Infamous Player

Scratchmaster Joe is a dick. He’s got a short temper, tells
off-color jokes, and can be pretty intolerant of things he doesn’t
understand (like laptop DJing). Musically, he’s an egotistical showman,
a championship-level turntablist who shows off the results of years
planted in front of a pair of decks. He favors ghettotech, a genre so
excessive in its offensiveness—popular track titles include
“Ass-N-Titties,” “Gimme Head,” and “Pushin’ Dik”—that it provokes
smiles instead of protests. Known as much for his brash personality as
his musical output, the alter ego of Joe Martinez has rubbed a lot of
people the wrong way over the years, even Martinez himself. Now,
Martinez has created a kinder, gentler persona—Nicemaster
Nice—and after taking some time off for community service, he’s
ready to bring his new name out to the club.

Scratchmaster Joe is perhaps best known as one half of Famous
Players, the DJ duo he formed with Seattle-to–New York transplant
Samuel Kirkland. The two bonded over a mutual appreciation for electro
and ghettotech, and in 2003 they released their first mix CD, the
provocatively titled Taliban Sam and Jihad Joe Are Dropping Bombs
on Islam. Checking the shelf life on those names, they began
calling themselves “The Infamous DJ Team Known as Famous Players,”
later shortened to Famous Players. In 2005, they started a label under
the same name, releasing Scratchmaster Joe and freakdat! Are Famous
Players, which added vocals, beat juggling, and an extra turntable
(upping the count to four) to their initial setup. The mix CD was 18
months in the making, prolonged by Kirkland’s move and the difficulty
the vinyl purists had in attaining a single “perfect” take.

Following the CD’s release, Martinez
focused his attention on
solo endeavors, such as organizing the well-received Battle of the
Mega-Mixes, a vinyl-centric DJ mixing competition. But he found himself
feeling increasingly frustrated and alienated in Seattle’s music scene,
loudly kicking people out of his shared house during roommate-initiated
afterparties, or ranting wildly online about the shift toward digital
DJing.

“I didn’t and still don’t like that so much of the music scene I’m
into is about partying, staying up all night drinking,” says Martinez.
“I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to give back. I grew up in
foster care for most of my teenage years, and there were people that
looked out for me, and I wanted to do the same for other people.”

Thus Nicemaster Nice was born. Martinez took a year off from
performing live, turning his energy toward bettering both his community
and himself.

“[Scratchmaster Joe] came about because I wanted to have a name that
I was forced to live up to,” says Martinez. “I couldn’t go into a club
with that name and not scratch. Nicemaster Nice came from the same
place.”

To live up to his new name, in 2007, Martinez took on the graffiti
problem at his family’s Georgetown shop by turning its wall into a
community art project. He coordinated 14 local graffiti artists to
paint a mural on the 160-foot-long surface, attracting national
attention and, recently, an audience of docents from the Smithsonian.
He’s already planning another wall on Capitol Hill highlighting Nko,
one of the artists featured on the Georgetown wall.

With some prodding from his sister, Martinez also started an
electronic-music production class at the Meadowbrook Teen Center in
Lake City, keeping kids occupied with instruction on drum machine and
synth programming, recording, and song structure. He successfully
solicited donations of money, equipment, and expertise from the Seattle
music community to help the Center build a fully functioning studio
where kids can go from baby steps to producing their own material.

Now, Scratchmaster Joe is bringing his friendlier persona to the
music world with his latest release, Scratchmaster Joe Is
Nicemaster Nice. Originally, the megamix CD—again recorded
using only vinyl—was to be a bit of a sendoff to DJing.

“I was moving more into production, I wanted to have another name
that wasn’t so DJ specific,” says Martinez. But recording the mix
reinvigorated his love for being behind the decks and cemented his
overall change in perspective. “After that separation, I grew to see
the things that I liked in the community instead of the things I didn’t
like,” says Martinez. “In making the disc,
I learned to love DJing
again.”

But Joe the dick hasn’t completely succumbed to the Nice. Martinez
sees his dual personas as complementary, rather than conflicting,
halves.

“It’s kind of a yin/yang thing,” says Martinez. “Scratchmaster Joe
is an overbearing, egotistical asshole. Nicemaster Nice is this
community-oriented, family-friendly, engaging, patient
individual—everything Scratchmaster Joe isn’t. They need each
other to exist, because neither of them is a whole person.”

donte@thestranger.com