Throughout history, several inventions were created by accident or a minor mishap. The pacemaker’s inception came when an engineer used the wrong resistor, creating a device that mimicked a heartbeat. While working with radar technology, Percy Spencer noticed a candy bar had melted in his pocket, giving him the blueprint for the microwave oven. An eleven-year-old accidentally left soda powder and water with a stirring stick out in the cold, giving birth to the popsicle. In 1975, Theodore Livingston (aka Grand Wizzard Theodore) was playing records in his room at maximum volume. His mother came in and told him to turn it down or she would turn it off. While his mom stood in the doorway, giving him a piece of her mind, Theodore held the record down with his hand, rubbing it back and forth while it spun, and scratching was born.

Grand Wizzard Theodore invented the scratching technique, but it was Grandmaster Flash who perfected it and popularized it. The craft would continue to grow and evolve (thanks to legendary deejays like Grand Mixer D.ST, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and DJ Scratch), eventually turning into its own art form, known as turntablism. The X-Ecutioners are one of the groups that carried the turntablist traditions into the nineties.

Originally known as X-Men (I’m sure the all-powerful Marvel empire put an end to that), the X-Ecutioners were a group of hip-hop DJs/Turntablists from New York City, formed in 1989. They gained local notoriety for their elaborate turntable routines and for battling rival DJ crews (one of their opponents was DJ Clark Kent (RIP) and his Supermen; legend has it that the X-Men chose their name based on Clark Kent’s crew’s name). Before the name change, the X-Men were a group of eleven. With the name change came a change in the roster. Only three of the original eleven members would remain: Mista Sinista, Rob Swift, and Roc Raida. Total Eclipse would join the three later on, rounding out the new look X-Ecutioners.

The X-Ecutioners would continue to evolve. For years, their primary focus was turntablism, but they also had ambitions in producing. The world would get a glimpse of their production endeavors with the release of their debut project, X-Pressions.

I found a used copy of X-Pressions at a record store’s going-out-of-business sale back in 2018 (RIP to Discland). Everything was marked way down, so I bought anything that looked remotely interesting; this album met the criteria. This is my first time listening to the project. So, without further ado, let’s get into it.

RIP Roc Raida.

X-Outtakes 1 – All five of the “Outtakes” on X-Pressions are clips of the X-Ecutioners taken from The Battle Sounds Project, a documentary about hip-hop DJs and turntablists. This clip features Mista Sinista talking about the X-Ecutioners finally having complete creative control.

Get Started – To kick things off, the X-Ecutioners scratch up a Roxanne Shante vocal snippet (that includes an R-word that is now politically incorrect to say) over a simple drum beat that transitions into a basic drum clap, then back to another mediocre drum beat. Things get a little more interesting towards the end of the record when the drab drums transform into a chopped-up beatbox, giving dancehall vibes with a sample of someone yelling “freak!” over it. Even with the strong finish, this track was pretty underwhelming.

Word Play – Our hosts keep things traditional East Coast boom-bap with this one. Rob Swift chefs up a hard backdrop and leaves Mista Sinista to chop it up with well-placed vocal snippets (the Big Daddy Kane clip being the most dominant and cleverest). This was tough.

X-Outtakes 2 – Total Eclipse speaks on Roc Raida’s greatness, setting up the next song.

Raida’s Theme – From what I could gather on Google, the E Bros were a rap duo from Harlem, composed of Pimp D, aka Wayne-O (the emcee), and DJ JayBee. Pimp D uses a ruggedly relaxed Sean Cane-produced instrumental to rap praises to Roc Raida and the rest of The X-Ecutioners, while Raida provides the zigga, ziggas. This was solid.

Pianos From Hell – Rob Swift places a soothing, jazzy piano loop and a warmly muffled bass line over super discreet drums. I don’t know what’s up with the song title, but these pianos sound more like heaven to me.

The Cipher – Creature, Gudtyme, Kukoo Da Baga Bonez (worst alias candidate), Pliz, and World turn this into an X-Ecutioners celebration cipher. Overall, the rapping was cool, but I enjoyed Rob Swift’s muddy backdrop and its moody bass line more. Oh yeah, Mista Sinista adds some dope scratches to the record as well.

The Turntablist Anthem – Rob Swift must have been in a jazzy mood during the recording sessions for X-Pressions, as this is the second time in the last three tracks that he samples a jazz piano loop. I’m not complaining, though. He invites a vocalist credited as Anikke to repeat the same line over and over and over. She sounds okay, but the repetition starts to wear on the ears. The song ends with female emcee, Taboo, spittin’ a few erotic bars about how good Rob’s music makes her feel. It made me wonder how much ass deejays and turntablists get after rockin’ a set.

X-Outtakes 3 – Quick snippet of The X-Ecutioners working on one of their routines.

One Man Band – Roc Raida goes dolo on this one. He starts things off talkin’ shit through a series of soundbites before dropping raw drums, accompanied by tough scratches and a stank-face inducing bass line. This lasts for a minute before things transition into pounding hi-hats that Raida scratches the shit out of. From there, things become forgettable, but at least two-thirds of it was dope.

The Countdown – The whole crew jumps in for this concoction. Over crackin’ drums and a bass line that’s guaranteed to get your head nodding (or make you do the wop), The X-Ecutioners count down (technically, they count up) to three via scratches. It would have been nice to hear them count up to ten, but it’s still mildly interesting as is. I thought the record was going to end at the two-minute mark (since they scratch in a soundbite saying “end”). Instead, it continues, led by decent scratches, a grumpy-sounding bassline, and a stripped-down drum beat that did nothing for me.

Solve For X – Rob Swift starts this one off with a swirly loop that sounds like it’s going to take off, which piqued my interest. But things quickly stall, and the record falls victim to repetitive dullness. I also found it interesting that the track doesn’t have any scratches on it.

X-Outtakes 4 – Mista Sinista speaks on Total Eclipse’s evolution on the turntables.

Turntable Exhibition – Great segue. Total Eclipse showcases his turntablist skills dolo on this one. I like what he did to the James Brown record towards the end, but the rest was just mid for me.

Beat Treats – Roc Raida and Mista Sinista give this track four different lives: the first part is built around tinker bell drums and a chunky funk loop that reminded me of some early Too Short shit. It switches to a bland drum beat and a sparse guitar loop. Life three sounds like a low-budget Born To Roll” beat, and the duo saves the best for last, attacking with killer hi-hats. Unfortunately, the good part only lasted twenty seconds.

Musical Intuition – Rob Swift and Sinista hook up a soulfully mystic instrumental (scratches courtesy of Rob Swift) for Gudtyme to rap about his experience at a few DJ competitions, and express his overall love and admiration for the art of turntablism. I respect Gudtyme’s sentiment, but I was underwhelmed by his performance (Anikke, who sang on “The Turntablist Anthem,” sounds a little off on this track too). At least the production was dope.

Mad Flava – Such a nineties hip-hop song title. All hands are on deck for this X-Ecutioners routine, which moves through four different phases. Things start with scratches over a minimal backdrop, before morphing into a cheesy Casio keyboard loop that sounds like something Swizz Beatz would make. The third phase is uneventful. But it gets us to the fourth, which turns into a mildly funky groove, ending things on an upward note.

X-Outtakes 5 – Total Eclipse breaks down hip-hop’s evolution and the dying art of deejaying.

Poetry In Motion – Halex the Armageddon continues the dialogue from the previous interlude with a spoken word poem about hip-hop’s crumbling foundation. But have no fear, the X-Ecutioners are here, and they won’t allow hip-hop to “fall victim to the corrupt system.” The poem was cool, but I was more entertained by Roc Raida’s dreamy instrumental. It feels like an audio massage.

Scratch To This – Roc Raida lays down a basic drum beat with a simple guitar loop and no scratches. I guess he left it clean for aspiring turntablists to add their own zigga, ziggas to.

Musica Negra (Black Music) – Gudtyme gets his third crack at the mic on X-Pressions. This time, he discusses the Black struggle, Black unity, and celebrates Black music, while Rob Swift adds his input via scratches. The song has a great message, but the more I hear Gudtyme rhyme, the less I like his rapping. Rob Swift’s sleepy accordion-driven backdrop didn’t do it for me either.

Table Talk – The 5th Platoon is a group of Filipino American turntablists and DJs from New York City, who came up in the nineties, known for battling and creating intricate turntable routines. They show love and appreciation for their O.G’s (The X-Ecutioners) as they reminisce on some of their favorite X-Men moments. Mista Sinista loops up a feel-good xylophone sample for the music bed that makes you feel optimistic about the future of hip-hop, if you were listening to this in 1997. If that makes any sense.

I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest fan of turntablism. But I do respect it as an art form. Grown from the tree of deejaying and fathered by scratching, the turntablist is a magician on the ones and twos with the ability to electrify a crowd with their showmanship and wage war with their opponents for sport, if necessary. As a casual fan of the craft, I’m not super knowledgeable of the intricacies and terminology that come with it. But I do know some of the turntablist competitions are entertaining to watch on YouTube. The keyword in the previous sentence was watch.

On X-Pressions, The X-Ecutioners blend their turntablism with hip-hop beats and an occasional rhyme from a few of their friends. Rob Swift leads the production side of things, having a hand in ten of the album’s seventeen tracks (excluding the “X-Outtakes”). Overall, the instrumentals on X-Pressions are pretty solid and entertaining, but the emceeing and the turntablism were a mixed bag.

While a handful of emcees make appearances on the album, The X-Ecutioners (or more so, Rob Swift) choose to highlight Gudtyme’s rhyming as he appears three times on X-Pressions, including two of his own solo joints. Something about Gudtyme’s choppy flow and the slur of his words just doesn’t do it for me, as his contributions to the album are mediocre at best. Most of the other guest emcees sound decent, but none of them wow or amaze.

I mentioned a few paragraphs ago that I enjoyed watching turntablist competitions online. The visual component of turntablism is just as important as the audio, and sometimes more important. The heart and soul of X-Pressions is centered around turntablism. Almost every track features scratching from one of The X-Ecutioners, and the midway point of X-Pressions goes through a slew of full-blown turntable routines performed by the quartet. Each of these cuts has enjoyable parts, but none of them blew me away. Not being able to see these talented turntablists execute their precise scratches and impossible tricks with natural swag and coolness takes away from the experience. Without the visual, a lot of it falls flat.

X-Pressions is a decent album, but it would probably sound much better as a live show.

-Deedub
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