Lessons From The Grandmaster

Grandmaster Flash is to hip-hop what Doctor Findus is to Crispy Pancakes. Perfecting the art of mixing and blending breakbeats before anyone else, he was The Yoda of Spin, a ‘turntable scientist’ and the pioneer of a totally new musical genre.

Growing up in the South Bronx, he’d never actually ride his metallic green Huffy bike, even though it was ‘the baddest bike in the neighbourhood’, he’d just turn it upside-down, insert playing cards in the wheels and spin them, speeding them up and slowing them down, getting them in time with each other. He’d later invent Clock Theory and the Quik Mix technique, and subsequently lead the Furious Five into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  

The legendary DJ and producer has just released The Bridge: Concept Of A Culture, flanked by such hip-hop luminaries as Q-Tip, Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg. To find out more, we shared some green tea with Mr Joseph Saddler…

What would be on your ultimate house party playlist?

Do you know what, I don’t want to answer that question, because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings by not including them. For the last 20 years people have asked me that question, and I always refuse to answer. I just don’t want to offend anyone.

Fair enough. Tell us what you think the sign of a great DJ is.

I don’t have one particular tune that I think is great. I like all my tunes and I pack all my boxes with tunes that I think are floor-fillers. What makes a great tune is something that magically fills the floor. In my opinion, I’m a servant. My opinion matters less than that of the people I’m serving. What makes a great song is one that crowds the floor. It can be a new song, it can be a vintage song – as long as it crowds the floor, that’s the important thing.

There’s nothing worse than being at a party where the DJ is losing the plot.

There are two types of DJ: the first one looks at the crowd and reacts to them; the second is what I call ‘A Legend In His Own Mind’, who’ll just play what he wants to play and doesn’t pay attention to the excitement – or unexcitement – on the floor. In my opinion, you gotta babysit the floor all the time. Try new things by all means, but if it doesn’t work, quickly fix it. Once you got a floor and then you clear it, it’s kind of difficult to get the damn floor back. You gotta react quickly.

How has DJing progressed from back in the day? So many new styles and genres, so little time…

It’s like this: for me, music has no colour. I take all these different types of music from different genres and make them into a flow, and keep people on the dancefloor. So I’ll play Jay-Z, then I’ll play Queen, then I’ll play ‘Apache’, then I’ll play ‘Good Times’, then I’ll play Nas – I like to mix it up because to me music has no colour. That’s just how I see it.

Do you pay much attention to the British hip-hop scene?

This is who I like: I like Ghetto, Dizzee and Bashy. I tried to get Bashy on the record but he was so hard to pin down it didn’t come off. One day though…

Who should we be looking out for?

There’s this artist that’s on my first single whose name is Red Café. His production is very surprising and I think he’s gonna do extremely well over here in the UK.

How do the collaborations work now? Because you are who you are, do people approach you? Or do you approach artists?

This is how it goes down: I write the track, I lay the beats down and I’m sitting there listening to the track with no vocals – then it’s almost like a vibe I get. The track kind of talks to me and then I know who’ll work over the top of it. So with ‘Shine All Day’ [on the new album], I listened to the track and I immediately thought of Q-Tip. Then you begin the process of finding the artist, approaching his people and ultimately seeing if the artist likes the track – if they’re feeling it too.

Is that the most exciting part of creating an album, the meeting of minds between two artists?

Yeah, when it works it works – sometimes you just can’t question it. It plays a major part in an album. But if you’ve got two people who know what they’re doing, that helps too. There’s a vibe and a professionalism and when that clicks, if it works then it can be great, sure. It’s getting the two people together that’sthe hard part.

Is it difficult when two people who have never met each other before make a track together?

I don’t have to know anybody as a person: if I know your sound then I already know you. Whether you’re known or unknown, I already know you, I just didn’t reach you yet. That’s the essence of the universe. I may not know you as a person, but if we were to sit down, we may have the same stories, and it’ll just fall together.

How has your musical taste changed over the years?

I’m listening to Stravinsky at the moment, but mostly over the past year I’ve been listening to my own record. For the most part though, I always like to take a chance and listen to something different. Something that can teach me something – something that I think is OK. I also always think about what sort of records will work good before and after it, whether it’ll play to the floor.

You’ve played in front of the Queen and you’ve played at the Super Bowl. Do you prefer intimate crowds or do you like to play mad big ’uns?

It all started small, it has to and I like that intimacy, but playing in front of big crowds is great too. I like playing for the joy of others, that’s it really. If I can get them going, I’m happy.

What do you think of Britain? Are you over here a lot?

Britain, apart from America, was the first country to understand Adventures… On The Wheels Of Steel. When I first put this record out, people got it – ‘This guy is DJing on a record. This guy is cutting and breaking on a record.’ Other countries didn’t dislike it as such, they just didn’t get it. The UK got it straight away. Then the whole world followed after you guys.

Are there any British acts you particularly like?

The Clash were cool, but now I like Dizzee’s stuff. I like his stuff a whole lot. And I also like the work of Bashy – I very much enjoy the way he flows. I think he’s incredible. I’m not sure if he has a record deal yet, and if he doesn’t I would try to get him one.