By James McKeone

Mix Master Mike regarded as one of the best scratch artists and turntablists in the world. The collaborator and producer for the Beastie Boys is heading down under as part of the Parklife Tour.

Mix Master Mike got the idea for his wild and crazy music when one night practicing in his bedroom, he saw three lights land on a football field outside of his home. He thought the lights were aliens from another universe and believed that he could communicate with these aliens through the music he was making from his turntables. From these humble beginnings we now have one of the worlds foremost scratch artists, credited with creating over 90 scratches and providing a platform for any budding turntablist to follow.

However the music that he is making now is slightly different to what he was brought up on. This was an eclectic mix of vinyl supplied to him from the vast collection of his uncle in his home town of San Francisco. This huge musical archive, combined with watching Grandmixer DST on stage with Herbie Hancock at the 1984 Grammy Awards performing Rockit, was the catalyst for the beginning of his career. With his newfound love of hip-hop and his foray into scratching, Mike got involved in a mobile DJ business playing house parties, weddings and all those other bread and butter gigs we know and love. It was at one of those parties that he met Richard Quitevis, better known as Q-Bert. From this chance meeting their partnership led to three consecutive world DMC titles between 1991 and 1994, which led to rumors of them being asked to retire due to their success. During this time we also saw the creation of one of the most famous “Scratch” groups the world had ever seen in the form of the Invisible Skratch Picklz.

Leading on from the ISP Mike came to prominence with the Beastie Boys on their multi platinum selling Hello Nasty album. MMM’s relationship with the Beastie Boys started with a chance meeting with Adam Yauch and several crazy scratch related late night phone messages showcasing his talents.  The result of these phone messages was that the Beasties had a new tour DJ.

In the summer of 1999, the International Turntablist Federation honored MMM with a lifetime achievement award for the advancement of the turntable as a musical instrument.  Recently MMM has also branched out into working with director Doug Pray for the 2001 documentary Scratch in which he talks about turntablism. He has also worked with EA Gamers offering his production skills on several of their titles.  The spin-off of this led him to also lend his voice to the game SSX Tricky.

MMM is also quoted as saying that when he makes an album he wants people to listen to it in the year 3000 and say, "Yo, this shit is crazy." Make sure you go check out MMM on tour and I am sure you will hear sounds and sites that you wouldn’t normally expect a DJ to produce.  He combines this with a great party selection that will make for a very entertaining, booty shakin’ evening.

Mix Master Mike can be found at the following
http://www.mixmastermike.com/
http://www.myspace.com/mixmastermike

Catch Mike at Parklife - Monday 2 October 2006 @ The Deen / The Street / The Shed