Sometimes I watch homemade scratching and juggling videos on YouTube, you know, just looking to get ideas, or inspiration for combinations or whatever — it’s not biting per se, it’s to watch, learn, and build on, you know? Foundations.

Anyway, sometimes you come across shit like this and it’s completely useless to you. I mean, I can’t learn shit from this DJ Kentaro vid. He’s just too fast, too beyond me. I mean, there’s certain segments where I can almost sort-of figure out what he’s doing, but that “Holy shit/What the fuck” factor just keeps pulling me back out of it. Brown and I stumbled on this one the other day (don’t know if I mentioned but he was staying at my place up in NYC last week, digging for records and helping his girl move to the 212 — only a matter of time before we get his ass up here too), and we both just kind of sat there for a minute when it was done until his girlfriend’s said, “That’s not… real, right? It’s sped up or something, right?” We just shook our heads.

I guess the main draw for me over other juggling/scratching routines is Kentaro… I mean, dude obviously works in hip-hop, but doesn’t get stuck into the solely hip-hop vibe during his routines. Instead he gets open on some DnB, breaks, jungle, and whatever the hell else sounds good, and just puts together sets that sound way more original than the average scratch superstar to me. (I’m not going to hate on anyone with the technical skills to scratch nice, but I also know there’s not a damned person reading this who hasn’t heard some turntablism sets before that sound like pure DJ masturbation — endless rapid-fired scratches over the same hip-hop beat). Here you get an eclectic mash of shit that comes off sounding like Jet Set Radio on speed after downing a few shots and noticing the girl of his dream winking at him from across the club. I mean… it’s hot.

EDIT: For posterity, here’s the vid of his famous (infamous?) performance at the 2002 DMC Finals.