The Mic Chatter (or MC) is the selector's right hand man (and visa-versa). He is responsible for introducing the records being played (intros), hyping up the crowd ("building vibes"), encouraging crowd participation in singing the popular tunes ("conducting choir"), and requesting that a record be stopped and played again immediately (also referred to as a "forward" or "wheel"). The MC duties at a dance are much like those of an MC at a live stage show - forwarding the records immediately upon indication by the crowd (much like an MC at a concert requesting an encore). The crowd requests a forward by screams, shouts, chants, whistles, holding up lit lighters, pounding on the walls, waving hand kerchiefs ("wipers"), lighting fircrackers, using airhorns, or even the firing of guns in the air (called "gun salutes"). The MC may also make announcements of upcoming events, tell jokes, control the crowd in the case of a dispute, and in some cases even make political commentaries. In a Sound Clash, the MC's role becomes even more crucial. In this setting he/she is responsible for verbally ridiculing his opponents (the other sounds) by taunting them (this practice is called toasting), or telling embarrasing jokes which may be true or not true (also called "drawing cards").
