THE STRAIGHT DOPE:
The history of hip-hop has largely played out in
public, with rapping growing into a huge
boom business and self-parody. For all the video
mugging done by rappers, however, there are other facets to
hip-hop than just rapping. Originally hip-hop culture
contained four equally important elements: Rapping,
graffiti, breakdancing, and DJing. Doug Pray's
Scratch is an excellent look at the DJ branch,
both from an historical perspective and as a primer
for the diverse directions it is currently going
in.
DJing is basically the art of manipulating records in
a way that creates entertainment. The basic skill is
mixing, which is simply segueing seamlessly from one
song to the next. Other techniques detailed in the
film include beat juggling (mixing up the drum hits
on the record to create a new beat), blending
(remixing two songs simultaneously in real time) and
scratching (the wicky-wicky). The film spends
time discussing these techniques and shows terrific
examples of DJs in action. In one segment DJ Rob Swift
takes a straightforward beak beat on a Nas record and
shuffles it around turning it into a stuttering
dancehall reggae jam, something completely
awe-inspiring to the novice. One of the most
mind-blowing bit of techniques on display features a
DJ literally rearranging the lyrics of a song from "So
step up if you wanna get hurt" to "If you step up you
get hurt" without losing the beat. This sort of
devilish trickery can make the brain spin.
The skills on display are ultra-impressive but even
more entertaining are the personalities of the DJs.
Pray has an ability to get his subjects to loosen up
on camera (his Seattle grunge documentary Hype!
was similarly successful in that) and his subjects
here are camera-ready and silly. There's Mixmaster
Mike of the Beastie Boys who's convinced that his
scratching may have extraterrestrial abilities.
There's GrandWizzard Theodore who considers himself
the inventor of the scratch - and feels he deserves
his royalties. There's Yoga Frog who takes to punching
out a cardboard cut-out. And there's DJ Shadow,
sitting in the basement of a record store surrounded
by ceiling-high stacks of forgotten records, digging
for the perfect sample.
These guys are all extremely talented (Mixmaster Mike
turns Robert Johnson's classic blues song "Ramblin' on my Mind" into a
convincing rap jam) and they're mostly very funny and
relaxed subjects. Their love of the music is evident.
The X-Ecutioners DJ squad practice in their socks
while a bunch of the top DJs gather at DJ Qbert's San
Francisco house for a jam session. There's a
brotherhood here of sorts which helps given the
current climate of inclusiveness. One DJ points out
that in the old days DJs would cover up the labels on
their records so no one would be able to steal their
samples but today DJs gladly share techniques and
secrets.
But Scratch has a serious soft-spot for the old
days. The film begins in the Bronx River Housing
Project with Africa Bambaataa. He's the father of
hip-hop and he's standing in the birthplace of the
music. The film also spends significant amounts of
time with early pioneers like Jazzy Jay, Theodore and
Grand Mixer DXT whose scratching on Herbie Hancock's
1984 song "Rockit" is cited by almost everyone in the
film as the most important influence on their
lives.
The film shoots to be as complete as possible,
including lots of competition from the DMC DJ
Championship, footage from seminal hip-hop flick
Wild Style and wonderful footage of vinyl
records being pressed, a touch that shows that Pray is
really interested in getting all the way inside his
subject. There are omissions, of course, most
egregious to me Jam Master Jay, the dynamic DJ from
Run DMC whose scratching on "Peter Piper" is one of
the most imitated styles around, but the film is dense
with content and entertainment.
VIDEO:
Shot on film, Scratch has a graininess that
separates it from the smooth, bland video
documentaries that people are growing accustomed to.
Pray and his crew have created a truly beautiful film
filled with interesting images and edits. The
anamorphic widescreen video mostly looks good with a
few instances of compression visible.
AUDIO:
The soundtrack is available in Dolby Digital 2.0 and
5.1. The 2.0 sounds fine but the 5.1 really
communicates the groove and move of the music.
EXTRAS:
This is one two-disc set with an impressive amount of
indispensable material. First, the commentary from
director Doug Pray and producer Brad Blondheim
provides a tremendous amount of insight into the world
of DJing. They discuss the people being interviewed,
their histories, what it took to track them down, the
process of making the film and what was left on the
cutting room floor.
The disc also includes a tremendous amount of
additional interviews, many edited into rough cut form
with additional performances, including one of a DJ
practicing with headphones on, so all you hear is the
clicking of the crossfader. The added interviews cover
subjects like sampling and feature interviews with DJs
not in the finished film like DJ Jazzy Jeff (of Fresh
Prince fame), plus more with Bambaataa, Shadow, and
Premier.
Possibly the best extra feature on the disc is "How to
Rock a Party with DJ Ztrip," one of the funnier DJs in
the film. This 25 minute instructional video shot by
Doug Pray makes a great primer on becoming a DJ
yourself. Truthfully, this segment alone would be
worth paying for.
A shorter "how to" segment features DJ Qbert offering
some tips. This segment is basically a sample from one
of his own instructional DVDs but it is laid out like
its own DVD with a menu and credits. It also features
multiple angles and soundtracks do you can isolate the
left or right turntable or listen to the mix. Plus,
you can get various close-ups of his hands at
work.
There's also a turntablist transcription demo with DJ
Rob Swift which is sort of like a bouncing-ball demo
showing how DJ transcription, covered briefly in the
film, works.
A generous number of sequences from a video
documentary on DJs called Battle Sounds is also
included, as is a nice sequence from DJ Qbert's
excellent animated film Wavetwisters and a nice
selection of trailers for Scratch and other
films.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Scratch is an excellent documentary on a
fascinating topic and this DVD is virtually the best
presentation imaginable. By giving it DVDTalk's
highest possible rating I'm not suggesting that every
man, woman and child run out and buy it, sight unseen.
Rather, this is such an exemplary instance of a
filmmaker taking the message to the people that anyone
with any interest in hip-hop or DJing at all should
seek it out immediately.
Email Gil Jawetz at cinemagotham@yahoo.com
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