'Jimi Hendrix of the turntables' heads to Jamaica

Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer

When the finalists of the Heineken Green Synergy (HGS) Competition face off against each other at the National Indoor Sports Centre on October 29, they will be judged by perhaps two of the greatest disc jockeys in history, the legendary Grandmaster Flash and DJ Qbert, a multiple winner of the Disco Mix Club World DJ Championships.

DJ Qbert grew up on the American west coast in Burlington, just south of San Francisco, and will be making his first trip to Jamaica.

"I've always been listening to the (Jamaican) music and dreamed of it but never have actually come," he said. Jamaica, he said, is never far from his thoughts though, because his best friend - David Paul - is from Jamaica.

"We call him DJ Jamaica," he said in the best Jamaican accent he could muster.

"I loved the way he would talk with that thick Jamaican accent."

The disc jock, who spent some of his early years in Hawaii, has also been taken by Jamaican music.

"Bob Marley, that's a given, but I like all kinds of reggae. I also like Ninja Man," he said laughing.

"It (Jamaican music) comes from the soul. I like the roots reggae, that kind of stuff, and I want to learn more (about it)."

The 41-year-old disc jock, born Robert Quitevis, started his musical career in a group called FM20 with Mix Master Mike and DJ Apollo in 1990. They were playing a show in New York when Crazy Legs, a b-boy dancer, saw them and invited them to join the Rock Steady Crew.

lofty standards

By 1991, he was the DMC US Champion (Solo). In 1992, he was the DMC World Champion as a member of the Rocksteady DJs alongside Mixmaster Mike and Apollo. He repeated as DMC world champion in 1993 and '94 as a member of the Dreamteam. He maintained and even exceeded those lofty standards over the next two decades, and just this year he was named America's Best DJ. He has also been inducted into the DMC DJ Hall of Fame.

DJ Qbert, or Mixmaster Qbert, is often referred to as the Jimi Hendrix of the turntables, known to make them sing in complex and subtle ways. He also invented the QFO, a turntable with a mixer built in that makes 'portable' scratching possible.

"You can go to the beach and scratch, or go to the mountains and scratch," he said.

His own unique style of scratching is known as 'hamster style', which means that his mixer's crossfader works in reverse order, and he plans to show off those skills when he performs at the HGS finals. He plans to pass on a few tricks to the HGS finalists and he thinks he can pick up a few things from them as well.

"We can all learn from each other," he said.