X-Ecutioners: Built From Scratch

With turntablism developing into an international phenomenon, the DJ documentary Scratch generating new interest, and turntables competing with electric guitars as the weapon of choice for creatively inclined youngsters, the DJ is making a serious comeback. Big-dog DJs like Funkmaster Flex and DJ Clue are frequently better known than the artists they appropriate, while countless rap-rock outfits have added DJs to their lineups, attempting to boost their hip-hop credibility. With Built From Scratch, its major-label debut, New York's X-Ecutioners makes a strong bid to become the turntablist movement's first mega-selling superstar act. Where the group's independently released debut, 1997's X-Pressions, focused squarely on the group's turntable acrobatics and didn't seem concerned with attracting mainstream attention, Scratch seems to want to win over every segment of the population. There's still plenty of scratching, but the focus has shifted squarely onto the disc's small army of guests, selected to appeal to the widest audience imaginable. For backwards-cap-sporting, Fred Durst wannabes, there are rap-rock favorites Joseph Hahn and Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park, as well as veteran genre-jumper Everlast, whose sprightly "Punk Rock B-Boy 2001" is an unexpected highlight. For old-schoolers, there are deft turns from the high-voltage likes of DJ Premier, Biz Markie, and Large Professor, while hardcore hip-hop heads are treated to an appearance by the late Big Pun, plus M.O.P.'s sterling Run-DMC-meets-Onyx routine on the propulsively retro "Let It Bang." Purists might object to Built To Scratch's overt commercialism, but the four-man crew succeeds in making turntablism accessible to a mainstream audience without sacrificing the kinetic demolition at the heart of its music. X-Ecutioners makes a bold play for the big time with Scratch, and while the disc's demographic-pandering may wear thin, there's little doubt that it will reach an audience that otherwise would never buy a turntablist album, which can only be good for both hip-hop and turntablism. "X-Ecutioners (Theme) Song," which segues from Gary Gilmore's execution to Wu-Tang Clan to old-school hip-hop, appears on both Built From Scratch and Wanna Buy A Monkey, the first mix CD from Dan The Automator, the producer, musician, and renaissance man heard on Gorillaz, Lovage, Dr. Octagon, and Deltron 3030. Split roughly down the middle between tracks Automator mixed on his own and tracks created via various side projects, Monkey aims to blur the line and split the difference between the producer's various influences, with acts ranging from Tortoise to Brand Nubian to Lovage. In the disc's liner notes, Automator says he feels the need to contradict the humorless, predictable nature of most mix-tapes. But if that's the case, why include Dilated Peoples, whose work sets a new standard for B-boy stoicism For that matter, why include fairly recent tracks from titans like RZA, De La Soul, and Gorillaz Automator has described Monkey as an opportunity for listeners to journey inside his mind, but given his past discography, that trip should be a lot wilder and weirder than this relatively straightforward record.