dj scratch @ nokia theatre
Guess how many beats Scratch has on the new EPMD album. Big up Nodfactor, by way of fwmj.
What have you learned from that experience? You recently parted ways with EPMD and blogged about it on your MySpace page. When an up-coming producer looks at someone of your stature and sees a group saying “we’re not gonna have Scratch in the group anymore,” What does that say about the state of the DJ?
DJ Scratch: It’s not that they don’t want a DJ no more. They need that DJ on stage but they havin’ money problems and I guess that 3rd of my pay is gonna put a small dent in the money problems they have. You really have to be broke to make a decision like that. Cuz this decision is gonna take effect on your legacy, it’s gonna effect everything. What I would tell kids is that this is business. Industry rule #4080. That’s basically it. I ain’t trying to bash dudes and all that but it is what it is. They were friends, I’m an implant from Brooklyn, they from Long Island, Jam Master Jay brought me in. We never hung out. At the end of the day we were never friends. Friends don’t stab friends in the back.Part of the concern you expressed is they were saying you missed shows and as a touring DJ that’s not something you can have put out there, because that’s your bread and butter.
DJ Scratch: Exactly, that’s the only thing I was pissed off about. If they in money trouble, do your thing. They’ve done shows without me before. That was never an issue with me because I make more money on my own than with them. My 3rd with EMPD was less than what I make on my own. But when Erick Sermon was saying I was missing my flights that’s the shit that pissed me off. So I called him and of course he’s not gonna answer his phone so I called his right hand man and left a nasty message for homie. You getting your bread, don’t try to discredit me because you can’t tell the fans that Scratch is not here. Be a man about it. That’s what I said in my blog. Say yo, Scratch ain’t here cuz we can’t afford him right now. If they had approached me I’d have taken a short for them. We’ve rocked out for twenty years. I thought we were friends but clearly we’re not. It’s a lot of ego but we’re men.I’ve been in this industry for 24 years and I’ve seen the hottest dudes come and go, over and over. The dude that was the Jay-Z of the 80s ain’t here no more. No disrespect to anybody. You’re not gonna be hot forever.
