The Little-Known Origins of the Scratching Technique in hip-hop Music
Scratching plays an important role in Hip Hop so let's dive into it's roots.

Hip-hop legend says that sometime in 1975, a young, twelve-year-old boy named Theodore Livingston was playing around with a turntable in his room when he made a mistake that would change hip-hop forever. Startled by his mom, young Theodore inadvertently shifted the record on his turntable. Hearing a completely new but interesting sound, Theodore paid attention. After several rounds of practice, he perfected what came to be known in hip-hop as scratching.

Scratching went on to become perhaps the most common DJ practice in hip-hop and remains popular to this day. It involves moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable to make distinctive sounds. Many DJs also use it alongside a crossfader to mix different songs. So how did scratching grow from a mistake by a kid into a must-know for DJs all over the world?

The Evolution of Scratching

In the Beginning

It took Theodore two more years of practice before he first scratched in public, but scratching remained low-key. The next big step for scratching came in 1981 when Theodore's mentor, Grandmaster Flash, released the first-ever DJ record. For many, it was an introduction to scratching, and the fever began to spread. The real breakthrough for scratching came three years later.

Herbie Hancock, desperate to save his career, collaborated with Grandmaster DST to perform the song, Rockit, at the 26th Grammys. In his book, Groove Music, Mark Kratz referred to that performance as the "scratch heard around the world".

Scratching became the mark of a skilled DJ, and in true hip-hop fashion, DJs soon began battling each other. So New York DJs invented scratching, but the DJs on the other side of the country took it to a different dimension. They saw the turntable as an instrument and fell in love with it as a pianist would fall in love with a piano. So as the technique grew bigger, a line of division began to form.

East Coast vs West Coast

On the east coast, DJs focused more on the showmanship part of scratching. They performed various cool stunts while scratching but never really dove deeper into the technical aspects of it. On the flip side, west coasters considered the turntable as much an instrument as a violin or a trumpet, so they poured their energy into mastering it.

Eventually, these two ideologies came to a head in July 1996, when the International Turntablist Federation held its first annual finals in New York. It featured a massive battle between the biggest DJ crews on either side of the country. Invisibl Skratch Piklz, or ISP, from the West Coast, went up against X-Men from the East Coast. It was more than just a battle of coasts, it was a battle of ideologies.

Who won, I cannot say, but the West Coast's ideology went on to become the standard. Scratching was no longer just showmanship, the turntable was now an instrument.

The Golden Age and Eventual Fadeout

While the original DJs kept their techniques secret, turntablists took the opposite approach. Where DJs kept the door shut, turntablists removed it altogether. This led to a golden age for turntablists. Some people started moving for scratching to shed off the tag of being a part of hip-hop and become a mainstream genre on its own.

They argued that instead of playing around with existing records, an entire song could be made from scratch, pun completely intended. According to these turntablists, a song made with a turntable is as legitimate as a song made with other instruments. Ultimately, however, it wasn't to be. Scratching techniques eventually reached a point where no real progress was being made, a plateau of sorts. As a result, scratching never really could break out of hip-hop's shadow.

Five Scratching Resources

Scratching is mainly used by DJs and sometimes producers. Some indie artists, who make their own music, might want to learn some of it for themselves. If you're one of them, here are some resources I'd recommend...

Vekked Scratches

As far as learning goes, one of the best things to have is a community to help you grow. Vekked, a massive turntablist, has built a massive one on Twitch where he dishes out free scratching lessons live. If you're a complete beginner, some of the lessons might fly right over your head, but it's a great medium for growth. It features live battles between newbies, live reviews of scratch samples, and much more.

He's renowned for his honesty in his reviews, but I daresay that's exactly what you'll need to grow. So if you're on Twitch, be sure to check Vekked out.

QSU

Not many DJs can rival Q Bert in terms of contribution to scratching. As a member of the ISP crew that contested in that historic battle back in 1996, he's one of the first to adopt the turntable as an instrument. To help give out knowledge to upcoming scratch DJs, Q Bert started an online school called the Q Bert Scratch University, or QSU. He eventually closed it down, but you can still find all the lessons he gave out online.

It's a massive cache of useful information available for $29 a month. He doesn't take any lessons anymore, but you can still learn a ton about scratching from one of the very best to ever do it.

Studio Scratches

If Vekked and Q Bert are too heavy for you, Studio Scratches might be more your speed. DJ Shortee is not a pioneer or legend of the art, but she's a new-generation turntablist who's steadily growing in her prowess. As a more recent addition to the community, she might relate better to new beginners than the older DJs like Vekked and Q Bert. So if the top dogs sound way over your head, check out DJ Shortee on Studio Scratches.

The Wrap Up

As one of the main pioneers of hip-hop, DJs have been somewhat underrated over the years. The art of scratching stands testament to their massive influence on the genre. Despite never becoming a mainstream genre on its own, scratching is still an integral part of hip-hop and DJing. It might have broken into the spotlight of the mainstream, but the 2000s marked the rise of a new musical artist: the producer.