HITSQUAD special: DJ Scratch interview
HITSQUAD special: DJ Scratch interview
Door: Karst Jaarsma
Fotografie: Stijn Coppens & Joris Kalma 04-09-2010
DJ Scratch kennen we allemaal natuurlijk als de vaste EPMD DJ. Daarnaast maakte hij ook furore als producer voor onder andere Busta Rhymes, DMX en 50 Cent. Recent werd DJ Scratch door rapper DMC gekroond tot DJ Jam Master Scratch. Deze verwijzing naar de overleden Jam Master Jay is natuurlijk het grootste compliment dat je een hiphop DJ kan geven. In het kader van de Hitsquad special spraken we onlangs met hem.
You have worked with lots of New York based artists, which one is your favorite anno 2010?
My most favorite to work with is LL Cool J.
You are recording with him at the moment?
I am working on an album right now. I have got LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, all my favorite MC’s are actually on that one. LL is my favorite to work with because he is the quickest. He is the fastest. He will give you five different versions of a song if you give him only one beat.
How is the hiphop atmosphere in New York right now?
The atmosphere is good. We do underground hiphop and as far as it is concerning underground hiphop it is always good. I cannot speak for commercial hiphop. The radio plays the same ten songs all day, so I cannot speak for that.
You definitely are a New York hiphop legend. I read people saying that legends turned their back to New York and that’s the reason why no commercial successes are coming from New York anymore.
I do not believe in that. The whole commercial hiphop scene is on another way. They only show a certain amount of videos and songs. The mainstream commercial hiphop is in one little box and there is so much more. Where have you read that?
XXL
Exactly, you cannot go on with what you read in these magazines. If you watch a television show with video clips they only show the same ten songs over and over again. Ten songs for New York, the Mid West and the rest of the States. You cannot go on with what one magazine says, TV show says or radio stations states.
One of my favorite Scratch productions is the Busta Rhymes song ‘New York shit’ , a homage to New York. More recently Jay-z and Alicia Keys also had a song showing their love to New York, does that joint express the same feeling as you had on ‘New York shit’ ?
It did have the same feeling, but on a commercial scale. The Jay-Z record is for the commercial market and the young kids. The ‘New York shit’ from me and Busta Rhymes was a homage to the history of hiphop. We shout the names of artist from the 90s until 2006 at the end of the song as well. But we are both representing New York.
You are honored by The Source as an icon. Is it hard to be an icon in the hiphop world?
It is not hard for me to be an icon. I do not even know how I should be an icon. I just try to be myself. I am blessed and fortunate enough that a hiphop generation acknowledges me as an legend, as an icon. I just continue to be myself, being on stage, performing at my highest level on the turntables and continue producing beats.
Is it difficult to keep things fresh?
It is not difficult to keep things fresh if you are just being yourself. I never tried to be like anyone else as far as making beats or anything else. You cannot really look at yourself as being an icon, you should just continue the way you have been doing. If you have been able to survive ten years, the only thing you need to do is continuing being yourself.
I have been in the industry for 25 years. I have seen lots of people coming up, being the biggest thing in the game and disappear forever. People change once they reach success, they want to change their style. You turn your back to the fans who have bough your records once you change your style. That is what happens throughout the whole history of music. This goes as well for hiphop as rock, country or any other music style.
You started as a mix DJ and ended up being a MC DJ later on, how does the process between the two go?
I started being a DJ. I learned how to mix and blend before I knew how to scratch and cut. I began DJing at skating rings playing disco, just learning how to mix. Then I went learning how to battle.
From the battle I became a concert DJ. The transition is hard, definitely. You have got to crawl before you know how to walk. The transition is easy if you keep that in mind. Especially when you have someone around you from whom you can learn.
When I started touring with Run DMC in 1988 I had the possibility to watch Jam Master Jay every night. Just seeing how he drops the records on time for Run DMC, watching Jam Master Jay taught me how to be a concert DJ. Jay told me that the average person might not understand what I was doing on stage, only the DJs in the audience can understand the technical stuff that you are doing. When you are on stage doing a DJ solo, do something that someone who has never seen a DJ before can relate to.
What can you tell kids wanting to become a DJ?
The advice I give to DJs who just started DJing is; practice a lot. You also should learn how to mix before you start scratching and cutting. The biggest DJs in the world are not scratching DJs. The biggest DJs who play in clubs and are on stage do not know how to scratch. Learn how to mix and blend before learning scratching and cutting!
Learn as well how to DJ with both hands. Lots of people watch the turntable DVDs and much of these DJs there only know how to scratch with one hand. If you watch that you are going to copy that. So, learn how to DJ with both hands.
Why is it essential to start practicing mixing before learning the scratch techniques?
Because that is the art of DJing. Learning how to scratch first is like a baby learning how to walk. You are crawling first before you walk. Crawling is mixing, walking is cutting and running is scratching.
You invented lots of Scratch techniques yourself.
Yeah, definitely. I invented a lot of scratches, body tricks and everything. But you should know that back in the days, in the early 80s, we never named anything. I think it was in 1995 when DJs started tagging names on every scratch pattern or little DJ routine. We never named it, just did it. Going under the legs, putting your back on the fader, taking off your shirt, different scratch patterns, lots of stuff that I have invented.
Would you have wanted your name on your tricks?
No, that is not what DJing is about. Everything has changed as far as hiphop, even in the DJ world. Back in the days, biting was never allowed. It was about MCing and especially DJing. It was for example not allowed to do something in public that another DJ already had done before. Right now, biting is celebrating.
Now you go to a DJ battle or even a concert and you will see the DJ doing the same routine as somebody else has done before. He gets rewarded for that and we do not respect that. That was taboo back in the days. You should create your own style!
Everybody is doing the same thing right now, I am waiting for someone to take it to the next level. Please do something original that you have created. If you are watching DVDs and playing rewind over and over again while studying every move you are going to sound exactly like that person you are watching. If you turn the DVD off and use your own mind and creativity you will create your own style.
EPMD was split up due some money problems, now you are all together again. Are you glad that all problems have solved and that you are back?
We are doing this for hiphop. Sometimes you are just doing it for the cause instead of the money. If you are just doing it for the money you should not be doing it away. I make more money DJing on my own than with EPMD. We have to split the money with the three of us in EPMD. I am doing it because I love it.
I also DJ because I love to, not because I have to. It feels good that I am doing it again with the boys and it is good for hiphop. Hiphop needs this shit! I am a EPMD fan as well and I do not want to see Erick Sermon by himself. Neither do I want to see Parrish Smith by himself, I want to see everybody together.
It is cool and fine if you want to do your solo shit then, but as a fan I want to see the group together. It would be the same with Public Enemy if you see Flavor Flav by himself and Chuck D by himself. They might have success by their selves, but you are a Public Enemy fan and want to see them together.
You are working on an album right now, what can we expect on that one?
Yeah, my album is almost done. It is a compilation album and the whole album is produced by me. I have got one song by Q-Tip, one with Talib Kweli, one with Raekwon and Ghostface, one from Busta Rhymes, then another song with Busta Rhymes, Method Man and LL Cool J, one song with Bun B. Which is my favorite rapper from the South.I have one song with Kurupt, representing the West Coast. I have one from Large Professor. I have all your favorite MCs on one album and that has never been done before.
You are used to producing entire songs or albums for one artist, is it more difficult to work on songs ending up on your own album?
Ehm, it is not difficult for me to produce a whole album for myself. It is fun actually. Me producing a whole album by myself is like producing a whole Busta Rhymes album but putting different MCs on it. I was doing at least six songs on the early Busta Rhymes albums. I did nine out of the eleven songs on the Flipmode album.
I have got thousands of beats and I am a DJ so I know which song works for which artist. I would not give Bun B a Busta Rhymes beat for example. Some people would do that just to have the opportunity to work with Bun B. But it has to be right. If you give Bun B a record it has to be something that fits his legacy. That is the same thing with Large Professor, I gave him a beat that fits Large Professor. You will see that when you listen to this album that every beat fits the MCs reputation and sound while having a touch of my specific sound.
Wasn’t it different that when producing for Busta Rhymes the last call on the song was his and now you are the one who decides how the track is going to be put on record?
No, I just give Busta a beat and tell him that he should rhyme on that one. He does that. The chemistry is always amazing every time I work with Busta Rhymes. That is because he trusts me. If I give him a beat he spits on that one without even guessing it.
I will tell you a quick story about recording the Flipmode album; The whole Flipmode Squad was in the studio writing to a beat. I then entered the studio and made nine beats in one day. I woke up at eight o’clock in the morning and made beats until three o’clock in the night. I then put the beats on the table, told them that those beats were going to be the Flipmode album and walked out of the studio. Those were the nine songs that were on the Flipmode album. Real talk.
Are you, next to your solo album, working on any other projects?
Right now I am working on Busta Rhymes his album. I am working on the Shaolin vs Wu album as well, which is Rae, Meth & Ghost. I am working on those albums, but I am concentrating on my own release.
