Jazzy Jeff
(continued from page 13) win, is: Learn from your mistakes. One of the things that I realized is that probably 80-percent of the Thre3style winners have competed before. So it’s almost like they think, “OK, I didn’t win, but I know what I did wrong—and I know how to fix it.” DJ Times: Like, “What am I taking from this experience?” Jazzy Jeff: Right, it’s just… paying attention, you know? And for the winners of the first heat, it’s like, “How well can I adjust to make sure I can
win the second heat?” You’ve got to pay attention to everything. DJ Times: How has this particular competition put battles and the original culture of DJing back onto the map? Jazzy Jeff: First of all, you have to give credit to Red Bull for putting the resources forward for all this. I mean, listen, Red Bull’s got somebody jumping out of the Space Shuttle [laughs], so they’re very much into the authenticity of things. So, making sure
that the competition has credible judges that you can’t really pull anything over on—because we’ve been around the block—or by putting these events in great venues, they’re doing it right. And with these competitions, they are showing everyone that there are a lot of great DJs around the world, not just the United States. And it’s all creating a network that, say, you get cool with the DJs from South America, next thing you know you’re playing there. DJ Times: Such a difference now in the DJ scene, compared to when you started. Now the profile of the DJ has changed with the huge success of dance-music side of the things, and some of the enormous EDM festivals that are drawing more than 100,000 a day. From your perspective, what does that say about the evolution of the DJ culture? Jazzy Jeff: For DJs, I look at it like this: You got the best job in the world. Your job is to go and make people have a good time by playing music, any kind of music. Just like the ebbs and flows, to me, watching the resurgence of dance music, it felt exactly like the rise of hip hop. DJ Times: You came from Philadelphia, so you came up in a culture of R&B, disco, jazz, Philly Soul, Neo-Soul, then some more modern dance music, rock, hip hop—all of the above—and you’ve seen them all take their turns and have their day. Now electronic music is the sound that this generation prefers. Jazzy Jeff: And this is something that has happened outside of America, long before it’s gotten here, as we now know it. That’s usually how the music trends go… DJ Times: Unless it’s hip hop. Jazzy Jeff: [Laughs] Yeah, exactly! But me, having the ability to travel abroad, I saw the dance-music/ EDM craze five or six years before it hit here. DJ Times: Speaking of Philadelphia, Josh Wink was having pop hits in Europe in the 1990s. Meanwhile, they were still underground here. Jazzy Jeff: That’s it, you know! So I watched it and even now I’m starting realize that the festivals want another stage. It’s like they’re taking it back to the old-school raves where you had rooms playing all the house music and all the techno, but you also had the “alternative room” that was playing something else. So it’s starting to kind of give people the ability to pick and choose what music you like. DJ Times: Can you tell me three favorite venues that you’ve played? Jazzy Jeff: There was a place in Philly that’s shut down called Fluid. Just the intimacy and the sound system made it feel like a house party. As a DJ, you always seem to cut your teeth in someone’s basement with a leaky pipe. I mean, Fluid didn’t have leaky pipes [laughs], but it had that closeness and intimacy made it great. DJ Times: One of our faves, too. They had all kinds of DJs playing all kinds of genres, not to men© 2014. All Rights Reserved. NYS Dept. of Consumer Affairs #1387598 tion Guinness on tap. What else? Jazzy Jeff: The Mighty in San Francisco has one of the best sound systems because it’s a throwDJ_Times_February_2014.indd 1 12/5/13 10:23 AM back—four big, giant stacks in each corner. People come and want to hear all kinds of music. They just want to dance and have a good time. And The Soda IDJNOW • Holiday Ad • 4c, 4.125” W X 4.375” H • Ad Runs in DJ TIMES for NAMM 1/15/2014 • 631-585-1100 x 7460 Factory in Sydney, Australia—just the vibe there. It’s one of those places that draws an open-minded musical crowd. The décor there is really cool, but it’s not really big. In fact, a lot of my favorite venues aren’t the really huge ones; I prefer the ones where (continued on page 42)
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