THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2007
NEWS
NIGHT LIFE
9A
Local DJ finds true home
Lawrence native gets name out, hosts weekly shows
BY MATT LINDBERG
mlindberg@kansan.com
photo contributed by Jay Soldner
Ken Soap, who began his professional DJ career in 1998 under the stage name DJ Soap, spins every week at Johnny's Tavern. He started his career playing for free bee at house parties.
If you're looking to hear a large variety of music and have a good time in the process, Ken Soap is your guy. Soap, whose stage name is DJ Soap, is a disc jockey who puts on weekly shows in Lawrence.
Originally from Lawrence, Soap began a professional DJ career in 1998.
"I started college in 1998 in Madison, Wisc." Soap said. "At the time, I was pretty good at math, but I was all about the music."
Soap credits a summer internship for motivating him to consider disc jockeying as a profession.
"I was interning for IBM, but I couldn't picture working there for the rest of my life and began to question what I wanted to do," Soap said. "I felt like I was walking down a path that was expected of me, but I began to think maybe I can change my path and do what I want to do for a living. It was a revelation."
He used money earned through his internship to buy equipment, like his first set of turntables. When Soap began his career, he would work any show he could find, hoping to get his name out to the public.
"You start off for the love of it
"You start off for the love of it — get your name out there, pay your dues and build respect in the business," Soap said. House parties and birthday parties were common events early on, and free beer was
"At some point, you have to treat it like a business and get paid." Soap said.
After making a name for himself in the area, he soon became the host of "Phat Fridays" at Johnny's Tavern, located at 401 N. 2nd St. He still hosts the show today.
"The crowd is always diverse and keeps me on my toes," Soap said. "I'm one of the few DJs that take requests so the music that gets played depends on what the crowd is like."
Soap said that much of the success behind "Phat Fridays" comes
photo contributed by Jay Soldner
DJ Soap caters to his audience when selecting what music to play. He strays from the mainstream and spins music that local radio stations haven't picked up.
from not limiting the music he spins to one specific genre.
"I don't play one type of music," Soap said. "I really get in the zone and read the crowd. So if there are cowboy hats in the crowd, I'll play country music. On other nights, I might play some house, rap or rock music. I make sure the people are having a good time."
Dave Barton, Salina freshman, attends Soap's shows regularly. He said that Soap is one of the better DJs around because of his diversity and connection to the crowd.
Soap does his best to play what is popular, and occasionally spins songs before they really take off on the radio.
"An example is 'Party like a Rockstar', (by the Shop Boyz) of a song I feel like I was one of the first to spin," Soap said. "I saw that 'Party Like A Rockstar' was number one on Atlanta's charts for weeks last December, so I began to spin that here and got good feedback before local radio got its hands on it."
While DJ Soap has lived in many cities around the country, including Boston, Denver and Minneapolis, Lawrence holds a special place in his heart.
"There's something about Lawrence that when I leave, I always miss it," said Soap, who returned to Lawrence in 2003. "It's pretty fun, especially when school is going on and it's just a hot spot for music."
DJ SOap hosts "Phat Fridays" every Friday night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. The event is free and open to those 21 and older. He will begin hosting another weekly event tonight at 9 at Axis, 821 S. Iowa St.
DJ Soap has a profile on MySpace at www.myspace.com/djsoap and on Facebook.com, under DJ Soap.
Edited by Chris Beattie
IRAQ
U.S. general to suggest troop cuts
BY STEVEN R. HURST
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Shift in Sunni loyalty may help counterinsurgency operation
BAGHDAD — The top American commander in Iraq said Wednesday he was preparing recommendations on troop cuts before he returns to Washington next month for a report to Congress, and believes the U.S. footprint in Iraq will have to be "a good bit smaller" by next summer.
But he cautioned against a quick or significant U.S. withdrawal that could surrender "the gains we have fought so hard to achieve."
Gen. David Petraeus said the "horrific and indiscriminate attacks" that killed at least 250 Yazidis, an ancient religious sect, in northwestern Iraq Tuesday night were the work of al-Qaida in Iraq. That would bolster his argument, he said, against too quickly drawing down the 30,000 additional U.S. troops deployed in the first half of the year.
The general issued his comments to a small group of reporters who accompanied him to the
Petraeus listened intently as the so-called Freedom Fighters' 40-year-old leader, who uses the name Abu Abed, explained his transformation and said he switched sides because al-Qaida was ravaging the neighborhood and trying to impose its austere version of Islam.
headquarters of a group of former Sunni insurgents who are now working with American and Iraqi forces against al-Qaida in western Baghdad's Amariyah neighborhood.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, who unexpectedly accompanied Petraeus, promised Abed that the neighborhood — now that it was calmer — would receive priority government attention for its crumbling infrastructure.
"The question is how do you do that ... so that you can retain the gains we have fought so hard to achieve and so you can keep going. Again, we are not at all satisfied we are right now. We have made some progress but again, there's still a lot of hard work to be done against the different extremist elements that do threaten the new Iraq."
Pretraeus, who wrote the Army's book on counterinsurgency, said he and his staff were "trying to do the battlefield geometry right now" as he prepared his troop-level recommendations.
"We know that the surge has to come to an end, there's no question
Petraeus said the shift in loyalty among many Sunni insurgents in some areas was "a pretty big deal."
about that. I think everyone understands that by about a year or so from now we've got to be a good bit smaller than we are right now.
"You have to pinch yourself a little to make sure that is real because that is a very significant development in this kind of operation in counterinsurgency," he said. "It's all about the local people. When all the sudden the local people are on the side of the new Iraq instead on of the side of the insurgents or even al-Qaida, that's a very significant change."
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