The Art of Digging
(This week's post is dedicated to our pal DJ Lady Bass. Although she's not exactly an old skool hip hop DJ, she's likely done her share of "digging"!)
The Art of Digging -
what hip hop DJ's can teach us about finding inspiration
The people that dig, don't stop digging, 'cause it's a part of who we are.
- DJ Shadow
In a companion piece to his book "The Art of Noticing" author Rob Walker writes about how we can find inspiration, spark creativity, and discover joy by embracing the creative spirit of Hip Hop DJs.
With "The Art of Noticing" in mind, Walker ruminates on ideas from the 2001 Hip Hop turntablism documentary "Scratch". In particular, he focusses on the concept of “digging”. Digging (or "crate digging" as it is often referred) means "spending endless hours patiently rooting through stacks of records, looking for that one cut that everybody else missed."
From the documentary: "Of all these records of shit... there might be that one diamond in the rough. You're digging all day and you find that one record. Then all of a sudden... you're at the end of the crate... you're dusty and you stink... and it's worth it."
Walker suggests that "digging" should be applied to all creative pursuits and to every day life. "You have to spend the time to sort through the junk to find the treasure. The only way to find the good stuff, the special stuff, the genuine moments and the true inspiration, is to first engage with the everyday, the mundane, the seemingly useless, the things nobody else seems to care about."
So engage, says Walker. There is no shortcut; there is no algorithm. If all you do is track what’s trending, then all you’ll ever know is exactly what everyone else already knew.
To discover, you have to dig.