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| The world keeps turning (7/2/04)... |
| What are your children learning from your "job"? I thought this was a good article, probably because of the effect my Mary Kay business has had on my boys!... The world keeps turning June 25, 2004
Explaining why DJ QBert is so important to hip-hop is difficult. Sure, he's a turntablist, but so are any number of record-scratching, hip-hop-loving aspirants. The difference between him and many of his colleagues is that he's a genuine innovator. Put it this way: if Grandmaster Flash is hip-hop's Louis Armstrong, QBert is Miles Davis. Ask QBert (born Richard Quivetis) what he does and the answer is succinct: "I'm a musician that plays the turntable - like a musician that plays the harpsichord." ... Forget the marijuana-addled, bedroom-bound stereotype of turntablists; Quivetis is something else. His voice is clear and articulate, his opinions are thoughtful and measured, and he never seems to stop working, whether it's putting together new electronic turntable devices, recording or performing. "My work is a holiday," he says. "For some reason I feel that I should be working all the time or thinking of projects. My whole life is a big creative process. Every second I'm looking for a new sound, style or idea. My life is a passion for creation." Some hip-hop personalities may thrive on angst and struggle, but Quivetis is overwhelmingly positive, almost to the point of sounding religious. Indeed, there is something almost mystical about his manner, like the aura of a child prodigy or the manic energy of a certified creative genius. "As you grow and learn more about life in general, it teaches you that we all have the power to create, and create things that make the world a better place." He continues, not pausing for a second: "Seek and you will find - I always want to seek what life is all about, just by reading all these things about what life is about." ... Like most American children born in the 1970s, when hip-hop hit in the early 1980s he was hooked. Quivetis took to the turntables in 1985. Typically, his parents' attitude was negative. "It was more of a money thing," he recalls. "They were like, 'You gotta be a doctor, lawyer, engineer - those guys make lots of money'. That's how it was for a long time until my mother started selling Mary Kay cosmetics and she became very good at it. She was the 'Queen of Recruiting' in the US for four years running. She would listen to the self-help tapes - goal-setting tapes and all of that. I had to listen to those every time I would wake up in the morning and be ready to cut class. It was a freak accident. It stuck in my head, and I've applied that to my life and my DJ career. I was totally failing at school and then that happened out of nowhere." ... Quivetis is proof that almost any idea can become reality, and it's a philosophy he happily espouses. "Follow your dreams and never stop others from dreaming is what I was taught. Anyone can do it, but people don't see it." |
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