All That Scratchin' Is Making Me Itch

Q-Bert: Live Performance
From somewhere in the UK at some time

There was a point in time when I really wanted to go out and be a scratch DJ. I guess it was around '99 when I was primarily a hip hop head. I was going to college, gettin' into records and the whole urban culture thing. I didn't even consider myself a DJ back then (nor do I now really), but then I heard about this dude that called himself Q-Bert. I mean, I think I knew about him earlier from the Skratchpiklz and all, but I think it was around this time that Wave Twisters came out and I was actively checking for his music in addition to a bunch of other DJs. I was heavy into the ftp/napster/PtoP file transfer stuff when I eventually came across this video of a demonstration he did somewhere in the UK I'm assuming. That was the shit that did it. Up until that point I didn't even realize some of the things he did were possible on turntables, and just watching him struck me with the drive and determination to study the art of scratching. Soon after that, however, I not only realized that I sucked, but that I didn't have the time nor the patience to devote to such a tedious skill. Regardless, I still watch this vid from time to time as a little time capsule of my life, as well as a reminder that Q-Bert is one of the best scratch DJs in the world. This was a while ago too, and dude's only improved with age. Wicka wicka.