Break to the beat recently caught up with DJ Roughcut for a brief catch up and to get an incite in to his foundations in local Hip Hop Culture. DJ Roughcut’s involvement with the local music scene dates back to the mid 1980s and by the 1990s he was DJing and producing for several local Hip Hop crews including W.I.Z.E, Death Before Dishonour and Klass Dismissed. During the early 1990s DJ Roughcut produced and released several recordings on Milton Keynes based record label 2’E’Z Records.

DJ Roughcut.

What inspired you to get in to scratch DJ’ing and how did this lead to you entering the DMC mixing championship?

I was sitting watching the movie Breakdance and I remembering turning to my dad and saying I want to be one of them, my dad said “What a breakdancer?” and I said no “the guys behind with the turntables playing the music for them to breakdance to!” My parents bought me a pair of ‘disco double decks’ which I learnt to practice on. A competition appeared on a kids Saturday morning TV programme called Motormouth looking for young DJ’s to send in a demo for a DJ competition. I was in class at school one day and someone came to the class and said Keith Hurley needs to go to reception. I had no idea what it was going to be about, I got there and they said someone from ITV had called and I was a finalist in a competition and I needed to phone them to arrange appearing on TV!!!!I rushed to the local phone box after school and phoned them. I travelled by train to The Empire in Leicester Square where they were filming the competition. I walked in and immediately I was introduced to The Cookie Crew, Derek B, Simon Harris and Tony Prince the founder and owner of DMC, the World DJ Championship organisation; I was told they were going to be the judges for the competition!!! Continue reading →