Top 5 Ghost Scratchers of All Time
In honor of the Halloween holiday quickly creeping up, I’m dedicating the first Brolic Army blog in October to my top 5 ghost scratchers of all time. These are 4 DJs, and 1 Rapper (yes I said Rapper) you had no idea recorded scratches for other DJs. Needless to say, you’ll be spooked when you find out who they are!
5. Rakim
“…but I did all the cuts on MUSICAL MASSACRE.”
Rakim (Check The Technique / Brian Coleman)
Rakim, the 18th letter himself, performed the ghost scratches for various Eric B. & Rakim songs (*check for “No Omega“). But for me, the most notable scratches courtesy of The R are featured in the song “Musical Massacre” off the FOLLOW THE LEADER LP. I don’t mean to compare and all but when you listen to the way Rakim orchestrated these cuts, it’s evident Rakim was better than his own DJ at scratching. Interestingly, Rakim scratches throughout the entire track. He opens up the intro, cuts during all of the verses/choruses and the outro. It’s as if he was waiting for the opportunity to unleash his scratch skills so that Eric B. & Rakim fans knew the god spoke with his hands just as potently as he spoke into a mic.
4. Jazzy Jay
“CUT CREATOR ROCK THE BEAT WITH YOUR HAND… GIVVY – GIVVY – BOOM – BOOM – BAP – BOOM – BOOM – BAP – BAP…”
LL COOL J (My Radio)
It’s important for me to break down the intricate details regarding the DJs (yes, plural) LL collaborated with in his first 2 albums. First there was the Original Cut Creator Philly Phil, mentor to my mentor Dr. Butcher. This was L’s first DJ. Featured on 2 songs “I Need A Beat” (LL’s debut single) and “Dangerous” (the follow up single), by the time Def Jam released LL’s debut album RADIO, the Original Cut Creator and the gangster lean straight from Queens parted ways. The legend that is Jazzy Jay and colleague of Rick Rubin, would go on to perform all of the scratches for the remaining songs on RADIO. So when you hear LL say “I’m a towerful of power with rain and hail Cut Creator scratch the record with his fingernail rock the bells…” it was none other than Jazzy Jay who commences to answer L with chorus scratch sounds featuring songs like Cerrone’s “Rock It in the Pocket” and the kick drum from “Apache”. “You know what? I actually didn’t think I was important at that time,” say Jazzy Jay. Judging by the way he composed the “I Need A Beat” remix, I’d say Jazzy Jay was extremely important at that time!
3. Bobcat
“and this is a story about a brother I know
Cut Creator on the fader now watch him go!”
~ LL COOL J (Go Cut Creator)
Except the actual brother LL was talkin’ about was LA’s DJ Bobcat. And so songs where the replacement Cut Creator got credited for scratching when in fact it was a different DJ was a common occurrence in LL’s early catalog of music. Case in point, Bobcat’s work on “Go Cut Creator Go”. Of all the songs on the BAD album, “Go Cut Creator Go” contained the best cuts. Bobcat puts on a DJ clinic here. What separated Bobcat from other studio scratchers from that era was his articulation of the “stab” scratch. When it came to the “stab”, the timing, speed and precision with which his record and fader hands moved was stellar. Listen closely from 1:43 through 1:45…
2. DR. BUTCHER
“Dr. Butcher supplies the cement
And the rhymes that I invent is the blueprint.”
Kool G Rap (Men At Work)
Dr. Butcher made his debut as a studio scratcher on Kool G Rap & DJ Polo’s sophomore album WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE. Although Polo was G Rap’s official DJ, it was my mentor, Drew Daddy aka Dr. Butcher, that G tapped to record the scratches on that album. To quote G Rap from Brian Coleman’s Check The Technique Vol. 2, “[Dr. Butcher] was just nice with cuts and scratches, and I wanted that element affiliated with what I was doing. It was important to me…” Polo himself admitted, “Butcher was a good DJ and could do all the fancy tricks…”
I wanted to show off my skills in the first studio session because Eric B was present and being as though he was the man at that time, I wanted to leave him with an everlasting impression of my capabilities. When G-rap had finished recording “Kool is Back” with Large Pro, l was inspired by the intensity and momentum of his lyrics and the overall drive of the track. I desperately wanted to add my input via scratches and G-Rap granted me free reign to do so. They muted his vocals and allowed me to improvise over the instrumental. The end result was a mere clip of the three minute impromptu performance. I can’t say enough about vibing in the studio with fellow artists, djs and musicians because it brings out the best in everyone. It is those moments that I cherish most.
1. Johnny Juice
“Attitude, when I’m on fire
Juice on the loose, electric wire”
Chuck D (Rebel Without A Pause)
Juice aka Jugo has been working with Public Enemy as a ghost scratcher since their first album YO BUM RUSH THE SHOW. Except no one knew the dude scratching “ROCK AND ROLL EEEEHHHH – URRRRR – EEEEHHH – URRRR – EEEEHHHH – URRRRR – ROCK AND ROLL…” while Chuck D yelled “TERMINATOR X” was actually Juice. But it was Chuck’s ode to Terminator X on “Terminator X to the Edge of Panic” that arguably showcased the best cuts ever performed on a DJ themed song ever. The scratches were super intense, yet they don’t overwhelm me as a listener. They struck the kind of sonic balance most DJs fail to achieve to this day. Yet another example of Johnny Juice’s range as a studio scratcher was his work on “Night of the Living Baseheads”. This isn’t a “Scratch record” per-se. But Juice still figures out a way to use his cuts to add a layer of intensity to the track that creates a feeling of chaos, turmoil and anarchy. Listening to the way he freaked the word “BASS” during the chorus brings me right back to the crack epidemic that hit NYC in the 1980s. I can’t think of a studio DJ during that era of Hip Hop records that could emanate that degree of sonic tension by scratching one word. What interests me the most about the scratches on this particular song was their simplicity. Jugo could have easily gone buck wild during the choruses and bridge but chose not to. And so although he was capable of showcasing much more as a scratcher, nevertheless Juice took more of an elementary approach, if you will.
On Baseheads, the song extolled the dangers of crack. Since It Takes A Nation of Millions was a concept album that carried over into each song. The mindset behind the scratches here was that I was using a mixer that we purchased from a crackhead. The fader would “bleed” and there would (unfortunately) be back queuing noises as the fader wouldn’t totally cut off. Since we couldn’t find a crappy enough mixer that could consistently “fail,” I had to scratch like a DJ who had a faulty mixer. This is why the scratches are somewhat “sloppy.” That was done on purpose. Since the song had so many samples and a lot of sonic material, I decided to make the scratches as “open” as possible. Lots of “rests” and space. This allowed the beat to shine. The star of the show is always the song, not the DJ.
My goal was to make the records I worked on compete, to complement the musicianship. No more, no less. A great song is a great song. To do too much ruins the dynamic of the song. When approaching any song, I listen for what the song NEEDS. Sometimes that requires very technical riffs and other times, it requires simplicity. This is the same approach no matter what instrument you play. I am a drummer/percussionist and I treat the turntable as a percussive instrument. If the passage requires melody, I try to incorporate melodic scratching. This approach has worked well for me.
I looked at my work with PE like most session musicians from the 1950s and 1960s. All of those unsung heroes who made magic like the Funk Brothers with Motown and the session musicians from Chess Records like Pete Cosey (R.I.P.), Louis Satterfield (R.I.P.), Morris Jennings (R.I.P. – P.S. He was the drummer on the break beat Different Strokes by Syl Johnson), Gene Barge (producer of Here Comes the Judge by Pigmeat Markham), Phil Upchurch and Maurice White (R.I.P.).
So there you have it, (5) Rakim, (4) Jazzy Jay, (3) Bobcat, (2) Dr. Butcher and (1) Johnny Juice are your top 5 all time ghost scratchers of all-time. This is Brolic Arm, the General of the Brolic Army signing off…