Grandmaster Flash Quotes

I was the little white kid who rocked the turntables.

I certainly considered DJing. I bought four vinyls, and I bought some turntables, and I was like, 'Um. Yeah. I'm not gonna do this. This is not my thing.'

I've been DJing since before I could read the labels on the records.

I've been DJing a little bit, so you get used to the fact that music sounds brilliant when it's loud.

My father was my first inspiration. He had an incredible stereo and a turntable, and I was told not to touch it. But I'd go back and touch it anyway. I gained a respect for the turntables when I was a kid. When I was a teenager, I came up with a 'cueing system' to work the turntables because they didn't have it at that time.

I knew there was a way to blend records together, but I didn't know how to. This was haunting me when I was in my teens. In my frustration, I decided to start experimenting with electronics. I tested the torque factor on different turntables. I had to figure needles out. See, there are two kinds, elliptical and conical.

For me it all started with two turntables and a mixer.

I go out pretty much every night, and when you spend time in those clubs, watching how the DJs make their mash-ups to heat up the room, you want to create that sound yourself.

I had also done a little disc jockeying.

For instance, if you're playing a record with drums - horns would sound nice to enhance it so you get a record with horns and slip it in at certain times.

I named myself Flash many years ago, as I loved the cartoon. Then my own fans said that I should call myself 'Grandmaster,' because of the way I operate turntables. I put the two together and that was it.

If the music in a groove fits with what you're playing, then play it; if not, then you can play it backwards. If that doesn't work, you try it at a different speed. If it really doesn't work you just break it. The whole ritual to put a record on a turntable just to listen to it, I don't do that too often.

The type of mixing that was out then was blending from one record to the next or waiting for the record to go off and wait for the jock to put the needle back on.

I just wanna be a DJ!

Pete Dj Jones was the first person that I saw with 2 turntables. This was 1972.

With this CD technology, you can just remix a record right there on the spot.

I begged and begged, and my uncle gave me his old turntables. It was one hi-fi and one old Stereo Lab turntable and a rusty mixer. I was really chuffed. I kept that for five years - that's where I learned to mix.

Me and my little cousin DJ John John, we used to always be DJing in the house. We never took it seriously.

I've been DJing since I was in high school.

I started DJing when I was, like, 11.

I definitely try to go above and beyond with live mixing and scratching.

A turntable is the classic DJ's weapon for playing vinyl, but the mixer is the device that actually allows you to blend multiple tracks together to create a mix.

When I DJ, I got my own catalog to play in the club. I'm spinning my own records like it's my own show.

Yeah, I actually still have my crates that I used to DJ out of when I was first DJing - my crates that I would travel with and take to the club.

I grew up around electronic instruments. To me, the turntable is an electronic device. At the same time, I had access to drum machines and keyboards through my uncle; then track recorders into computers. At an early age, I was messing with computers more than most hip-hop musicians.