2008 Woodie Awards
Soulful Sounds
DJ's teach SRU students art of scratching
By Julie Dye
Rocket Copy Editor
Issue date: 4/15/05 Section: Entertainment
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UPB Vice President of Arts and Entertainment Brooke Schad led the event and felt confident the event would fit well into the Black Action Society's annual Hip-Hop Week
"I wanted to make it a part of Hip-Hop Week," Schad said. "It just seemed like it would fit in really well with the culture of hip-hop that the Black Action Society was trying to convey."
Scratch DJ Academy is a school in New York that teaches the techniques and art of deejaying. Scratch DJ Academy is the only place where aspiring and amateur DJ's can come to learn or improve their skills from some of the best DJ's in the world. The academy sends two of their best, Wali Zafer and Perrin Wright, to many colleges, including SRU, to give them a quick lesson in scratching and introduce them to the art of scratching records.
Zafer, also known as "DJ Daddy Dog," and Wright, known as "DJ Precision," are both highly experienced DJ's that say though there are many types of DJ's, they are considered to be extreme DJ's.
"We have both been DJ's for over 10 years," Zafer said. "We have also been teaching at the Scratch DJ Academy for about two years now."
They began the event with some basic mixing and looping of tracks to entertain the audience before the show started. Zafer talked about the history of deejaying and how it evolved into what they do today.
Zafer and Wright explained how deejaying started around the 1970s with three major innovators: DJ Cool Herk, DJ Grand Wizard Theodore and DJ Grand Master Flash. More familiar DJ's, like DJ Jazzy Jeff, also played important roles in the innovations of scratching.
Zafer expressed that they do the performances for the students. Though they do mix for a while and show the students some tricks, he said that the most important part of the event is to get the students involved.
"I would say that 90-95 percent of students who try scratching can do it," Wright said. "People are really amazed at what they can do on their first try."
