DJ Jazzy Jeff Interview
Def Jeff
Hip-hop careers don’t get much more varied than DJ Jazzy Jeff’s. After starting on the decks aged ten, the philly pioneer behind the transformer scratch has worked his magic with everyone from Will Smith and Eminem to J-Live and Jill Scott. Now, finally, he’s dropping his first solo LP. HHC gets the exclusive...

Somewhere in A Touch Of Jazz studios in Philadelphia there’s a telephone ringing. When it’s finally answered the reply is “No, you can’t talk to Jeff right now because he’s in the studio recording some vocals. Call back in 20 minutes.” Under normal circumstances this means that the artist in question is playing pool, eating, or simply not in the mood for interviews. But with Jazzy Jeff it’s no more than the truth.

That’s why, 20 minutes later, an excitable Jeff is on the phone raring to set up our interview. Jazzy Jeff, who was christened Jeffrey Allen Townes, has been making albums since 1987 when he and Will Smith- as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – released their debut LP, “Rock The House”. But despite being a multi-million-selling producer he’s never put out a solo album. The last time HHC caught up with him, in April last year, Jeff was already talking about his own album. At that time it was due to emerge in summer 2001 and was conceived as a top notch mix-tape brimming with megastar guests. Talk of a collaboration with Eminem was particularly intriguing.

A Year later everything’s changed. Except for the vital fact that there is, finally, a solo Jazzy Jeff album on the horizon. It’s called “The Magnificent”, and for once the hip hop bluster accompaning its arrival is more than deserved. Big name guests have largely been dumped in favour of artists with much stronger links to Jeff, although this as much to do with record company negotiations as strategy. What will frustate fans is the idea that tracks like “You hear me” featuring eminem, are destined to gather dust in the cupboard.

Though its not something that bothers Jeff. “When I tarted working on my record about three years go, we did a tune with Eminem. I still have that record, it was on the internet, and although it’ll probably never come out it was great. It was on a couple of mix-tapes, and while we never pressed it up it was definitely dope."

That’s an understatement. “you hear me” skilfully sandwiches genius-era eminem, who sounds as angry as a poked wasps nest, between a beat that’s like pharoah monch’s funked up simon says in a spaceship. Time to hit Google.

What the absence of big names means for the album is that it’s very much a Jazzy Jeff album, unlike most commercial mix-tapes which just sound like compilations. Having got this far in his career without putting out a solo set Jeff “thought it was time. I had the opportunity to do it a couple of years ago, but what attracted me to BBE (his label) was the creative freedom, which you don’t get with many labels.”
Jeff determinedly keeps a very low profile, despite his enormous success. “I’m not an artists any more and I don’t want to become one because it’s hard for the public to accept artists are multi-talented,” he explains. “I like jazz and soul and hip-hop and R&B, and being a producer I can hide behind all the different things that I do and produce anyone I want from Will Smith to Jill Scott to Lil’ Kim.”

Any “artist” who tried to straddle so many musical genres would be knocked back in the first meeting with the blood-sucking record company – how do you market a record without a clearly defined audience? Jeff’s answer is that good music will find its audience, and that’s something he found out for himself a couple of years ago, when he started working with an unknown female singer called Jill Scott. Jeff “loved her sprit and her vibe” and between her voice and lyrics and his production talent they’ve enjoyed massive success. He maintains he had no idea she’d be so popular.

“Not at all, not in any way shape or form. When we did her record we made a conscious effort to sail together, because I loved her and the music that represented her. If ten people had bought it we’d have done our job because we’re not looking for millions of people to like it, we just want somebody to like it.”
Jill Scott found the fertile ground between self-consciously retro soul and mosern R&B. It’s a territory that critics leaped to endorse and label as “nu soul”, and it’s close to Jeff’s heart. “I’m a big fan of music from back in the day,” he says. “I grew up with Earth Wind & Fire and Marvin Gaye. It was a bit before my time but that was our soul music and it was a shame that we didn’t have a modern Marvin Gaye.”
If Raheim, who sings on “My People” from “The Magnificent”, can live up to the promise of that track Jeff might well have one on his hands. Starting off like a traditional R&B cut Raheim’s vocals start to build and as they do the strength of feeling grows, especially as his “state of the nation” lyrics begin to make an impact. The song perfectly explains Jeff’s point; “I feel really good with the resurgence of live instrumentation, live music, real singers and real lyrics”. This isn’t new music trying to sound old, it’s just great music made along traditional lines that can’t help reminding you of great artists from the past.
But please don’t insist on giving it a name, or putting it in a pigeonhole. Because as UK emcee Fallacy recently pointed out, “you know what you find in pigeonholes”. And the answer isn’t eggs. “What Jill does is no different from what Minnie Ripperton did, so why do we have to call it nu-soul?” asks Jeff. “its got to the point where I don’t care what category people put my music in. I’m just happy it makes them feel good because it’s music that people make love to, clean the house to or take long drives to. The way I judge music is either I like it or I don’t.”

It’s a point that’s as valid in hip-hop – with its obsessions with classifications like jiggy, indie, dirty south, backpacker, UK, mid-West, G-Funk and thugged out – as it is in soul music. But returning to the happy topic of love, how does it make Jeff feel to think of all the babies conceived in time with his beats? It’s no secret Jill Scott’s albums have become a popular soundtrack to doing the wild thing?
“I haven’t really thought about it,” he smiles. “It makes me feel good that people like it, and it’s amazing when you bump into people and they tell you how much it has impacted on their lives. People say, “I was having a bad day but when I listened to this it made me feel better”. Jill gets that more than I do. Me being a behind the scenes guy I’m not trying to let everybody know that I’m responsible for Jill. I really don’t care about the credit and the accolades, I’m just happy that people are listening to the music and I’m happy what my mum likes Jill Scott. She likes most of the stuff I do.

So how does a man who seems scared of easy categories explain the sound of his incredibly varied album? The only way that makes sense, by categorising the songs. “it’s a lot of everything. There’s some stuff on there for the turntablists because that’s my background and that’s where I started out [Jeff is widely credited as having invented the transformer scratch-Ed]. There’s definitely stuff on there for people who love nu-soul. The whole album is very soulful, but then it goes in a jazz direction and a hip-hop direction.”

Although jazz is vital to “The Magnificent” there’s no straight jazz tracks, it just crops up in the form of samples and informs the album’s unusually tight, neck-snapping sound. It’s a hip-hop album through and through, although Jeff has tucked a couple of surprises into the albums 17 tracks. The first is a re-make of Roy Ayers’ “We Live In Philly” (“A journey through the life and times of Philly history,” says Jeff). Apart from two soul tunes with Raheim and then Eric Roberson, who’s reminiscent of R. Kelly, the other surprise is “In Time”. It’s a house track recorded with Masters At Work that features The Roots’ ?uestlove on drums. And not even he can bring it back from the brink.

“In Time” might be the chink in its armour but the rest of this long album (79 minutes, 35 seconds) is an utter triumph. Bumpy Knuckles appears on “Scram”, a thumping track that lays a hard-as-nails bass guitar under one of raps most slept-on-emcees. Bumpy may be as hard as MOP, but intellectualy he’s far superior – it’s hard to imagine the “Cold As Ice” boys using the word “eulogy” in one of their choruses. “I did a song with Bumpy Knuckles that was carefully picked to set a mood and a tone of what I was feeling at that point in time,” says Jeff. That point in time must have been a tough one, because if “Scram” is a mood turned into music then the mood must have been bristling with bad feelings.
The other hip-hop name on the album is also a slept-on talent. Jeff’s support of J-Live is little short of evangelical, and when you hear “A Charmed Life” (which is also on J-Live’s new “All of the Above LP) you’ll understand why. “For me J-Live personifies hip-hop,” Jeff enthuses. “He can emcee, deejay and he can write his rhymes. He’s very serious about what he does but I had a lot of fun in the studio with him. He’s incredibly creative and he uses a lot of wit when he’s making records. He makes you think and he talks about things in a creative way. He can rhyme over anything.”

Hip-hop might be treating jeff well, but he’s got above criticising the nusiness that’s made him rich. “Hip-hop is not as creative as I would like. There are creative people out there but we’re all victims of the industry and of radio – the music business has taken control over the music. You can get someone like J-Live, who’s incredibly dope but can only sell 100, 000 copies. All his records are great, the lyrics, the beats and the cutting. But you never hear him on the radio, and plenty of people have never heard of him at all. That’s a shame because there are so many people like him, or who started out like him but changed the way they do things because they want commercial success.

“We need people who are willing to be different, and once you put people in a box and make them do what’s commercally accepted or likely to sell a million records, and not everyone can be at number one. I want to go back to when if you had a good record and everyone liked it didn’t have to sell a million copies. People liked it, they played it and it made them feel good. That’s what music is supposed to do.”
So where does Will Smith’s “Miami”, one of the most annoying rap tunes ever recorded, fit into this story? It’s a perfect example of a song that solely exists to make money, and a certain Jeffrey Townes produced it. He defends himself with skill. “If I’d only contributed to one apsect of hip-hop then I’d agree, but Will making “Miami” is representative of Will. I’m not criticising what he does I’m just not putting down what J-Live does. If you’re going to open the door for Will, who I love, then open the door for J-Live too. I don’t think that either of them is wrong, but the way it works is that if Will is in then J-Live is out.” Jeff’s defence of Will Smith is the sound of a man defending his partner. On paper their partnership may have ended, but creatively it’s still alive and he’s already preparing to start work on Smith’s next album.
Jeff’s assessment of the industry is well informed, as he’s watched it grow over the years. “Remember that the industry didn’t take hip-hop seriously until they looked at the numbers and realised it was making a lot of money. Once that happned they jumped on the bandwagon and changed the music. One of the statements I wanted to make with this record is that I’m afraid for the Musiq Soulchilds and the Bilals, and all these guys who are really good. Because if the industry judges that people like them are unacceptable, then how strong do they have to be to stick to their guns and say “I’m not changing”? No discredit to anybody but if J-Live turns into Nelly then we’d lose J-Live.

“Music is broad enough for us to have everybody. I’d love to see the day when a radio station can play Nelly, then Dr Dre, J-Live, Slum Village and Will Smith. There’s enough room for everybody.”

Fifteen years into a hugely successful career Jeff is a rich man, but he has none of the attitude or arrogance that often goes with extreme wealth. It’s something he’s obviously thought about. “I went through a lot of changes but now I’m a lot closer to where I came from. What you realise is that material things are great but they don’t make you a batter individual. The more accolades and money I get the more simple my tastes become.”

One reason Jeff is so cool about his money is that early in his career he made and lost a fortune and that gave him some perspective “its gone full circle, because when will and I were younger we bought a lot of stuff we didn’t need and messed over a lot of money that we really shouldn’t have. So now im cool with the simple things; sitting at home watching movies, or eating with a bunch of friends playing PS2
Despite this Jeff can still appreciate the showiness of young production stars like Swizz Beatz, who’s never slow to remind interviewers that he charges $100, 000a track. “That’s hip hop, or at least a side of hip-hop, and it may not be for everybody but its cool.” And hes not beyond enjoying the fruits of his labours. “The way I describe myself is comfortable. I like comfortable clothes, comfortable shoes, I want a comfortable watch, not one that’s huge and covered in diamonds and is going to weigh my arm down. I want a comfortable car and my house isn’t glossy or flossy.”

The one indulgence he owns up to is being “a gadget fanatic. I have every computer, all the TVs and things like that. I used to be into clothes and the the jewellery but as I get older I’d rather have friends over and put stuff on the grill and play cards and listen to music. Maybe people like Swizz Beatz, in three or four years, will change. It’s not that I don’t like shiny things, it’s just they’re not as important to me as they once were.”

Jeff doesn’t seem too bothered about whether or not “The Magnificent” will be enough of a success to finance further gadget shopping. “Not at all. I’ve been blessed with a very fruitful career, from winning a bunch of awards to selling a lot of records. It’s been the most liberating feeling to do a record with no expectations. I want people to like it and feel it, but it wasn’t done with the pressure of selling a million, or having a tremendous hit.”

The one difficulty he thinks the album will cause him is going back to his regular production work. After enjoying total creative freedom how can he return to making beats on demand? “Once somebody lets you out of a cage it’s very hard for them to put you back in.”

If The Magnificent gets the acclaim it deserves then he’ll be asked to work his magic behind the production boards rather than replicate peoples sounds “This is my way of doing music,” he says. “Some people will like it, some people wont. And I’m not mad at people who wont, hopefully one day we’ll do something that they will like.”

Inspector gadget
Jeff on his favorite gizmos
MP3 Player: “my ipod. I love it. It’s incredible, you can take all the CDs you have in your house, dump them on your ipod and take them on the plane and listen to music. It’s amazing, and it fits in my pocket
Laptops “I’m loving my macintosh computer. I have a titanium G4 laptop and then I have an ibook which I love ‘cos it’s really small. You take youribook when you travel and you can watch DVDs, listen to CDs and go on the internet. So one machine does everything.
Parents Jut Don’t Understand
On negative rap lyrics and his children..
“I don’t want to claim that I know what’s right and wrong. People may do things that I don’t like, but if someone likes it then it’s right for them. But it’s funny having kids because I’m at the age where you have to keep them away from certain things. They are going to hear it, and that’s them getting the education we can’t teach as parents.”

On meeting Westwood in Miami...
"i was sitting out on the curb at wet willies, which is a slushy drink place where everyone goes, and he drove by. So i hollered "Tim, Tim", and he shouted "get in the car lets do an interview" And then we set up a photo shoot with him. me and him go back a long way, from the first time me and Will ever travelled overseas, so i have love for tim Westwood"