Ayo! Be sure to check me out on Vibeslive.com on Friday nights from 6-8 pm! DJ TMS and Platter Warpers bringin you da illest old school sets around! I'm playin shit you ain't gon' hear on commercial radio!
Check Me!
PEACE!
DJ TMS (aka The Master Scratcher, aka Too Much Scratching, aka Too Much Soul, aka The Mad Scientist) started DJing back in 1983. He started out doing tape dub mixes. (That's when you take two tape decks, mix onto one deck then when you're done, play the tape back and record onto the second tape deck while overdubbing scratches, cuts, and shit.) From 1983 to 1986 he did mainly house and block parties in the Miami area with his crew, Sound Infinity DJs which included Master Ice, M.C. Lace, Cool Vic, and Devastating Dee.
In 1985 TMS and his crew frequented The Beat, a hole-in-the-wall hip hop club in Miami off of Bird Road where TMS became good friends with the resident DJ, Mohammed Moretta. TMS started to spin during Mo's breaks and soon became a permanent fixture there. The Beat club was responsible for many firsts in Miami Hip Hop history. They were the first club to host artists like RUN DMC, Jazzy Jay, Whiz Kid, Mantronix, Treacherous 3, and more. They also gave local talent a place to showcase. People like 2-Live Crew, MC Chief, and Expose all perfected their skills at this small, but very popular venue.
Around 1986 TMS got down with Rythym 98 (WTHM 98.3 FM ) in Cutler Ridge, Florida (now known as Cutler Bay). Originally recruited by Orange Juice Jones (not the same one as on Def Jam), it was Funky Frank, the stations Programming Director, that put him on as the Saturday night mixshow DJ. Impressed with his scratching ability, a local up and comming producer, Mikey C, recruited TMS to do some scratching on a record he was producing with JR Records out of Miami. In 1986, WORD by the Freshy 2 (aka Mikey C & Chino Ski) was released. While the record had a vocal A-side, it was DJ TMS's B-side scratch version that received the most popularity and airplay. TMS performed with the Freshy 2 at local clubs and became a favorite DJ among the hip hop community.
With his reputation as a hot DJ beginning to build, TMS garnered the interest of other local producers. Later that same year, Jammin' Joe Rizzo, a DJ at Rythym 98, recruited TMS to perform some scratching on a record he was producing along with Dr. Z, a local producer. So a few studio sessions later BASS TOWN by the Party Rock Crew on Z-Force Records was released and it became a big hit among the Miami Bass community. Apparently, the original DJ for the crew, DJ Scratchy Scratch, couldn't follow what TMS did on the record, so the crew asked TMS to be part of the crew and perform with them. This is why you hear on the record - "He's DJ Scratchy Scratch, born and raised in Bass Town..." but on the label it reads "Scratches by TMS". TMS also performed on another record by The Party Rock Crew titled Which School (Is Jammin' It), a track geared towards lifting school spirit among local high schools. This was also TMS's first try at beat programming. While at the studio, the person with the drum machine never showed up, so TMS asked if he could lay down a beat witht the studio's TR-909. While it wasn't a chart breaker, Which School did gain some local popularity.
After graduating high school in 1986, DJ TMS continued to record with various local producers but kept his loyalties in check. Again with Mikey C and a new record label, HHH Records, in 1987 he came out with LOW RIDING BASS by The Skeezers. In a time of concious rap and old school verse, this is probably the first record to talk about Low Riders (West Coast recognize!) - Funny, but at the time it was told to TMS that no one wanted to hear about Low Riders - where is that guy now? The B side was a comedic skit called BUM in which The Skeezers point out the misgivings of individuals who think they're more than they really are. It was the belief that The Skeezers was a two man group but in fact the vocals of both parts were performed by TMS himself.
That same year DJ TMS released DO IT LATIN STYLE on HHH Records which was the first Bass record with a Latin influence (that's right! DJ Laz was NOT the first as most people would like to believe). Later that same year, TMS recruited the skills of former DJ crew member M.C. Lace to pen some lyrics for a song called Now It's Our Turn which came out on Boomtown Records. Together
they called themselves Organized Crime, but unfortunately it was short lived effort.
In the club scene, TMS followed Mohammed Moretta over to Skylight Express (which later became Stardome) after The Beat closed its doors. Over the next few years he also spun at other local clubs such as Sneakers and Rythyms of the Night in South Miami.
Around 1991 DJ TMS began trying his hand at his own productions. Starting out with an Ensonique EPS, TMS began banging out beats for local talent but he wasn't happy with the limitations of the EPS. A friend had an SP12, but it too was very limited. So TMS did what he could over the next few years until in 1994 he purchased his first beat machine, an MPC 60II, and his sound began to change.
While his skills at DJing and music production were prevalent in his life, TMS was also an accomplished graffiti artist. Since 1988 he was a member of the AIM Crew (Artists In Motion) which was one of the top 5 crews in South Florida. While continuing his musical endeavours, DJ TMS began pursuing another interest - airbrushing - and in 1997 he opened up Miami Lowriders, a custom lowrider shop housed in the back of Red's Hydraulics, Miami. Going by his real name, Baer, he became a favorite among the lowrider community as the go-to person for customizing. His work became published in magazines such as Lowrider, Orlie's Lowrider, and Street Customs.
Although happy with what he was doing, in 1999 he switched modes yet again and went on to pursue another artistic ability which included his love for computers - 3D Computer Animation. He attended International Fine Arts College in downton Miami, which later became Miami International University of Art and Design where he graduated in 2003 with a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Computer Animation. Though presently involved in 3D Animation, DJ TMS still has his hand in production. The latest tools in his arsenal are Propellerheads Reason, Rebirth, Recycled, and ProTools. He is presently in production with his artists BLLACK and Guillotine and will soon be shopping for a distribution deal to kick of his independent label. From Miami's Hip Hop history to today's Hip Hop insurgence, DJ TMS is Miami's Old School King still doing his thing.
Peace y'all...
