Dee Jay

"Were my killer combos too much for you, mon?"

- Dee Jay

Dee Jay (ディージェイ, Dii Jei, DJ) is a character in the Street Fighter series. He made his first appearance in Super Street Fighter II as one of the four "New Challengers".

Appearance
Dee Jay wears orange loose drawstring pants with black sides and yellowish-white lettering that reads "MAXIMUM" and orange sparring gloves. His hairstyle is a braided mohawk with a letter "M" on each side of his head which stands for "MAXIMUM", Dee Jay is also seen in the anime movie and some artworks to be wearing a Caribbean chain necklace.

Dee Jay's pants originally said "MANTIS" but since his right sprite is merely a mirror image of his left, the "N" and "S" would be reversed, so it was changed to "MAXIMUM".

Personality
Dee Jay is generally a kind-spirited, cheerful, happy-go-lucky man who loves fighting, dancing and composing music rhythms. His conduct is very clear in most of his in-game poses, artworks and pictures where he is always seen sporting a huge smile and a thumbs-up hand gesture. Dee Jay tends to always see the positive side of everything in life, constantly displaying a highly happy mood and rarely getting upset, angry or sad, even under the worst circumstances. However, despite this laid-back attitude, Dee Jay does not tolerate belligerents who make trouble at his performances, literally kicking them out if necessary.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
Known as "The Southern Comet", Dee Jay is a cheerful kickboxer who fights to musical rhythm. Quickly rising to the top of his division, he travels the world looking for new challenges. In his in-game storyline, he anonymously challenges and defeats Adon, another kickboxer in the rival Muay Thai style, with Adon vowing revenge. He eventually finds his true goal: Sagat, the "emperor" of Muay Thai, now fallen from grace and an enforcer for M. Bison, who does not take the cheerful Jamaican seriously. Countering by declaring that in this fight he "means business", Dee Jay challenges Sagat and defeats the former champion, further adding to Sagat's depressed losing streak.

Sagat's employer, Bison, takes an interest in Dee Jay at this point, offering him a position in Shadaloo. Dee Jay refuses, and when Bison deals with the rejection by trying to kill him, Dee Jay staves Bison off and leaves, unable to truly defeat the dictator while the Psycho Drive is operational. Dee Jay returns to Jamaica and, inspired by his battles, hums a new tune as he walks down the street. This catches the ear of a record producer, who immediately offers Dee Jay a record deal.

Super Street Fighter II
Now a major music sensation, Dee Jay enters the second World Warrior tournament to find some new rhythm for his next album. Though how far he gets in the tournament is unknown, he finds the rhythm he seeks and his new record is a smash hit.

Super Street Fighter IV
Feeling restless, he takes a break from his music to test his fighting skill by participating in S.I.N.'s tournament. Soon, footage of him fighting one of the Seth dolls is broadcast around the world. Though Dee Jay's story role is minimal, his rival is Rufus, apparently because the latter has an interesting "rhythm" in his voice and belly.

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
Dee Jay made a small guest-appearance in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Here, he beats up a few punks causing trouble at a nightclub before being warned by Guile and Chun-Li that he is being spied on by Bison. In his scenes he uses a golden Caribbean chain necklace.

Street Fighter live-action movie
In the 1994 live action movie, Dee Jay is portrayed by Miguel A. Nunez Jr. Here, he is one of the minions of M. Bison and appears to have an aptitude for working with computers (at one point near the ending, he utters to himself "Oh, mon! I should have stayed at Microsoft"). Though competent, he is also portrayed as cowardly, abandoning Bison as he is giving a speech about accepting defeat. Dee Jay is often paired up with Zangief on-screen, where he plays the "straight man" based on his reactions to Zangief's uninformed and/or stupid comments.

Later, he and Sagat escape from Bison's base via a waterway located beneath the temple-base along with a case full of cash. To their disappointment, they find the case is actually full of worthless Bison Dollars, the currency which Bison intended to establish as part of his new nation.

Street Fighter cartoon
Dee Jay also appeared in the Street Fighter 1995 cartoon but his role is minimal. He serves as the team's helicopter pilot.

UDON comics
In the UDON comics, Dee Jay appears as a Shadaloo agent, but it is revealed that he had been brainwashed along with Blanka. He is later freed from his brainwashing by Delta Red, and is seen sparring with Blanka. Unfortunately, he is recaptured by Shadaloo and is brainwashed into being their pawn once more, but Dhalsim uses his powers to free him from mind control, making M. Bison see Dhalsim as a potential threat.

Trivia

 * Dee Jay is the only character in the series to be designed by Capcom USA. He was designed by James Goddard, who modeled Dee Jay after martial arts film star and Tae Bo creator, Billy Blanks. Dee Jay's braided mohawk also resembles Blanks's role as Khan in The King of the Kickboxers.
 * Dee Jay is rarely seen without a smile; such rare moments include the Street Fighter II series loss portraits, and loss by time over in Street Fighter Alpha 3.
 * Dee Jay has been a target of Shadaloo on numerous occasions; in the animated movie, he was being watched by Shadaloo androids, while in Street Fighter Alpha 3, M. Bison himself has asked Dee Jay to join.
 * Before Dee Jay was created, Capcom was planning on having a Fei Long head swap. The idea resurfaced later in Street Fighter III for kung-fu twins with Yun and Yang. Interestingly in Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, Yun's story involves him and Yang meeting Dee Jay in order to find out the whereabouts of Fei Long, thus bringing all four related characters together. It is unknown whether or not this is a coincidence or if Capcom intentionally pitched the idea.
 * He is apparently friends with Fei Long, but the friendship may just be work-related. This may be due to the fact, as explained above, that Dee Jay was originally supposed to be a head-swap of Fei Long.
 * Pullum Purna from the Street Fighter EX series is similar to Dee Jay in some aspects. They are both dark-skinned (Dee Jay is Caribbean while Pullum is Arabian) fighters who fight using dance moves and they both use musical instruments (Dee Jay is often seen with maraccas, while Pullum uses a tambourine).
 * Elena also has similar traits to Dee Jay. They are both barefoot, dark-skinned (Dee Jay is Caribbean while Elena is African) happy-go-lucky fighters who fight using dance moves and talk about rhythm and beat in their win quotes.
 * Dee Jay's nickname, "The Southern Comet", may be a reference to the manga/anime series Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken).
 * The red car featured in Dee Jay's Street Fighter Alpha 3 stage partially resembles a 1958 Plymouth Fury, a coupé car made famous by Stephen King's Christine (a horror novel about an automobile demonically possessed by its previous owner's dead spirit).
 * The M-shaped bald spots on Dee Jay's head are inexistent in SSFIV.
 * The word "MAXIMUM" does not appear on his pants in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. In the Street Fighter 1995 TV series it was shown, but the word "MAXIMUM" would be mispelled in some episodes, (e.g. in Demon Island, it was spelled "MAXIUM", and in Chunnel Vision, it was spelled "MOXIMUM").
 * In Makoto's 3rd Strike ending, Dee Jay can be seen among the fighters defeated by Makoto.
 * Dee Jay is the only one of ten new warriors of Super Street Fighter IV to be in the iPhone and iPod Touch version of Street Fighter IV.
 * In Street Fighter X Tekken, Hwoarang's swap costume is based on Dee Jay.
 * Dee Jay's second Ultra Combo, Climax Beat, hits 44 times. This makes it the Ultra Combo with the most consecutive hits so far.

Stage theme