At midnight tonight, the DJ community celebrates the 20th year anniversary of the documentary SCRATCH. Directed by Doug Pray and released by Palm Pictures on Feb.15, 2002, this powerful documentary continues to stand as a symbol for how a small group of marginalized DJs can effect change by banding together. Twenty years later the ripple effects of what DJs like the X-Ecutioners, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Beat Junkies, still resonates.
Doug Pray does a thorough job of revealing how the authors (Kool Herc, Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, GrandWizzard Theodore, Grand Mixer D.St…) of DJing as we know it to be today, passed on techniques such as mixing, scratching and back spinning to the younger generation of DJs (Rob Swift, Roc Raida, Q-Bert, Mix Master Mike, Babu, Shortkut, DJ Shadow…). By building on the practices of their predecessors, these young visionaries furthered DJ culture and bum rushed a music industry that pushed them to the background during the 90s.
This may surprise you but although the years that roughly fall between 1993 and 1997 are considered Hip Hop’s golden era, DJs (with the exception of icons like Pete Rock and DJ Premier) were being replaced by INSTANT REPLAY machines. Hip Hop groups were foregoing the cost of taking an actual DJ on tour, pre-producing their stage shows and having the road manager press play on a machine that would run an hour set list nonstop. Many of you reading this might be too young to remember but as much dope Hip Hop was being released during those years, the mid 90s were dark times for DJs because they were undervalued by the music industry they were a part of and in lots of cases, their own rapper counterparts. But as every culture has it’s values, DJ culture brings with it traditions that DJs like the X-ecutioners, Piklz and Junkies refused to disregard.
So they rebelled against a system that didn’t see the value of paying a tour or studio DJ and started a musical revolution. They began organizing their own DJ tours, their own DJ battles and even recorded their own albums. Absent of the rappers and record label execs who felt they weren’t important. They pushed the true craft of DJing independently and penetrated an iron door of power by sneaking in through the back!
By 2001, the movie SCRATCH put a big fat exclamation point on an era of DJing that inspired DJ programs like Serato, along with the new state of the art mixers and controllers we see on the market now.
DJing today is a billion dollar industry. Practically every bar, nightclub, restaurant and department store (lol) has a DJ. You can go to sporting events and see/hear DJs spinning. DJ culture has become so popular that some people are willing to exploit it for Follows, “Likes”, Views and other forms of social media currency.
In closing, whether you’re a Brolic Army student or not, your homework is to watch SCRATCH at some point this week. You can also watch never before seen outtakes from the movie featuring Dr. Butcher (Rob’s mentor) and Steve Dee in the Workshop Archives course at Brolic Army DJ School.