so many like-minded folks in the scene inspired him to try his hands at DJing. Connecting with DJ Bizzon was crucial to him getting started. “I met him at a UWM event and thought he was awesome,” Megadon recalled. “A couple years later in late 2018 I saw Bizzon was hosting these free DJ classes at Kenilworth on Prospect. I decided to go check it out because that’s my homie, and he invited me to go onto one of the DJ controllers and do my thing. I had a lot of fun doing it so I kept going to the classes every Wednesday. Then he moved them to Walker’s Point Center for the Arts and around that time I got my first DJ controller, which I still use to this day.
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“I’d just be down in the basement practicing and I’d have so much fun. I kept going to the classes and then in April 2019 I had my first DJ gig at a gallery night hosted by Walker’s Point Center for the Arts and they let us play whatever we wanted—I did my thing and it was a good start. After that, people I was friends with in the music scene started inviting me to DJ some house shows at places like The Murray Attic and Downer House which really helped me build myself up. In early 2020 I got my first club gigs at Company Brewing and Mad Planet right before everything shut down. During COVID I just kept practicing in my basement and couldn’t wait to perform to crowds again.”
After quarantine, Megadon wasted no time getting back into the scene and began DJing as much as he could. He was previously known as DJ Cratedigga but in 2021 changed his name to DJ Megadon, which is a reference to an Ice Cube song from 1998 album 1 War & Peace: Vol. 1. “The song is called ‘Fuck Dying’ and it features Korn,” Cocroft explained. “In the intro Cube says to call him “Don Mega” and I thought it sounded cool backwards.”
In addition to being an entertainer, Megadon has been involved in community organizing over the years and firmly believes that art and social justice are inherently connected. “You can’t separate politics from the culture,” he said. “Everything you do is a political statement in a way, especially when it comes to culture, because you see how so many artists going back to the ‘60s and ‘70s during revolutionary movements like Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Crosby, Nash, Stills & Young and many others who make great records had such a huge influence on the youth. At the time, everything was super intense with the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement going on and the government did everything in their power to defame artists in the media and railroad them into prison.
“For example, John Lennon was spied on by the FBI because he was hanging out with revolutionaries at the time and making songs that were political enough to be sung at protests. Another example: they tried to criminalize Black music—especially hip-hop music—all the time. They went after NWA, Public Enemy and 2Pac for speaking their truth; America has always had its war on hip hop music, which is just another cycle of its war against Black people.”
Political Statement
He feels that the music that you listen to and energy you project to people can be a political statement against the establishment. “This racist power structure doesn’t give a damn about us, and we have to inspire people to create revolution,” he said. “Music and dance are definitely revolutionary because it’s total freedom of expression. They’re universal languages that can appeal to everybody and if you can speak truth within it, you’re going to get people to listen. People might go up to you and say that what you played that night really made them feel good or that what you played really helped them during a hard time—that’s the beautiful thing about it. The stuff that challenges the capitalist power structure is usually made and listened to by the youth and we have to keep inspiring that through our music and our art. There’s far more of us than there are of them so the revolution is unstoppable … it will happen.”
Cocroft shares some of the biggest things he’s learned since taking DJing seriously. “First off, connections are everything and it’s always good to keep talking to people. Second, the impact that you have on everybody can be long-lasting. Once you’ve got that momentum, you’ve got to just keep building and not get complacent about it. I’ve also learned to expand my brand; right now, I’m working on business cards with some Midcoast people, and I just recorded a mix in my friend’s studio that I released on Soundcloud. Stay humble, show love and respect, learn from your mistakes and don’t get lost in the ego.”
DJ Megadon plays Midcoast Vol. 18 at Cactus Club on Oct. 27; Cactus Club again with Stone Theory and Wonderful Bluffer on Nov. 12; and Linneman’s Riverwest Inn for Bee Gees Night on Dec.16. Visit his Soundcloud here. For bookings, email him via christiaancocroft@gmail.com.
