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Reviewed by Sidik Fofana
“The
emphasis is now on the DJ and his performance as the leader of the
dance,” Tony McGuinness, contemplative Trance
DJ-turned-scratchonomic-seigneur acknowledges in the chapter, “The
Influence of the DJ” of On The Record. “This is an idea that goes back
to prehistoric times; there’s always been a figure in society who leads
a mass dance. For me now, it has become much more of a performance.”
Since
Hip-Hop’s birth over thirty years ago, the role of the DJ has
transcended that distinction: Today’s DJ is no longer the leader of the
dance, but the dance itself. If he does not play right logarithm of
records—including the necessary blending, scratching, and microphone
interjections to go with it—the sacred life of the party is lost.
According
to writers Luke Crissell and Phil White, who have shared leaf in the
ultra hip mag Nylon and both boast major bylines galore, and Phil
White, founder of the Scratch DJ Academy, the ability to DJ is a
dexterous but teachable art. Yet, as On The Record so clearly stresses,
it is an art that requires an appreciative awareness of the cultural
movements that define it in addition to the actual practice of the
craft. And that awareness gives DJing its holism, which today’s top DJs
like Craze, Sasha, Yoda, AM, and others elaborate on through various
advice, lessons, and reflections, prepping aspiring DJ’s just as much
for life away from the turntables as on them.
As in the book The
Art of Emceeing, in which Dead Prez’s Stic.Man divulges the
step-by-step mechanic of rapping, On the Record breaks down the ones
and twos of disc jockeying. “There are so many different options for
DJs these days—they use vinyl, Serato, Ableton, CD decks,” DJ Yoda
comments on the revolutionizing of DJ equipment in the chapter “DJ
101,” “But I think that it’s important to get used to working with
vinyl first. It’s crucial to have that basis, because the new
technology just emulates two turntables and a mixer.” The chapter goes
on to break down the art of scratching, beat matching, fading, and
building a set.
Sure, DJing is a skill that does not need a
manual as much as it needs lived experience, but the folks at The
Stratch DJ Academy remind us that there is unspeakable value in the
written experience of world-renowned DJ’s. In that sense, On The Record
is not an alternative way of learning to DJ, but a companion to the
very process itself.
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