Where can I find great scratching hip-hop music?

August 29, 2011 12:07 PM

Where can I find great scratching hip-hop music? I have figured out that scratching DJ music makes for great working tunes for me. Little lyrical content, minimal sampling, but good beat and good scratching. As an example, here's one of my favorite tunes on Spotify: I'd appreciate if you lot could point me to other tunes like this, either artists/albums or individual tracks that fit the bill. Thanks!
posted by jxpx777 to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

Best answer: Oh man... you're gonna want to track down every single volume of Bomb Hip-Hop's "Return of the DJ" compilation... those are/were really a great anthology of the scratch-happy stuff that was coming up in the early-mid 90s. That'll keep you happy for hours, if not days.

More good stuff: DJ Kentaro, Cut Chemist, Coldcut. If you can track down a copy of Cut Chemist's "Future Primitive" session w/ Shortkut, I think you'll really love it. Here's a cut to get you interested: "Moonbase Alpha".

(Can someone please link to some good DJ Shadow stuff to help this person? I can't choose :()
posted by raihan_ at 12:18 PM on August 29, 2011

DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist
posted by Cuspidx at 12:23 PM on August 29, 2011

If you can track down a copy of Cut Chemist's "Future Primitive" session w/ Shortkut, I think you'll really love it. Is this the one? via grooveshark
posted by czytm at 12:26 PM on August 29, 2011

The Mixing Bowl. Lots of stuff available, awesome site.
posted by gregvr at 12:28 PM on August 29, 2011

Best answer: DJ Logic, Particularly the album, The Anomaly.
posted by euphorb at 12:35 PM on August 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Invisible Scratch Pickles" are a crew that specialize in this (and contain some members already mentioned.)
posted by oblio_one at 1:03 PM on August 29, 2011

Everything DJ Premier has ever touched.

It's not over-the-top-non-stop-highly-technical scratching. But all of his beats bang, hard. And his lyrical scratches are unmatched.

Some specific mixtapes: Cornerstone Mixtapes, New York Reality Check 101, No Talent Required
posted by wrok at 1:07 PM on August 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can't watch youtube at the moment so no way to tell what the Shadow/Cut Chemist video is linked above. See if you can find a clip of them with their turntable guitars. When I saw them a few years ago they brought them out for the encore and it was one of the coolest scratch performances I've ever seen. They recreated Metallica's One while storming around the stage and scratching.

Also, for more zany style djing, make sure to check out Kid Koala. He does some pretty unique stuff over old jazz and swing music. His version of Moon River is amazing, though might not be ideal working music. But I've always found his albums don't come anywhere close to the live shows he puts on.
posted by mannequito at 1:21 PM on August 29, 2011

If you can get a chance to watch the movie Scratch, it's an excellent doc about the rise of the turntablist DJ and will give you leads on a lot of the originator-type people that you can check out.
posted by penduluum at 1:25 PM on August 29, 2011

QBert is about as good as it gets when it comes to scratching, and if you're going to give him a crack then I can't recommend his mixtape Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik enough.

X-Pressions by the X-Ecutioners is a bit of classic - Get Started here.

And I do have a soft spot for Craze and Klever's Scratch Nerds.
posted by MUD at 2:11 PM on August 29, 2011

Oh yeah - speaking of X-Ecutioners, they did a pretty interesting album with Mike Patton.
posted by mannequito at 2:46 PM on August 29, 2011

Seconding almost all of this stuff. And, to add a new name, A-Trak. Ooh, and Ned Hoddings (an all-star crew kind of thing). Also, check out Z-Trip and Radar's Future Primitive session while you're at it.

You might also like listening to DJ battle routines. There are big tournaments like the DMC championships, Scribble Jam and the Supermen Battle For World Supremacy.
posted by box at 5:46 PM on August 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also (I was going to say 'protip,' but, eh): lots of djs, probably most djs, are associated with crews. If you like Rob Swift, check out Roc Raida. If you like Q-Bert, dig D-Styles. If you like Eddie Def, check out DJ Quest. Ooh, I thought of another not mentioned yet: the 1200 Hobos crew, which includes folks like Mr. Dibbs, DJ Signify, DJ Mayonnaise and John Doe.
posted by box at 5:49 PM on August 29, 2011

Building on the DJ Premier thing: there are quite a few hip-hop albums, including at least three Gang Starr albums, that are available in instrumental versions (it might be worth making a distinction between hip-hop instrumentals (a place where one might put both stuff with the vocals excised and stuff which wasn't really meant for them, like some of the work of K-Def, Pete Rock, Ayatollah, J. Dilla, etc.) and instrumental hip-hop, an arguably slightly different category into which people sometimes lump DJ Shadow, 'trip-hop' and suchlike (with Shadow, by the way, the Brainfreeze stuff is an exception. His albums are not generally so scratch-heavy).
posted by box at 5:10 AM on August 30, 2011

DJ Logic (mentioned above) did some great work with saxophonist Karl Denson on Dance Lesson #2, if you lean toward the funky instrumental stuff.
posted by OHenryPacey at 11:43 AM on August 30, 2011