Jazzy Jeff: DJing Is The Nucleus Of Everything
Author: Jonty Skrufff
Monday, November 1, 2004
Still best known as Will Smith's partner in 80s TV sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Jazzy Jeff is also rightly recognised as one of the pioneers of hip hop, going on to sell over ten million records as well as establishing a highly successful record label (a Touch Of Jazz' based in his home town of Philadelphia. More recently, however, he's refocused his attention on DJing, spinning the wildly varied house style he first embraced in the 80s.
"When I started out a DJ played everything from rock, hip hop, jazz, funk to soul, whatever; if a record fitted in and it made people move, then you played it," he points our.
"But in recent years I noticed that if I played a house or dance set, people would look at me and say "but you're a hip hop DJ'. I've always considered myself just a DJ, I was DJing before hip hop was around playing all different styles," he says.
And to prove his point unequivocally, he's recently mixed a highly eclectic soulful house compilation for UK funky house label Defected, which is the project he's promoting today in a London penthouse hotel room. Though the suite's elevated five star, his demeanour is impeccably grounded, reflecting his highly unusual humility developed through a lifetime of experience.
"I can tell you I had three million dollars in the bank then two years later I had 30 dollars in the bank, it can happen," he reveals.
"Things don't last for ever, especially in this business, it's like a big giant wave. What you have to learn to do is you have learn how to live when everything is down, because if you learn to live and maintain yourself when everything is down, then it's a cruise when you're going up."
As well as promoting the album he's spent the afternoon lecturing a class of music students where he's been sharing more of the wisdom he's picked up along the way.
"Everybody has different reasons for doing things, some people DJ for the money, others for the fame or the love, and some people for a mixture of all of them," he explains
"I didn't have any of this planned out; I didn't have a business plan, it was all on the job training that you learned as you progressed. I told the kids in the school today that I got a job and saved my money to buy equipment to put on parties for free. I spent money to do this, whereas today I know people that get into DJing just to make money," he continues.
"My love made me do this and when money started to come I started to look at how much money I was making off of this and I almost forgot my love. So then I found myself chasing every dollar and I became unhappy. It took about five or six years of being unhappy for me to understand. I was making money but chasing something that I'd never catch. I always tell people, if you chase money you'll never catch it, you'll grab it you'll be right on its heels but you'll never catch it."
"It made me understand that my happiness lies in me being happy and the happiest moments I had had absolutely nothing to do with money," he adds, not that he's become judgemental.
"As time passes you change your perspective because you mature and get more comfortable and start understanding that it's cool to change your mind," he continues.
"and that's what I tell people; if you want to do this for money, don't feel ashamed, just understand. You may start doing it for money then realise that you really love it and say hey I'm doing it for love. Or the other way round, it doesn't matter. The beauty to me of what we're doing in the entertainment industry is that there's absolutely positively no right and wrong. It's entirely up to you."
Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): Starting with the new house compilation, your track selection va Tags