R.I.P. Roc Raida
I am pretty saddened by this news. Raida was one of my favorite DJs. The man could tear it up. I’ve had the pleasure of being able to see him perform. It was quite an experience to witness him and the members of his crew The X-Ecutioners effortlessly cut it up on the 1s and 2s. My deepest sympathies go out to his family at this time.
Taken from Wikipedia:
Anthony Williams, (May 18, 1972 – September 19, 2009) better known as Roc Raida was an American DJ, turntablist, producer and member of DJ group The X-Ecutioners.
He won the 1995 DMC World DJ Championship.
Roc Raida died from complications of a spinal injury from mixed martial arts.
Taken from Allmusic:
Roc Raida started DJing hip-hop at the age of ten with his father’s help. From there he’s gone on to found one of the most prolific turntablist crews the world has yet to see, with partners Mista Sinista,Rob Swift, and Total Eclipse. Collecting championship titles and awards across the world, he’s brought an art form back that may well have been slowly motioned to obscurity, creating excitement by injecting pure passion into his mixes.
Here is the bio for the X-Ecutioners, taken from allmusic as well:
New York-based turntable group the X-ecutioners were, along with San Francisco’s Invisibl Skratch Piklz, among the first all-DJ outfits to sign a recording contract, and the first to release a full-length album focusing on the art of turntable tricknology. Formerly known as the X-Men (they changed their name, for copyright reasons, when they signed with the Asphodel label in 1997), the four-person group consists of Mista Sinista, Rob Swift, Total Eclipse, and Roc Raida; a world-renowned crew whose past credits include national and international titles for trick and battle DJing, as well as live and studio work with artists such as Organized Konfusion, Large Professor, the Beatnuts, and Artifacts. Originally formed in 1989 byRoc Raida with Steve D, Johnny Cash, and Sean Cee, the group adopted the name X-Men on the occasion of a battle with another New York crew, the Supermen (that battle never happened). They went to return the DJ to a position of prominence in hip-hop, a position largely usurped in the ’80s and ’90s by MCs and producers, as rap grew into one of the largest and most profitable genres in the American music industry. Making entirely new tracks from bits and pieces of other records manipulated by hand (rather than with a sampler and sequencer), the X-ecutioners combine state-of-the-art scratching with the hip-hop DJ’s bedrock of cutting, mixing, and beat juggling. The group play live often, and have performed in clubs, exhibitions, and competitions on four continents.
