LOS ANGELES

(Episode 2)

#RX02
LOS ANGELES
HOST: PLATO
GUEST: DOUG PRAY

Los Angeles is the dream factory, where music and movies are the stuff of dreams, and remix and rehashing of old content in new ways is in the heart of innovation.

We meet a Los Angeles Hip-Hop turnablist, a man who like a walking encyclopedia of breaks, the small pieces of music that can be used to make a beat. In Doug Pray’s documentary Scratch, DJs scour the archives just to find that right, still undiscovered break they can turn into a track. This is called “digging” and it’s a huge part of being a turntablist.

Going out and finding these gold nuggest of music no one has heard is what differentiates a faker and someone really into being a DJ. These old tracks are are piles of dreams, records from artists who did not become famous who did not have a huge career but thanks to the DJ can now have a new life.

We meet Beyoncé who in her video Run The World (Girls) incorporates elements from the Tofu Tofu dancers of Mozambique, and features work by Ed Kashi and scenes inspired by photographs of Pieter Hugo’s hyena men, and a Givenchy Haute Couture gown.

Scratch

Tofu Tofu

Photographer Pieter Hugo:

Photographer Ed Kashi

Original version of Waka Waka from 1986

 

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