Scratching and rapping at KECG in El Cerrinto

By David Weinstein Examiner Correspondent


“I´m G.I. Joe and I let you know I´m gonna be the king of the disco throne.
So come trough the door, get on the floor make you rock to the beat, til you beg for more.”

EL CERRITO – So raps G.I. Joe, also known as Joseph Thomas Simms Jr. He leans into the microphone and croons, “This is KECG from El Cerrito High School. You got the 10-watt hot spot.”
On the air twice a week spinning a new kind of soul music, scratch records and raps. G.I. Joe – a senior at the high school – has become a campus celebrity.
Rapping, a from of musical poetry chanted in singsong rhyme ofer pre-recorded instrumental tracks, first made the charts several years ago in New York, and today is popular among many local teens. According another campus disc jockey Rhymeo Rob a 10 th-grader also known as Rob Barquis, the idea is to “talk jive and bust some lines.”
Then there is the scratching technique. G.I. Joe spins two records at once, lays a finger on one of them and snatches it back, forcing the turntable to run in reverse for a second. Repeating this while manipulating the volume with the other hand, Joe adds his own percussion track to the first record.
”You´re playing the turntable as an instrument,” Joe explains. Also it´s called “soul”,  the music G.I. sends over the air waves bears little resemblance to classic soul performances by Ray Charles.
The new soul records are incessantly rhythmic and repetitious, almost hypnotic, with synthesizers, synthesized voices, shouts and incoherent moans.
At El Cerrito High, 10 th-graders Ron Rodriguez and Pierre Diaz watch G.I. Joe closely as he scratches, and practice the art when Joe gives them the chance. It takes a good ear, a quick eye and coordination.
Joe learned the skill from his partner, Paul “Captain Hut” Hutson, a recent graduate of McClymonds High in Oakland. Together they run Star Productions, pulling in $35 an hour as disc jockeys for parties.
They both learned their skills from Joe´s father, Joseph Thomas Simms Sr., a dance club disc jockey. Being a disc jockey at a party, G.I. Joe says is no easy task. While Captain Hut “dominates on the turntables,” Joe will be out working the crowd, getting folks to chant “use your body” or “too cold.”
“Then when it´s working,” Captain Hut says, “we don´t have to go out in the crowd and we can both be jamming with the turntables.”
G.I. Joe´s fame as a radio personality draws the crowds, and he always does a rap toward the end of the evening.
Stil, Joe doesn´t want to be a rapper or a disc jockey forever. He says the pay isn´t good enough.
As KECG´s chief engineer, Joe wants to go into electronics. He´s joning the Army in August to pursue that career.
But meanwhile, he´s spinning those discs, mixing records to create echoes, sponsoring rap contests and teaching a new generation how to scratch.