When the human beat box first caught the public eye in the early 1980s, it was treated (as with rap in toto) like a fad, ephemeral, ready to disappear with the next strong breeze (or the next “fad”). However, it survived, and Philly’s Scratch (born Kyle Jones) emerged as one of its masters. A no-frills percussion machine born to replicate the backbeat sound, he helped to keep the art form alive into its third decade, both through his work with the legendary Roots crew and as a solo artist.