Hip-Hop autographs are something you begin to take for granted once you reach a certain age. When you are young, meeting the smallest indie rapper and having him even acknowledge you seems like the biggest deal in the world, but as you age, you realize most of these guys are just regular dudes. You become less star-struck, no matter who the artist.

Autographs were heavily used as a selling point for special pre-order offers during the heyday of indie rap retail, and to some extent, still are used today. These X-Ecutioners slipmats were given out by Loud in 2004 to promote their album, Revolutions. At the time, we were so jaded by the wealth of autographed items that had come through the shop, something like this hardly excited us.

Six years later, we see the value in what was once considered something to just add to the endless pile of promo vinyl, stickers, posters, and other schwag sent by record labels to entice us to play / sell their records. We lost Roc Raida in 2009. Today would have been his 38th birthday. In retrospect, a once insignificant promo item now holds tremendous sentimental value for this deejay.

      Not a “mash-up” per say, but more of a “cut-and-paste” style of album, with minor strokes of brilliance sprinkled in between a hodgepodge of random samples and sounds. The running theme of war is loosely kept throughout the album, executed on sinister selections such as “Get Up Punk” and “Dueling Bans Marching Drill” where Patton’s eeire vocals mesh perfectly with X-Ecutioners hard-hitting drum tracks and cuts. The same can be send for beautifully produced selections such as “Fire In The Hole”, “Take A Piece Of Me”, and “Loser On Line” where the musical synergy captured between the two acts mirrors in quality anything Patton has done with Dan The Automator. Meanwhile, we see Patton flex his trademark vocal muscles on “General P. Counterintelligence” and “Vaqueros and Indios”, as he vocally mimics the turntablists’ scratches with his own voice – you can’t tell who’s doing what!

     But for all of it’s moments of musical splendor, unfortunately the strange pace and strong sense of randomness of General Patton Vs. The X-ecutioners is it’s downfall. As mentioned before, the “cut-and-paste” approach to the record keeps it unpredictable, but also drowns out it’s finer moments with poor arrangement and a sense of being-experimental-just-for-the-sake-of-being-experimental-ness. Random samples from virtually all forms of music are inserted at any given time, along with strange scratch routines that don’t necessarily contribute to the big picture. Just when your head is nodding to one of the album’s well-crafted musical collaborations, it’s interrupted by strange movie samples or other noise. While this type of unpredictability has worked well for cut-and-paste arteurs such as Stienski (The Lessons) Coldcut (“Let Us Play”), DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist (“Brainfreeze”), unfortunately it’s not as well executed here, no pun intended.  

     Still, for lovers of music that goes against the grain, GP Vs. X will provide satisfaction, while others will enjoy it in small doses, rather than the continuous evolving opera its presented as. The randomness may not be good for seducing your lady, and may create a worse form of road-rage if stuck in traffic, but will instead work perfectly as part of a frat hazing ritual or the soundtrack to weed-brownie trip. Hopefully Patton’s next engagement with hip-hop artists will be another victory for all.

    Revolutions relies more on guest appearances than sheer turntabilism, which becomes the yin and the yang of the album. When the trio of Ghostface, Trife, and a mega hungry sounding Black Thought collaborate on the old school feel of “Live From The PJs”, it’s nothing but love.  All three emcees take it back to ’88 with a romp that would make any golden era purist grin from ear to ear. Also notable is the Dead Prez assisted “Sucka Thank He Cud Wup Me” where M-1 and stic man deliver razor sharp performances, and the Saigon and Scram Jones charged “Regulators” as the pair of emcees flex along the stabs and scratches the X-ecutioners provide.

    When the focus is taken away from the emcees, the results are pretty much noteworthy. Most surprising is the house pop feel of “Like This”, which after a few listens becomes a really fun track. While the X-ecutioners spin vocals from Anikke, surrounded with a pop-rock beat, it may be a bit hard to swallow at first, but with a catchy chorus and foot tapping production it is a pleasant diversion from all the hardcore hip hop. Also welcomed is “Space Invader”, where the wheels are used to tell a story of a robot coming to take over earth. With it’s science fiction vibe and quirky production it becomes a pleasantly innovative concept with solid results.

     Where Revolutions slips up is the fact that damn near every track has a guest appearance, which means those who yearn for the trio of DJ’s demonstrating their turntable techniques are in for some disappointment. Revolutions, at times, sounds more like a soundtrack or a mixtape than a DJ album. Also, some of the combinations sound intriguing on paper, but when heard, tend to letdown the listener. Case in point, “More Human Than Human (Remix)” puts together the unique combination of Slug, Rob Zombie, and Josie Scott. Sounds good right? But amongst the volatile guitars, Slug sounds a little uncomfortable behind the mic, resulting in an only average track. Especially knowing the potential of an emcee the caliber of Slug, it isn’t exactly what many would have come to expect.

    While Revolutions doesn’t put a new spin on the turntable aspect of hip-hop, it still is a solid album. Even though many may have preferred more turntable gymnastics rather than guest appearances, Revolutions still demonstrates the abilities that the trio of turntabilists possess. Of course, the art of turntabilism is best when seen live, but until then Revolutions is the next best thing to catch a glimpse of how a turntable can sing.

Usually from the listener’s perspective, DJ-focused records concentrating on the cutting and scratching skills of hip hop tend to detract from one’s listening enjoyment. Time and time again, the nature of what you hear isn’t always best enjoyed unless seen performed, reoccurs as a flaw. Somewhat like listening to a live baseball game on the radio, as opposed to seeing it on TV, or seeing it live, these releases seldom spark interest outside of DJs. However, on this release by DJ’s Rob Swift, Roc Raida, and Total Eclipse of the X-ecutioners, they dig in the crates to honor and teach the youth about the DJ’s integral role thus far in hip hop’s development, instead of trying to demonstrate their various skills as a DJ. Special highlights of the DJ’s past via songs by pioneers such as Grand Wizard Theodore, or via songs of the present by DJ Premier make Scratchology an audio-documentary. This well-packed history of the DJ, the always forgotten one, isn’t overshadowed this time by the dominance of the emcee.

The great thing about compilations such as this one, is that you don’t have to go searching for entire LPs you have no interest in, just to really get one classic song. The CD kicks off with an “Intro – What is a scratch?” where the X-ecutioners explicate on answering the question, then immediately the classics start unleashing. The emcee definitely took a back seat here. The Furious Five gathered around Grandmaster Flash to follow the tempo and escapades of records he used from Chic, Blondie and others being blended together on “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel”. Even the length of the title is old school! As this block party begins, Flash’s technique of blending is timeless, especially when each cut is interrupted by the famous line, “Yuh say one for the treble, two for the time, c’mon girls let’s rock that!” With certain tracks being preceded with narration by the likes of Jazzy Jay, Grand Mixer DST or Grand Wizard Theodore to guide you through, there are certain classics that will need no introduction if you grew up in the 1980s. When Herbie Hancock’s “Rock it” featuring probably the most recognizable scratching to date by Grand Mixer DXT sounds off, it’s hard to get the then futuristic-looking video out of your mind.

Even though foundational songs such as “Like This (Full & Fresh)” by Mixmaster Gee & The Turntable Orchestra, “Military Cut (Scratch Mix)” by Grand Wizard Theodore and “Ugly People Be Quiet” by DJ Cash Money are rare to find, it isn’t here where the CD reaches it’s peak. We’re talking about four supreme cuts in a row to have a true hip hop fan drooling, kicking off with 3rd Bass’s remix to “Product of the Environment,” highlighting DJ Richie Rich’s coarse-like scratches. The next up is a gem, something to immediately throw you back into the wonder years of hip hop, when NYC trains were works of art and the term vinyl only referred to what you used to backspin on. Once you heard “One for the Treble” by Davy DMX, you’d even dare to attempt a head-spin, if you never. Next up – Pete Rock’s remix of Public Enemy’s “Shut Em Down,” a track where those open-fader scratches raised your pores on the hottest day, and cooling down the tempo a little is the instrumental, laid-back groove by Gang Starr classic, “DJ Premier In Deep Concentration.”  Premier scratches up on some of the juiciest breaks.

Even though songs in the latter part of the CD feature today’s turntablists The Beat Junkies, DJ Q-Bert, Dilated Peoples, X-Ecutioners themselves, them bringing you somewhat up to speed on the continued focus of the DJ’s role in hip hop isn’t where you’ll find the CD’s most precious scratch.

The DJ compilation is certainly not a new entity. However, the majority of the turntablists behind these compilations failed to recognize one important fact—no matter how much bedroom DJ’s and casual fans of the art admire the intricacies of mixing and blending, that interest does not translate into Soundscan success.

What sets the X-Cutioners apart is that they are able to combine the best of both worlds. Though the team performs precise open-heart surgery on “Choppin’ Niggaz Up”, “X-ecution Of A Bum Rush”, and the ominous “Triple Threat” f/Shortkut, Apollo and VinRoc. They are sagacious enough to realize that more is required to garnish consistent spins in the whip. With that in mind, the X-Cutioners Built From Scratch is not your typical five-fingers (or in this case twenty-fingers) of death scratchathon; as they deftly flip the hook from Pharaohe Monch’s “Simon Says” into the lyrical smorgasbord “Y’all Know The Name” f/ Monch, Xzibit, Inspectah Deck & Mad Skillz, and tap underground staples Large Professor (“XL”) and M.O.P. (“Let It Bang”) for some NY basement flava.

While Built For Scratch is a veritable grab bag of aural treats and a supremely diverse effort; including Big Pun & Kool G Rap’s “Dramacyde” (a forgotten track from Loud’s Black & White Soundtrack), the thrashing rock collabo, “Dramacyde” f/Linkin Park, which is garnishing heavy spins on Alternative stations, and Primo’s ode to himself “Premier’s X-ecution”. The crew’s yearning for mainstream acceptance occasionally leads them down a well-traveled road, exemplified by their attempt to refurbish the Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” , and Everlast’s corny metaphor ridden “B-Boy Punk Rock 2001″.

Though Built For Scratch may not be a definitive statement on just how significant the DJ’s role is in hip-hop, the X-Cutioners surely make a compelling argument.