Monthly newspaper and online publication targeting 18 to 35 year olds. The ultimate guide to the hottest parties, going out and having fun. Music, fashion, film, travel, festivals, technology, comedy, and parties! London, Barcelona, Miami and Ibiza.
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DJ Prime Cuts I've always assumed you're one of the founding members of The Scratch Perverts... It was Tony Vegas, Mr. Thing, First Rate and DJ Renegade, they had it happening before I fully joined. For the first year or so they were out gigging doing things like Scratch at Scala and playing at the Blue Note, flying the flag of the crew's name. Then Tony won the ITF Eastern Hemisphere in New York and bought a lot of heat to the crew. If I didn't give the whole DJing thing a crack I wouldn't get a chance again so I quit my job and was just practicing with the guys get- ting ready for the '98 ITF teams and the '98 UK DMCs. 1998 was the big turning point for me personally because I was fully in- volved with the crew and was 9 to 5 DJing. The Scratch Perverts had some epic clashes with The Allies in the World Team Battles... Do you stay in touch with those chaps? The last time I saw Craze was when we were both playing Room Two in Fabric. It's always a pleasure to see him. It was nice to see that he was pro Bernie and is critical of the Trump Administration. History shows he's a demonically gifted turntable dude, but none of us had seen the routine he was going to win with. Watching that routine from the '98 U.S final, I would have to say that that is still the pinnacle of the whole thing for me, though you have to see every- thing within the context of the time as well. Cash Money's '88 was mindblowing. But that particular Craze routine just took the level of intricacy up another level and it felt like a whole new thing had arrived. How do you feel about the arrival of Trak- tor and Serato in the hip hop DJ game? As far as skill and sheer OMGness of DJing goes, no, I haven't seen it push anything forwards and if anything, it has made me now focus on the one thing that you can't rely on any kind technology for and that's scratching. Just put a beat on and scratch and preferably, use an 'aaah' or a 'fresh' be- cause you'll never get a better sound to use. It's a level playing field that really shows where you're at with that skillset. Yup if a DJ is proper sick at scratching I can listen them scratch just one sample for like an hour….. Guys like Toadstyle, IQ, D-Styles, Q-Bert, it's just an absolutely joyous thing to be- hold. When you're watching someone on that sort of level, you don't need anything else. Just a beat, a cut, job done. I've been lucky enough to see Q-Bert like 3 or 4 times and I always feel privileged to see any DJ who is simply that good at scratching… I supported Q-Bert at the 100 Club a couple of months ago. He got to this level of speed and I was thinking 'Oh he's reached his ceil- ing, that's as fast as he's gonna get, I can live with that, I can sleep easy tonight'. Then he went back to the drumming and got quicker and quicker, and at the point when you're ready to shout 'NO, Stop!', it got even quicker! It was borderline physically impossible to do. It was so fucking wonder- ful. Great guy too. There's not many in the same league as Q- Bert! So how do you think you can really stand out from the crowd as a DJ these days? If I knew the answer to that I'd be rich! I don't know really. I'd like to think it's still down to decent taste in music and a degree of skill. Paris Hilton has a residency in Ibiza, that tells you where the game's at... Back to scratch DJ stuff... Favourite DMC routines ever? As I said earlier Craze U.S. '98 was huge. P-Trix at the Worlds in '99 was another wicked routine. To be fair there's so many. Steve D in 1990. Any Miz routine, the Alad- din routine in 89. Those are the pivotal ones for me. And how about your own routines at the DMCs? Do any of them stand out for you? For me was probably the 1998 UK DMCs because it was the first time after quitting my job and really going for it. When Swift called out the crew name and the crowd erupted I was thinking wow, the audience knows the name The Scratch Perverts! I remember finishing my performance and thinking, 'Did I do enough? Is that gonna win it?', and to get the nod that night was an amazing, amazing experience. And obviously you'll be down at the DMC World Finals this year doing the Daredevil tribute with his brother Matman, Cutmas- ter Swift….. Of course. Rufftone's doing it, Blakey's do- ing it, Woody, Tigerstyles…..all of us were there at his wake had a little cut over his music, it was a very sweet way to share a common love for something that he also was very much involved with… From what I've understood he was a very well loved guy as a person as well as being a talented DJ and producer… Yeah I mean he had been in several of the DMCs over the years, we had him down at the Beatdown competition that we used to run at Fabric. Yeah, very very sad but look- ing forward to the tribute. Hopefully we'll capture the same spirit of it all down at the World Finals. So would you guys consider taking part in any UK Hip Hop projects now? There's a lot happening on the scene right now... We supported Jehst at his new album launch recently. It was a really responsive crowd so we did a section playing UK rap including some Mark B. It was sweet revisit- ing those records. When I was really in- volved with it all there was a proper healthy scene, so it's great to hear there's stuff going on again from a UK perspective. But as far as working on anything other than musical output from myself and practicing DJing is concerned, I'll have to think about it. No one really knows that I'm putting music out. I'm not trying to push it at all, I'm just really enjoying putting the records out and at some point people will join the dots and be like 'Ah, that's that outfit.' Name a MC that you'd like to work with... There's an endless list of people...We were lucky to do a tune with Black Thought and Mos Def back in the day, that was quite something meeting both of them. It was at Olympic Studio in Barnes which has now shut down. After Mos Def finished doing his verse, he strolled into studio 1, which is where Hendrix and the Beatles used to record, sat down at the grand piano in there and started playing some beautiful jazz piano. We could heard it drifting in from the other studio and we were thinking 'How talented is this cunt? He can rap, he acts, he can play the piano!?! Bastard.' And to wind it up, any DJs for us to be keeping an eye on at the DMC Worlds? Safe to say, as long as it's the person who deserves it, that's all you can hope for re- ally! 2017 / ISSUE 103 37 HIP HOP & RNB " PARIS HILTON HAS A RESIDENCY IN IBIZA, THAT TELLS YOU WHERE THE GAME'S AT... " The Scratch Pervert & champion DJ tells us about his favourite DMC moments, Mos Def's crazy versatility and what's what in general in an exclusive interview with Guestlist. follow @scratchpervert Phil Tang | Guestlist