How's it feel to be the new QSU Valedictorian?

Supaphonik: Amazing, can't believe it, I'm so honored and blessed to be this year's valedictorian. It's an achievement, and a new start.

How and when did you first get into skratching?

The very first memory I have about scratching is a song called "Mais Vous Etes Fou" by BENNY B with cuts done by DJ Daddy K, I was around 8 years old.

In this interview we talked with Ramsey Anderson, aka DJ RamDog about his game show "Think You Can DJ."

How did the idea for the“Think You Can DJ” game show come about?

In 1995, while I was working at my first DJ gig I thought about ways to get DJs to experiment so the audience would get more out of the experience. And also I wanted to showcase how amazing these DJs are. My first thought was, 'how about we make a mix while blindfolded?' But then I immediately thought, 'oh that is way too hard.' So then I grabbed a pencil and a napkin drew the turntable but turned it into a "Wheel of Fortune" with genres of music inside the disc: Techno, Gothic, Industrial, Ska, 80s, Hip Hop.

Back in 2009 when ArtistWorks first launched Qbert Skratch University, Dj Claim was one of the first to sign up. I was always impressed by the quality and style of the videos he submitted - they were original, thoughtfully composed, and musically inspiring. After quickly gaining popularity amongst the skratch community, Dj Claim quietly disappeared from the digital world. Only recently has he resurfaced, refreshed and inspired to make music again. He’s been releasing a series of videos which feature him creating skratch compositions in real time using his QFO turntable and a loop pedal, and he also put out an EP of music called Under Jumper - which I came to learn he made back in 2005. I reached out to him to learn more about his story.

Dj Hypnotize is putting together a festival event called SkratchFest. Taking place on Feb. 27th 2016, SkratchFest will be celebrating the DJ and showcasing the Art of Turntablism and Skratching. We caught up with him recently to find out more:

WHY HAVE YOU BEEN SO DRAWN TO SKRATCHING?

Dj Hypnotize: I love it so much, for me it's therapeutic. I love the way music has the power to move people. Skratching is beautiful and a pure form of expression. I like all the endless possibilities and the fact that we are still writing history draws me to help create and spread awareness about it and share my gifts of music with the world... I've been Skratching for almost 20 years and my style is improving everyday. I don't plan on retiring anytime soon so be on the lookout!

Dj Hypnotize is putting together a festival event called SkratchFest. Taking place on Feb. 27th 2016, SkratchFest will be celebrating the DJ and showcasing the Art of Turntablism and Skratching. We caught up with him recently to find out more:

WHY HAVE YOU BEEN SO DRAWN TO SKRATCHING?

Dj Hypnotize: I love it so much, for me it's therapeutic. I love the way music has the power to move people. Skratching is beautiful and a pure form of expression. I like all the endless possibilities and the fact that we are still writing history draws me to help create and spread awareness about it and share my gifts of music with the world... I've been Skratching for almost 20 years and my style is improving everyday. I don't plan on retiring anytime soon so be on the lookout!

“The modern DJ setup has always required a laptop, and it’s a barrier for the DJ to engage with their instrument - and that’s the first thing we want to eliminate… Our goal right now is to reinvent the turntable. It’s endless what can be done if technology can lift an art form up.” - Yogafrog, Thud Rumble

DJ Qbert is working with Thud Rumble and the Intel Edison team to develop a better turntable for DJs to skratch with. They are building a new design which will eliminate the need to connect a laptop to a mixer in order to run Digital Vinyl Systems like Serato and Traktor. This would be a gamecharger for the DJ industry since currently most everyone uses a laptop to run digital music files through traditional turntables. The final products have yet to be seen, and we are far from seeing anything ready at the consumer level. This is just the beginnings of a very exciting development stage, and we've only just begun to see a taste of what's possible with this new technology.

In other news, Qbert is working with D-Styles and Shortkut on a full length album! Invisibl Skratch Piklz fans have been waiting 20 years for something like this - click here to read more. The plan is to perform the album at the Red Bull Thre3style World Finals in Tokyo on September 20!

The Legendary Mix Master Mike was one of Qbert's original mentors back when he first started skratching at age 15. The two have collaborated quite a bit since then and are now currently working on a new project called Channel Zektar. They took some time at the studio to record a new Lesson on "Honesty & Sincerity." Mike opens up about how he’s able to so deftly channel his emotions and release them onto the turntables as free flowing expression. Being Honest and Sincere in your skratching will allow you not just play the instrument, but become the instrument. Don’t miss it in the Skratch Theory section! 

The first Sample Music Festival is being organized by QSU Guest Professor Alex Sonnenfeld and will take place October 11-12 in Berlin, Germany. There’s an online contest going on now to promote the festival, watch the video and read the description to get the full details. Prizes include Stanton turntables, Native Maschine, Reloop keypad, Magma DJ backpack and many more! Le Jad is producing an exclusive sample pack for the contest, click here to get it! 

Last day to enter is on October 11, so good luck! Learn more about this year's Sample Music Festival below. 

"Everybody was dope, it was the hardest battle to pick... But the 2nd place guy, a close 2nd, we didn't even know who to pick out of these two guys. If you notice, everybody was dope but who was super clean though, was Kurteek. So Kurteek gets Salutatorian, a close 2nd - he almost won! Congratulations Kurteek! 

"First place… who won on style and grace, smooth, and very musical, lyrical - all categories, it was just so sick. It was so fluid, it was beautiful! Congratulations, the Valedictorian for 2014 is E-Na!"

"For those who didn't win, and you guys are all winners, in 3 months we'll have the Battle for 2015 Valedictorian, June 29th… Train hard y'all, good luck!" -  Qbert

Here's what E-Na had to say:

"It feels great, I'm still in shock...But I would not of come this far without QSU, the students, and the relationships I've built with DJ's and Skratchers worldwide. Most importantly I need to thank my family for putting up with me and the amount of time I spend skratching 'ahhhhh' and 'fressssh'." 

Tell us about this new album, where did the idea come from?

The idea came from me making my decision to no longer be a Soldier. It was an extremely hard decision to willingly give up a steady paycheck, and a job I enjoyed doing for an uncertain future of possibly having to live with friends or family and have pretty much no income. It was a huge risk I took and it caused a lot of stress. So I started looking into meditation, and later the chakras. During all that research and practice I saw meditation as a great way for me to get back to being me when I was feeling down and out. However, I noticed there was a more therapeutic feeling involved in just zoning out and becoming one with whatever beat I was scratching to. With that being said, it’s somewhat common knowledge that talking about your issues or concerns can help you through troublesome times. My problem is I’m not good at sitting down and talking to anyone about my feelings, but when I make music it all just leaks out and I need to share it so I can get feedback so I can continue to grow.

Attention turntable enthusists and skratch nerds: what we have here is a really great article from Dan Leach (aka Danno9999) titled: SCRATCH OBSESSION, or Plato and the Art of Sound-Time - featuring DJ Woody, DJ Chile, Jon1st, Alex Sonnenfeld and more. Dan goes deep into the crazy world of skratching what make it such a unique form of music. It contains some interesting analysis and media, including some fascinating slow motion footage of the crossfader. Check the link to read it and peep DJ Woody's exclusive routine for the occassion below, which as you'll learn in the article contains 435 crossfader movements and 333 vinyl movements! 

"Well, it's a very strange musical instrument where you have the power to grab sound and play with it's time, pitch, move it backwards, etc. Not to mention that it sounds super ridiculously funky and insane and bizarre and groovy all rolled in one, times a zillion other things it can do that are yet undiscovered!" - DJ Qbert