Throwback: DJ Jazzy Jeff

In 2011, I interviewed one of my all-time favorite DJs, DJ Jazzy Jeff. Together with Will Smith, he won the first ever rap Grammy award as Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince and acted in the sitcom "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". As a DJ, producer and songwriter, he worked with numerous artists and remains one of the greatest party-rockers to date.

We talk about his record collection, transitioning to digital vinyl systems (like Serato), digging for songs online, teaching his kids to DJ with DJ Hero, and what the tonearm stands for metaphorically.

You can find him here:
Jazzy Jeff's LinkTree
www.instagram.com/djjazzyjeff/
www.facebook.com/djjazzyjeff
www.twitter.com/Djjazzyjeff215
www.youtube.com/djjazzyjeff

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
Yo, what's the deal?

(00:00):
It's yours truly the magnificentDJ Jazzy Jeff.

(00:05):
throwback edition. Between 2004and 2015, I interviewed many hip
hop artists and recentlydiscovered some of the
recordings in my archive. Wewant to share a selection of our
favorites and bring you thesethrowbacks in between our
regular episodes. Enjoy.

(00:31):
For this week's throwbackedition, we bring you one of hip
hop's great icons, DJ JazzyJeff. He is a producer,
songwriter, actor and DJ fromPhiladelphia. Together with Will
Smith, he rose to success as DJJazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince
winning the first ever rapGrammy Award, before acting

(00:53):
together in the popular sitcomThe Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He
went on to work with numerousartists putting out his own
series of "the Magnificent" androcking parties on the ones and
twos across the world. In 2011,I had the chance to hang out
with Jazz and ask him a fewquestions. Enjoyed it throwback.

(01:14):
Yo, your set was fired tonight.
Have you been enjoying this tourso far?
It was good. Everybody had agood time. When anybody have a
good time. I have a good time.
So I had a good time. Becauseanybody else had a good time.
I once heard a rumor that yourrecord collection is so huge,
you have to store it in fourdifferent apartments. Is there
any truth to that?
Yeah, that's a rumor. I'm I havea lot of vinyl, but I don't have

(01:36):
four apartments full.
If you had to guess though, howmany records do you think you
own?
About 100,000.
Wow, that's still impressivethough. In recent years, digital
vinyl systems like Serato havereally taken over. And you're
actually one of the first peoplethat I saw using it. How does
this technology change touringfor you?

(01:56):
I think just to be able to carrywhatever you need with you. You
know, especially with theairlines, when the airlines
started charging you foroverweight baggage, it started
to get hard to take your recordboxes with you, and take all of
the tunes that you want to play.
So now you can kind of take yourcollection with you and be
prepared for anything.

(02:17):
Traveling the world I'm sureyou've been able to go record
digging in tons of dope recordshops. Do you still dig for
records physically? Or have youswitched to the online world?
I mean, it depends, you know, asyou know, wherever you at, you
know, the funny thing is Istarted I started doing a lot of
online digging, you find a lotof gems, you know, online,

(02:40):
especially on YouTube, or, youknow, just seeing other
collectors. That's the one goodthing that I think about the
online thing that it puts you intouch with other collectors. And
you swap stories and hey, do youhave this record? And they'll
have that and you have this? Youknow, I like that. I mean, I
still miss going to the storeand getting your hands dirty
with all the records though.

(03:01):
Yeah, I guess one of thedownsides of the rise of online
digging is that many recordstores are having to shut down
like the iconic fat beats.
It's opening back up. Yeah, theyare opening it back up. They're
gonna open back up, I want tosay it's not every day, but
they're gonna open I think, onweekends, and let people go to
the warehouse and go throughrecords.

(03:23):
Even with all the fame andsuccess, you've remained
extremely humble and down toearth. Do you still live in
Philly?
In the suburbs of Philly. Stillclose.
You just got married and havekids now too.
Yes, I'm married. That's my wiferight there. Yes, we have twins.
They're almost two.
As a parent, would you want yourkids to follow in your

(03:45):
footsteps?
Well, I mean, you know, becausethey're only two, they have a
little ways away. But you know,I may have to groom them to be a
DJ / rapper combination. Thebrother sister, you know, so
they could take care of, youknow, me and my wife.
Well, you can teach them on DJHero in which you're actually a

(04:06):
playable character.
Yeah, well, he actually plays DJhere on now. So he's getting,
he's getting good.
That's dope. Last year, youteamed up with Mike Boogie to
create the summertime mixtapeseries. How did you connect with
Mike?
Yeah, I met him. I met him. Heused to dance in this gogo bar.
And I saw him. He was on thetable. And he had shorts on with

(04:29):
high tube socks. And had hisstomach out and he was dancing.
I was like, Hey, dude, you'rebetter than that. You know,
let's go on the road and let'smake something happen. So, you
know, he, you know, he got offthe pole and we ended up being
on the road. No, I've known himfor a long time tho.
You have a tattoo of a tonearmon your arm and the tonearm is
the centerpiece of your logo.
What does the tonearm representfor you?

(04:53):
I think it kind of representswhat you do. You know, I think
the whole concept of the needleand the tonearm: You know, is
almost like a gamble because youknow, the best DJ in the world
could hit the tone arm and itcan fall off, you know, so it's
just that whole, you're alwaysliving on the edge.

(05:15):
Thank you so much for your time.
Are there any upcoming projectsthat you would like to promote?
Well, actually, I'm gettingready to release a record with a
young lady out of Toronto namedAyah which will be out this
summer. It is hot. Look forthat.
Our theme music was beatboxed byDenis the Menace and produced by

(05:38):
Zede, a big shout out to thebrothers from Switzerland. The
background music was produced byTaki Brano. A big thank you to
our brosky from Providence. Ourpodcast basically runs on
coffee. To keep our showrunning, You can support by
buying us a coffee through thelink in our show notes. I am
Candy. I'm DJ Razor Cut. Andthis is souls of hip hop.