Jazzy Jeff Biography

Jazzy Jeff Townes is one of Philadelphia's best-kept secrets. Maybe he's best known as the onetime partner to rapper-turned-superstar-actor Will "The Fresh Prince" Smith. Whether working homespun magic on mega-hits like "Parents Just Don't Understand," Smith's TV series and even a production credit on Smith's current Big Willie Style, Jazzy Jeff personifies suburban homeboy cool - a musical style that's funky and chilled. But what's often overlooked about Jeff is that he was one of rap's most influential spinners from waaay back; a DJ quicker than lightning who could scratch that itch, find a sonically pure (but sweetly reminiscent) moment and knock the bottom out of a breakbeat quicker than you could say "Grandmaster Flash at the wheels of steel."

When not spinning in the land of the good groove - at hip-hop locales like Smoke and the blue horizon of Fluid - Townes has been seen and heard in the company of "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez, the two DJ/artist/producers known as Masters At Work. The three spinners recently collaborated on Vega & Gonzales' Nuyorican Soul epic - easily one of last year's best records. At his B-day bash look for the New York dynamic duo to give a li'l sumpin back to Philly's own master jammer.

DJ Jazzy Jeff, formerly of Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, from Philly, was one of the best scratchers and turntable artists of his day. He is widely regarded as the inventor of the 'transformer' scratch, but it is reported from very reliable sources that someone else created the transformer, Cash Money named it, and Jazzy Jeff was the first DJ to put it on wax. Jazzy Jeff created the chirp scratch, which can be found on the "magnificent jazzy jeff" and "getting jiggy wit it." Jazzy Jeff should also be remembered as the first corporately sponsored dj and designer of the first mixer to be made specifically for the scratch dj, the modern classic, Gemini 2200, or the Jazzy Jeff Signature series.