The latest SCRATCH mag - Observations
soulmarcosa
4,296 Posts
I admit it - SCRATCH is the only magazine to which I subscribe. First, it's the only hiphop magazine that reps the beats. Second, a subscription is only $12. Anyway, here's two observations while reading the latest issue over some delicious thai red curry takeaway: 1. Andre Torres is no longer editor in chief. Any lurid stories there or did he get sick of spending the majority of his time assigning puff reviews to Gemini equipment and setting up photo shoots that "are just like a real DJ's bedroom" ?2. This is one funny magazine!- "It's only fitting we crown our first classic CD, Little Brothers's THE MINSTREL SHOW." - new editor in chief- "I felt like the luckiest guy in the world when my friend handed me a fresh, new SCRATCH" - from the letters page- "If you're going to make a mag for people who KNOW and LOVE music, you gotta get your facts straight and come better than this, or else that little thing called credibility gets thrown out the window like an unmastered demo tape." - from the letters page regarding a Timbaland article written by the apparently credibility-lacking Dave Tompkins- The fact that the above criticism of Tompkins' article being factually incorrect was actually completely justified.- "If I had the choice I'd do rock music. I would like to do like some Yellowcard or some Hoobastank" - David Banner- "'The Whisper Song' was not just one song, it was a movement; it's called Intimate Club." - David Banner - "BE isn't the first time Common made hip-hop geeks wet their pants out of pure excitement." - staff writerThis last one isn't really funny, but I'd like DeeRock's take on a reader's comment about the Northwest hiphop scene:- "We have remained not only excluded from the mainstream cipher, but also untainted from the greed and fake shit that comes with it."I'd list more, but I'm through with dinner so I have to stop reading and actually do some work.Feel free to add on!
Comments
cosign
DRAMA. I don't want to go into details but he didn't quit.
Yes! Finally a sub genre I can get with!
Y'all gotta hit up my "Intimate Club" monthly! Tres Intimate will be the banginest'Intimate Club' nite in recent memory!
i remember i got IRATE at the fact that they interviewed large pro and he got a little bullsh*t article (1/4 page maybe) where they just asked him about other producers....HE SHOULD HAVE A COVER! but that will never happen
Yeah, not the least of which is that he hasn't turned out anything resembling a hit (I'm not even talking Billboard, I mean the underground) in over a decade. I'm not shitting on Large Professor's legacy but a cover? In what reality would that remotely sell an issue (which is what a cover is about. It's not about respect, unless it's respecting populist draw. For any magazine trying to punch into a mainstream market, covers are marketing tool - period)?
I'm not going to lie: I write for Scratch, more to the point, I enjoy writing for them since I get to both interview people who I like interviewing (DJs and producers) and I get to write about topics which are meaningful to me (production aesthetics, techniques, sampling, etc.). Do I think the magazine is perfect? Not personally, especially since I'm not a gear head and obviously, much of the magazine is directed towards product.
I'm not defensive with people who want to criticize it - I think much of the criticism about Scratch are perfectly valid and hopefully, things that the lead editors will consider when helping mold the magazine's future. But also recognize that the reason why people, especially on Soulstrut, seem to direct so much ire towards Scratch, as well as Wax Poetics, is two-fold:
1) It speaks to the interests of this board and likeminded folk and
2) They are one of the only magazines that does so in each respective community.
Yeah, sure, there are many other DJ/production gear mags like Remix and whatever, but they aren't very hip-hop oriented. And frankly, now that Grand Slam is nowhere to be seen, there's no one at all addressing the subjects that Wax Poetics does. Given that solo status, they become easy targets since they're the only game in town.
they are easy targets because they are sloppy.
Then they can talk about quantization and workflow, and gear. And thats about it.
For me, I personally love it. The magazine is sloppy as shit, but I can definitely see why they fired andre. But beyond that, I pour through each issue. Even though some of the articles are way stupid.
I think the main thing hurting them, is how they sorta took on that XXL Yellow N*gga attitude without first attaining the neccesary room to talk so much shit.
Basically--it's an embarassingly bad magazine.
Yeah, this is a big problem.
knowticed
knowtorious
knowtoriety
If you're gonna let him write for the mag, hook up Young Phonics.
pretty sure that was on purpose, didn't someone say Dave Tompkins wrote the piece? He has his own way of spelling things, not wrong, just different.
Please edit this post... we don't want young Moist getting any ideas...
Scoop Jackson wrote it--definitely on purpose, but just as definitely without any purpose evident to the reader.
Yeah, it was Scoop's one-page piece on Scott Storch's Top 10 Moments. If I recall correctly, the piece ended with the line, "Mazel Tov, muhfuckas!"
I actually checked that issue out after our conversation on it, thinking maybe I was unfairly judging the magazine on the basis of its first issue. Nope.
On a side note, ODub, you did the Common interview for Urb Magazine, right? Regardless I really dug the interview, I felt like I learned something and it wasn't another "typical" interview talking about upcoming projects and who he'd like to work with in the future......
ONE...
i konw your defending your mag, but:
"In what reality would that remotely sell an issue (which is what a cover is about. "
this statement would hold true IF we werent talking about a mag that caters and markets itself to a SPECIFIC genre (which is actually INSIDE another genre!!)....obviously you want sales but how long before the fans/readers who are interested in this product realize that alot of deserving artists/producers are being ignored due to marketing? at any given time there are only a handful of producers that are top of the heap, i see a problem down the line...you did a dre,em,kanye, neptune, lil jon & timbo cover... how many OTHER hip hop/r&b producers out there can get cover status?..OR how many others you think gonna move off the newstand...?? scott storch???...you guys started with the cream of the crop and there aint nowhere to go but down but i bet excuses will be made a la XXL(but i'll give xxl a pass cuz they've got 8 years of nice mags under they belt so i know wut to expect...
plus if your mag claims to have any real..integrity, SOMEBODY there would push to have someone the likes of large pro on the cover REGARDLESS of wut he's done in the last decade.no need for me to bore you with his contributions to hip hop as i'm sure you already know so please dont act like the man doesnt deserve the cover of a magazine that celebrates something that he pioneered....or at least give him a full interview....
A subscription to SCRATCH of course! You'll feel like the luckiest person in the world when it arrives in your mailbox. Contact Andre Torres for details.
I'm not defending the mag from criticism. I think everything that people have brought up is entirely valid and fair (for the most part). But complaining about why Large Professor isn't on the cover of the magazine is silly. And no point in his career did Large Pro ever command the kind of audience that would have justified a cover, ANYWHERE. I like dude too, love his production but in terms of groundbreaking, well, you got Marley Marl. In terms of next level, you got Pete Rock. In terms of jeep beats, you got Primo. In terms of producing albums that changed the game, you got the Bomb Squad or Dr. Dre.
Let me put this a different way: I recently had to clean out the storage closet of my old apartment where I had stashed over a HUNDRED back issues of different rap magazines from the early '90s: not just Source and Rap Pages but also URB, The Flavor, Ego Trip, Straight From the Lip, 4080, Klub, Rewind, The Bomb, and a bunch of other publications that have since gone the way of the recycling heap. Large Professor - IN HIS PRIME - appeared on only one cover I can think of, the Ego Trip "Holy Trinity" cover alongside Q-Tip and Posdnuos (I may have that wrong so anyone else with the issue handy, please correct me). He didn't make the cover of magazines that were FAR more dedicated this his aesthetic, like URB or The Flavor (not that i know of anyways), etc.
What possible, rational logic exists to put Large Professor on the cover of a mainstream music mag like Scratch? "Integrity" is a red herring, especially since most of the 17 year olds the mag is marketing at probably don't even know who the fuck Large Professor is. I agree, dude deserves a longer feature in the future. But the cover? C'mon.
Your resistance to a Large Professor cover proves that you are disconnected from those who are really, really disconnected from the streets.
i agree too. kids these days are building on thin foundations.
but...i would not call Scratch "mainstream". By it's own credo, it's going for a niche. The antithesis of mainstream IMO.
let me answer you with this simple yes/no question ( -----if that statement makes sense!)becuz this is wut it comes down to:
do you think large pro DESERVES to be on the cover of a magazine devoted to hip hop producers/production??
i think our arguement comes down to that.....
also, i'm not hell-bent on him getting a cover, i'm just extremely dissapointed in the attention that they gave him....i mean they gave more of an article to k-def(no i dont think k-def is wack but u get the idea)
so your target market is 17 year olds? if thats who dictates the content of your mag then we both just lost.
If the mag came out in 1993, definitely. In 2005, I don't think so.