Hip-Hop Turntablism, Creativity and Collaboration by Sophy Smith, and: Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ by Mark Katz (review)

The complex figure of the disc jockey, or DJ, has evolved for almost as long as ‘discs’ have existed. And while the manipulation or performance of record turntables has diversified in a number of directions (from radio, to art, to club cultures), what falls under the banner of ‘turntablism’ may be its most virtuosic and progressive iteration. This is the primary focus of Sophy Smith’s Hip-Hop Turntablism, Creativity and Collaboration, which specifically explores ‘teams’ of turntablists who perform and compete worldwide.

The first half of the book places both collaboration and the art of turntablism in a theoretical context before moving on to discuss analytical methodologies and three main case studies: the Scratch Perverts, Mixologists, and the DMU Crew, all UK-based. In fact, the role of Britain in this type of competitive turntablism is arguably underplayed in the book. It may be because of the interest in focusing on critical theory and analysis, but a socio-historical and cultural angle would help supplement the now international phenomenon. It was London, in fact, that first held the DMC (Disco Mix Club) championships in 1985 (they moved to the Royal Albert Hall in 1987–9, and subsequently to Wembley Arena for one year). Context aside, Smith’s book demonstrates that these team turntablist routines are highly devised and constructed, composed, and rehearsed, and while they may sound improvisatory and spontaneous in places, they are highly planned.

The book moves from broad themes (collaboration, history, technology) to closer analytical methodology for studying team turntable routines. Smith conflates and tailors a number of methods for analysing popular music (from Tagg, Hawkins, Moore, and Wall) and devises her own framework for hip-hop turntable composition (p. 78–9). Parameters include the devising framework, sample choice, texture, and sound-manipulation techniques.

After a short introduction, the second chapter looks at collaboration in hip-hop through accounts of b-boying (aka breakdancing) and graffiti, two other important elements of hiphop culture. Chapters 3 and 4 overlap slightly, and discuss the theory, technology, and history of the turntable, citing material from Katz, Adorno, Edison, Brewster and Broughton, Schloss, Poschardt, and others, and cover experimental music and instillation art as well as radio and club DJs, reggae, and disco. DJ pioneers in mixing such as Terry Noel and Francis Grasso are mentioned in both chapters, as are Cage and Mogoly-Nagy, as part of a whirlwind tour of turntable artists and performers. When Smith looks at important figures who use turntables (e.g. Christian Marclay), however, we never see her/his process in detail or detailed descriptions of her/ his pieces.

Chapter 6 discusses various turntablism techniques (divided into structural, rhythmic, and melodic) and provides an extensive list, but does not include songs that use them. The chapter is largely ethnographic and centres on the formation of turntable groups, allocation of roles within groups, theories on devising performance (Landam and Oddey), and the stages of development of the collaborative circle (Farrell). The chapter takes a tone similar to Joseph Schloss’s ground-breaking and still important Making Beats (Middletown, Conn., 2004), which focuses on individual sample-based producers.

Smith argues in the seventh chapter that a chronological critique such as Katz’s analysis of a DJ routine in his earlier book Capturing Sound does not work for DJ teams as ‘aspects need to be compared thematically’ (p. 71). I do not see these parameters as mutually exclusive, nor why the element of time is dismissed so quickly. Such thematic details are mapped carefully and extensively, notably in the last chapter of the book, which looks at three routines, but the real-time element is missing.

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