Grandmaster Flash Quotes

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

I would always have turntable elements in my records even if it was just one scratch.

I was the little white kid who rocked the turntables.

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 prefer to unwind by DJing. I learned that from Mike D from the Beastie Boys. After a show, he would DJ. Once I saw that, I wanted to do that. And now DJing is like my lifeline. I love the power it represents.

DJing is one of my hobbies.

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.

DJing is an art that I have the utmost respect for, and I've been practising it since I was 17 years old. Doing Tom Cruise wedding-type things becomes the focal point of every interview, and you realize that you have to cut it out if you don't want to be answering questions about that.

I basically taught myself how to DJ, but I've been inspired by DJs throughout my whole career. I have some good friends that would hook us up with music. You learn some little things here and there from each DJ and you just take it and put your own style into to 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.

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.

To me, the whole thing with the roots of rap music was when the DJ had to supply all the music for the group with two turntables. And the whole criteria of what that DJ would use had nothing to do with what type of band made a record.

I got into DJing because that was the coolest thing to do and I've never looked back.

I started DJ-ing in the '90s. DJ-ing is in every record I do. When I make records I make them for DJs.

Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow are going to blow your funky mind!

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

I got into DJing and making beats when I was about 17. I was always fascinated by the four elements of hip-hop: you know, writing, rhyming, breakdancing and graffiti.

I love DJing, and I love rocking out.

I knew that as a DJ from 1970 on up that I would eventually come with this sound. I brought out all these other break beats that you hear so much on a lot of these records.

Then I just moved into being a DJ when that turned into the hottest thing.

There's individual turntable setups devoted to piano, bass, drums and a set for soloing as well. We like to try and explore the gamut of what a turntable can do.

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 grew up on hip-hop and crate-digging and those sensibilities are deeply ingrained in me.

I started DJing when I was, like, 11.