New York turntablist crew the X-ecutioners have a good excuse for taking more than four years to record their new album. It is Built From Scratch.
Acclaimed vinyl manipulators Total Eclipse, Sinista, Roc Raida and Rob Swift also took the time to recruit a stellar lineup of guest musicians, which includes Linkin Park, Xzibit, Dan the Automator and the late Big Punisher.
The X-ecutioners’ track with Xzibit will be the album’s first single, while the Linkin Park collaboration is scheduled to be the second. Track titles have not been confirmed.
DJ Premier, Pharoahe Monch, the Beat Junkies, Kool G Rap, Inspectah Deck, the Tom Tom Club, beatboxer Kenny Muhammed and hardcore rappers M.O.P. also make appearances on the album, due September 25 on Loud Records.
Built From Scratch is the follow-up to 1997’s X-pressions, one of the first turntablist albums.
The cover of the new record will be a replication of Public Enemy’s classic Yo! Bum Rush the Show, which features Chuck D and the gang in a basement room huddling around a turntable and mixer.
The X-ecutioners’ version of the cover will feature the four members of the group along with hip-hop innovator Kool Herc, scratch inventor Grand Wizard Theodore and Grandmaster DXT, who, as Grandmaster DST, popularized record scratching on Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit.”