Jimi Jordan toggles the fader with his forehead -- back and forth, back and forth -- until there's a little red mark right between his eyes. He's in his bedroom, spinning records with his hands behind his back, slicing and dicing the beat until it sounds like it has been run through a Cuisinart.

"It has to be on beat," the 14-year-old says from behind a pair of turntables as he scratches his way through Lil Jon's "Snap Yo Fingers." "The more technical the better, but it has to be on beat."

Jordan stretches out the song's day-glo synth line, swapping its beat for that of the Dem Franchize Boyz hit, "Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It," furiously slapping at the EQ on his mixer so that the vocals on the two songs alternate, like they're singing a duet.

It's a seamless mix, one that has helped Jordan take a step closer to national fame of late. Last month, Jordan took first place at the district finals for the Guitar Center 2006 Spin Off, the largest DJ competition in the land. Out of 1,500 competitors from across the country, Jordan has made it down to the final 38 DJs.

Jordan spins at the Scratch Academy in Hollywood on Wednesday for a chance to advance to the finals and take home a prize package worth more than $40,000 in gear and a new car -- which he wouldn't be able to drive yet.

Jordan, who has been spinning since he was 10, won a pair of local competitions at the Guitar Center on Tropicana Avenue to make it to the regional finals in California. He was the youngest competitor by three years at the district finals, where only one other teen qualified.

"It's very cool to see guys like Jimi coming up through the ranks at such a young age," says Kyle Rogers, Guitar Center promotions manager. "To the novice eye, you're watching this guy playing what looks like one record, but you don't know that there's a beat from another record in the background. You've got to know the beats per measure for that, you've got to know where it ends, you've got to go back and replay the same beat. It's not just kids playing records and scratching."

Jordan spends days at a time perfecting a single routine, his style honed by his mentor, local DJ Presto One. Jordan's sets are a blend of physical flash -- he twirls himself in circles as he spins and uses all parts of his body to work the turntables -- and a reconfiguring of recognizable hits.

"When you juggle beats, a lot of people do just any beats, any records," says Jordan, who performs as Jimi Quest and attends Shadow Ridge High School. "But I like to do mainstream songs that everyone knows, so that people who don't know what's going on, know like, 'Wow, I heard that beat before, but now it's way different.' "

Jordan has an easy smile, and he seems to have more confidence than his thin frame would allow. He sees his age as an asset, his small stature a prelude to big things.

"They really remember me when I go up there," Jordan says of his sets. "They're like, 'It's that little kid.' "

Jason Bracelin's "Sounding Off" column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 383-0476 or e-mail him at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com.