LEE POTTER, better known on the dance scene as CUT LA ROC, can still remember the look on his mother's face the day her 15-year-old son brought home his first Technics turntable.
``She was horrified,'' Roc said.
```You paid 200 for a record player?' And that was before she discovered I needed two!'' These days, she could not be more proud of Potter who has gone from using his bedroom as a studio to join the elite of the DJ world.
It all began with Potter growing up in Brighton where he would skip school in favour of hanging out with breakdancers, closely watching their moves and DJ scratch tricks.
``Instead of going to school, I'd go around there first thing in the morning so I could use their decks while they were asleep,'' Potter said.
He immersed himself in the world of hip-hop, scratching and editing his productions on cheap samplers and battling it out at jams.
But with the arrival of VANILLA ICE in the early `90s, Potter soon became disheartened with hip- hop.
He was introduced to the sounds of acid house and he was ``seduced all over again.'' ``I'd never really liked house music up until then, but this was kind of different,'' Potter said.
``Because it had the hip-hop element through the breakbeats, it made total sense to me.'' Renowned for his scratching and mixing skills, Cut La Roc started out as a member of the SKINT gang and challenged the mainstream and underground with appearances on pop- dominated UK program Top of the Pops and releases through MINISTRY OF SOUND. His first two early EPs in his Mad Skills series stood alongside FATBOY SLIM and BENTLEY RHYTHM ACE'S finest as the foundations on which the Skint record label empire was built.
He recently founded his own label ROCSTAR RECORDINGS. ``I'm both a DJ and a producer,'' Potter said.
``The deejaying pays the rent while the producing is my musical outlet. I mainly produce my own original material but also handle the odd remix. I won't remix just anything though I'm quite selective.'' Cut La Roc will serve up a mix of hip-hop, funky breaks and house at BLOWPOP with fellow UK guest DEADLY AVENGER on Saturday night at the CAMBRIDGE HOTEL. Also appearing will be MC OZI BATLA, SKOOB AND MATHEMATICS, DJ NAKED, JOULES FINE, EMTEE, LUKE FITZ and REVOLVER. Doors open at 9pm and entry will cost $22.
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