San Francisco’s very own DJ Q-Bert is one
of the premiere turntablists and perhaps the most recognized
and respected Asian American hip-hop artist to date. There
was an era of djs before Q-Bert came about and then came the
era transformed by him. This time began during the year of
his first appearance onto the national scene in 1991. In the
past 7 years his influence to the dj/turntablist/skratch community
are unparalleled by no other. Contributing to almost every
skratch musical note and skratch historical moment known to
this day. His dynamic control of the turntable whether through
breakneck speed improvisation to soulful musical emotion,
his impatient offbeat system has brought only astonished eyed
and ears and minds www.skratchpiklz.com/
He was born and raised in
San Francisco, where he grew up listening to a wide variety
of different types of music thanks to his uncles, who collected
vinyl and had shelves and big boxes of all types of records
- mostly funk, 70's stuff. Ever since he was in little league
baseball, he would come home to a house full of people blasting
music, which really had an important affect on the way he
listened to music, and planted the seeds for his later learning
to pinpoint bits of music, like a breakdown, a chorus, a guitar
solo, whatever it was I was hearing. www.skratchpiklz.com/
Name: Jon Cruz
Alias: Shortkut
Birth Date: 10-15-75
Place of Birth: San Francisco, California
Type of DJ: Club, turntablist, mixtape, radio, showcase
Began DJing: Since 1987
Profile: Members, Invisbl Skratch Piklz
Members, Beat Junkies www.skratchpiklz.com/
Rob Swift is an enigma in the turntablist scene.
Relative to other big name DJ's, he's never won any world
titles, but is still considered one of the most influential
DJ's today. And relative to his fellow X-Ecutioners, he presents
the least amount of flash, but is thought of by most to be
the backbone of the collective. He has created mixtapes which
have garnered legendary stuatus in b-boy circles worldwide,
was the production nucleus of two critically-acclaimed albums
(X-Ecutioners' X-pressions (1997), and his own opus, The Ablist),
and is credited with helping forge the modern sound of beat
juggling today. But still, who is the man behind the legend,
and why does he always choose to stand slightly outside of
the spotlight? Rob Swift filled us in after his performance
at the 2001 Turnament in April. www.x-ecutioners.net
Roc Raida is a member
of the World famous X-Ecutioners!! He's won several national
and international dj battles, and became DMC World Champion
1995 in London!
Besides being a dj, Roc Raida is a very successful producer,
doing tracks for Showbiz and AG (Time For) and The Jungle
Brothers (How Ya Want It), etc..
He's also done cuts for The Artifacts, Sadat X, Mad Skillz,
O.C. and Big Pun!! www.x-ecutioners.net
As a founding member of the World
Famous Beat Junkies, DJ Icy Ice has revolutionized Los Angeles
hip-hop radio along with the other members of the Beat Junkies
turntablist collective. Their style of mixing records - the
'trick mix', has distinguished LA radio from the San Francisco
'quick mix' style, and New York's 'shout-over-the-record'
DJ style, giving LA radio a flavor all it's own.
Name: Apollo Novicio
Alias: DJ Apollo
Birth Date: 11-20-69
Place of Birth: Manila, Philippines
Type of DJ: Club, Turntablist, Mixtape, Radio, Showcase
Began DJing: Since 1983
Profile: Original Member and Co-founder of the Invisbl Skratch
Piklz
DJ of Buckshot LeFonque f/jazz legend
Branford Marsalis recorded on "Music Evolution"
on Columbia Records and toured worldwide
Appeared w/Buckshot LeFonque on Jay Leno, David Lettermen,
Conan O'Brien, Soul Train
Currently Djing for Souls of Mischief recorded on "No
Man's Land" and future album
DJ B-Mello has made his mark by being
known as the West Coast #1 Tape Master (echo here). On his
tapes you'll here shout outs from Nas, Ice Cube, Eric Sermon,
Black Moon, Beatminerz, Smif & Wesson, Large Professor,
The Alkoholiks, B-Real, Coolio, Mobb Deep, and underground
crews such as Doo-Wop & The Bounce Squad, J-Live, Bobbito
and Fondle 'em Records, and more artists that you know.
I do radio, mix-tapes/ cd’s,
battles, clubs and studio work. I have toured internationally
performed with or opened for groups including, Tha Liks, Xzibit,
Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mos Def, AG, Busta Rhymes, Raekwon, Outkast,
Tony Touch and Rock Steady Crew. In 1997 I won the local International
Turntablist Federation Battle. I have also taught multiple
DJ classes for organizations including Tower Records, American
Music, Everyone Has A Song, Boys and Girls Clubs, Experience
Music Project and Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center.
Everyone's heard of the World Famous Beat Junkies,
one way or another. With a crew that rolls 13 deep, how can
you not? In a hip-hop DJ context, they've got everything on
lock: on highly-rated radio shows all over L.A.; providing
funky interludes on syndicated TV shows like Farmclub.com,
putting out legendary mixtapes and throwing down the cuts
for well-respected hip-hop acts such as Ras Kass, Visionaries,
Dilated Peoples and more. In the turntablist scene, the mark
they've left on the battle world and is almost unparalleled:
countless US DMC titles, practically every ITF title available
(within the span of two years), and of course, close ties
with the Invisbl Skratch Piklz. With a track record that long,
you'd think some of them would choose to bask in their own
glory, but no. They've taken their act of melodic cuts, juggles,
and unique brand of mixing on the road, and when they stopped
in the T-Dot for a one-time engagement, We got the chance
to talk with three of the crew's core members: J-Rocc, Rhettmatic,
and Shortkut.
Mark Ramos Nishita aka "Keyboard Money Mark"
was born in Detroit to a Japanese-Hawaiian father and Chicano
mother. He moved to the West Coast when he was six. It was
in these West Coast surroundings many years later that he
met up with the Dust Brothers and began overdubbing keyboards.
This led to his keyboard skills gracing many releases on the
Delicious Vinyl label. Mark then hooked up with the Beastie
Boys and became a member of their Grand Royalty Posse and
is known as the fourth member of the band.
DJ Shadow's Josh Davis is widely credited as
a key figure in developing the experimental instrumental hip-hop
style associated with the London-based Mo'Wax label. His early
singles for the label, including "In/Flux" and "Lost and Found
(S.F.L.)," were all-over-the-map mini-masterpieces combining
elements of funk, rock, hip-hop, ambient, jazz, soul, and
used-bin incidentalia www.djshadow.com
DJ Craze is a competing DJ who has competed
and won several times at the DMC World Championships, a DJing
competition. His first mix CD The Nexxsound was number 16
in Mixer Magazine's United DJs of America mix CD series
Among the true talents in the late-'90s new
skool of old-school hip-hop, Peanut Butter Wolf began DJing
as a teenager and became quite an entrepreneur at his San
Jose, California high school, selling mix tapes of his turntable
work. He debuted on wax in 1989 with "You Can't Swing This"
on All Good Vinyl, recorded with a smooth MC named Lyrical
Prophecy. By the end of the year, PBW began working with MC
Charizma, and the two gelled quickly, perfecting their skills
at block parties and shows with the likes of the Pharcyde,
House of Pain and Nas.
Grandmaster Flash, one of hip-hop's founding fathers and
the creator of the Quick Mix, was the first person to change
the arrangements of songs by using duplicate copies of records
and manually editing/repeating the climatic part (later
called the "break") by rubbing the record back
and forth. This became known as "cutting", which
was later called "scratching". His deejaying style
caught fire in The Bronx (and the world) and helped to propel
DJs such as Funkmaster Flex, Grand Wizard Theodore, Kid
Capri, DJ Scribble, Jazzy Jeff, Jam Master Jay, Q Bert,
the Scratch Pickles, Cash Money, and many others, to stardom. www.grandmasterflash.com
Kid Koala (Eric San to his folks) blurs the
lines between turntablism and performance art. Blending beats
and bits, Koala passes over slick samplers, choosing instead
to combine gems from thrift store record bins, old commercial
cut-ups, spoken word recordings, cartoons, and sound effects
with a clever sense of humor and a dead-on sense of rhythm.
Philadelphia-based DJ Cash Money has gained a reputation
as a legend on the turntables.In 1988 he was crowned the world's
best DJ, but he was unable to hold onto the top title. He
was banned from entering the DMC World DJ Championships again
because nobody else would stand a chance.
Name: Vincent Punsalan
Alias: Vinroc
Birth Date: 5-17-77
Place of Birth: Manila, Philippines
Type of DJ: Battle DJ/Turntablist/Club DJ
Began DJing: Since 1987
Interesting Facts: The only individual dj to win back to back
ITF world titles. The second Asian American DJ to win a world
title (Q-bert and ISP were the first).
The Zulu Nation is an international Hip-Hop
awareness group. They stand for knowledge, wisdom, understanding,
freedom, justice, and equality. Peace, unity, love, and having
fun. Overcoming the negative to the positive. Science, mathematics,
truth, facts, faith, and the Oneness of God.
DJ Vadim was born in Russia but has lived
on the outskirts of London since he was three. A single-minded
young man, he was set
on a career in tennis until an elbow injury stopped him in
his tracks at seventeen.He got a sampler and started working
on the music that would become Abstract Hallucinogenic Gases
and Headz Ain't Ready,the two EPs he released on his own Jazz
Fudge label in '95. Later that year he signed to Ninja Tune,
releasing Non Lateral Hypothesis--establishing what has come
to be known as the Vadim
sound--crawling beats, creaking doors, answerphone messages,
running water and musique concrete. www.djvadim.com
