Props go out to The Invisibl Skratch Piklz for the work they and their crew put in for organizing and putting together Skratchcon 2000. This past Saturday more then a 1000 people converged upon San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens for this day long historic event dedicated to the art of turntablism. From beat juggling to scratching to team competition, everything was covered and everyone who was anyone was there. From Mixmaster Mike to DJ Alladin to DJ Cash Money to The X-Men aka X-cutioners to the Beat Junkies. The list is too long to mention everyone who was on hand.

DJ Q-Bert who hosted much of the event, explained that for years many of the people in attendance have battled each other in competitions or have been touring the world doing exhibitions. Skratchcon 2000 served as a reunion of sorts by bringing everyone together to network and build upon many of the deejaying aspects of Hip Hop. This event was one of the few occasions where a Hip Hop group has come together and put together a conference around their craft. Rocksteady crew and the good folks behind the B-Boy Summit in LA are the only other conferences that immediately come to mind where this has happened. he promised to have a Skratchcon Festival in the upcoming years.

Now I didn't get a chance to stay for the entire event, but from what I did experience was off the hook. I walked into the Battle seminar session featuring Mix Master Mike and current DMC champ DJ Craze of Miami. Mike's performance was off the hook as was Craze. In fact Craze astonished the crowd by battling himself. There were two different DJ set ups. Craze spent a couple of minutes on each set under the names Craze One and Craze Two. The crowd voted for the routine they liked best. Craze two was the winner. Afterwards both deejays both spoke to the crowd about how they mentally prepare. They also enlighten people as to how they recover from mistakes.

I later caught up with Mixmaster Mike and asked him about his upcoming project and what's the next level for him? he explained that he's getting ready to release his new album entitled 'Eye of the Cyclops' and it will feature what he calls 'beam ship' music. He also noted that the next level for turntablism is to make actual songs from the scratches and turntable manipulation as opposed to just showcasing skillz. "Perhaps one day you will walk into Tower Records where you see a jazz section, and rock section and hopefully soon a turntablism section', he said. When asked about his current status with the Beastie Boys, he explained that he is still their maestro and you can expect more Hip Hop sets and him showcasing his skillz during their upcoming tour.

One of Skratchcon 2000's highlights was the Beat Juggling seminar. Here the audience was treated to a walk down its evolution time line as their demonstrations from each of the key architects of this genre. It was amazing watching and comparing the styles of guys like DJ Shortkut, Rob Swift, Mista Sinista, Total Eclipse, Babu of the Beat Junkies, P-Trix and Swift Rock. The session began with an interview from the Godfather of Beat Juggling Steve D of Harlem New York. He explained that he never referred to his creation as beat juggling. Instead he simply called it funk. he described at as a technique in which you change tempos and create a head nodding rhythm that people could bounce to.. He cited Doug E Fresh's DJ Barry B and Hip Hop pioneer the late Master Don as his influences.

Afterwards attendees were treated to the Skratch seminar. DJ Q-Bert explained that technique of scratching is almost 25 years old. Hip Hop pioneer Grand Wizard Theodore is cited as its inventor. For this session, a guy named DJ Flare who is cited for inventing what we call the flare scratch was brought out on stage as Q-Bert ran down the entire year by year history of scratching. DJ Flare would demonstrate the various styles. It was absolutely amazing to see and compare all the different scratching techniques. Flare showcased the pre-Sugar Hill Gang style of scratching and worked his way up to the scratch styles developed by guys like Grandmixer DST. Mixmaster Ice of UTFO was cited as a key contributor. During the session he called in and spoke to the audience via cell phone. In the late 80s scratching evolved to what is known as transforming. This was a robotic jerky style that emerged from the city of Philadelphia and was popularized by Will Smith's DJ Jazzy Jeff who demonstrated this style on a record called 'The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff'. DJ Cash Money was on hand to address the audience about the role Philadelphia played in the evolution of scratching. He named off unsung heroes who influenced him and many others.

Q-Bert's scratching time line journey took us to the west coast where the styles of popular deejays like Joe Cooley and DJ King Tech of the Wake Up Show were noted landmarks. The time line concluded with some new styles coming out of the UK which were later demonstrated by the Scratch Perverts. Here these these guys showcased a new style of scratching that doesn't involve the turntable. It is actually a manipulation of ground feedback. They also did a routine in which they highlighted the emerging Euro scratch which has the deejay using the line switch as well as the cross fader at the same time. To see this entire presentation was indeed a treat and definitely left you a much more informed person. The kid sitting next to me was so hyped that he kept calling friends on his cell phone and holding it up so they could hear what was going on..

There was an nice demonstration from former new Music Seminar champ DJ 8 Ball who has excelled in the area of tone manipulation. Here the DJ takes a tone from a record and by manipulating the pitch control creates a recognizable song. DJ 8 Ball has become the standard bearer for this over the past few years. Very few can even hang in the same league. During his routine, 8 Ball demonstrated to the audience how to create a song using keys. He showed how certain pitches would equal a particular key and how to maneuver the turn table to create a song. He brought the crowd to their feet when he took a simple tone and played out the melody to Dr Dre's current smash 'The Next Episode'. later on a kid out of Germany demonstrated to the audience a way to write down scratches much the same way you would musical notes for an instrument. That proved to be very interesting and quite practical when entering into recording section or thinking up a scratch routine, but not having access to a turntable.

There were some surprise performances from well known DJs who helped elevate turntablism. Among them was DJ Cash Money and DJ Alladin who offered to battle anyone in the audience. The LA based DJ obviously had a couple of drinks in his system and hence when he saw no takers he offered to battle Q-Bert for ten thousand dollars. When the shocked audience grew silent , Alladin amended his offer and challenged Q-Bert for one thousand dollars. Alladin thought about his challenge and must've realized he would be making a substantial withdrawal from his bank account. He got up, smiled and hugged Q-Bert and left the audience laughing.

During the seminar DJ Q-Bert's animated film 'Wave Twisters' was featured. I didn't get a chance to peep it, but from what I was told is 'it was sick [good]. Later that evening at San Francisco's historic Filmore Theater the Invisibl Skratch Piklz gave their farewell performance. Each member will be taking a break to pursue solo projects. In a couple of years they will hopefully regroup and re-manifest under a different name. From the Shadow DJs to the Rocksteady DJs to the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, these guys have definitely etched a few crucial chapters in Hip Hop's on going evolution.