DJ Times Asks Turntablists: Whats Your Desert Island Battle-Breaks Record?

We know, we know, the term “best” is a relative one, especially in the competitive world of turntablism. And of course, of course we’re aware that there are so many battle-breaks records available that you can’t swing a power cord without hitting one.

But with varying degrees of weight, recording volume, quality of scratch sentences, beats (some skip-proof), tones and verbal disses currently available in the bins, we thought it worthwhile to ask some scratch jocks what in their opinion stands as the all-time greatest battle-breaks record.

In addition, we also thought it would be helpful to ask turntablists how they’re using their more recent battle-breaks faves in routines and practice. So here it is, the DJ Times desert island battle-breaks survey…

Mr. Dibbs, 1200 Hobos, Cincinnati, Ohio
Best battle-break record of all time: The greatest battle break record of all time was probably Battle Breaks, that first Skratch Piklz record when they were called Rocksteady DJs. That’s the one I picked up on. Like everybody else, I liked it because it had a hundred different beats and parts. Like you know, everyone used to scratch “ahh,” so you know you didn’t have to use that Fab Five Freddy and all that. It had every hard-to-find sound—well, not hard to find, just records that you don’t want to take to shows with you. It was geared for battling. It was the first battle record that I thought was really dope. It was designed to make routines off of.
Best recent battle-break: From the last year, even though I put it out, huh huh huh…the Animal Crackers battle record. It just reminded me of the battle breaks thing where there was a million little tiny pieces in there, you know? There’s a lot of dope shit, but I don’t buy many battle records any more.
How do you include it in a routine? Mostly I’ll use the drums, I don’t cut on battle records in shows that much. I like the Double Dutch beats, Big Booty—I don’t know what the hell it is. The one side is all drums, the other side is maybe 1,000 or 3,000 sounds. But the thing is, all those sounds that they used, they took them off of other people’s battle records. Every sound that I’ve used on Unearthed 3 is on there in a row. You know, every Dirtstyle Blackmarket Snuff Breaks sound is on there in a row, too. The first time I heard it I was kind of pissed. You know what I mean? All the work that I put into my record then they just took all the sounds…Then after a while I was like, “well whatever.” All the sounds are there in a row so I went from hating it to deciding it was a decent record.

DJ Swamp, Cleveland, Ohio
All-time battle-break record: All the skip-proof scratch tools, because they took turntablism to the next level.
Currently in the crate: Waxcraft, Skip Proof Tool, and Never Ending Breakbeats. Flipping the technique: I drag the needle back and forth to make a scraping noise my parents used to despise. Then I smash them and light the pieces on fire.

DJ Rasta Roots, New York City
All-time battle-break record: My favorite battle break of all time is probably Hamster Breaks. I started DJing around ’91. I caught on to [Hamster Breaks] in, like, ’95 cause a lot of DJs were using it in battles. Premier used it on his mix tapes. I just heard a lot about it and it took me a while to get the record. So once I got the record I was like, “Wow!” I finally got it. It just stuck with me, I still use it to this day.
Is it still in your routines? Not necessarily my routines, in my practices. On scratch practice, there are a lot of good sounds on it, a lot of good phrases to chop up. I use it more for practicing than anything. It kind of makes it swifter for me when I’m doing phrase cuts for a hook or something.
Best recent battle-break: I can’t say I picked up anything good. For a while I was using [Babu’s] Super Duck Breaks series. That stuck with me for a while. That’s the one I’ve been using for the most part. What I liked about it the most is that it’s very easy to find the sounds on it, it’s not like a real complicated record. It’s not as many sounds as Hamster Breaks record, but they’re a lot easier to find, easier for me to get used to using. I didn’t like the beats as much as I liked the sequences they had with the phrases. That was more interesting to me than the beats. I liked what was selected as the cut phrases. They were dope. I use it on the radio show a lot.

DJ Relm, San Francisco
All-time battle-break record: Probably Toasted Marshmellow Feet Breaks by Darth Fader because I’m so used to it. I know all the sounds. I know where everything is. I could just pick it up, and there are a lot of different sounds I know. It’s easy to go through, and it doesn’t skip too much. What did you like about the sounds? They’re not super basic. I like that it has a good variety. It has a lot different versions of the “ahh” sound. It has different tweakable noises and drums. It’s classic sounds. It’s not too much, it’s not too little. It had cool beats. It’s a good balance. When it first came out, I used it all the time, but then when everyone else started using it I stopped using it in routines.
Best recent battle-breaks: Skratchy Seal’s Superseal, because it doesn’t skip, it’s like skipless. It gives you just enough so you can pick up the needle and drop it at any point and you’ll know what sound is going to come out of it. It’s easy to remember. It has a good variety of drums, cool scratches, a lot of basics plus a little more. I like the beats, too. The beats are original, they sound electronic, but rough at the same time. This is a good record to scratch for hours with. It doesn’t skip and you’re not going to get interrupted by having to find your sample if your needle skips or something ’cause you know it doesn’t skip no matter what. If you use that, you could go for hours and no problem. It’s a good everything record, basically. I’ve seen a lot of people do cool sets. A-Trak has some cool sets with it. QBert just rips the drums with it. I got a new record coming out that’s going to be hot. It’s going to be called Juggs. It’s going to change a lot. It’s shit that no one has ever done.

Michael C, Top Rawmen, Los Angeles
All-time battle-break record: Toasted Marshmellow Feet Breaks. I like scratching to slow beats, and it has one of my favorite slow beats on there. It also has most of my favorite scratch samples as well as some useful tones and faster beats.
Recent battle-breaks record: Superseal Breaks. I needle-drop between different sections of the Superseal record while drumming a beat with a skipping copy of Group Home’s “Living Proof” on the other side.

DJ Detail, Break Mechanics, Atlanta
All-time battle-break record: Toasted Marshmellow Feet Breaks and Super Duck Breaks. It’s hard to choose one. If I had to choose it would be Toasted because I like the cover better. I like them because they were the most innovative of scratch records; they made everything on beat and used a lot of cool sounds. Different songs were used. They incorporated fast beats, slow beats, regular tempo. And the scratch sounds were very good to learn with. When I started coming up, that’s all I was using. They made it easy. The actually made it so you could learn without having to find all those scratch sounds on the old-school records that the sounds came from. So there it was right in your face.
Most prized current battle record in the crate: My recent one would be the Craze record, Bully Breaks. It’s a very good record because he has some of the best beats that anyone has put on a record. Plus, the sounds that he used in his scratch sentences are just mean, aggressive, and they stand out like not too many battle records before.
The technique: Craze has a song on there talking about, “You wanna fuck with me, you must be crazy.” That beat on the inside cut. I used it on a live rap breakdown on the Rehab tour. It was perfect for that.

DJ Lord, Public Enemy, Atlanta
All-time battle-break record: 100 MPH Backsliding Turkey Cuts by Dirtstyle. What I liked about it was the scratch sentences, the sounds it has. Like the space sounds from “Defender”…the classic shit, you know? The classics. The format of the scratch sentences is what I really liked. It will have a battle sentence like you’re talking directly to the DJ.
Spill the technique: I would use it on a speed it wasn’t supposed to be played on. It was designed for 33 1/3 of course, but I would play it on 45, flip it and bounce it. I would use the Moog tones it has, like the real bass tones. You could use those and alter the pitch and create some ol’ crazy shit. I also spin drum-n-bass, so I use that shit on the regular. The beats are real tight on it too. I used it on the routine that I won the Phoenix DMC with. It was a scratch routine into a drum-n-bass juggle.
Recent battle-break: Hee Haw Brayks, by DJ Flare, and Craze’s Bully Breaks. Hee Haw is pretty much the same thing with the scratch sentences. It has like a million scratch sounds back to back to back, so if you’re doing a routine you don’t have to pull the record around a revolution to get to another sentence. It’s right there. The sound quality is definitely up to par. A lot of battle-break records come out, and they’ll make a good attempt, but the sound quality will be wack, or it will be too heavy. Whereas Dirtstyle, DJ Flare’s record, and Craze’s record is a good weight. That makes a difference when you’re cutting, too. A lot of cats don’t mention that, but I will, cause it messes me up a lot. You could still scratch but it just flows better if you have a lightweight record rather than this big freakin’ tire that you’re trying to do your thing with, you know?
Why Craze? Bully Breaks is tight. Like I said, he thinks psychotic like me. He has all the sounds on there. The beats are tight, too. A lot of the tracks had good solid bass, a lot of tracks you could zone on and scratch, practice tracks, performance tracks…it has it all.
Routine: I’ve included the Hee Haw Brayks, but I haven’t finished wiring my bomb with Craze’s record yet. DJs better go practice.

Impereal, Uniondale, N.Y.
All-time battle-break record: In the last year I’ve been using a classic battle record named Back Sliding Turkey Kuts, another record by Dirtstyle. I use this record along with a Trick Daddy hip-hop song called, “Take To The House.” In this routine I scratch for maybe eight bars, then break it down with a beat juggle for eight bars, then back to scratching for another eight bars. It’s a fast tempo beat so it’s all power scratching to keep the audience on their toes.
Keeping Current: One of my all time favorite battle records out right now has to be DJ Flare’s new one. It’s called Horny Martian Breaks on Dirtstyle Records. It has everything I ever wanted. It has really fast beats and really smooth slow tempo beats. It also has a regular hip-hop beat on it. It has the perfect variation of beats to scratch to, good sounds and drums to mess with and on top of it, it has a really good beat at the end of the record that has a lock groove. You can scratch to that beat for hours and not get tired of it.

Yoga Frog, Thud Rumble, Daly City, Calif.
All-time battle-break record: I would have to say Dirtstyle Shampoo. That’s probably the best one of all time. It’s perfect. It’s got everything you need. Some records give you too much of something, some records give you too little of everything. But if you totally have to live with one record for the rest of your life, or a pair of records so you can do something with it, it’s going to have to be those.
Self-plug opportunity: The second one would have to be on a personal note level, my next three that I’m coming out with. It’s personal for me cause I made it just how I wanted it, I didn’t really make it for anyone, but it’s coming out anyway if people are into it. It’s called the Warflex Training Series, and it’s got probably the most intensifying, driving beats. It’s at 140 BPM, which is totally quicker than anything that’s out right now. It could be really cool for drills, and training and stuff, because it’s got the toughest sounds, which, you know, the tougher the sound to scratch, the better your skills will become, of course.
Currently in the crate: Seal Breaks. Any Skratchy Seal Break record. All break records are the same, but then these took it to the next level no matter what equipment you’re using. So now the skipless Seal Breaks is totally the coolest thing I know since last year.
What’s with the layout? For me it doesn’t really matter how it’s set up, as long as it has intricate parts that are very useful. That’s what Seal Breaks is. The drums are all here. They’re skipless, the samples are skipless, and you know where everything’s at. It’s not something you need to decipher and run around. Sometimes people don’t have time to look for that scratch and it makes that corruption/mess noise, you know, when someone’s looking for a scratch or whatever. On this record, it’s all organized. It starts with the cymbal sounds, then it gets to the hard sounds, then it gets to the drums. It’s simple. Klever, Atlanta All-time battle-breaks record: I really don’t have a favorite break record, but one of my favorites is Gag Ball Breaks, because it’s got dope beats to cut to and really nice sounds to freak and I really like the skratch sentences, although I didn’t use that record in my routine. Currently in the crate: DJ Craze’s Bully Breaks, which I use for a beat juggle.

QBert, Thud Rumble, Daly City, Calif.
All-time battle-breaks record: Everything gets better with time, but I would have to go with Dirtstyle Deluxe Shampoo just because there’s a whole electro side on one side, and I love scratching to electro. Also the sample side had like a zillion sounds on it. That’s another thing that was cool about it. It could also be the very first battle breaks just because it kicked off the whole battle breaks thing.
Current battle-breaks: There are so many out there that are pretty cool. I guess the one I’m using right now is my favorite. I always take it on tour. I can’t live without it. It’s the Superseal Breaks. Just because it’s good on stage, practicing, it doesn’t skip when you get your flow on. It makes you able to go off freely because it’s skipless and there are so many sounds to choose from for being skipless. It’s got drum beats. The first one was Seal Breaks which was kind of like an experimental one, and then there’s Superseal which took it to another level, with a whole bunch of sounds that are skipless. That record right there definitely, I practice everyday, pretty much. That’s my favorite.
Talking Beats: The beats on Superseal Breaks, they’re cool. There is some funky stuff on there but it may not be one of the best beats. The other side, the skipless side, that’s my favorite thing on the record. I love to scratch to other beats and just use the other side. That’s all I use to scratch pretty much. When we have scratch parties at my house, that’s all that is on the turntables. It’s just Superseal records and we play beats off the computer and everyone just jams. There’s another record coming out called Gag Seal Breaks. It’s the same style, it just that there are more sounds. Like Gag Ball Breaks, but Gag Seal.

Infamous, The Allies, Miami
All-time battle-breaks record: DJ Craze’s Bully Breaks.
Current: My all time new fave is Shotgun and Klever Dirty South Breaks .
In the routine: I didn’t use either record in my routine cause I try to avoid using battle records for battles.

Sugarcuts, New York City
All-time battle-breaks record: Without a doubt, it’s got to be Super Duck Breaks—everything about it. It set the standard for battle records in scratch sentence organization. Every sound was just perfectly on beat, with the sickest arrangement and the perfect EQ on each sound. There were three “aah’s” on the B-side that the more you scratched them, the better they sounded! The scratch sounds are still used four or five years later, and the beats are dope and forever gonna be known as classic skratch beats.
In your routine? I personally didn’t use Super Duck Breaks in my routines, but at least 456,214,212 other people did.
Recent battle-break record: I’ve really liked Mike Boogies’ Food Around The Corner Breaks, Roli Rho Adobo Breaks, QBert Superseal and Seal Breaks. I think nowadays there are so many battle records coming out that it’s more difficult to have that one record that just doesn’t leave your platter, because each record is suited to moods. What makes a record good nowadays, though, is that originality that might lend itself to a certain situation or mood. Like if you’re in a certain mood for a certain kind of beat or a certain sound to skratch.

Faust & Shortee, Atlanta
Champ battle-breaks: Toasted Marshmellow Breaks or Booger Breaks. These have dope scratch sounds, dope beats with a variety of stuff so you don’t get bored. Nowadays it’s a only a few beats and a few sounds, battle records everywhere with five or six beats and one scratch track. The early Dirtstyle records were some of the first records catered for DJs so they could actually drum by hand. Whole sections of little beat snippets for DJs to drum with. It was dope.
Current crate-filler: Bully Breaks, Shampoo Breaks, Genius Touch and Toolz of War. These records are made in ways so that people can scratch in new ways with new and innovative sounds and beats that change up a lot as opposed to just having a constant loop.