DJ Grooves

DJ Grooves is a major antagonist in A Hat in Time and the main antagonist of chapter 2 "Battle of the Birds" if the player let's DJ Grooves win the Annual Bird Movie Award prior to the final act of the chapter. He is the movie director that leads the penguins in the Annual Bird Movie Award Competition. He is a envious and pompous individual whose envy drives him to cheat and do anything to win The Annual Bird Movie Award. He is the Rival of The Conductor

Appearance and Personality
DJ Grooves, is a Bluish Penguin with a white belly and yellow feet. He wears a red jacket with golden buttons with blue jeans and a brown belt. He has tall platform, red sandals. He has an afro with golden accessories in it. Lastly, he has yellow eye brows over his eyes which are covered by star glasses

DJ Grooves isn't the most appealing person. He constantly talks as if he is above others, especially to the conductor when he accuses him of stealing his idea for new props, saying "Clearly you took inspiration." He also talks behind the backs of the penguins when he tells Hat Kid that all of his actors are bad. Gooves seems to be a party lover as all of his movies surround the idea of partying, not to mention he is a DJ. Grooves is also a hypocrite as he accuses the Conductor of cheating and yet is willing to cheat himself.

Background
Not much is known about DJ Grooves's early life. Through the Chapter 2 Purple Time Rift, it can be inferred that DJ Grooves as a young kid admired the people who won the Annual Bird Movie Award and dreamed to become a winner one day. One day he made it a career and got the keys to open the new Dead Bird Studio, thinking he would have the whole place to himself. At the front entrance he encountered The Conductor who had the same dream. At the entrance, a bitter rivalry was formed. It may be implied that the two grew up as friends, making the conflict tragic.

Act 1 "Dead Bird Studio"
DJ Grooves is first seen in game at the beginning of Act 1. He is arguing with The Conductor who also makes his debut in game. They are attacking each others style of movie and how they make the same type of movies every time, which both deny. DJ Grooves then brings in his new props, which happen to be The Time Pieces that Hat Kid was looking for. The Conductor then brings in his new props, which are also time pieces. After an Awkward silence, The Conductor accuses DJ Grooves of Copying his idea in an aggressive way, in which Grooves denies this and accuses The Conductor of the same thing in a pompous way. In the end they go off into their separate movie recording areas, forcing Hat Kid to break in to get her Time Pieces back. After making her way through the studio, She finds DJ Grooves admiring a large, yet model of the Annual Bird Movie Award. He then turns around to find Hat Kid. He thinks that she is beautiful for a second before inconsiderately "No it's just a little girl." Though, he seems quite lax about letting Humans be in the recording area even though no humans are allowed in the recording area. He then proceeds to say that he needs her help as an actor because all of his actors are terrible. He takes a picture of her and gives her a passport so she can be an actor for him and not get in trouble since the pass port made Hat Kid "legally" a bird. This instance shows Grooves's first act of cheating as he wants Hat Kid to work for him as an actor to help him win even though it's against the rules for a Human to be an Actor in the Annual Bird Movie Award Competition. He then goes off, not to be seen until Act 3.

Act 3 and Act 5
In Act 3 "Picture Perfect," Hat Kid shows up for Grooves's first Party Movie, where she simply must go around and get popular with people. DJ Grooves will help her whenever she picks up a DJ Grooves icon. There he hosts an interview, game, or event that Hat Kid can easily take advantage of to become popular. Once she becomes popular enough, Grooves will give her a Time Piece as payment

In Act 5 "The Big Parade," DJ Grooves let's Hat Kid take on the role as the leader of a parade that will take place over the roof tops of the city recording set while many penguins party under her. Hat Kid will lead a group of band players who will constantly follow her. If she let's them catch up to her, she will get knocked over and get hurt. Grooves tells her that she will have to lead the parade for as long as it last, along the way telling her to do various things that make the party exciting and make it more of a danger to Hat Kid. First he tells her to activate the pyrotechnics which when activated will spawn fireworks on some of the roof tops every few seconds, making them unsafe for Hat Kid to stand on while they go off. He then asks her to turn on the cannons, which when on, shoot heat sinking rockets towards Hat Kid. When over, DJ Grooves releases the Time Piece for Hat Kid. Like The Conductor's movie, this second movie shows how extreme the two movie directors are willing to go to win the award.

Act 6 "The Award Ceremony"
If the player let's DJ Grooves Win The Annual Bird Movie Award, DJ Grooves will appear in Act 6, expressing his happiness of the win. He gives Hat Kid her Time Piece, but doesn't seem as if he is truly thankful for Hat Kid. When Hat Kid returns to her ship, a phone which is identical to the one found in Act 2 "Murder of the Owl Express" even playing the same ringtone, rings. When Hat Kid Picks it up, a mysterious caller tells her that The Annual Bird Movie Award was rigged, saying that it was an inside job. He then warns Hat Kid that The Winner has a Time Piece and knew of its power. The Caller warns that The Winner would soon break the time piece, which would cause time to rewind... He then gives her a hint on how to confront DJ Grooves, saying "What goes on at Dead Bird Studio when no one is around." Lastly, the Caller calls Hat Kid "Lassie" which implies that the caller is The Conductor as that is what he calls her. This leads Hat Kid to return to Act 1, but going to the studio at night when no one is around. She will find an elevator in the recording area that was previously blocked off by guards. She is forced to enter it as the rest of the recording area is inaccessible due to the power being off. The elevator will lead to the basement where she slowly learns about the darkness of Dead Bird Studio. She also slowly hears DJ Grooves voice, muffled to the point where she can't understand it. Eventually she takes another elevator that leads down to where Grooves is. After confronting him, Grooves says that if she wants his last time piece, she needs to fight for it. Thus the boss fight starts. DJ Grooves can attack by dive bombing, dropping disco balls to create shock waves, and using a knife. He also has many other wacky attacks. About half way through the fight, Grooves sits down to try and reason with Hat Kid. He pleas her to give her this last time piece. He accuses the Conductor of cheating, despite having no proof, also showing his hypocrisy as he himself cheated and infact cheated first for this year. He reveals his plans to go back in time and win all of the awards away from The Conductor. When Hat Kid refuses, he calls her selfish, despite not having good intentions with the time pieces. This Conversation alone reveals his true nature. Grooves then attaches the bomb from Act 4 "Train Rush" onto Hat Kid, saying that he stole it. As the Bomb counts down, The Conductor shows up, telling Hat Kid to hang in there as he finds a way to disarm the bomb. He later, pulls out a giant pair of scissors to cut the string attaching the bomb to Hat Kid. Grooves then sends Owls with knifes after Hat Kid, they behave similarly to the Band in Act 4 "The Big Parade." Eventually Hat Kid beats Grooves, forcing Grooves to Drop his last Time Piece.

If Hat Kid let's The Conductor Win, then him and DJ Grooves will swap roles. Dj Grooves will call Hat Kid "Darling," Which is what he calls her, in the phone call. This implies that it was him who told Hat Kid of The Conductor's plans to break a time piece

Chapter 5 "Time's End" and Ending
In The Final Act "The Finale," DJ Grooves along with the Conductor make an appearance. He is standing in line to see Mustache Girl outside of he palace, complimenting how terrible this is. He then tells her to skip the line and find out who was "making the calls." He later appears during the fight against Mustache Girl, After Mustache Girl killed some of the ones watching, trying to scare the others from helping Hat Kid. After the two Mafia kill each other to become heart pons for Hat Kid to use to help her fight, The Conductor and DJ Grooves do the same thing, killing each other until Hat Kid wins and rewinds time back to before the Mafia member even broke into her ship, causing this whole adventure in the first place. When Hat Kid was about to blast off, her ship stops because of added weight on the outside, when she investigates, she finds her friends, including DJ Grooves, hanging onto her ship, pleading her to stay. DJ Grooves says that they could watch their movie. They seemed to have stopped there Evil Ways and wish Hat Kid to stay now that she helped them. Hat Kid uses a glass cleaner to pluck their hands off the ship, telling them good bye before getting to the main control panel, shedding a tear as she knows she'll miss her knew friends, also showing that she cared about them. She then blasts off to home. In the end it seems that DJ Grooves has redeemed himself after Mustache Girl's terror.

Trivia

 * DJ Grooves does not appear with the Conductor to tell Mustache Girl to "get lost" after the first phase of the fight