The x-ecutioners

THE X-ECUTIONERS CHANGE LINE-UP

September 28, 2004, NEW YORK, NY

After thirteen years as an X-ecutioner, DJ Rob Swift has left the group to concentrate on his solo music projects. The split was amicable but immediate; Rob Swift will not be appearing with The X-ecutioners at any upcoming engagements promoting the group's new album Revolutions (Summer 2004, Columbia Records).

Grandmaster Roc Raida, a founding member of The X-ecutioners, and DJ Total Eclipse, member since 1997, welcome virtuoso turntablists DJ Boogie Blind and DJ Precision to The X-ecutioners.

Boogie Blind, childhood friend of GM Roc Raida, is a DJ for Pharoahe Monche and a former Vestax World Champion. His album 'Live At The P.J.'S Harlem, New York,' was released in 2003. DJ Precision, protégé of Rob Swift, is an Allies Beatdown World Champion and has previously appeared on tour with The X-ecutioners. Both are current members of the NYC based DJ crew The Lo Lives.

Previously on 'As the Vinyl Turns'....

For over a decade the superhuman virtuosity and dazzling synchronicity of the three-man turntablist ensemble The X-ecutioners was one of the best-kept secrets in the world of hip-hop. First and foremost live performers, X-men DJs Roc Raida, Rob Swift, and Total Eclipse captivated the hip-hop movement's die-hard fans and most well-respected artists guerrilla-style -- club by club, one city at a time. Fans who have witnessed The X-ecutioners DJs' furious scratches, hypnotic beats, and acrobatic performance tricks speak of the experience with the reverence of a religious convert: "[Roc Raida] proceeded to rock the most mind-blowing and cleanest routines I had ever witnessed live. He had the crowd hyped like your mama at my house. Then he busted 'Good Times.' Revolution.". "I remember the first time I saw Rob Swift and his DJ crew The X-ecutioners. It was on a tape my cousin had, and I was in complete awe as they did one body trick after another..." (youthradio.org).

Founded in 1989, the DJ collective then known as The X-Men was originally formed by a cadre of teenage New York City turntablists out to vanquish rival DJ group The Supermen in turntable battle. Over the years, members came and went, but with each new championship title captured by the indomitable X-Men it became ever more clear: these heirs apparent to old-school DJ greats Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grand Wizzard Theodore were destined to become legends of hip-hop in their own right, heralds of a new, unstoppable DJ movement, and the inspiration for a whole generation of fledgling turntablists. The early adopters of hip-hop saw and believed the visceral genius of The X-ecutioners, fueling a flurry of underground mixtape sales and an ever-increasing demand for more shows. Each year, word of mouth drew new initiates out by the thousands to clubs in every major U.S. city, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Senegal, Iceland, and Lebanon, to see these champions of scratch transform hip-hop classics into masterpieces of the moment.

Underground success led inevitably to mainstream notice and critical acclaim, and in 1997, The X-Men, now known as The X-ecutioners, signed with renowned indie hip-hop label Asphodel. The fruit of that deal, their premiere album X-pressions (Asphodel, 1997), was the first solo album ever released by a DJ group. In 1998, Steve Rifkind, CEO of Sony Music's Loud Records, saw the X-DJs perform live in an L.A. club. Instantly hooked, he orchestrated a four-record deal for The X-ecutioners, of which their 2002 hit album Built From Scratch was the first.

Though firmly rooted in hip-hop tradition, The X-ecutioners have transcended their genre of choice, and been recognized for seminal contributions to electronica, jazz, and experimental music. By invitation, the X-men performed in The 20th Century Electronic Music Series at Lincoln Center and in The Smithsonian Institution's Multicultural/Multimedia Festival at The Great Lawn in Washington, D.C. Major artists from diverse genres have recognized The X-ecutioners' one-of-a-kind skills and artistic ingenuity and brought their talents to the table as well: The DJs have collaborated with big hip-hop names like Common, The Beatnuts, Everlast, Rahzel, Organized Konfusion, Pharoahe Monche, Xzibit, Wu-Tang's Inspectah Deck, M.O.P., Large Professor, Skills, beat-boxer Kenny Muhammed, DJs Dan The Automator and Fatboy Slim, as well as with pop icon Tom Tom Club, rock phenomenon Linkin Park, and jazz legends Bob James and Herbie Hancock.

It is poetic that The X-ecutioners' vehicle to international stardom was the smash album Built From Scratch. Innovators from the beginning, the men of The X-ecutioners had invented team beat-juggling, defined the DJ ensemble, and with nothing but six turntables and three mixers, helped bring turntablism out of the cramped underground hip-hop club and into the consciousness of mainstream American culture. Their hard-rock-influenced single "It's Goin' Down," a collaborative effort with guest artists Linkin Park, was a staple on MTV and remained in Billboard's Top 20 Modern Rock Singles for eight weeks. Built From Scratch, which debuted at #15 on Billboard's Top 40 Album Chart, received stellar reviews from, among many others, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Entertainment Weekly. In between appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman, Total Request Live, NBC's The Carson Daly Show, ESPN's Action Sports and Music Awards, MTV's Fashionably Loud and MTV Icons' Tribute to Aerosmith, the group performed in over 30 U.S. cities last summer as Eminem's opening act on the 2002 Anger Management Tour.

With turntables having outsold electric guitars for the past three years and counting, it is clear to all that the DJ virtuoso is here to stay. Turntable fever has spread so far and wide that even corporate bastion Fortune recognizes that "today's real music idols are DJs" (10.14.02). But for all their commercial success, critical acclaim, and latest DJ buzz, the men of The X-ecutioners remain gratifyingly down-to-earth and focused on just one thing: the music. Having recently mixed the highly acclaimed compilation CD, Scratchology (Sequence Records, 2003), and recorded both the title track to snowboard racer SSX 3 and the complete soundtrack to NFL Street Football for videogame powerhouse Electronic Arts, the X-men are now hard at work on their third album. For Rob Swift, Roc Raida, and Total Eclipse, it's still just about keeping it real and serving up the pure essence of hip-hop, which renowned journalist and hip-hop historian Kevin Powell defines so eloquently in his Notes Of A Hip-Hop Head:

"Hip-hop is a mirror for the world to look at itself... the ghetto blues, urban folk art, a cry out for help... an unabashed embrace of the past, sampling any and everything at its disposal, the world clearly its altar of worship... ghetto youth casting their buckets into dirty sewer water and coming up with hope, new identities, fly names, def jams, acrobatic dance moves, cutting-edge art..."

The X-ecutioners -- each once an unknown kid from Harlem, Queens, and Brooklyn, respectively, with little more to his name than a collection of vinyl and two turntables, each now an internationally known DJ legend, a battle champion idolized by the DJ-heads around the world who study videotapes to copy his moves, emulate his scratches—these teenage prodigies turned consummate artists have unabashedly embraced their past, reclaiming the rich, hopeful heritage of hip-hop's founding DJs to raise virtuosic turntablism to its former glory and beyond. In sampling any and everything at their disposal -- the ebullience of old hip-hop song, resplendent jazz, furious rock riffs -- the X-men have broken through all possible limits and consistently invented from scratch an array of new, distinct musical identities all their own. The X-ecutioners' def jams, performed with trademark acrobatic moves worthy of The Matrix, by any definition has been, and will continue to be cutting-edge art. And if that's not hip-hop, pure and simple, what is?

They use the Rane TTM 56.