i released the original 12inch volume of five fingers of death battle breaks way back in 1998, while i was living in oakland and then san francisco during a time of incredible movement and creativity within the suddenly exploding scratch dj scene. the term turntablist, coined by dj disk, had yet to really catch on outside of the bay area scratch fraternity. having recently moved to california from new york, pauls turntable aesthetics were strictly 80s east coast and was more concerned with catching doubles (beat juggling) and overall party rocking. in other words, the science of scratching was not something i was even contemplating.needless to say, i was completely amazed and overwhelmed with what djs like qbert, shortcut, apollo and mixmaster mike were doing. (paul nice)