One lazy afternoon, while Mix Master Mike was scratching away at the decks, there was a knock at the door. It was Richard Quitevis the guy who he had met at the party last night. Rich had come over to watch him practice on the turntables. Like Mike who was inspired by a DST concert, Rich was inspired by watching Mike’s performance at last night’s celebrations. From there, a competitive friendship formed. Turning heads all around the country, Rich, now known to the scratching world as Q-Bert was making a name for himself and impressing a lot of the big wigs. Word on the street was that there was a Hip Hop battle to take place at Q-Bert’s school cafeteria. Jumping at the chance to test out Q-Bert’s skills, Mix Master Mike entered and evidently won. However in a rematch soon after that Q-Bert triumphed. The rest is pretty much history. Nevertheless history that will remain emblazoned in Hip Hop Halls of fame forever. ITM’s palu digs up the old trophies and has a good old yarn with one of the most influential and skilled scratch DJ of all time, Q-Bert.
It would be a bit pointless to list all of Q-Bert’s awards and achievements as there wouldn’t be much room left for the interview. However let it be known that he is the sovereign ruler of the turntables. He was one of the founding members of the ‘Invisble Skratch Piklz’; an elite group of turntablists. Along with this Q-Bert also held three DMC world championship titles under his belt, was inducted into the DMC DJ Hall of Fame in 1998 with partner in crime Mix Master Mike and would have remained undefeated if he didn’t decide to become a DMC judge in 1994. This caused a chain reaction of rumors that DMC has banned him from competing. In actual fact, this was a lie; Q-Bert clears up the air. “They just said that for fun. I actually decided I wanted to become a judge instead of competing, just for a change and something different. It was actually Tony’s wife who jokingly said ‘Ah yeah, you guys shouldn’t really compete again, because no one wants to battle you’. But people thought she was serious. I knew for a fact she was only kidding. But yeah total false rumor.”
With numerous rumors bouncing off the walls and glistening trophies galore, Q-Bert reminisces back the old days, when scratching was a leisure pursuit and b-boys were breaking but not break dancing. “I got into all this for fun. I was a little kid learning about hip hop in the early eighties. My first gig was pretty much a disaster, trying to get the equipment to work, that sort of thing. Everything went wrong, it was very messy. And of course, I wasn’t very good like that for a very long time but you learn as you grow.”
Constantly learning the tricks of the trade, Q-Bert shares a little bit of his secret with us. “For all the kids who want to make it in this scene, I’d advise them to wait until their style matures. Scratching is just like any universal language. And to get good at it, you just have to practice. It’s just like when you’re a kid, you kind of adopt whatever’s going around you and you’re influenced by your parents, friends and teachers and so forth. But once you grow up a bit, you tend to pick up your own style. Of course you still learn from other people as well. Look at the turntables as if there were no turntables; don’t be restricted. Pretend you’re on a different planet or something and work on developing your own unique technique”
Along with mastering the skills of turntables, Q-Bert also branched out into film, launching ‘Wave Twisters’ an animated feature based on his album. Adding various dimensions to his music, Q-Bert shares what he has learnt from this project. “Working with Wave Twisters has definitely taught me a lot about scores in film. It showed me how to put atmosphere into my music and bring in emotions as well. It’s interesting because scratching mixed with emotion is a whole lot more interesting. The visuals just bring in all these different elements to the music.” But the projects doesn’t just end there, Q-Bert is constantly surrounding himself with goals, working on new and exciting developments, one of which is a ‘do it yourself’ instructional scratch DVD. “It’s a DVD where I show about over 20 different basic scratch styles, the fundamentals and well as some more advanced techniques. There’s also a section with jam sessions with the DJs featured, where I could scratch for a couple of bars and then you can scratch for a couple of bars, kind of like a battle. I’m always working on projects”
While those of his status sit back and spark up a cigars, Q-Bert keeps his head firmly intact and sets his next goal. It’s a never ending ride he shares. “I haven’t reached all my goals yet. There will never be that time where I can say ‘I’ve finally made it’. Goals are a life long process. I’ve learnt a bit from the guys who went to the moon, you know Neil Armstrong? I found out they went to moon and when the came back down to Earth, they lost all their jobs because they did not plan their next goal. They were like ‘yeah we’re going to go to the moon’ and then it was like, what’s next? So I’ve always learnt to think ahead and always have goals for the future; it’s never ending really. I think in this short life, we have to try and get as much out as we can and maybe make the world a more interesting place.”
Q-Bert will no doubt be making Australia a more interesting place as he launches the Scratch world tour. Check below for tour details
19th December at City Live, Sydney
20th December at Arena, Brisbane
21st December at The Globe, Perth
22nd December at The Metro, Melbourne
