DJs and DJ Music

Grandmaster Flash Innovator and “inventor” of techniques Retrofitting technology Created the loop, controlled time manually, cut and pieced together records in a new arrangement This ultimately prefigured production technique: “analog sampling” Most popular DJ by 1979 Body tricks and use a beat box (drum machine) live

~ GM Flash, (quoted in Brewster and Broughton 2000, 216) Quick Mix Theory “taking a section of music and cutting it on time, back-to-back, in thirty seconds or less. It was basically to take a particular passage of music and rearrange the arrangement by way of rubbing the record back and forth or cutting the record, or back-spinning the record” ~ GM Flash, (quoted in Brewster and Broughton 2000, 216)

“Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” (1981) After a few years of NOT being involved with rap records bearing his name The FIRST authentic hip hop record 7-minute demonstration of his “quick mix theory” Done live in several takes w/ 3 turntables NO credit to Flash on the record???

GM Flash Techniques Cutting/the rub/zugga zugga: using two copies of the same record to extend the beat...the LOOP!!! Backspinning: spinning a record back to the beginning of a break/sound w/out audience hearing it Clock theory: using marks on a record to know how far to backspin to bring back to the beginning of the sound/break Punch Phrasing: taking a sound like a horn hit and “punching” it in on beat over another record

Grand Wizzard Theodore Mentored by GM Flash Considered the “inventor” of scratching Perfected Herc's needle drop to do it on time

~Grand Wizard Theodore “I used to come home from school every day and play records. This one particular day, my mother banged on the door yelling at me because the music was too loud. When she walked in, I still had my hand on the record that was playing and I kind of moved it back and forth. When she left, I was like “Yo! That sounded kind of cool. I better experiment with that.” ~Grand Wizard Theodore

Goldberg (2004) “Appropriating the phonographic medium” ??? “the cut is another elemental DJ technique that prefigured use of the digital sampler, allowing the DJ to catch any moment of a record and introduce it into the mix. The cut became the foundation of all future turntable manipulations” (p. 118) Digital sampling: “literal automation of the DJ's production approaches” (p. 125) Isolate the break, loop, cut in and re-arrange records Many DJs become producers (record archive, and making beats is a logical extension of scratching/cutting)

“Rockit” (1983) Herbie Hancock w/ Grandmixer DXT scratching First record to feature musical scratching, and a MAJOR record (sales, awards, etc) 1984 Grammy Awards,scratching is seen for first time on TV (2:05) Influence a whole generation of scratch DJs who saw what they had been hearing “AHH” and “Fresh” from end of B-Side “Change the Beat” (see 3:35)

“The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff”(1987) Brags about Jeff's skills, call and response with Jeff's techniques and the samples Recorded two major techniques, often credited as “inventor” of them because of this 1) “Make it chirp” (3:35) 2) “Transform” (3:47) Advances “Jam Master Jay” (1984) Ca$h Money and other Philly DJs

“Eric B is President” (1987) “Eric be easy on the cut, no mistakes allowed” Song is more about Rakim's verses Marley Marl sampled from Rakim's verse on the choruses “Make em clap to this”

“Say indeed and I'll proceed cause my man made a mix If he bleed he won't need no band-aid to fix His fingertips sew a rhyme until there's no rhymes left I hurry up because the cut will make 'em bleed to death But he's kicking it cause it ain't no half stepping The party is live, the rhyme can't be kept in- Side, it needs erupting just like a volcano It ain't the everyday style or the same old rhyme Cause I'm better than the rest of them Eric B is on the cut and my name is Rakim”

“DJ Premier in Deep Concentration” (1989) Gang Starr, No More Mr. Nice Guy DJ Premier a producer known creative chopping and rearranging Samples Kool & The Gang's “Summertime Madness” and “transform” from “The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff” You hear him “phrasing” vocal rap samples in his scratches, something he's known for Premier's only other scratch composition: Buckshot Lefonque “Some shit at 78 BPM”

“John Wayne on Acid” (2002) D-Styles in The Beat Junkies and Invisibl Skratch Piklz Considered one of the most influential scratch DJs for his musical ability and funky patterns Phantazmagorea the first album made all with turntables, a mixer, and record