While watch a bit of TV this afternoon, I caught a bit of a rap video. The DJ (the fat dude scratching the record) had a couple of turntables and a bank of sliding controls that he was constantly adjusting while doing whatever he does with the records. I wasn’t able to make out the labels on the records, they look like standard 33⅓ albums. What type of records are these and where do they get them? Search the record rack at a local Goodwill and pick out some 3 for a $1 specials?
“Hey there rap fans, let’s give it up for DJ Slappy Rap Crap and his hip hop stylings of The Carpenter’s Greatest Hits with Lonely Bull by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass!!!”
Or are they custom made for the DJ?
Actually, you’d be surprised how many rap DJs have sampled that Mexican-sounding trumpet riff from “Lonely Bull.” I’ve heard it in a LOT of hip-hop songs.
DJ here -
All of the above.
A good DJ can make anything work just by playing with the sound and manipulating the crossfader. Take Kid Koala - he uses everything from readily available mainstream 33’s to forgotten children’s records and 45’s to flexi discs and so on. He’s a genius on the decks, and I’ve heard and seen him make absolutely ludicrous things work by raw skill.
Many “battle” DJ’s (those that compete against other DJ’s by doing tricks w/ their records) buy scratch record or “DJ Tool” records - instead of full-length songs, these records have collections of “stabs” or one-shot sounds - a trumpet hit, a one-word vocal sample like “fresh!”, test tones, etc. - meant to be scratched and manipulated. They also usually have collections of looped beats on them, bits of dialogue from movies, and other things like that.
Big-money major label artists can afford to (and often do) have their own custom vinyl made from them with the samples that their DJ needs to use. When you see the DJ for somebody like Outkast scratching on a sample (that they need to do every night on tour, etc.), they’ve most likely had their own scratch record custom-made. You’ll probably see that vanish, though, since CD turntables are now so convincing in their emulation of vinyl that even bedroom DJ’s can burn their own collections of samples to CD and use them that way.
If you’re interested in turntablism, I very highly recommend the documentary Scratch. Even if you don’t like the music, you’ll gain an appreciation for what some of these artists can do.