The DJ Evolution: From Scratches To Yells

When you think of DJs, you probably think of the classic DJ archetype - Grandmaster Flash, Jam Master Jay, DJ Jazzy Jeff - that dude behind the group with the turntables. And that dude's main purpose was scratching records. Scratching is the prominent "DJ" art form, well documented in the brilliant film, Scratch. However, today's rap music predominantly does not feature scratching - whereas DJ's still play a prominent role in the genre. In fact one could argue that DJ's are even more important now than ever before. But what do DJ's do if they aren't scratching? Well, they yell. Yelling has taken the role once played by scratching. I don't know whether DJ's were tired of being in the background or maybe just tired of using their hands, but it would seem they went from hyping one performer to hyping themselves.

Now, I don't really have a problem with this and I don't really know where it started. Regardless, it's a somewhat fascinating phenomenon. Let's take DJ Khaled - now, DJ Khaled has a new album just out in stores (entitled We The Best). On We the Best, DJ Khaled doesn't sing, or rap, and only produced two songs. Yet, it's still his album. "I'll tell you exactly what I'm doing: I'm putting the [entire] album together," Khaled explained to MTV. "And not only that, I'm on the records. My ad-libs and everything are a big part of the records, [just] like Lil Jon's 'Yeah!' and all that. That goes a long way. Mine is just a different swagger." His songs tend to be cluttered with guest appearances, but it's his boisterous yell that the track is built around. Case in point...


Thus, Khaled is an artist of the conceptual variety. He doesn't conceive the songs in a musical sense, just simply has a "vibe" he wants to convey and leads others in that direction. That is ridiculously awesome I think, because it's exactly the way I'd want to make my "solo" album. This conceptual process is very interesting - more like that of a movie producer than a music one - and further complicates the roles of "musician" and "artist."

One more time...

I totally want to open my video walking through my old high school as well.