“Next time don’t bring a wet sponge to a tech fight”: deadmau5 just beat down DJ James Hype by beating Elden Ring with a Pioneer CDJ-3000

As you’re probably aware there’s a war going on… And if you’re yet to get up to speed with the beef between deadmau5 and James Hype then settle in. Things are about to get messy… And more than a little technical.

By now it’s a much-reported fact that Mr Mau5 (aka Joel Zimmerman) doesn’t exactly hold the craft of making dance music – the activity that has made him a multi-millionaire – in very high regard.

Famously Zimmerman has downplayed the level of skill involved, pointing the finger and making fun of anyone who he feels is building their part, shall we say. With perhaps the ultimate joke being on the entire industry, when he was recently able to sell the rights to the music that he created (and has seemingly dismissed) and that of his label (home to hits for the likes of Skrillex) for millions.

It would appear therefore that no matter how offensive or drunk he gets, or how catastrophic his last live appearance is, the joke always winds up on anyone but him.

Call it bashful modesty. Call it self-deprecation. Call it deliberate bear-baiting, attention-grabbing controversy in advance of his next project. Or – if you too believe that “all DJs are f_____g c___s” – call it the truth.

And speaking of ‘Hype’…

And that a stance that’s very much at odds with the position of James Hype, the infinitely talented DJ whose next-level supercomplex Pioneer CDJ set-ups see him frequently playing the humble players’ Cue buttons like he’s finger-drumming on drum pads, before cutting up and twisting the music on his DJM like he’s playing a whole new musical instrument.

In fact, it’s safe to say that the only thing that the two DJs have in common (though deadmau5 would at this point out that he’s actually a producer…) is that they’re not afraid to call out their rivals and gamely participate in a little profile-boosting beef-creation in the process.

Thus, when Hype needs to drum up interest for his new NYC and Ibiza residency SYNC live show – a show in which Hype is able to jam and play whatever and however he wants while his video and lightshow keep up with him – who else is he going to call?

Hype’s latest Instagram sees him naming and shaming Zimmerman directly: “deadmau5 said that you have to pre-record your set if you wanted to sync it to visuals. I think this proves him wrong,” he says before triggering the classic Rave stab with perfectly in sync flashing deadmau5 logos. “This is my new live show, SYNC, and it really is all live,” he laughs, with deadmau5 eating (is that humble pie?) in the background.

And – of course – Zimmerman, a man seemingly with plenty of time on his hands preceding his DJ appearance at Florida’s Forbidden Kingdom festival on 30, and 31 May and precisely zero f___s to give… ever… has been quick to retort.

In his inevitable clapback video Zimmerman shows a level of technical expertise that perhaps goes beyond Hype’s ability to read his gear’s manuals… Showing how simple it is to achieve a similar CDJ-button-press-equals-on-screen-image result…

And should there be any doubt as to who he's aiming this at, he helpfully writes "@JamesHype" in the comments…

And that's just the beginning

However DM isn't finished yet, using subsequent posts we see him upping the anti, increasingly taking command of the video game Elden Ring – all the while controlling the game with his CDJ… – including a battle with its hardest boss, the demigod Malenia.

“Next time don’t bring a wet sponge to a tech fight,” Zimmerman taunts in the comments. “I can’t even imagine what it’s like renting a stage / film crew / video tech / audio tech to film a deadmau5 burn only to get ruined by a response made with an iPhone, 100 lines of cpp and MS paint. Feel better soon,” he adds.

Ouch.

Quite what level of technical mastery Hype will have to conjure up to fight his way out this nerd war is anyone’s guess, but we look forward to seeing what these clearly rattled hi-tech warriors will dream up next in the pursuit of pointlessly proving a point.

But, for now, we're scoring this 2-1 to deadmau5…