Grandmaster Flash and Scratch — The Moment the Turntable Became an Instrument

Grandmaster Flash — The Perfecter of Hip-Hop DJ Technique

Grandmaster Flash (real name Joseph Saddler, 1958-) is the second-generation Bronx hip-hop DJ. He witnessed Kool Herc’s two-record method and aimed at technical completion — “I can do it more precisely.”

Flash’s technical contributions:

1. Cueing system — pre-listening the next track with headphones
2. Punch phrasing — targeting and inserting specific sounds from a break
3. Backspin (=quick mix) — infinite loop of the same break with two records
4. Precision of beat matching — Herc was intuitive, Flash was mathematically precise
5. Introducing scratch into works — the first DJ to use his disciple Grand Wizard Theodore’s invention on stage

All of these are inherited as the basic functions of today’s CDJ / rekordbox / Serato. Flash is the person who created the design philosophy of modern DJ equipment in the 1970s.

Origins and Training

• Born on January 1, 1958, in Barbados (Caribbean), moved to the Bronx shortly after birth
• In the early 1970s, attended an electronics-oriented vocational high school (Samuel Gompers Career and Technical Education High School)
• Learned radio / record-player repair — the foundation for later DJ equipment design

In contrast to Kool Herc, Flash is an engineering-type DJ. He pursued “why does this sound come out” and “how do I increase technical precision.”

The Invention of Cueing (1974-75)

Kool Herc’s two-record method had a serious problem:

• The exact position where the next break started had to be caught by ear
• Herc relied on experience and intuition
• Precisely lining it up was extremely difficult — if the timing was off, the dancers’ rhythm collapsed

Flash solved this with the cueing system:

How Cueing Works

• A headphones jack added to the DJ mixer
• Without turning the crossfader, listen to only one turntable in the headphones
• Pre-listen to the head of the next break, prepare, then crossfade

With this, the next record could be connected precisely to the second. The cueing system of modern DJ mixers (the DJM series) has its prototype in the circuit that Flash modified into his own mixer around 1974.

The Invention of Scratch — Grand Wizard Theodore (1975)

Grand Wizard Theodore (real name Theodore Livingston, 1963-) was Flash’s disciple, who accidentally discovered scratch at age 12.

The Moment of Invention (1975, age 12)

• Theodore was playing a record at home; his mother shouted, “Turn the volume down”
• To stop the turntable, Theodore put his hand on the record and stopped its rotation
• When he moved the stopped record back and forth, a new “scratch, scratch” sound came from the needle
• Theodore realized “this could be music” and began to practice

What Is Scratch?

The sound born from the relative motion of needle and groove, deliberately controlled by hand:

• Baby scratch — swinging the record back and forth
• Chirp scratch — short and sharp
• Transformer scratch — combined with the crossfader
• Flare scratch — multiple turnarounds

Theodore established the basic techniques of scratch in 1975-1977. The inventor was Theodore, but the one who spread it to the stage and record was Flash, and later, the one who spread it globally with Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” (1983) was Grand Mixer DXT (D.ST).

Backspin (Quick Mix Theory)

The most important technique Flash systematized is Backspin (Quick Mix Theory):

The Flaw of Herc’s Two-Record Method

• When Turntable A’s break was about to end, crossfade to B
• But if there was no time to return A before B’s break ended, the timing collapsed
• The 4-8 bar break sequences had subtle drift

Flash’s Solution

• Prepare two copies of the same record
• Play the break on A, while B waits at the head
• One beat before A’s break ends, start B, backspin A to the head
• A completely beat-uninterrupted infinite loop

This is the direct origin of the thought behind modern DJ equipment’s memory cue point / hot cue. Flash completed it around 1976.

Punch Phrasing

Another technique Flash invented:

• While looping a break in two-record mode, “punch” a single sound from another record
• Example: while looping James Brown’s “Funky Drummer,” insert only “Oh yeah!” from another record for one beat
• Sampling-like performance with only turntables

This is the ancestor of modern sample punch-in in the DAW. Flash was a pioneer of using the turntable as a “sampler.”

Flash + Furious Five — Formed in 1976

Flash’s DJ technique combined with five MCs to form Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, an important hip-hop group in history.

Members:

• Grandmaster Flash (DJ)
• Melle Mel
• Cowboy
• Kid Creole
• Scorpio
• Rahiem

Active from 1976 to 1988, they left important early hip-hop works as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, including “The Message” (1982).

“The Message” (1982)

• A representative work of early hip-hop dealing with social issues
• Expressed the Bronx slums, poverty, and violence in rap
• Commercially successful (billboard R&B #4)
• The direct origin of modern “conscious hip-hop” (Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, etc.)

“The Adventures on the Wheels of Steel” (1981)

Flash’s technical masterpiece is 1981’s “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel.”

• A 7-minute instrumental hip-hop track
• No vocals, a track that stands as pure DJ performance
• Tracks used: Blondie “Rapture,” Chic “Good Times,” Queen “Another One Bites the Dust,” The Sugarhill Gang “Rapper’s Delight,” Sequence “Monster Jam,” Furious Five “Birthday Party,” “Freedom,” Spoonie Gee “Monster Jam,” “Positive Life,” and many others
• Flash cut and pasted all of them on the turntable

This is the world’s first “track played by a DJ” and the origin of today’s turntablism (the genre that uses the DJ as an instrument). At 1981, the moment the turntable was officially recognized as “an instrument”.

Grand Mixer DXT (D.ST) and “Rockit”

With Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” (1983), scratch became globally known. The scratch player on this track was Grand Mixer DXT (formerly D.ST, real name Derek Showard).

• Won a Grammy in 1983, heavy rotation on MTV
• White music fans saw scratch for the first time
• The image of DJ = instrumentalist became globally established

“Rockit” was a cross-over hit that involved not only the hip-hop world but also electronic music and fusion jazz. From then on, scratch became a globally recognized technique.

Summary of Flash’s Five Contributions

The techniques Flash established in 1974-1982:

Technique	Content	Inheritance to Today
Cueing	Pre-listening with headphones	Standard function in all DJ mixers
Beat matching (precise)	Mathematically matching BPM	Sync button of rekordbox / Serato
Backspin (Quick Mix)	Loop with two copies of the same record	Hot cue / memory cue point
Punch phrasing	Inserting a single sound	Sample pad / RMX
Scratch (staged)	Theodore’s invention brought to live	Serato scratch controllers

Flash anticipated all the design philosophy of modern CDJ / DDJ / mixer / software with turntables, mixers, and soldering in the 1970s.

Inheritance to Modern Turntablism

After Flash, hip-hop DJ technique developed into the genre turntablism:

1980s-1990s Turntablism Masters

• DJ Q-Bert (Invisibl Skratch Piklz) — the summit of scratch
• Mix Master Mike (Beastie Boys) — scratch in the field
• DJ Premier (Gang Starr) — DJ technique within hip-hop production

DMC World DJ Championship

• 1985, the world DJ technique competition Disco Mix Club Championship began
• Still held once a year with a world tournament
• Japanese winners: DJ Kentaro (2002), DJ Izoh (2012), etc.

Turntablism continued into the CDJ era, and even today, scratch-specialized equipment such as Serato + Rane 12 (motorized platter) + Rane Seventy-Two mixer is sold.

What 1970s Bronx Left to the Present

Kool Herc’s two-record method + Grandmaster Flash’s technical completion + Grand Wizard Theodore’s scratch. In these ten years (1973-1982), the technical foundation of modern hip-hop / club DJing was completely established.

• 1988, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — the first from the hip-hop world
• 1997, Yo! MTV Raps reruns spread Flash’s technique worldwide
• 2007, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue registered as the birthplace of hip-hop

All the functions of modern CDJ, rekordbox, Serato, DDJ, and standalone all-in-one are digital re-implementations of what Flash made with turntables and mixers in the 1970s.

From This Article to the Next

The hip-hop DJ technique born in the Bronx would influence the formation of 1980s-1990s Chicago house / Detroit techno. The two flows of 1970s NY discotheque (Levan) and 1970s Bronx (Herc, Flash) merged in 1980s Chicago and Detroit, and the basic form of modern club music was completed. The next article traces Frankie Knuckles and the birth of Chicago house.