X-ecutioners (usa)

Remember the thrill you felt when you first heard "Planet Rock", saw a b-boy do a head-spin, or heard a turntablist re-cut your favorite song? The four man turntablist squadron, the X-ecutioners, do. And their second album, 'Built From Scratch', is the X-ecutioners' heartfelt tribute to hip-hop's enduring power. It's a reminder of the way hip-hop's uncorked creativity has reinvigorated every musical genre from rock to pop. While the record industry continues to turn out narrow, niche-oriented "product", the X-ecutioners offer the no-barriers thinking that made hip-hop such a breath of fresh air in the first place. There are cutting-edge collaborations with everyone from Linkin Park to Tom Tom Club, DJ Premier to Dan the Automator, the Beat Junkies to the Triple Threat DJs (Shortkut, Apollo, and Vinroc), M.O.P. and Kool G Rap to Large Professor and Pharaohe Monche. And then there are mind-blowing 21st century turntablized updates of classics like "Marley Scratch" and "Play That Beat Mr. DJ". It¹s a record of the future animated by the spirit of hip-hop's glorious past. As X-ecutioner DJ Rob Swift puts it, "People now are making music with a narrow scope in mind - like, I want my scratches to only be understood by other DJs, or I have to sell platinum, or yo, my shit has to be underground. People are really limiting themselves as far as what they do musically. Where did all these rules come from?" "We're trying not to be exclusive, but inclusive," he adds. "That¹s the beauty of hip-hop, it doesn't set parameters." The X-ecutioners began in 1988 as the X-Men, a New York DJ crew dedicated to dethroning the then-reigning DJs. In short order, they not only succeeded, they went on to claim countless titles on a national and world level, perfecting deck techniques such as beat-juggling with an unparalleled level of crowd-pleasing showmanship. By 1996, the current crew was constituted - Rob Swift, Mista Sinista, Roc Raida, and Total Eclipse. To their titles, including Roc Raida's honor of being dubbed "Grandmaster" by DJ pioneers Kool Herc, DST and Grand Wizard Theodore, they began adding numerous scratch and production credits on jazz and experimental albums, as well as many of the most heralded hip-hop sides ever. By 1997, the X-Men renamed themselves the X-ecutioners and released the critically acclaimed album 'X-Pressions' on Asphodel Records. Their innovations were recognized in invitations to perform at international jazz festivals, Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame and the Lincoln Center (which one mainstream critic said made him develop "a respect for the musicality, imagination, and sheer hand-ear coordination involved"), and on shows such as "Saturday Night Live" and the MTV Music Awards. Rob Swift recently appeared on a Gap commercial with DJ Shortkut. They began work on 'Built From Scratch' in 2000, with the idea of representing hip-hop's historical depth and stylistic breadth. They recorded "It's Going Down" with mutual admirers Linkin Park, then appeared in a devastating performance with them at the MTV music Awards. "We heard 'Hybrid Theory' and just fell in love with it," says Rob Swift, "It was kind of like a no-brainer, like yo let's do it." They also resurrected turntablist classics - Whiz Kid's "Play That Beat Mr. DJ" (with Fatman Scoop) and Marley Marl's "Marley Scratch" (appearing here as "X-ecutioners Scratch"). "That is our way to say thanks to those pioneers of the 80s, like Marley Marl and Whiz Kid, because if it wasn't for their influence, who knows what we¹d be doing now? And at the same time, we wanted to expose the new wave of DJs and the new wave of the hip-hop generation to what music was like back then, but just give it a present feel so that people could latch on to it and identify with it," he says. And they hit the studio to remake one of the biggest hip-hop classics of all time, the Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love". "A lot of the songs that were covers of "Genius of Love" were kind of singing oriented or rapping oriented. We wanted to do a DJ oriented version," he says. But the record also gives shape to the future funk, featuring bleeding-edge turntablism on tracks like "X-ecutioners (Theme) Song" (with Dan the Automator) "A Journey Into Sound" (featuring beat-boxing champion Kenny Muhammad) and "X-Ecution of a Bum Rush" and certifiable bangers from M.O.P. ("Let It Bang"), Monche, Xzibit, Inspectah Dek and Madskillz ("Y'all Know The Name"), Kool G Rap and the late Big Pun ("Dramacide"), Everlast ("B-Boy Punk Rock 2001"), and DJ Premier ("Premier's X-ecution"). When the music industry once disrespected the art of turntablism, the X-ecutioners kept banging on the door. The fruit of those struggles is now reflected in 'Built From Scratch', a record that reaches out of the DJ underground to make a statement about hip-hop's enduring influence. "As an artist, if you want to have longevity, you have to figure out ways of reinventing yourself and what you do. Don¹t limit yourself to what you think people are expecting," says Rob Swift. "If we continue to do that, I see the future as being really interesting." (October 2001) X-ECUTIONERS ROLL CALL ROB SWIFT Age: 29 Joined In: 1991 Titles: 1992 DMC East Coast Champion Worked With: Large Professor, Akinyele Select Discography Artist: The Ablist (Asphodel, 1999), Soulful Fruit (Stones Throw, 1997) Producer: Bill Laswell-Altered Beats (Axiom, 1995), Return of the DJ (The Bomb, 1995) Scratches: Herbie Hancock-Future II Future (Transparent, 2001), Fat Joe-Represent (Relativity, 1993) Did Ya Know?: DJ skills run in the family?Rob¹s father and older brother taught Rob how to move a crowd. ROC RAIDA Age: 29 Joined In: 1988 (only remaining founding member) Titles: Christened "Grandmaster" by Kool Herc, DST and Grand Wizard Theodore, inducted into the DMC Hall of Fame in 1999, 1994/95 DMC American and World Champion, 1992 DMC US Finalist, 1991 Supermen Battle Finalist Worked With: Showbiz & AG, Lord Finesse, Artifacts Select Discography Artist: Crossfaderz (Moonshine, 2000) Producer: Leftfield-"Dusted (Roc Raida remix)" (Sony, 2000, entered Top 5 on British charts), Jungle Brothers w/De La Soul-"How Ya Want It" (Gee Street,1996) Scratches: OC-"Times Up" (scratches, Wild Pitch, 1995) Did Ya Know?: Initiated on the tables at age 10 by his father, who was a member of the Sugar Hill-signed Mean Machine. MISTA SINISTA Age: 31 Joined In: 1992 Titles: 1996 DMC East Coast Champion Worked With: Common, The Beatnuts Select Discography Artist: Agent X (75 Ark, 2001) Scratches: Common-One Day It¹ll All Make Sense (MCA, 1997), Common-*Resurrection* (MCA, 1994), Beatnuts-Street Level (Relativity, 1994) Did Ya Know?: Like Rob Swift, he was mentored by the legendary NYC DJ Dr. Butcher. TOTAL ECLIPSE Age: 24 Joined In: 1996 Titles: 1996 ITF World Champion Worked With: Organized Konfusion and Pharoahe Monch. Select Discography Scratches: Organized Konfusion-*Equinox* (Priority, 1997), Inspectah Deck-*Controlled Substance* (Loud, 1999)