In only true turntablist form, DJ Scratch put on one of his world-famous performances at Club Society in St. Louis during the 2008 DJ Technology Retreat and Convention. He kicked-off the finals for the convention's DJ Battle, as well as a show with St. Louis' own Jus Bleezy and Yo Gotti, with an out of this world DJ routine. Removing his jacket and revealing a Superman t-shirt, to accompany the Superman theme as his intro music, DJ Scratch commenced to putting on a show that St. Louis will remember for years to come. Scratch, who is also a successful music producer, has been putting in work as a professional DJ for over 20 years.

Back in 1988, shortly after winning the New Music Seminar Battle for World Supremacy DJ Championship, Scratch joined RUN DMC's Run's House World Tour. The late legendary Jam Master Jay of RUN DMC became Scratch's mentor and converted him from a raw battle DJ to an all around performer. In exchange, Scratch taught Jay routines that he performed with RUN DMC. When the tour ended, Jay recommended Scratch to EPMD and after they witnessed his phenomenal tricks at their first show, they hired him on the spot. More recently, Scratch was responsible for providing the flamboyance to Jay-Z and now P Diddy's stage shows.

Having mastered the art of deejaying and performing on all seven continents, DJ Scratch started to pursue his second love, producing. He has produced such hits as the New York Anthem "On My New York S**t" by Busta Rhymes, EPMD's "Rampage", 50 Cent's "50 Shot Ya", and a long list of Hip-Hop classics. He has 3 Grammy nominations and over 40 Gold and Platinum awards to his credit which makes him responsible for the sale of over 50 million albums to date. We caught up with Scratch after his crowd-pleasing performance in St. Louis to discuss his upcoming production work, his new independent project as well as his plans for the future...

AllHipHop.com: DJ Scratch, how you doin' my brotha?

DJ Scratch: I'm good man

AllHipHop.com: Hey, that display you put on tonight was incredible, it was crazy! I definitely respect you for being one of the fore-founders of deejaying in Hip-Hop and this thing that we call true turntablism. I know you're deejaying all over the world but what's going on with you right now man?

DJ Scratch: Well production wise I'm working on LL Cool J's album right now, Exit 13, that's the name of his thirteenth album on Def Jam as well as Busta Rhymes new album of course, it's called Back On My Bulls**t...

AllHipHop.com: The "On My New York S**t" was crazy.

DJ Scratch: Thank you, I'm 95 percent done with working on an instrumental beat album called Somethin' To Spit To. I'm going to release that independently and it's going to be on iTunes also, you have to buy the whole album, you can't just pick one beat and that's for cats that wanna rhyme over that real hard gritty s**t because they're not making that right now. Most of the beats that are being made right now don't even have snare drums in them so I'm just making this for the real emcees out there that are starving for that gritty s**t and they'll have an opportunity to spit to my beats so it's called Somethin' To Spit To.

AllHipHop.com: I was telling you earlier that you basically inspired an editorial I wrote about the button pusher DJs that you discussed when you were on Rap City with DJ Q45. What's your take on today's DJs as opposed to the DJs from the era that we came up in?

DJ Scratch: It's easier for the DJs now. The technology's a lot better now, that's basically the difference. We learned to crawl before we walked, we learned the right way. Nowadays, the DJs just take off running, without learning to crawl and walk first. So that's the difference and it shows on stage, it shows in the clubs, it shows on the radio, it basically speaks for itself.

AllHipHop.com: Now I know when you were on the Hard Knock Life tour you did the routine with the Freddy Mask cuttin' up Big Daddy Kane saying, "Imma play Jason" and more recently I've seen you at B.B. Kings in New York doing a routine cuttin' up Busta sayin' "Pants is Saggin'" while simultaneously pulling your pants to make them sag. Tonight you showed us your routine with the Black Sheep "Pick It Up" where you actually picked up the turntable and you stopped and started the record while you had it suspended in mid-air. You got anything else up your sleeve that you can give us some insight on?

DJ Scratch: I've got tons of tricks man, I can't do every trick in every show, because of the time restraints, so I have to spread it out from city to city. A lot of my routines have become fan favorites. If you go to a show to see a rapper or singer, you wanna hear your favorite song, my routines have become songs, they wanna see the "Friday the 13th", they wanna see the "Pants Is Saggin'", they wanna see..

AllHipHop.com: The wanna see the Superman like tonight!

DJ Scratch: Yeah, they wanna see the Superman, they wanna see the Jason mask but I always give them something different also. They definitely wanna see those routines that they heard about or they saw on television or on the internet, they wanna see it in person because a lot of people be like, "Yo that s**t ain't real, is he really doing that? Is he really picking the turntable up?"

AllHipHop.com: (laughs) Yeah, I witnessed it tonight, it's real.

DJ Scratch: Those tricks have become fan favorites, like I said, I got tons of tricks. The sh*t that I'm doing right now, some of those tricks are 20 years old. Whatever trick I do now is as old as the record, like "Friday the 13^th, Imma play Jason," that record came out in '88. Some of my tricks, I've been doing some tricks since I was ten years old.

AllHipHop.com: Wow, I never really thought of it that way but that's right, some of those records came out a while ago. Now switching gears, is there anything else you wanna speak on as far as any work that you have going on in the community or charity work, things of that nature?

DJ Scratch: Well the community work that I do is just take my dudes out of the 'hood'. You know some cats want you to come in and save the whole 'hood', you can't save the whole 'hood', you try to save the ones the got love for you. People say, "give back to the community", me giving back to the community is taking somebody that's never been off their block, that's never been out of New York and take them to a different country that's what I do. I still hang out with the same friends that I grew up with as a child, I still have the same friends, I still hang out in my 'hood' where I grew up. In the Summertime, I'm right on the block. One day you might see me at the Grammys and the next day you'll see me right in the projects. So my way of giving back to the community is taking these guys that have been in jail or haven't been off the block and take them to the other side of the planet Earth. I'll take them to Japan, take them to England, take them to Germany, take them to Switzerland so they can see these places and see a totally different environment.

AllHipHop.com: Now as far as DJ Scratch the brand, I know you have a lot of business ventures poppin' off, what do you see yourself doing let's say five or ten years from now?

DJ Scratch: S**t, just maintaining man! Once you've been doing this s**t for 23 years professionally, your only goal is to maintain, you know what I'm sayin'? If you make it past five years doing this s**t, you're blessed and if you make it past 10 years, you're really blessed, you make it past 15 years, you're doing something right, so just keep doing that same s**t. I'm just basically maintaining. I'm still deejaying, I'm still doing DJ exhibitions, I still rip parties I still rip stadiums, I still produce hit records so, to me, there's nothing else to do but maintain and keep the torch lit for the younger cats that really love this real DJ s**t.

AllHipHop.com: One of my primary concerns when I started writing for AllHipHop.com was to make sure we preserve the art form of deejaying and that the young DJs, that are going to be the future of this DJ game, are emulating someone like yourself who's really deejaying and not just button pushing, but really doing what you do.

DJ Scratch: That's one of the main reasons every now and then you'll see me go on tour with Jay-Z or with Diddy because a lot of those kids have never seen a DJ routine like that before. All they see is that rapper and someone in the back pushing that button so I do it just for the youngsters to school them like, "this is the sh*t that the deejaying game was built on!" You know young girls and young guys that have never seen a DJ routine before they be like, "Wow! I ain't never seen no sh*t like that!" and I tell them "that's that real DJ sh*t right there!" So I'm gonna continue to do my part and contribute to the art because when you do some incredible sh*t, especially in front of someone that's never seen anything like that before, it sticks in their brain for the rest of their lives.

AllHipHop.com: Yeah, that's definitely a good look. Ok, one more question before we go. Who came up with the Superman outfit first, you or Dwight Howard?

DJ Scratch: Me! (laughs) Who's Dwight Howard? (more laughing)

AllHipHop.com: (laughing) That's what it is!

Stay tuned for more DJ interviews from the 2008 St. Louis DJ Retreat and Convention. Also for updates and more info hit us up at: http://www.myspace.com/TheKofKO