I was recently sent footage of the legendary scratcher Dee Swift who as many of you know sadly passed away recently. (Footage sent via Jodi, Dees girlfriend)
The words below are by his close friend that sum it all up and give you an idea of how and why this has been released. Seeing Dee cut is a first for myself as I am sure it will be for many of you. For those of you that knew of Dee and heard him cut I know that you will appreciate what this footage means. For those of you that are unaware I hope it gives you an insight. Respect and RIP Dee! Thanks for all the cuts!
– Short-e
Part 1
Only existing footage of Dee on the cut, this would never have seen the light of day if he were still here but as that isn’t the case his friends and loved ones feel it should be shared
Part 2
Part 3
Rare home footage of Dee in late 2001, you can see by then he had some nasty combos under his belt but still way off the standard he would eventually achieve, by then it was practically demoralising to QnA with him.
Part 4
Dee rockin’ the finger styles
Part 5
The final part of some selected moments from the only existing film of Dee Swift on the scratch, if you’ve watched all parts then on behalf of Dee thankyou, he lacked the ability to be a ‘show-off’ and as I said in the first part if he hadn’t passed then no way would this ever be up on here, to him there’d be too many mistakes. tasteless moments etc. his filter was so thick that rarely was he satisfied, in one sense this was a godsend in that it made him super-passionate of his artform which combined with his adept nature made him the dope scratcher he’d eventually become but on the flipside it meant that very little of his was ever heard out loud, this isn’t to say he was obsessive, it was all in context.
There were moments though, especially when he got real good later in the mid to late 2000s, i remember him droppin’ cuts that were so crazy he’d fall away from the deck laughing, all of us doubled up ‘cos he’d painted his way out of a corner with some stupidly complex but ever soulful combo, he was naturally a funny guy tho and could always crack you up with a funnily phrased cut or if you weren’t careful a surprise flying elbow attack(yep he liked those) truth was he mastered the guitar, put that down, fell in love with scratching, eventually mastered that too, went back to the guitar for a spell but returned to cutting leading up to the time he passed in 2010
Sorry for posting this Dee, sure there was better, but this early stuff here’s all that we can show to those who either admired you or those you admired, it might even inspire others too which I know would make you happy,
thanks to Rob for the footage, I left a lot of stuff out in these posts so that those with personal copies have a little something extra to keep, love to Jodi and the Holmes clan.