Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Short Stuff: Scratching

Transcript

Short Stuff: Scratching · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Jerry. Let's get it started. Wow, is that the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: best you got? That was? Yeah? I thought pret good?
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Was it not? It was great? So this coincides with
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: our Vinyl records UH full length episode, and we just
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: want to be clear record Scratching could be a full
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: length episode easily turns out. Um, we're going to concentrate
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: mainly on sort of the early history because we've also
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: learned that trying to describe musical things and audio things
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: is a little awkward, a little. I think it might
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: be the most difficult thing we've ever tried to describe
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: for real, you know what kind of sounds like this? Um,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: So we're it's going to be light on that. But
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: let's talk about record scratching, which although and apparently in
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the nineties and fifties people were creating music from turntables
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: to posing and sampling. But if you really want to
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: talk about uh turntable is um a term coined in
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the nineties, You really got to start in the nineteen
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: seventies in New York City. Yeah, there was a guy
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: in n seventy five. His name is Theodore Livingstone. He
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: was a teenager in the Bronx and he went by
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: DJ grand Wizard Theodore unfortunate name but in nineteen In
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five, Theodore was um playing records apparently
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: too loud on his home stereo, and his mom came
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: in and said, you better turn that down. I guess
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: his mom bust in and said, what's that noise? Right?
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: And when he went to go turn the volume down,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I guess, rather quickly accidentally scratched the record. And instead
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: of being like, man, I screwed up my record, Theodore
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: had the presence of mind to be like, that sounded
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: pretty cool. Let me see if I can do that again. Yeah,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I can, like totally see the movie version. Apparently she
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: was downstairs yelling at him and he went to stop
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: it so she to hear what she was saying, and
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: then he goes over and it goes and all of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: a sudden, like the lights in the room get brighter.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: He's just discovered a new musical genre. Close in on
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Brian May, looking totally astounded and amazed in awe, oh goodness,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I still like that movie. Um, it was very corny, though,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: you're correct, So he technically invented the scratch and started
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: doing it at parties and house parties and clubs and stuff.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: But if you were to ask hip hop enthusiasts sort
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: of who the forefathers of turntable is um are, they
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: would point to three people for sure, maybe more Uh
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Cool HERK, Grandmaster Flash and Africa Bombada, all of which
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: we talked about in our hip hop episode. Yeah. So
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: from what I can discern, Chuck, there's basically two categories
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: of turntable is m One is scratching that was invented
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: by Grand Wizard Theodore, and then the others called cutting,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and that was most people say invented by DJ Cool
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Hirk again, I think in the seventies, the very very
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: late seventies. And scratching is exactly what you think it is.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: It's moving the record back and forth back and forth
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: against the needle, making it scratch um and uh cutting
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: is where you have two you have to have two
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: records and you're using the cross fader that turns one
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: on and the other offer turns that one on and
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the other off, depending on which way you slide it.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: That is cutting, and everything else is either a subcategory
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: or a combination of those two and when you put
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: it all together, that's where you get turntablism, which is
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: this incredibly sophisticated, incredibly talented combination of scratching and cutting. Now,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: doesn't cutting me in the same record though? No, Cutting
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: is you're cutting back and forth between two records, but
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: not the same Sorry, so to two identical records, like
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: two of the same record, one on each turntable? You mean, yes,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: not necessarily? Cutting is the larger category of that. I
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: think that is breakbeat um usually when it's to two
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: different ones. Yeah, breakbeat, which seems to have evolved into
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the juggling beat. Juggling seems like just a sort of
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: more complex version of breakbeat, right, Yeah, and breakbeat is
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: a type of cutting from what I understand. All right,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: so cool Herror apparently came up with a breakbeat break
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: beat technique. That's hard to say. I would be a
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: terrible hip hop artist because I can't even say breakbeat technique?
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: How is your breakbeat technique? But that's when you have
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the two copies of the same record put on two
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: different decks, and basically you mix between them to extend
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: um whatever indefinitely, like the climax usually or the break.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: You can just extend that forever because you're going back
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and forth. And like, I know how all this stuff works.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: But I watched a lot of videos on YouTube. There's
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: one called scratch School. We're scratch scratch Bastard. Uh, kind
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: of shows you how to do the stuff and when
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: you if you don't know a lot about it, but
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: you've long admired the sound of it and you look
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: at it, Um, it's really kind of cool to see
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: how it works. It's really a lot, way more complicated
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: than I thought. Um. I didn't know that they actually
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: physically marked the record and like a clock position to
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: know where the beats were. Um. I always wondered how
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: they got the needle back to the point in the
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: song whether they needed that beat, And they just move it.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: So they're they're scratching the records, they're moving the fader.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: They're literally moving the needle to get it in the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: right position, back and forth, and there's a lot more
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: going on than I thought. I knew it wasn't easy,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: but I was just kind of blown away. Yeah, because
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: here's the thing. If you play a part of a record,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: let's say like a drum roll, and you want to
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: play that again. If you spin the record backward, which
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I believe is walking it right um or pausing it,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I can't remember what one it is. Backward would be
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: moonwalking right, Okay, So if you moonwalk the record, um,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: it's going to make its own sound. But if all
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you want is that beat over and over again, what
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: you're doing is through creating breakbeats, is just going from
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: that drum roll on the one record, And when that's done,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: you've moved a cross fader to turn the other record
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: on so that the drum roll starts then. And then
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: while you're playing that, you pull the other record that
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: you just played back to the spot again. And by
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: doing that you can keep that drum roll going, just
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: moving back and forth seamlessly, add infinitem. Basically, you could
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: just keep it going forever, keep it going forever. So
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: that's what we would do if we didn't have to
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: take an ad break. But we're going to do that.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: We'll be back to finish up right after this. That's
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: why skodol my dumb nat sk I just want a
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: second chuck before we start again. I'm with you that
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: scratch school with scratch bastard was so easy to watch.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: The guy's like a total natural at explaining things, and
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: he's also astoundingly talented too, Yeah, and talented and with
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: like he was having fun and he was messing up
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: and hit his whole point, and all the videos I
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: watched was like, this is what it's about. Like I
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: screwed up there, I lost the beat. You gotta play
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: around with it, you gotta get funky and just sort
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of like roll with mistakes and trying mistakes into happy
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: accidents and for a change, sort of look through some
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: of the YouTube comments and it was really supportive and cool,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: like people are like, man, I'm trying to learn, and
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: you are. You make this so much more accessible. And
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: seeing someone kind of screw up and then get it
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: back is like and not edit that part out. It's
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: like really valuable. So without being start again wait or
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: else being like wait, wait, hold on, got it, hold
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: on wait wait a second. Yeah, it was pretty fun.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And I also want to recommend there were some more
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: fun videos from DJ Babu b a bu um that
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: we're pretty awesome as well at explaining things. Um, maybe
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: let's talk about a couple of more quick little moves
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and then we'll go back and finish up with some history. Yeah.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I think that's a great idea, dude, So I would
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: highly recommend you go and watch these videos if you're
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: interested in knowing what something like a transformer scratches so
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: perfectly named though. I know it's named because it sounds
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: sort of like a transformer transforming um, cash money. Jazzy Jeff,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: lots of DJ sort of helped pioneer this technique. And
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: once you see it and hear it, you're like, oh,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I just you know, if you don't know much about it,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: you're like, I didn't know what was called the transformer scratch,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: but I've heard it a million times. Yeah. And and
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: by the way, yes, that Jazzy Jeff d J Jazzy
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Jeff isn't he's the DJ. I'm the rapper DJ Jazzy
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Jeff who apparently invented that. Um. And then there's another
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: one that's called the scrap, the crab that scratch bastard does.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: And the reason it's called that is because you're flicking
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the cross fader back and forth using your thumb and
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: then one finger thumb in the next finger thumb your
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: other finger, and then sometimes your thumb and your fourth
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: finger and as you do it really fast, um, one
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: finger after another, it kind of, you know, is reminiscent
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: of a crab's legs walking. Yeah, it's again, it's really cool.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: It's like you use your thumb as to kind of
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: put pressure against the fader and basically what you're doing
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: is you're turning the fader on and off really quickly.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: But you know that thing if you're if you're bored,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: you do like I'm gonna do with my fingers on
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: like a piece of wood. But that, yes, well did
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: that come through it? All that? That's what you're doing
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: with the fader. So whenever you hear a scratch, go
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: like arrow, that's what they're doing. And it's just it's
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: a technique called the crab. It's so cool. The thing is, though,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: is when you watch dj Is doing these things and
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: explaining it, it becomes so much more I guess, admirable
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: because the the different coordination of your hands doing two
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: different things at different times perfectly syncd up is so
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: hard for someone like me that just to see somebody
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: who can just do it like it's nothing is really
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: it's really My hat is off to those people. Yeah,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: it's super impressive. Um, jumping back to history, Uh, things
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: are happening in the Bronx obviously in the late seventies. Again,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: if you listen to our hip Hop episode, we talk
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: all about it. And then the big, big breakout as
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: far as the mainstream America music loving public goes, was
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: in when Herbie Hancock's Rocket came out Landmark video, Landmark
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: performance at the twenty six Grammy Awards, which really pushes
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: it into the mainstream because that was the first scratch solo, uh,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and it was amazing. It was performed by another Bronx DJ.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Uh and it said in this one Arcole Grand matt Ster,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: but it was Grand mixer d s T who then
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: changed it to d x T. Yeah, and I think
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: so this was like the first song that ever had
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: scratching is like not only like a rhythm, but there's
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: like scratching solos in the middle of the song. And
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: like at this point, like people just especially just the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: general people, and I'm sure every single person at the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Grammys did not think of turntables as anything particularly interesting.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Like at that Up to that point, a DJ was
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: what a lot of DJs are still today. You've got
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: one record playing and you let it play most of
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: the way, and then you mix in another record, and
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: then you take the first record off and put another
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: one and mix that and which is it's really hard
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: to do. You have to have a really good ear.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: That's not scratching, that's not cutting, that's not turn tables,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and that's DJing. And that's what people thought of turntables
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: as that was it, that's what they were for. But
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: with Rocket, it was like, Nope, this is a completely
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: different era now starting in Yeah. And I remember, man,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I remember being twelve and thirteen years old and seeing
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Rocket the video for the first time, and this was
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Herbie Hancock was a sort of star fading jazz musician
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: at this time. This really revived his career. But I
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: remember the video was so weird and so and looking
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: at it now it's very kind of disturbing and odd looking.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: But I remember seeing it and just thinking, what in
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: the world am I seeing and hearing right now? Uh?
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: And it's and it's not like I immediately started. I
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: didn't get into hip hop until probably four or five
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: years after that, but uh, it blew my mind. I
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: was just I had never heard anything like it before.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: It was super cool to be of that generation to
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: have seen like a new genre being born before your
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: very eyes. Yeah. Um, Apparently that one performance is credited
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: for basically getting a lot of kids into scratching and
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: then eventually turntable is um starting in the nineties, which
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: is pretty cool. And also it's a little side note.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: That was the same Grammys where Michael jack And carried
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Emmanuel Lewis around like a baby. You actually, if you
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: watch the performance of Rocket, I think at the end
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: after when everybody's clapping, they cut to them sitting together
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: in the front row. Oh goodness, it's a it was
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: a weird Grammys. Dude, you got anything else? Wait? Wait
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: wait wait wait wait wait wait wait waited. That means,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: of course, everybody short stuff is out. Stuff you should
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.