Best Hip-Hop DJ

They can make a night, or ruin it. They can negate a lovers' spat with the drop of a needle, with a single well-timed "Magic Stick" turn your foul ball into a stand-up triple out there on the dance floor. DJs are the unsung heroes of the St. Louis hip-hop revolution. They, not radio, broke Nelly, pushed him into the consciousness of a generation. Their tastes move crowds every night in St. Louis. We're lucky to have some great ones: DJ Needles tosses out the best of the underground. C-Note and Kaos dish the crunk. Snow is the best flat-out mixer, though on any given night Charlie Chan can seem to prove otherwise. DJ Boo is flat-out insane, mixing ghetto tech, crunk and classics together seamlessly. But for flat-out fun, we love Stan the Man, who throws it down every Saturday night at the Spotlight (8370 N. Broadway, St. Louis; 314-385-4545). Stan -- who broadcasts the night live on Q-95.5 FM along with on-air personality Craig Blac -- is a genius mix-and-matcher who, with the drop of the perfect ghetto-booty track, can turn a dance floor, and a Saturday night, on its ass.