Before sampling machines and software on laptops that let you digitally loop a sequence on a track, DJ’s used to do something called “Beat Juggling.”

Beat juggling is the act of playing section of a song on one turntable, and at the precise moment when the beat ends, cueing it up on a duplicate record, on another turntable. This was often done to extend a part of a song that a DJ particularly liked; perhaps one that really got people dancing. Beat Juggling was also used in order to create unique compositions, using multiple turntables and one or more mixers.

It is said that beat juggling with a small section of a beat is looped using two copies of the same record was first done by Kool DJ Herc at a disco club in 1973. The idea caught on and later was refined by other early hip hop DJs like Grand Wizard Theodore (arguably, the first DJ to scratch out loud in 1977), Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa.

This meant that DJ’s couldn’t fire up an iPod, or open a folder of thousands of tracks stored on a laptop, it meant they had to physically carry bulky records to their events, and quite often have on hand TWO of many of the same albums!

“Scratching” came about by mistake, as the DJ was cueing up the next beat and enjoyed the sound that it made. This eventually became the artform that it is in the hip-hop world today.

Afrika Bambaataa. Also known as “The Godfather of Hip Hop” – produced one of the first major breakdance tracks called, Planet Rock. He invented turntable techniques that eventually spread throughout the world. The first song with beat juggling and scratching to hit the mainstream charts was by mixed by Grand Mixer DST performing on the turntables in Herbie Hancock’s dance track, “Rockit.” As a result, scratching and turntablism was first exposed to the masses.