Subtleness vs Obviousness – By Ricci Rucker

This is an article by Ricci Rucker that I wanted to share with everyone who scratches because it inspired me.

Ricci I hope you don’t mind me sharing this. No copyright infringement intended!

– Short-E

Subtleness vs Obviousness – By Ricci Rucker

This is the very thing that has separated the scene. On one hand you have the “in your face” scratchers, then the other hand, you have the stylistic scratcher. I am personally from both schools, but chose to create my own school which takes elements of both to create an entirely different styles one after one. One thing that really frustrates me is the assumption by the scratch music fan, and even some of the djs, is that doing something uptempo being automatically more difficult.

Have you ever tried to scratch at 45 bpms? A daunting task.

The reality is that scratching is undeniably becoming more mature than it’s usual audience can keep up with. This is a good thing. Recently, music across the board has become more superficial than ever, there are many theories of why, but even on the “progressive” level it’s not really as progressive and free as before.

The tip for this month is not tangible, it’s a mindframe. Embrace the simple pleasures of scratching. Scratching doesn’t always have to be mindnumbing and complex SOUNDING, and ironically, that very understanding of this idea is actually a complex way of thinking. Because not sounding complex doesn’t in any way refer to the idea of being simple. Try not to force your cuts, take time, breathe between your scratches, literally, take a breathe. A lot of people talk about it, but very few do it. Scratching like anything else is a language, and if you could only imagine how you reading my words would be if I didn’t use a space between each word, you’d be pretty irritated, and probably turned off, and in the end not listen to a thing I’ve said.. This is how I feel about a lot of scratching, no spaces, a bunch of jibberish, and a bunch of simpleminds SOUNDING complex, but anyone who really KNOWS, knows there is ABSOLUTELY nothing complex about sounding it. Fakin’ da funk.

Many times “complex” sounding scratching is like someone drawing 500 lines with a ruler in different directions making a complex design that might be appealing to the eye. On the flip, “simple” sounding scratching is sometimes like drawing a perfect circle FREEHAND. Now, the untrained eye might see the complex looking line art as more complex, but the reality is, a perfect circle drawn freehand is the real deal. This is exactly what it comes down to, a real foundation understanding of what complex is. Critics of scratch music should be in the low 20’s, because your average “turntablism” observers, would probably say fast drumming, orbit tear flares, and crabs are honestly harder to do, than a simple drum pattern not falling off beat for 5 minutes. It’s simply not the case. When the average person INVOLVED in scratching honestly understands this mentality, this is when the music while soar to new heights.

Right now, it’s in a transition, and many gimmicks are making their last attempt at stealing the audiences attention from what’s happening now, and all I can say is, good luck, people are waking up now.
JUST BREATHE.

– Ricci Rucker