Disco Scratch

2 hours with the UK legend Blade, the man responsible for so many dope UK tracks.  His career spanning 22 years, legend in the game.  I get deep with him talking in depth about his formative years and his progression from his initial MC name, Electron, running with the Starlight Assault Squad, to hooking up with other MCs to form Total Control Rappers and progressing to get his first track on wax.  Then through all those years punting his product on the street, through the many shows and tours he’s done, people he’s worked with, his thoughts on the industry and he drops bars from a never released track, exclusive to Disco Scratch.

Here’s the tracks I used in the show to talk over and those played:

1.Disco Scratch Intro
2.DuckAlert – Diamond Dust (Instrumental)
3.Blade – The Coming is Near (Instrumental)
4.Grand Groove – Let’s Dance (Instrumental)
5.Dolby D – Loud n Clear (Instrumental)
6.Derek B – Bad Young Dub (Instrumental)
7.MCs Logic – Operate Logikally
8.EMF – Rough Potential (Instrumental)
9.Sunshine Power – It’s Too Late (Instrumental)
10.Demon Boyz – Northside (Instrumental)
11.Blade – Lyrical Maniac
12.Black Radical Mk 2 – B Boys B Beat (Instrumental)
13.2 the top – The Rhythm I Give ‘Em (Instrumental)
14.Hardnoise – Untitled (Original white label 12)
15.Gunshot – Children Of A Dying Breed  (Instrumental)
16.Asher D & Daddy Freddy – We Are The Champions (Instrumental)
17.Cash Crew – You Can’t Stop This (Instrumental)
18.Einstein – Friday Night Saturday Morning (Instrumental)
19.MC Shan – Juice Crew law
20.London Rhyme Syndicate – Hard To The Core (Instrumental)
21.MC Duke – Miracles (Instrumental)
22.Chris Biscuit – Rhymes To Kill (Dub)
23.DJ Yess & D Crime 0 Keep It Underground (Instrumental)
24.Blade – Rhyme Bomb
25.The Icepick – Dead & Buried (Instrumental)
26.Jehst – Alcoholic Author (Waxer Remix Instrumental)
27.MC Evaready & The Unanimous Decision – Flowmotion (Sax Instrumental)
28.Klashnekoff – Jankrowville (Instrumental)
29.Skinnyman – Little Man part1 (Instrumental)
30.Waxer – My Poetry’s Deep (Instrumental)
31.Blade – Rough It Up (Instrumental)

Not much more I can say, I’ll let the man tell you himself.  Next Week: Benzini from Ageing B Boys Unite!!!!

 

 Disco Scratch Radio 2 - Blade in Interview [124:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (305)

Alright all, DS has been about for nearly a year and a half now.  It’s pretty much stayed the same since I started it.  I’ve added a couple of new features and changed a few bits so I thought I’d post up what’s changed.  As some of you already know I’ve started the radio show.  This is generating a fair amount of additional interest in the site and the stats show I’m getting a lot more hits.  I’ve started a shop, so if you have anything old school UK related you want to sell, hit me up at shop@discoscratch.co.uk for more details head to the shop page.

I’ve also added a player to keep you entertained, courtesy MixPod which is loaded with old school UK Hip Hop tracks and videos.  If you don’t want to listen, just  pause it.  Just under that you’ll see a prop C Box at last!  The old one was, well… a bit shit to be honest, C Box is standard on most blogs you look at so it’s here now, you can just leave comments there easily…

I’m also trying to get the database sorted so you can start to add all your own stuff.  You will have to register first, which is verified by me… the first time I did this the site git spammed with porn, it was ridiculous so all contributors need to register before they start adding.  I’ll post up a notice saying when it’s good to go.

Lastly I’ll be refreshing the logo and theme of the site sometime in the next few weeks, I just need to check all the functions work so if you pop back and see it looking spruced up, you know why!!!!

Peace out…

Disco Scratch Radio Show 1

So last night I went live at 9PM on Freestyle FM to give you the first Disco Scratch show.  Many thanks to all those that tuned in live & got in the chatroom.  It was a good look and I played a lot of classic UK tunes from back in the day.  I also got pranked by Bones bless him!  Big interviews coming up, names from the depths of Hip Hops’ past… I had a few technical issues with distortion but this should all be sorted for next week.

Last nights’ show was dedicated to Malcolm McClaren who sadly lost his battle with cancer yesterday, respect, RIP.

Till next week…

Playlist:

1.Trevor Jones – The Death Of Arthur

2/3/4.Malcolm McClaren:Buffalo Gals/Do ya like Scratchin/World’s Famous

4.Syncbeat – Music

5.Foreverreaction – B.E.D. 34

6.Rapologists – The Hip Hop Beat

7.Hardrock Soul Movement – Do It

8.Paul Hardcastle – Sound Chaser

9.Sir Drew – Old School Style

10.Dynamic MCs – I Feel Dynamic

11.Cash Crew – Microphone Maniac

12.Mutant Rockers – Classical Scratch

13.LL Cool J – I Need A Beat

14.Lewis Parker – A Walk In The Sky

15.DJ Yess & DJ Crime – Keep It Underground

16.NSO Force – 2 Deep

17.Demon Boyz – Rougher Than An Animal

18.T La Rock – Breakin Bells

19.Mixmaster Gee & The Turntable Orchestra – Manipulator

20.Duke Booty – Broadway

21.The Addicts Psalm – Ralph Carmichael

22.All The People ft Robert Moore – Cramp Your Style

23.Ben E King – What Is Soul

24.Stereo MCs – What Is Soul

25.Weather Report – Non Stop Home

26.Ramsey Lewis – Les Fleurs

27.Percee Pee – Lung Collapsin Lyrics

28.Percee Pee vs Lord Finesse battle snippet

29.Hijack – I Had to Serve You

 

 Disco Scratch Radio 1 [116:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (285)

Coming to a cpomputer near you, April 8th 2010

It’s with great pleasure I announce a new partnership with Freestyle FM.  Disco Scratch Radio

will be a weekly 2 hour show stepping back in time to when you were in a posse, said words like “Fresh”, “Def”

and waved an aerial out of your window in an attempt to pick up Mike Allen.

Starting at 9PM on www.freestylefm.net

I’ll be bringing you interviews, features on places in the UK, spotlight on crews, DJs, MCs, Writers, B Boys, Beatboxers, record shops, venues and the fans of UK Hip Hop from it’s birth to the mid 90s.

If you were a fan of Hip Hop in the UK in the early days, I’d like to hear from you.  Either hit me up on facebook on the links on the right or e-mail thediscoscratch@gmail.com

Hopefully I’ll be broadcasting on USTREAM at the same time hit me up at USTREAM.COM/DISCOSCRATCH

When the show finishes you’ll be able to cop the download from this site, or if you hit the iTunes link on the top tight and subscribe you’ll get it automatically, or you can hit the RSS link at the top to get it in a feed reader of your choice.

So, hit the Freestyle FM link at 9PM every Thursday from April 8th 2010 to get Old School UK Hip Hop pumped into your ear canals, hit the chat link on the freestyle FM page to join in with other old school UK heads.

See you there, respect to the molecule!

Many thanks for supporting DS for it’s first year in existence… some things didn’t work out for one reason or another.. I would have like to have put on an old school jam with some prime UK artists but didn’t have the resource… an old school meet up never happened, I was going to try to get a load more vinyl & tape rips up but I’m afraid time was against me and lastly because of the weather I just couldn’t get over to Repo136 to do the Christmas podcast…

BUT

We have had loads of dope tape rips, vinyl, some great discussions and next year round about spring I’ll be taking the site down, revamping it and coming back like Lee Majors!  Hopefully there will be a meet up next year, plus the database will be back up and running and I’ll be opening a shop for all your purchases.  I’ll have stuff like custom graf clothing, jewelery like 4 finger rings, tag belts, old trainers like Troop & British Knights & maybe some old vinyl & such.  If you are interested in having your stuff available in the shop please let me know.

I want to introduce a new feature where you can upload your own audio & video for sharing with other old schol UK heads.

So, on that note, I’ll be away for a couple of weeks over Christmas and new year so I really hope everyone has a great holiday season and I’ll speak to you in the new year.

May the force be with you, peace, Waxer.

So a few days have now passed since I first heard of the untimely death of an inspiring, ground breaking and influential UK MC.  Derek Boland, born 15th January 1965 in London, started DJing at 15 on pirates in London, namely LWS and KISS.  Rock the Beat was his first sonic Assault in 1987, released on the Music Of Life imprint and forging a new path for UK acts to follow in his wake.  Derek B was the  third rapper to ever perform on Top Of The Pops, with “Bad Young Brother”,  following Doug E Fresh and Break Machine.

He was a big big name back in 88 and I remember my first purchase of his was indeed the “Bad Young Brother” 12.  The energy that he had was inspirational and I’m proud to say I was a fan back then and will continue to be a fan of his music.

After releasing his LP “Bullet from a gun” I don’t really recall much being released from him, or seeing him anywhere he seemed to just fade out.

I think this was because he is essentially an old school artist and struggled to find a place in the Britcore scene at the time, which had become harsh and political instead of the party style that Derek B was associated with.  I never had the pleasure of seeing him live on stage, but I do however have some quality 80s footage on video which as far as I’m aware is not available ANYWHERE on the net, so I’m going to try to find it, rip it and upload it to youtube tonight, then add it in here later.

There is a lot of stuff I could write about Derek B, but in the past week a lot has been written already and I don’t want to fo over the same stuff twice, so here are some

links:

Drew Huge from Fat Lace does freelance journalism and wrote this piece for The Guardian

Here is the link to The Guardians’ piece about Derek Bs death and here is the obituary.

More Links to Derek B:

Derek Bs Myspace

Derek B on wikipedia

His discography

New Music Express

BBC news article

Starts tributes to him (via Gigwise)

I always believe in looking back over someone’s life with happiness that they existed and contributed to our lives and considering the up and coming festive season, here is the dope “Chillin’ With Santa” as included on the “Christmas Rappin” LP that came out in 1987.

 

 Derek B - Chillin With Santa [4:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (350)

Nuff respect to Derek B, a UK legend.  Being as Disco Scratch is at the heart of the old school UK Hip Hop community and is read by many people in the scene show some love & respect for this artist by taking the time to leave a comment to this post, it will be a longstanding mark of his career.

Just using this as a tune to test the iTunes feed and all the settings…

 

 Severe Carnage - The Struggle Continues [4:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (367)

I thought I’d try and help you lot out and spend a Saturday night doing a tutorial to help you put stuff on the database.

This basically (and I MEAN basically!) covers creating a new page, creating a page from a link, uploading a picture and adding it to an entry and embedding a youtube video. I plan to do another one soon to embed music as well, but this should do to get you going. There’s also sections in the video covering how to edit another entry.

Well, check ‘em out & leave a comment! It’s in 3 parts due to the 10 minute restriction on Youtube, but you lucky people can watch it in HD as that’s the format I uploaded it in!

Thanks all, I look forward to reading your entries!

Disco Scratch Database Link

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3

I had been thinking of starting a proper site for a while that enables the UK Hip Hop community to add their own entries to a database. All the other resources that are available on the web for the Hip Hop scene are or were maintained only by a handful of people.

The software I am using is mediawiki which is the software that drives wikipedia.

It’s dead easy to use, just search in the box like you would on wikipedia and if what you’re searching for is not there, just click create page and add your entry. I would recommend that you create an account and login to it, that way you get e-mail alerts when someone ads to or edits your entry. This is not just a music wiki, this is to encompass the entire EXPERIENCE of growing up with hip hop from the early 80s through to now in the UK.

It is rooted firmly in the old school upto mid 90s, but there is no reason why you can’t add whatever you want.

I encourage writers, B Boys, MCs, DJs, beatboxers, crew members, dancers, record shop owners, fashion, concerts, concert venues, radio shows, anything at all that falls into your experience with Hip Hop. I have started adding entries and will continue to do so. I am quite new to this myself so over time I’m hoping to tailor it to suit the needs of the community to the best.

You can add video, audio, pictures, links, pretty much anything that you could put on a forum you can out in here… so GET CONTRIBUTING!!!

You can look in the disco scratch forum for the thread for this with tutorial videos, http://discoscratch.co.uk/forum

The database is here: http://discoscratch.co.uk/dsdb

Enjoy!!!!

True Hip Hop legends, I had to put this video up out of respect. Sounds like it’s just minor though, so looking forward to that new LP!