Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using turntables and a DJ mixer. Turntablists generally prefer direct-drive turntables over belt-driven or other types. The word turntablist was originated / developed by Luis "DJ Disk" Quintanilla (Primus, Herbie Hancock, Invisibl Skratch Piklz). And after a phone conversation with Disk, it was later "coined" and used in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who simply plays records and one who performs by physically manipulating the records, stylus, and mixer to produce sounds. The new term coincided with the resurgence of hip-hop DJing in the 1990s.

Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using turntables and a DJ mixer. Turntablists generally prefer direct-drive turntables over belt-driven or other types. The word turntablist was originated / developed by Luis "DJ Disk" Quintanilla (Primus, Herbie Hancock, Invisibl Skratch Piklz). And after a phone conversation with Disk, it was later "coined" and used in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who simply plays records and one who performs by physically manipulating the records, stylus, and mixer to produce sounds. The new term coincided with the resurgence of hip-hop DJing in the 1990s.