Grandmaster Class

Pioneering hip-hop icon Grandmaster Flash visits Berklee to demonstrate his turntable technique and to help Berklee DJs with theirs.

By Chris Faraone
Berklee.edu Correspondent
November 1, 2007

Grandmaster Flash demonstrates his turntable technique. Photo by Phil Farnsworth

When faculty member Stephen Webber began teaching his Turntable Technique lab at Berklee in 2004, it was a trailblazing moment for music in higher education. But it came a full 30 years after Bronx-bred hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash first considered his record players instruments and himself a musician.

When Flash visited Berklee for the first time last week to give a lecture entitled The Art and Science of the DJ, students, teachers, and administrators crammed the Berklee Performance Center. The capacity house demonstrated that Berklee and the greater music establishment have steadily evolved since the days when hip-hop insiders and revolutionary professors were only ones apotheosizing turntablists.

"I've been trying to get Flash to do this for years," Webber said. "There's no doubt that he's the foundation behind a lot of what I teach and write about." 

The Flash lecture—which was chased by a master class with four Berklee DJs—was no token gesture. Berklee is the world's only accredited institution that recognizes twin Technics 1200 turntables as instruments, which has enabled the college to gain credibility in a genre where most matriculate through the school of hard knocks.

Strapping on headset, Flash opened his presentation with a narrative on hip-hop. But after five minutes of reminiscing about how he helped catalyze New York's 1970s rap renaissance by manipulating records in unique ways, he quit parading back and forth in academic fashion and stepped behind the decks to finger through some wax. "Let's do this unrehearsed," he said.

	Grandmaster Flash
	Photo by Phil Farnsworth

For his first lesson, Flash explained the concept of "breaks," or, as he describes them, "the hot part of any record."  Using copies of Billy Squier's "The Big Beat" and Bob James's "Caribbean Nights," he demonstrated his "Quick Mix Theory," in which DJs use duplicate records to rearrange music and extend the break segments of a song. "I came up with this science out of pure hatred for the wack part," he said. "Every record has a wack part."

As the man behind the "Quick Mix Theory," which remains today the backbone of most hip-hop production, Flash wasn't shy about his iconic status. And if there's one breakthrough that he's most proud of, it's being the first DJ to manhandle vinyl.

"In 1973, nobody was willing to put their hand on a record and move it in a back and forth motion," Flash said, demonstrating basic "brake" and "clutch" techniques. "DJs hated my guts. I was called everything from an idiot to a ruiner of records."

With claims staked, Flash proceeded to explain how his willingness to reject vinyl taboos helped him see his tool as more than just a phonograph.

"Once I found out that I could brake and clutch, I was able to come up with theories," Flash said. "I wasn't looking at this as a record player, I was looking at it as an instrument and playing it like a keyboardist plays the keys."

Instead of using the question-and-answer period to debate the turntable's instrumentality (as classically trained artists tend to do), Berklee musicians kicked their guest a mess of awestruck praises and gracious inquiries. For those who missed his answers: Flash is opposed to copyright infringement, in support of the digital DJ revolution, against exposing kids to lascivious hip-hop, and currently bumping everything from Igor Stravinsky to People Under the Stairs on his car stereo.

After Flash dropped a break-heavy mix medley to segue from his lecture to the master class, student DJs Paint Chips, Kirsh, Keith, and Sixth Degree each took turns spinning 10 records in 10 minutes, unleashing not only their Berklee-acquired techniques, but also their dustiest wax relics. Flash was both harsh and helpful, occasionally reaching in to stop records in mid-song. A fan of comprehensive turntable basics, he praised the group for not rushing into fancy trick scratches.

"Before you learn to multiply, you have to learn how to add," Flash said. "You have to know how to make the sounds from two records lock."

While Berklee's whole Turntable Technique program earned props, DJ Paint Chips earned the Grandmaster's co-signature on account of his fabulous spread of Vaudeville and Yiddish throwbacks blended with hip-hop, soul, and disco jams. 

"That's the edgiest set I've seen in a long time," Flash told Paint Chips. "That's where greatness starts—you have to take a chance and go where that chance takes you."

There's no doubt that Flash's feedback reflected his own DJ experience. But for hip-hop virgins watching from the audience, he sent a message that all musicians can subscribe to.

Grandmaster Flash sits with students while listening to a student DJ perform in the master class. Photo by Phil Farnsworth

Chris Faraone writes about hip-hop for the Boston Herald, Spin, the Source, and other publications.