Music > Interviews

DJ Jazzy Jeff

30/03/15

DJ Jazzy Jeff. Legendary Philadelphia DJ who started way back in the mid 80’s. Legendary producer of timeless cuts. Legendary friend of Will Smith. When we heard that the man himself was coming to Norwich, we just had to get a legendary DJ of our own in to interview him. So we roped in Mike, aka Chrome who’s now in a crew with Illinspired and has been rapping and DJ’ing in Norwich for years; he used to be in Deftex. Chrome was just the right guy for the job, and after a half hour gabbing with the greatest, he turned out this super interview. What a couple of diamond geezers they are.

So Jeff, I did a record with K-Delight recently which is dedicated to you!

Oh yes! Yes! A pleasure to meet you! I love it! I absolutely love it. Me and K Delight go back a good ways, man. I  was really happy to hear that he had resurfaced and I was speechless! I’m a fan of yours!

How old were you when you got your first set of turntables and what inspired you to DJ?

I got my turntables late which I think actually helped. I got them when I was about 18; I started DJ’ing when I was around 10. I was part of a crew and the guy who owned the turntables basically had them at his house, so if you wanted to practice you had to go there, and you were always on someone else’s time.  It made me practice mentally, and work out routines in my head before I had a chance to actually put ‘em down. I did that for a really really long time. In the group I was the one responsible for buying the records. So someone else had the equipment. The most important thing for a DJ to have is records, in hindsight. So when I decided to go off on my own I had a massive record collection.

Who has been your main inspiration?

 Um, back then it would be guys like Grandmaster Flash, because Flash was DJ’ing to get world recognition and now everybody in the world knows who he is, so he showed you could get that kind of recognition.  He’s like a brother to me, even still, there’s a level of the smoothness of what he does…I still get the chills over the way he cuts a record.

Back in the day, when you developed your routines and won the world supremacy title, why didn’t you enter the DMC World DJ competitions?

Well it’s a funny story. I entered in 186 or 1987, won the regional and national finals, but when it came to go to London to enter the worldwide competition, I had a temperature of 105°. When I won the U.S finals most of the DJ’s were just mixing records together, and they complained that because I was scratching, there was no way they could beat that ‘cos it was something new!

Can you tell me about your infamous Live from Union Square performance with The Fresh Prince where you introduced the transformer scratch?

Live at Union Square happened because the stars aligned in so many different ways; it really wasn’t set to happen! We didn’t realise that hip hop DJ’s didn’t really do showcases, and that’s what separated the Philadelphia and New York sounds. We knew how intense NYC was; NYC gave no one props so we felt compelled to go and listen. We started the show off with my DJ routine to suck everyone in, then we brought in the Human Beatbox and then we played our records; if we could get everyone onside at the start that would be great. I mean, I saw Eric B and Rakim get booed off the Latin Quarter Stage and they were actually from New York so that’s how New York was.

I’ve recently managed to get a recording of your whole set of that performance recently. Are there any other demo’s from that time which haven’t been released?

I was really bad with keeping that kind of stuff! I have some cassettes from some house parties that Will and I did that I listen to now and I’m just amazed at how fast I was; I prided myself on getting in and out of records really fast. I’m starting to digitise a lot of that stuff…I didn’t realise back in the day how important that stuff was. When you’re making any kind of history you don’t realise you’re doing it especially when you’re 17 years old at a house party for 100 people.  So I’m trying to grab a lot of stuff from the past as you realise it was actually the start of something.

How has the hip hop scene changed in Philadelphia since you were young?

At that point in time, we felt looked down upon compared to New York and we were just trying to fit in. We created our own scene and started having our own successes. That feeling of being an outcast is what sparked that whole movement. Dayne Jordan who is touring with me is from Philly, and there’s a whole new generation and scene there now; it’s their time now. Some of these guys, I realise I knew their dads back in the day! It’s a really thriving scene.

Do you still use actual records or do you use digital these days?

I am a gadget fanatic, so I have always seen both sides of the coin. I do realise that with technology things have to progress; I just don’t want the progression to hurt the art. I have about 70,000 records and there was a point where I was like, Jeff, you have to stop. It became an obsession. My transfer to digital had more to do with going to Japan on tour and taking 3 record boxes and coming home with $3,800 in baggage charges. It had more to do with going to buy records and realising Sony only pressed up one run of this vinyl and if you don’t get it, you won’t have it. The only people who were buying vinyl for a time were DJ’s and that wasn’t enough to keep the format alive as everyone else was buying tapes and CD’s. As long as I can do exactly what I can do on digital with vinyl, I’m cool. The only thing that Serato does to make your life easier is carry your records. You sucked as a DJ before Serato? You still suck on Serato. But I have never stopped buying records too.

So have you digitised your whole record collection or do you just download the tracks you want?

Q-Tip had a fire and lost all his records. It scared the living shit out of anyone who was “digging” (ie buying vinyl as a collector). Kenny Dope and I, after that happened, started digitising our records, so , to make it easier, I would start digitising all the hip hop records and Kenny would digitise all the  funk and the soul, so we just shared our stuff with each other. So when Serato came out we were already ahead of the game as all our records were already on iTunes! So then we started digital digging…records that were so hard to find physically, but you could find them digitally.

Will we ever see a Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff reunion?

This is what I tell everybody; it’s not desire, but time. What with him being one of the biggest movie stars in the world and all. We get together and he says “Man, this is great. I want to do it. I NEED to do it.” I pretty much do a party for him every time he does a movie cos it gives him an excuse, he grabs a mic and we do it. I can tell he’s getting a lot more serious about it; I got a call from him last year asking me what I was doing for New Year’s, and I told him I’d be in Dubai. He said he was coming, but I didn’t really think he would. His security called my assistant to check the grounds etc. But then he came! It was one of the first times he came as my guest It was on the beach in Dubai, there were 15,000-16,000 people, and he was like “Shiiit!”. So he came along to check it up and ended up opening the show…people lost it, man. It was great. So we really hope we can do something together in the future.

You and I recently appeared together on a track, but other than myself, who are you most proud of working with during your career thus far?

I don’t think I look at it like that. The people you work with are all different experiences. I always equate it to a chef using different ingredients. I think the reason why you don’t see a million and one collaborations with me is I can only work with people I vibe with. I get mad; I wanna be Pete Rock, or DJ Premier, cos they can make magic with nearly anybody. I’m not that guy though, I have to feel something with someone to make it work.

What advice would you have for any budding DJ’s or producers out there?

Find out exactly who you are. Experiment. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to surround yourself with people who will be brutally honest and not just agree with you on everything. Would you like your man to tell you your breath stinks or would you like the pretty girl you hope to marry one day to tell you? Because that first impression may turn her off forever. So I surround myself with people who tell me “Jeff, you need a mint!”

DJ Jazzy Jeff plays at Epic on 16th April. You can win a pair of tickets on our website!