Before Digable Planets alumni King Britt got his career off to a good early start with the Euro hit Tribal Confusion, he was working at the now-bankrupt Tower Records. His experiences at there led to making plenty of record label contacts, which helped when Britt was ready to start sending out demos of his DJ and production work. Later he toured as the DJ for Digable Planets, the group that brought a blast of fresh air into hip-hop by adding live jazz to turntable and rap sounds. His most recent work includes work on the Miami Vice film soundtrack and the Scuba album, Hidden Treasers. In part one of our exclusive interview, Gearwire's Joe Wallace had a lengthy conversation with King Britt about his career, DJ gear, the MacBook Pro, and much more

Gearwire: Let's start with a little history. How did you get involved in DJ culture, cutting records, and Digable Planets?

King Britt: What happened was, I grew up in jazz, soul and funk. My Mom was into jazz, my Dad was into funk. I grew up in Philly and had all that musical history in the 70s, all those really positive lyrics and things. In high school and out of high school I started working at Tower Records, and I made comnnections with labels that were popping up in the underground all over the world. I never thought I would make music for a living, it was a hobby. I started to make demos, and started sending demos to the labels.

I was good friends with Josh Wink at the time , he was just starting, and we did (Tribal Confusion) together,and it blew up in England. Simultaneously about a year later I met Butterfly from Digable Planets, and we becaome good friends instantly.

Wink dropped out of sight for a while, didn't he?

We were friends for a long time and then he disappeared for seven months, then reappeared with a record deal and he said, "I want you to be a part of this group." I got to tavel the world for two years as a DJ for Digable Planets, changed my whole life."

What was your work in Digable Planets like?

I was a turntablist. We had a jazz band, these guys were veterans and I was throwing beats under samples, cutting things in.

What were your challenges mixing turntables, plus a live jazz band?

With Digable we needed to do the first tour, we had instrumentals, we made special instrumentals that were stripped down to place under the band, and we would filter out a lot of the low end, keep an 808, but just leave samples. My job was to cut things in and out, and bring in things that I thought would work. So the funny thing is, we had acetates because we couldn't afford to print up a 1,000-record minimum vinyl run for the samples. (The acetates) would start to wear out and it was the biggest pain!

DJ technology has changed a lot since your work in Digable Planets. What impresses you these days?

CDJs are the best technology as a DJ, traveling you dont need to carry your whole vinyl collection, CDJs are a lot more reliable than the computer, they are pretty durable, though once in a while you will get a glitch. You can manipulate just like vinyl. For me, Pioneer, they are the ones for me. Pioneer is so easy to use, I gravitate to them. I just received Torq, M-Audio's entry into the digital DJ world. Being a DJ/musician, with Torq, all the knobs are MIDI controllable so its like having a studio as a DJ...Torq is amazing.

What about laptops, MP3s, iPods, and the like?

Laptops? I am still a vinyl purist. I still collect vinyl then burn it, but when I burn it I run it thru a tube compressor. I use Avalon 727, two of those to warm it up really nice. I don't do it with everything but as much as I can with the old stuff. New stuff is made digitally so it doesn't have the warmth to begin with.

When the CD revolution came in, how long did it take for you to start getting into it?

When CDs came out it toolk me a while to go, but for health reasons, and for airlines losing collections. . . I can't have that. I value my vinyl too much. Going CDs wasn't that hard mentally. this is the way it is. The end result is, I'm still rockin' the party.

Have you performed using the M-Audio Torq yet? What do you think of it?

I haven't DJed with Torq, New Year's eve will be my first time. I've used a MacBook Pro with my band, but Mac, I dont have a problem with. I have seen crazy horror stories with Vinyl Scratch (the CD scratching feature) when it first came out, Josh Wink was a beta tester, and with 8,000 people it would freeze up, but Josh was smart and had a backup. This was on a PC when Vinyl Scratch came out, they seem to crash more than the Macs. When I saw Jazzy Jeff manipulate Serato, and it blew my mind, to return the favor, I said, "Yo Jeff, check Torq out, it will blow your mind!" It's ok to use a computer! What put me over the edge, Francois Kervorkian, to see him JUST use the laptop and KILL it and look excited using it, that was, "OK, I'm gonna use the laptop."

The second part of Gearwire's interview with King Britt will include his advice for new and aspiring DJs, including how to use iTunes to its full potential.