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Exclusive: Grandmaster Flash Demonstrates The Quick Mix Theory Live | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Jul 7, 2023
Grandmaster Flash's Quick Mix Theory has been touted as the fundamental foundation for the work of the DJ. As that calculation continued to ascend it gave birth to the new genre of music we now know as Hip-Hop!
The legend Grandmaster Flash exclusively demonstrates the QMT live on Sway In The Morning.
Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/UaxJ3VooaK4
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Exclusive interviews from Sway Calloway and the Sway In The Morning/ SwaysUniverse.com team with some of today's biggest celebrities, like Kevin Hart, Kanye West, Eminem, Usher, Jessica Alba, Steve Aoki, Torey Lanez, Julia Stiles and so much more.
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0:00
hey we got Bobby from Philly real quick
0:02
what you want to say to flash what's up
0:04
Bobby I just I just want to say the
0:06
flash thank you man you saved a lot of
0:08
people from going to prison it was like
0:10
while God was showing you the the
0:13
technique on what you was doing America
0:15
had a plan too to send us places but we
0:18
ain't gonna go into that your techniques
0:21
and what you did allowed us to do and
0:24
fly so thank you my brother thank you so
0:28
much you saved a lot of people from
0:30
going to prison and I hope you smiling
0:32
well not bitter at the seeds that you
0:35
created because a lot of people like
0:37
Nicki Minaj a lot of times she'd be
0:39
bitter from the CC Planet that's insane
0:41
let's keep it on flash man all right all
0:45
right real quick all right yo you all
0:48
right Bobby peace giving flowers and
0:51
dead flowers at the same time it was
0:52
different all right uh we got I love
0:55
what you're doing but [ __ ] that [ __ ]
0:58
let's go to Virginia right now we got
1:00
Trey on the line Trey go ahead what you
1:02
want to say real quick Trey
1:04
yo yo yo man first I appreciate you bro
1:08
for giving ordinary Brothers like me who
1:10
love hip-hop opportunity to speak to
1:13
flash a legend thank you thank you bro
1:16
no no problem solute
1:19
yeah give me three yeah now listen you
1:22
get
1:24
it thank you
1:28
little moments in hip-hop for you three
1:30
Monumental moments in hip-hop for you
1:32
flash for you
1:34
when I place my fingertips on the vinyl
1:36
and I was able to control time was one
1:38
that's one two is when I was able to
1:42
uh come up with a guidelines to put on
1:44
the vinyl which was the crayon which
1:46
allowed me to take a short drum solo and
1:50
extend it so that would make a a music
1:52
bed
1:54
and three
1:56
as I was telling sway this whole thing
1:58
could have missed
2:00
so the third thing is that it
2:03
it happened
2:05
in your history walking
2:08
divinely sent you're a vessel flash
2:10
thank you your vessel saved a lot of
2:13
people saved myself a lot of us man just
2:16
found rich nice rich nice would have
2:18
easily been behind bars facts y'all
2:22
laughing I might not even be here if it
2:24
wasn't for hip-hop yes indeed he almost
2:26
went behind bars even as he made it
2:29
um but yes you definitely gave a lot of
2:31
um you from Joker Rich it gave a lot of
2:33
us inspiration I saw you on Wow style
2:35
bro
2:37
come on man I'm looking at you now we
2:40
sitting here hobnobbing but for me I'm
2:42
that kid that saw you on wild style I
2:44
mean like thank you it's the 40th
2:46
anniversary of wild style this was the
2:48
first time people got to see you do the
2:50
quick mix Theory the first time they got
2:52
to see DST do the the turntabalism at
2:55
the end that's the beginning of it all
2:58
do you think that's the explosion of
3:00
DJing I think that um
3:03
I don't think the DJ aspect has exploded
3:06
enough
3:07
and I'm saying this is because
3:09
I don't see enough publicity in it in
3:12
this year it's gonna it's only going to
3:14
be 50 years once for me the next 50 I
3:16
won't be here you know so for me like a
3:19
lot of these concerts has taken place
3:21
they're not hiring DJs you know you're
3:25
hiring the fourth element but you're not
3:27
hiring the other three that there is
3:30
pretty sad for me and and there was some
3:33
concerts that I was asked to join
3:36
but there were no other DJs I said no
3:38
and the money was huge
3:41
um
3:41
the the 50th anniversary celebration at
3:44
the Grammys what was that like for you
3:46
bro I seen
3:49
more artists come up to me
3:52
that I hadn't had the pleasure of ever
3:54
meeting uh-huh
3:55
saying thank you for doing what you did
3:58
it was such a humbling experience sway
4:01
you know sometimes
4:03
there was a point where I thought people
4:07
didn't remember yeah
4:09
and I got to tell you
4:12
I was getting
4:14
LL
4:15
Nelly The Lox like it was just
4:19
it was on and on and on and on and on
4:21
thank you thank you thank you thank you
4:23
thank you you know and it's really it
4:26
touched my heart I'm like wow they
4:28
remembered
4:30
do you I feel like um you know I hear
4:32
people talk about the 80s but then
4:34
there's the 70s too uh what do we need
4:36
to do to make sure that our history is
4:38
being told properly because we don't
4:40
hear about a lot of artists in the 70s
4:44
from hip-hop at least okay
4:47
I think it's a few more DJs because like
4:51
we're the technical aspect of it you
4:53
know and we're behind and they're up
4:55
front and like and as far as lectures is
4:57
concerned like
4:59
it bugs me a little bit a lot of the
5:01
lectures that are done
5:03
are done by the rappers when technically
5:05
they weren't in the room in an exception
5:08
in its actual Inception of the track
5:11
like what could you say you know invite
5:15
that producer he found this sample here
5:18
he had to fight with it he had to do
5:20
this he like he has stories these DJs
5:24
have stories and these producers have
5:25
stories I think this year there should
5:29
be more specially the producers that
5:31
made hits
5:34
for these rappers they should be the
5:37
ones doing these lectures I I can't do
5:40
them all by myself absolutely
5:42
Grandmaster Flash we've seen the influx
5:44
of the woman emcee now coming to the
5:47
Forefront and you know we've we've had
5:48
our
5:49
you know our moments when Latifah and MC
5:52
lied and have the being different folks
5:54
are out then it'll die down and then
5:57
Nick you know uh Kim and then Foxy Brown
5:59
and Nicki Minaj been holding it down but
6:01
now you're starting to see women I'm
6:04
happy okay because I remember
6:07
there was just one woman
6:09
that had to contend with all of us
6:13
and there's just one particular person
6:15
in hip-hop that they don't talk about
6:17
who controlled the north Bronx and
6:18
that's DJ breakout and he had this MC
6:22
called Shah Rock So Shaw Rock had to
6:26
whenever we played together she had to
6:28
handle us or bam or herk or whatever
6:32
like she had to hold up the Womanhood of
6:37
the MC by her damn self man and I just
6:40
seen her recently because I did a a
6:42
private party for her you know and we
6:45
hugged each other and started crying
6:46
she's like flash thank you you know
6:48
because a lot of people don't want to
6:49
give her that credit for being first
6:51
she's the first and and if there was
6:54
anybody else at that time I didn't see
6:56
them yeah it was just her so rock when
6:59
you look at uh rich nice and our first
7:01
time I ever went overseas was in
7:03
Amsterdam in 05 was it Richard yeah my
7:07
brother rich and I went over there and
7:09
we saw kid Caprice just freely walking
7:11
like he was a citizen over there you
7:14
know uh we went to Italy
7:17
um and saw DJ Premiere over there you
7:20
know
7:20
um uh I see all Jazzy Jeff I see him all
7:23
over the world uh what what are you how
7:25
healthy is the DJ Community what do you
7:27
think about the mixtape DJs
7:29
I think
7:32
there should be more
7:35
promotion
7:36
and the Mixtape DJ
7:39
see because this there's two types of
7:41
mixtapes
7:43
when I first recorded songs onto a
7:46
cassette tape
7:48
what's called a mixtape today today's
7:51
version of a mixtape is like a pre-album
7:54
of up and coming artists
7:57
the mixtape DJ has to find a way to
8:00
promote around the world not just in
8:03
America you know because the music taste
8:05
is different over there than it is over
8:08
here in fact you know and a lot of times
8:10
like when I was touring early on
8:14
I was on his ego thing that I could play
8:16
these 10 records and it would clear and
8:18
it would rock the floor and nine times
8:20
out of ten when she cleared the floor I
8:22
had to say wait a minute
8:23
I need to figure this [ __ ] out and
8:26
that's when I learned that records I
8:27
don't know a bomb here could be whack in
8:29
London and the ones that uh the bomb
8:31
here could be whack in Japan and the
8:34
ones that could be bombed the bomb yeah
8:35
they could be whack in Australia so I
8:37
had to go into my collection because a
8:40
lot of these these these people that
8:42
came to the concerts
8:43
knew more about me than me and they were
8:48
saying do you remember when you played
8:49
that jab I'll go yeah I'm like damn I
8:51
ain't playing yeah yeah I'm like well I
8:55
gotta go into the 25 30 year collection
8:57
and and when I played don't you just
8:59
like oh I'm like oh [ __ ] okay so let's
9:01
go so it's almost like the 70s all over
9:03
again over there because
9:06
we take for granted because it's
9:08
generated here over there they're just
9:10
the receivers okay so for them
9:15
they want to hear yesterday they'll
9:17
catch up to their 2000 to the actual
9:20
2000s three years later yeah they're
9:23
kind of behind in time yeah you know and
9:26
and that that's how I say it met
9:28
Grandmaster Flash you could see them
9:30
DJing all over the planet okay ladies
9:33
and gentlemen on the turntables you'll
9:34
now been entertained by the DJ styling
9:36
so the one and only the legendary the
9:38
iconic Grand Master Flash
9:41
[Music]
9:54
foreign
9:56
[Music]
10:11
I'm extracting a particular area of the
10:14
saw that I want because like this song
10:16
right here
10:18
right this is the best part watch this
10:21
one here
10:21
[Music]
10:24
we don't want that part we don't want
10:26
that part so it's
10:28
[Music]
10:43
Grandmaster Flash
10:45
[Music]
10:58
sure
11:03
[Music]
11:11
foreign
11:20
[Music]
11:45
[Applause]
11:48
[Music]
11:53
judge Blaze just Blazer oh we how'd you
11:57
find this one
12:00
bottom of my collection
12:01
[Music]
12:13
[Laughter]
12:15
[Music]
12:20
I got the baddest tickets
12:25
a lot of these phones were never hit
12:28
never will happen for the genius of The
12:31
Producers
12:35
[Music]
12:37
yes yes yes yes man so talk about what
12:41
you're doing again
12:42
pretty much it's extracting the main
12:45
part
12:47
[Music]
12:54
the only part we wanted was this
12:57
[Laughter]
12:58
[Music]
12:59
that's fly I'm like Jacob Eric with
13:02
bling on
13:05
[Music]
13:07
[Laughter]
13:09
three four five six I'm back at the top
13:14
of the break
13:14
[Music]
13:21
three four five six I'm back at the top
13:25
of the break
13:26
[Music]
13:29
let's keep moving
13:32
this goes on this goes off whatever with
13:34
the I don't know who produced this one
13:36
but it was genius Grand Master Flash
13:39
turn it up a little bit
13:45
oh so cool disco song
13:52
what the producer said hmm what
13:58
would that sound like
14:01
oh
14:03
D dot that he did this
14:07
such a genius
14:13
for the Notorious B.I.G
14:14
[Music]
14:29
other than myself it's a genius of the
14:31
producer so you gotta say to yourself
14:33
[Applause]
14:36
with Jada had come up with that rhyme
14:44
when the producer was done with this
14:48
sample Seeds of Love what Jay-Z would
14:53
have said allow me to enter with it come
14:57
on reintroduce myself and this is what
14:59
I'm saying you know sweet Green Fields
15:01
is by Seals and Croft how corny is that
15:05
but
15:08
double boom boom you know let's change
15:11
this over fame um
15:13
no apps none of that no no no studios no
15:16
dsps no engineers
15:20
just a hands and just two copies of the
15:23
same song that's it and you about to
15:25
demonstrate it like you did from day one
15:27
yeah I'm gonna go back to day one that's
15:28
pretty much what I'm gonna do here
15:30
ladies and gentlemen so these are the
15:32
kind of things that hip-hop 50
15:35
should be talking about okay okay these
15:39
are the kind of things and sway you
15:41
probably will be the only program
15:44
that will have this
15:47
unless people follow your lead
15:50
and go grab some of them other people
15:52
and I hope they do you know yeah I pray
15:55
that you do it because it's a few of us
15:56
yeah that's 60 plus that did this they
15:59
gave our lives to do this you know and
16:04
with the other three elements
16:07
we kind of passed the ball to the fourth
16:10
element uh-huh
16:11
so now the fourth element
16:15
needs to pass it back and say all right
16:16
this is how it was done
16:19
you know and and these are the things
16:21
that
16:22
saddened me I see all these concerts
16:25
happening I'm saying let me see what's
16:26
going to line up
16:28
oh it's just one element
16:30
this concert just one element and then
16:34
something like flash we want you to get
16:36
on
16:37
I'm saying well who's on the lineup I
16:39
said what other DJs this is what is just
16:41
you I said no thank you okay
16:43
I passed so let's go back now I want you
16:46
guys to look at the line
16:48
that line there is the intersector
16:50
that's my guide right there this is what
16:53
got me in so much trouble
16:55
in the 70s and we're gonna count
16:59
the four bars forward
17:01
six counterclockwise
17:05
the formula locked for me when I could
17:07
do it with pop rock jazz blues Funk
17:10
disco r b and the like
17:13
let's go
17:16
seven live in effect Grand Master Flash
17:19
[Music]
17:20
50 years of hip-hop here we go
17:23
one two three four five six check set
17:30
throw
17:31
one two three four five six set check
17:39
throw
17:42
that was fun
17:44
let's try some rocks hip-hop
17:47
[Music]
17:49
the four six integers work
17:54
on all genres of music let's go
18:01
[Music]
18:07
one two three four five six
18:13
if I didn't count the third I'd have
18:15
been in trouble
18:17
one two three four five six while the
18:22
rapper was rapping this is what I was
18:24
doing
18:30
clockwise
18:32
[Music]
18:35
Grandmaster Flash showing you how it all
18:38
began
18:39
50 years of hip-hop Sway in the morning
18:41
shade four five but we doing Mardi Gras
18:44
one
18:45
two three four five six check
18:51
throw
18:52
one two three four five six check
19:00
[Music]
19:02
now
19:05
in some cases
19:07
the beat is not four bars
19:11
it's two bars okay
19:14
and the math changes so it's two bars
19:16
forward
19:18
three counterclockwise
19:20
four boss four with six counterclockwise
19:23
the quick mix Theory and I remember when
19:26
I was in the record stores
19:28
and and this
19:31
this album look this album cover looked
19:33
really
19:35
weird I'm like
19:37
who's the crazy person
19:40
that kid that came up with this
19:44
like this album cover was very
19:46
intriguing
19:48
all right so I'm gonna take a shot with
19:50
this one it was a
19:52
this group was unknown at the time but I
19:54
said I'm gonna
19:55
I like this album cover I'm gonna buy
19:57
two copies
19:59
[Music]
20:04
two bars four with three
20:06
counterclockwise you had to be qualified
20:09
to handle this B
20:11
[Music]
20:16
itch
20:18
oh I know this oh yeah
20:21
since Aerosmith Aerosmith two three
20:24
check throw
20:26
one two three check throw
20:30
one two three check throw
20:36
there you have it man Grand Master Flash
20:39
that was one of them
20:41
these are the things
20:44
that I tried to express to people
20:46
who think
20:48
that it's just a rapper that made the
20:51
hit song okay it's a combination of the
20:53
producer and the composer
20:57
that make a great song this next song
21:01
is probably the most important song
21:05
in hip-hop wow damn the national copies
21:09
is real nasty real real real real real
21:12
nasty they're gonna sound like it
21:16
he just got inducted into the Rock and
21:18
Roll Hall of Fame he found this one I'm
21:21
gonna play this in my way
21:24
wow
21:26
this was the one swag this was the one
21:31
one two three four five six check
21:38
[Music]
21:39
one two three four five six check
21:55
[Music]
21:59
now the party's about to play it's the
22:02
part where the b-boys went down in the
22:04
circle too they waiting for this part
22:05
he's about to play right here the b-boys
22:07
waiting for this breakdown before they
22:09
went into the circle
22:12
I'm playing Apache my way
22:20
[Music]
22:26
Grandmaster Flash shameful five
22:33
come on Sway in the Morning have to be
22:35
Tracy G rich nice I see you
22:37
[Music]
22:50
oh
22:55
wow man Grand Master Flash
22:58
incredible yo Flash
23:02
first and foremost thank you man
23:06
I say thank you because
23:10
I have to witness your love for and
23:12
passion for this culture you know I'm
23:15
glad I could witness it in person not
23:17
just read about it but to see you are as
23:19
passionate about this today as you were
23:22
when you was in your parents house yeah
23:24
I'm madly in love with this this has got
23:26
me in more heat with my significant
23:28
other yeah yeah
23:30
and more heat with my children like I
23:34
can remember when at first sway it was
23:37
highly misunderstood but then once
23:39
the first country to hold on to this was
23:42
London London when I went over there
23:45
after I did The Adventures of the Wheels
23:47
of Steel um
23:49
I'm landed and people are
23:52
running up to me and hugging me some
23:56
people
23:57
kissing my hand like I'm like What's
24:00
yeah what's what the hell is going on
24:03
right now they like
24:04
thank you for doing
24:06
what you did you know I just hope this
24:09
thing can go way past when I'm out of
24:12
here yeah God takes me and this thing
24:14
does another 50. another 50 and another
24:17
50 another 15. but sway thank you for
24:19
allowing me to be me and these Airways
24:22
because sometimes
24:24
people want to do interviews and I you
24:26
know my boy rip he he says he he's not a
24:30
TED Talk dude they're like what do you
24:32
mean
24:33
um well he doesn't have to bring the
24:34
turntables he's
24:36
unlike
24:38
there's no way that I could explain that
24:41
yes
24:42
without this yes so I turned down tens
24:46
and twenties
24:48
of lectures at incredible money because
24:52
hip-hop in this Inception was not
24:56
talking you was doing right yeah yeah
24:58
and it's doing explode exploded to
25:02
talking this is the rapper and here we
25:04
are thank you give it up for Grandmaster
25:06
Flash y'all Grand Master Flash
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