Mix Master Mike

Mix Master Mike (born April 4, 1970) is an American turntablist of Jewish and Filipino extraction. His real name is Michael Schwartz. He was born in Daly City, California. He first gained notoriety after performing at several live DJ competitions. Mix Master Mike later joined the ground-breaking turntablist group, Invisibl Skratch Piklz. After gaining fame, he hooked up with the Beastie Boys, working on the album Hello Nasty. He is now considered their resident DJ, replacing DJ Hurricane (who was preceded by Doctor Dre - not to be confused with Dr. Dre). In 1994, after winning three consecutive world titles of the international DMC turntablism award. Mike and Q-Bert were asked to step down from further competition as their domination was too much for the rest of the pack. The two performed an amazing "farewell" set and were honored to become DMC judges. Mike has also helped fellow DJs produce their own albums, most notably, Wave Twisters, by DJ Q-bert. Mix Master Mike is known for his heavy-hitting bass and intricate scratch routines. Mix Master Mike is often credited with inventing the Tweak Scratch. The scratch is performed by moving the record back and forth while the platter is stopped. The inertia of the platter causes the sounds to slow down and drop in pitch in an unusual manner. This claim is backed up somewhat by a recording of a voicemail he left the Beastie Boys on the track "Three MC's and one DJ". In it he states that he's hooked his turntable up to a wah-wah pedal. Mix Master Mike got the idea for his wild music when one night practising he saw 3 lights land on a football field outside of his home. He thought the lights were from another universe and believed that he could communicate with aliens. He is quoted as saying that when he makes an album he tries to make it so that when people listen to it in the year 3000 they'll say, "Yo, this is crazy." In addition to his solo work, Mix Master Mike is the Beastie Boys DJ. Beyond helping the rock/rap/punk trio create sounds for new albums he uses his turntablism expertise to bring a new dimimension to their live shows, freshening up decades old songs by dropping cuts, beats, and samples from a wide range of artists and styles, Albums * Anti-Theft Device (1998) * Spin Psycle (2001) * Bangzilla (2004) EPs and singles * Mixmasterpiece: Muzik's Worst Nightmare (1996) * Surprize Packidge (1999) * Eye of the Cyklops (2000) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.