Scratch

Filmmaker Doug Pray follows his Seattle grunge scene documentary Hype! with a vibrant and encyclopedic look at scratching (also known as turntablism) and hip-hop culture from its South Bronx cradle to its embrace by such current West Coast performers as the Bay Area’s Qbert. The sonic stuttering, grooves and abstractions produced by manipulating the content of vinyl recordings with hand spins, fingering, photograph needles and faders is exemplified by live performance footage and expounded upon through interviews with numerous key players (including Afrika Bambaataa, Jazzy Jay, Grand Master Flash, and Mix Master Mike). The film credits Grand Wizard Theodore as DJ originator, Grand Mixer DXT (who mixed 1984’s hit “Rockit”) as a major influence and DJ Shadow of Davis as “the king of diggers” (those who scour vinyl archives for new material). It also clues the clueless on the genre’s semantics and nuances, and the difference between hip-hop and rap.