Battle Sounds Hip-Hop Documentary
1997 Whitney Biennial Cut
"This is the most complete and dense document on the art of DJing in existence. It ups the ante on the idea that the DJ's use of the turntable is just as relevant and important in the world of music as the trumpet player or the guitarist, and it furthers the notion at DJing is the new jazz. Battle Sounds breaks down this still forming art to its purest sense, and that is, without a doubt, technique. We get a first hand look into the development, and sometimes the first public use of many different DJ devices that are now regarded as watermark techniques that have furthered the sonic possibilities of the turntables. All facets of the DJ world get proper representation here, from Oldschool pioneers like Grand Master Flash and Afrika Bambaataa all the way up to the next school revolutionaries like the astounding DJ Q-Bert of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. Battle Sounds is an obvious must see for aspiring DJ's and introspective hip-hop heads, and a need to see document of an amazing and under-appreciated art form for the uninitiated and non-appreciative. - Sam MacAbee (Lumpen)
Featured DJ's
Grandwizard Theodore
DST
Aladdin
Steve Dee
Q-Bert
Mixmaster Mike
Apollo
Rob Swift
8-Ball
Mista Sinista
DJ Disk
Roc Raida
Directed, Edited & Produced
by John Carluccio
Debuted March 1997 at the
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City