The Evolution Of A Disc Jockey In The Hip-Hop Culture Essay, Research Paper

The Evolution of a Disc Jockey In The Hip-Hop Culture

With the turn of the century, a musical evolution began. The phonograph was part of this musical change. It was a simple musical output device. The role of

this musical component was greatly regarded as that of just a music player during the modernistic period. During the modern era, the world was changing

from the traditional beliefs of more philosophical, social conscious, scientific

ideas. This is when John Cage during the thirties came on to the phonographic

scene displaying the manipulation of a song into abstract tunes exhibiting

modernist thoughts. As the modern period came to a close, post-modernism followed in its path. One of the most notable post modern events is that it has

unravelled and left music “hanging loose” for people to do as they please by

dissecting and recreating that which has already been created and recreated.

During this period, which is still currently evolving, Pierre Schaeffer in the forties

most likely gained influential ideas from John Cage in his attempts to redefine

tunes and make them into segments and samples of unfamiliar notes. It was the

seventies that proved to be the pivotal point of the disc jockeys evolution. No

longer were people putting quarters into the jukebox, or dancing to the American

Bandstand, but enjoying parties that offered live entertainment. In the late

seventies, the disc jockey changed and evolved different musical cultures into

segments. Along came the culture of hip-hop. Hip-Hop lent their open ear

allowed the disc jockey to let the creativity flow. The role of the disc jockey in the hip-hop society evolved into much more than just playing music. The early revolutionaries and their musical ventures contributed to the hip-hop society. The ventures of various musicians helped maintain the role of the

turntables integrity to become more than just a music player. This was exemplified by one man, Pierre Schaeffer, who is now believed to be a visionary

in the turntable arts. ” By using multiple turntables, Schaeffer would cue desired sounds from existing recordings…his only means for altering the sounds of the discs were through changing the speeds of the turntables, creating repeating loops or grooves in the disc…and adjusting the volume and playing the sounds backwards” (Holmes 120). Also during this time another fellow musician of Schaeffer’s that also contributed his thoughts on this subject. John Cage presented his ideas to the Seattle Arts Society in 1937 with the hope of getting some type of recognition for the turntable. “With a phonograph it is now possible to control any one of these sounds and give to it a rhythm within or beyond the reach of imagination. Given four phonographs we can compose and perform a quartet for explosive motor, wind, heartbeat and landslide (Cage). John Cage demonstrated the creativeness of warping the sounds, pre-dating disc jockeys by nearly forty years. These two men greatly contributed to the dawn of the hip-hop society. With these men involved in the foundation of phonographic compilations, the true creators of the disc jockey hip-hop culture were soon to follow.

Hip-Hop pioneers like DJ Kool Herc, Africa Bambaata, Grandmaster Flash, DJ

Hollywood, and Grandwizard Theodore innovated new ways to create a hip-hop

sound. When hip-hop was in its embryonic stages, it was made the original way

with two turntables, a mixer, a breakbeat and a microphone (Braxton 23). As the

early dawn of hip-hop flourished, its parent, disco, soon began to recognise the

favourable offspring. “The spark that ignited the musical multicultural flame in

hip-hop was when Jamaican expatriate Kool Herc and his Herculordian sound

system unleashed continuous breakbeats upon the Bronx and the world”

(Daredevil 74). Every record has a break, especially early disco. It’s the part of a song after the chorus where the song changes at the interlude” (Kurt). The

breakbeat is directly related to this as it is the part that moves the dance crowd the most. “The Great Grandmaster Flash then installed a “single pole-double throw” switch, to advance cuing and mixing beyond all predecessors.

Grandmaster Flash redefined what Pierre Schaeffer did in the forties by taking

two songs and innovating his idea to create a totally new song with two

established sounds. DJ Grandwizard Theodore then created a percussive new

instrument from the turntable when his chaotic scratching was heard” (Daredevil

74). Scratching was made popular in nineteen eighty three, when it actually went

“mainstream”, because of the odd sounds it makes that people where not

accustomed to. However, it wasn’t new. Grandwizard had started scratching

when he was fourteen, that was during the nineteen sixties. As these events

unfolded, the evolution of equipment and reorganisation of sound, the disc

jockeys purpose began to change.

In 1977 Grand Wizard Theodore would forever change the DJ culture when he

invented the scratch, a noise made by cueing a record back and forth (Jee). The

scratches made by Grand Wizard Theodore have inspired every aspiring disc

jockey to recreate the Grandwizard’s scratching sound in sound. The list of

scratches made possible by today’s disc jockey is remarkable! Possible scratches include: the Crab, Scribble, Baby scratch, Tear, Chop, Transformer

and the Orbit, just to name a few. The differences between scratches are their

sounds and the difficulty of accomplishing them. Today’s hip-hop disc jockeys

spend many hours trying to perfect each one.

Another technique revolutionised by early disc jockeys was that of beat juggling, popularised by Steve D. It took Grandmaster Flash’s idea of mixing and cueing records back and forth and took it one step further by making two records into a whole new song while adding in scratching and body tricks. This technique was then tried by DJ Yoshi who later inspired DJ Shortkut of the infamous Invisible Skratch Piklz.

One of the founding features of the hip-hop disc jockey were body tricks and

showmanship. These theatrics were unique to hip-hop disc jockeys and proved

who actually had the best skills. Tricks such as using the stomach to move the

crossfader while freeing both hands for vinyl work were standard. These tricks

were introduced as early as 1977 when hip-hop pioneers such as Grandmaster

Flash and Africa Bambaata would battle at local dances and in parks (Jee).

Today hip-hop disc jockeys still try to outdo each other and dazzle the crowd

with their innovative tricks.

As the evolution of hip-hop started to unfold, the disc jockeys world became

more technical and the competition flourished to create new standards. The

“Traditional” music world began realising how a disc jockey could play a part in

recreating the musical aspect of a song. For example, legendary jazz musician

Herbie Hancock’s decision to have legendary Zulu DJ Grandmixer DST to scratch on the song “Rockit” in nineteen eighty three (Rice). Unfortunately, corporate America did not believe hip-hop disc jockeys were commercial moneymakers, thus hip-hop was put on the back burner to allow the more commercially viable rap music to emerge. Nonetheless, such groups as the Disco Mix Club came fourth to create an outlet for disc jockeys to showcase their skills. The first competition organised for a disc jockey to showcase their skills was formed in 1987. This was the first competition promoting the disc jockeys skills and showing the world how far they have evolved.

As the years went by, the disc jockey culture was able to expand and

showcasing their talents worldwide while their popularity spread and the other

various competitions came about. During this expansion of outlets to vent the

enthusiasm of the hip-hop culture disc jockeys, new terms were coined to further

describe the accomplishments and advancements of these musicians. One of

the most noted words to explain the evolution taking place was the phrase

Turntablism, first coined in 1995 by DJ Babu of the Beat Junkies. His definition

of a turntablist is “a person who uses the turntables not to just play music, but to manipulate sound and create music” (Babu). Around the time Babu coined the phrase Turntablism, a new foundation for Turntablists was being formed.

The International Turntablist Federation was organised to form industry

awareness in the future and development of the turntable as a musical

instrument. In the I.T.F.’s statements, they describe the turntablist as the future

of what was once called the disc jockey or dee-jay. “The turntablist is an

individual who broke away from the standards of a disc jockey” (ITF Newsletter).

The International Turntablist Federation was also formed to group the specific

turntablist qualities. “It’s like running track: you don’t see a 100-meter sprinter competing against a marathon runner,” says Alex Aquino, I.T.F. president, of the categories. ” This is a way to compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges” (Salamida 117).

Disc Jockey groups have become increasingly more popular and are on the rise.

As the competitions grew fierce and the technical aspects evolved, many more

turntablists’ turned to form partnerships with fellow turntablists. These bonds

between “team-mates” help insure the devotion to the music and the

advancement of their individual skills.

The Invisibl Skratch Piklz are the most revolutionary group of turntablists at this time. The group members for the nineteen ninety seven roster include A-Trak, the fifteen year old sensation, D-Styles, Mixmaster Mike, DJ Shortkut, DJ Q-Bert and Yoga Frog. DJ Q-Bert and Mixmaster Mike have been banned from the

Disco Mix Clubs competitions because “they just said we would intimidate the

other competitors,” says Q-Bert (Zen). Aside from being banned from certain

competitions, they were the foundation that helped bring about the creation of

the International Turntablist Federation. They have amassed many world titles in

their competitions including individually and as a group. Their current innovator to keep the Skratch Piklz alive in competitions is A-Trak, who currently won the Disco Mix Club 1997 world title. Their projects include videos that teach turntable techniques, demonstrations around the world, and the push of turntable jazz. They have contributed to the DJ world a new sense in the meaning of a scratch with their everlasting jaw dropping skills that they display.

Another world famous DJ “crew” is the X-men. Their origination came in the

1980s to battle another New York area group called the Supermen. The X-men

consist of Mr. Sinista, Roc Raida, Total Eclipse and Rob Swift. They are self

described as “the over-qualified but under-appreciated blue-collar superheroes

of hip-hop” (Zen). The X-men not only try to elevate the turntable art, but are

also concerned with the place of this art form in the music history books. The

X-men are billed as the crew to bring body tricks to a whole new level. The World famous Beat Junkies have seemingly come out of obscurity recently from the town of Cerritos in southern California. They are the only major Turntablist group to have a female DJ as a member. The Beat Junkies were formed in 1992, being one of the most recent groups to form, but already proving

that they are qualified to perform. Together they have won prestigious titles in

the Disco Mix Club, the Supermen and the recent International Turntablist

Federation competitions.

As the DJ/Turntablists world grows, many new groups will form. Some of the very

recent have been The Supernatural Turntablist Artists, 1200 Hobos, and the

Fifth Platoon. All of these teams have showcased their skills in various events

and are worthy of all the titles they have won. It is clearly shown that all the

groups mentioned are the innovators of today and have taken the title of a disc

jockey to the next level.

The future of a disc jockey in the hip-hop culture is assured with the recent

change in trends. The old days of not paying attention to the one who creates

music is no longer. “Music is organised noise,” Carluccio says “Disc jockeys are

revolutionising it and people need to see that” (Carluccio). With the advent of

the new advancements in equipment, the sound of the turntables is changing.

Many advancements have been added to the turntable itself, with new digital

speed adjustments and quick start-stop time which has revolutionised the way

music is played. The needle itself has changed drastically also, new needles are

designed for specific activities such as scratching and mixing. The makers of

these needles have done quite well, with the Stanton series being the favourites

among the majority of the disc jockeys.

Another advancement in the quality of products for the disc jockey is the mixer.

New series of mixers put out by Vestax have been designed by top professional

DJs to create an excellent product. All of these accomplishments by the existing companies that provide the disc jockeys with products proves that they are moving along with the innovations of todays musicians to make sure that the future stays bright. With these changes in the instruments used to perform the job of a disc jockey, there will also be changes in the way new skills are found. Recent new advancements are more common in scratches because the wide variety of noises that are possible. Along with the new accomplishments comes new ways of transforming a record into an altered sound. This is exemplified in the recent Invisible Skratch Piklz record ” ISP Versus The Klamz UV Deth” this EP is trulyamazing to hear. This is most likely the next realm for the turntablist to conquer.

The foundation of the disc jockey in the hip-hop culture has proven to be a

steady revolution of the dance music culture. The progression from the original

disc jockeys to today’s turntablists surely exhibits the qualities of not just a music player, but a musician. It is by today’s standards that the turntablists are finally gaining the recognition they deserve. In todays society, many people are not to ready to accept the accomplishments of others, but the disc jockey has remained constant in their fight to be known as more than just a music player and that recognition has been gained.

“The turntable is the tool-an archaic one, but it must be truly alive, I’m talking about what John Cage performed experiments with in the 60’s and as DJ Q-Bert so simply put, “No body tricks, just straight sound” (Daredevil 75). This

statement reflects on the fact that it is necessary to look deeper that just the

book cover to understand the achievements of the turntablist. It is essential to

first understand what it is about, to truly dive into the standards of the evolution of the disc jockey in the hip-hop society, and discover the amounts that it has grown into since its inception. Then and then only will the questionable find the true origin of the disc jockey in today’s hip-hop music scene and see that he is just more than just one who plays music, but one who creates it.