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 Grand Wizard Theodore, Rodney P & Skitz, Moneyshot and Jaffa The Toucan Club, Cardiff
Friday 19th March. Broadcast
live on 1Xtra
 The ‘on-air’ sign behind the stage blinked into life, and the sound engineer gave tonight’s host Rodney P the nod. “Caaaaaaaaaaardif! Make some noise you’re live on 1Xtra,” he bellowed, mic in one hand, spliff in the other. Cue the crowd, jam-packed at the front. They’d been waiting patiently for this 12 o’clock kick off and the chance to show the UK how loud Cardiff can be. They didn’t disappoint. With all the boooo!-ing that went on inside that night, passers by must of thought a pantomime was being staged.
The man in charge of the volley of hits that backed Riddim Killa Rodney’s big ups and singalongs (“Yo! People, it’s karaoke time!”), was his long time collaborator and co-host of 1Xtra’s Original Fever show daddy Skitz. He dropped jam after jam on the wheels of steel (warmed up with style earlier from DJ’s Moneyshot and Jaffa). But tonight could only be about one thing, the presence of a hip hop legend for the first time in Cardiff.
When it comes to naming the hip hop pioneers people forget Grand Wizard Theodore. He was the 13 year old boy who invented the worldwide industry of scratching by accident, by holding his hand over a beat on his decks so he could listen to what his mother was banging on about downstairs when he was trying to mix, and realising that if he manipulated the sound under his fingers it sounded a bit dope.
Fast forward to Friday the 19th of March 2004. Theodore fully intended to scratch that night, and juggle…and at one point both. Blind folded. Hip hop audiences are often disappointed when heroes from the Old School tour in the modern era. But Grand Wizard Theodore lived up to his legacy. While his skills seemed primitive to the likes of DJ’s like Q-Bert, the magic was still there. And the crowd loved it. The pint sized 42 year old relished in the glory and rocked those turntables like he did when he was a teenager in the Bronx. He made history and this Cardiff crowd wanted to thank him for that.
Maybe next time the BBC shouldn’t bother with any recording equipment. The Toucan Club made enough noise for the whole country to hear anyway.
- DJ Moneyshot
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