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We're just your regular run of the mill, small town boys looking for shits and giggles. . . THIS MONTH WE WOULD LIKE TO PAY TRIBUTE TO TURNTABLISTS! The history of turntablism spans nearly 65 years. Like any other instrument, the turntable went through many stages and variations as an instrument.Two musicians constitute the prehistory of turntable music. As early as 1937 American avante-garde composer John Cage had ideas for using records to create music, which he describes in his book, "The Future of Music: Credo." By 1948 a French avante-garde composer, Pierre Schaeffer, used multiple turntables to cue desired sounds from existing recordings and altered the music through changing the speed, adjusting the volume and playing the sounds backwards.Nothing revolutionary occurred in the history of turntablism until 1973 when Bronx DJs like Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and Kool Herc showed what could be done with turntables. Kool Herc invented what is called "breakbeats," which is when a DJ fuses together different parts of songs into a musical collage. Grandmaster Flash is known as the DJ who expanded the most upon Kool Herc's breakbeats discovery to invent more turntablist techniques.In 1977 an entertaining piece of turntablism history took place when Grand Wizard Theodore invented the "scratch." 14-year-old Theodore was messing around with his record player when his mom walked in his room. As she walked in, Grand Wizard stopped the record with his fingers to listen to her while unconsciously moving the record back and forth over the same drumbeat, creating a scratch. The "scratch" has been a major component of turntablism ever since.From 1979 through the early 80s, DJs drifted out of the spotlight as commercial hip-hop musicians chose to use live funk bands on their recordings instead of DJs. Turntablism reached the mainstream in 1983 when jazz musician Herbie Hancock performed the song, "Rockit," with Grandmaster D.S.T. Kids across the world were captivated by Grandmaster D.S.T. as he scratched a record to the beat of the song.The next step in the evolution of turntablism took place throughout the 1980s as turntablists showed off their skills at DJ battles. At these battles, extremely competitive DJs showed how fast and creative they could DJ while maintaining the rhythm.DJ Cynsere, a Lawrence turntablist, said in the 1980s DJs were the spotlight of hip-hop and MCs (rappers) were in the background. He said nowadays this has unfortunately reversed to the point that the DJs are on the backburner while the rappers reach fame. Cynsere said DJs have been able to get a little more exposure over the last few years.In the late 1980s popular culture lost interest in turntablism, and it went back underground where it continued to thrive with its truly devoted fans and musicians.Throughout the 1990s turntablists continued to expand the vocabulary of the instrument by inventing new techniques. According to Kembrew McLeod, a turntablism historian, the amount of full-length turntablist albums by individual artists has grown exponentially since 1996. Presently turntablists like DJ Q-bert, Rob Swift, DJ Shadow, Mix Master Mike, DJ Spooky and Cut Chemist experiment with their turntables and demonstrate the dynamic range of the unique instrument.Turntablism's history continues to sculpt itself. Without a doubt, turntablism has much room to expand into the future, and it will be interesting to see how it continues to evolve.be sure to check out our current "top friends" we eature them cuz day da chit!