By Richard Watson
Photography courtesy of DMC

Cutmaster Swift, the UK’s most revered DMC champ, gives it up for Q-Bert and the mighty Mixmaster Mike…

“Q-Bert is without a doubt the pinnacle of what deejays are when they enter the DMCs, and the fact that he has maintained that hunger to keep pushing and developing is realistically what all of us deejays have always aspired to. A lot of us have got a bit of complacency, but when you watch Q-Bert and talk to Q-Bert, you see that hunger and that willingness to learn more.

“He’s just a humble guy who wants to keep pushing it. He knows he’s in his own realm but he’s still inspired by the new people coming up. People like Woody and Tiger Styles have said they’ve had conversations with Q-Bert and they’re like, ‘I can’t believe Q-Bert asked me about one of my scratches.’ He’s that much of a fan of the art.

“Then Mixmaster Mike to me was just the transformer king. He could transform anything; his hands work fast. A lot of us aren’t that fast, but we can emulate being that fast through the new scratches. He does it the natural, old school way though, by actually opening and shutting the fader at that speed. The only other deejays I can think of who have that calibre of speed were the old Hijack guys, DJ Supreme and Undercover.”

(Check out HHC Digital 004 here for more top DMC action!)