Cash Money
An oft-cited influence among DJs, Philadelphia’s Cash Money (born Jerome Hewlett) is credited with creating one of the crucial scratches of the turntable art form — the transformer scratch. The ever-self-effacing Cash Money credits another DJ, Spinbad, with the invention, but historians/trainspotters of the form say that Cash Money was the one to perfect it. His mixes graced many of Sleeping Bag Records’ releases and his record with MC Marvelous (Marvin Berryman), Where’s the Party At?, came out on the label in 1988. Since then he has competed internationally, winning the prestigious DJ World Championship in the late ’80s and being named Greatest DJ in the World. If that wasn’t honor enough, turntable manufacturer Technics made Cash Money the first inductee into the DJ Hall of Fame in 1998.