QLS Classic: Jazzy Jeff (Part 1)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of Course, Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to QLs Classic Episode ninety seven.
DJ Jazzy Jeff August two thousand eight, Teams. What can
I say, Jazzy Jeff is simply the best, most creative

(00:21):
DJ of all time. There is no DJ today worth
their grain of salt that doesn't worship from the altar
of Jeff Towns. And you know you know so, without
further ado, I present you the goat of all DJs,
straight out of Philadelphia, DJ Jazzy Jeff. Here we go.

(00:48):
Suprema Suprema role called Suprema Suprema role called Subfrema Suprema
role called Subprema Subma roll. Another episode without Fonte unpaid
in boss Bill. Yeah, and I'm stuck with Stephen La. Yeah.

(01:12):
Surema some frema road called subprima Subprema road. This dude
can spend, yeah, this dude mixed tracks, yeah, this dude
can cook, Yeah, this dude can act. Talented motherfucker sum
roll call Suprema Suma road car. Yeah, and it's okay easy,

(01:38):
oh ship, I let me some Jeff Yeah, like Jazz
Love Hillary Suprema Road Car, Suprema Subprema Road called. My
name is Fast, Yeah, my crew is new still. Yeah,
it's called the Trinity. Yeah, we don't fight like Drew

(01:58):
Hill much. Calm call. My name is Jeff, his name
is Fest. Yeah, it's Stephen Laia. Yeah. And that's my
brother Quest roll call, roll, calm pre much roll. Oh man, yo,

(02:34):
I have to say that of I mean, we're not
in a hundred episodes yet, but we're at least at
eighty somethingth Yeah, that is probably the quickest thinking of
the feat. I mean I've had more renowned mcs. Just like, dude,
you a man, you might I think your body I

(03:01):
wrote that for him. I wrote that. That's my ghostwriter.
Like the ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another anemic episode
Quest Love Supreme, only on Pandora. I'm still here with
what's left of Team Supreme. You know when you get

(03:21):
hat outside and they can start disappearing. Well, Steve still here,
even though you know your your your network start now.
Plus I have every excuse to call in sick, mentally ill,
among other things. Yeah, I see, Well, thank you for
still stinking man. I never missed the show. I assume that, Fonte,
you're still working on his uh his basement is counter Yeah,

(03:43):
his counter tops his week number five working on his
misork to work on your house, hey man, Bathroom towels
are important, you know it's extremely important. Meanwhile, both Bills
have medical conditions, So there you go. I thought Bill
is not his sesame Street right now, no Bills getting
his wisdom teth out. Okay, I guess I can excuse that,
all right. Shout out to Boss Bill, who has a

(04:05):
headache right now. So wait, I don't know because if
something happens in the future, I don't want this to
sound bite to be play. He has a severe headache
right now. Yes, shout out to Boss Bill, and is
a many headaches, so I just want to make sure
that I'm not the source of the headche So all right,

(04:27):
less stressed in your life, Bill. I promised to be better,
but you gott admit I am improving since the beginning
of of course you have. But then you stop sugar
and you're back, So okay, Yeah, Lie is claiming that
I'm evil because I'm Dave fifty one without sugar, So
I'm still here. Thank you? Is that possible. Uh, if

(04:48):
you want to live it is. I'm just saying that.
You know, your concern was like getting shot at the club.
The new getting shot at the club is getting a stroke. Yeah,
Like I don't want to be the Compson. I mean
you still got your boyhood figured, jeff So how you doing? Listen?
I do a hundred sixty dates a year and you

(05:09):
walk like nineteen miles through the airport. Wait. I was
gonna say, wait a minute, time out. Uh, we're doing this,
ask backwards, lady to gentlemen, I forgot to introduce our
actual guests on the show. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, it
could be Jeffrey Osbarine, if god he was like he
was our last guests bad? Did you know he played
drums and Smokey Robinson? No, you know what we forgot

(05:31):
to ask Jeffrey Osborlee And we do this often. We
often rabbit hole ourselves and introduced like a half hour
down the line. I forgot to even talk about Whitney
Houston's didn't we almost have it all? He wrote that, Yes,
he wrote that for it anyway, Uh, lady and okay,
introducing job Uh yeah, if if if God were DJ

(05:55):
he'd be named Jeffrey Towns. Uh. And that's all I
have to say. This's gonna be the shortest intro ever.
We have God Himself of Turntables, Uh, Philly z own,
DJ Jazzy Jeff of the legendary DJ Jersey Jeff on
Quest Supreme. Uh would also that it would also uh

(06:17):
be remiss if I didn't also mention that you're here
with a very special guest, another guy in his right
Grammy and Oscar Oscar Winner. That was sermon now was
Bill was here? We have somebody yea his get well? Yeah,

(06:39):
because you know, well, I think what pay Bill is
one of our co host He has a Grammy, Emmy
and a Tony. But he missing y'all, he's missing. Oh
so if he was chilling with m paid Bill right now,
we'd have a ghetto did Ryan pesss here? Lazy and
John theld Uh? And also I should mention your new

(07:06):
project M three uh and well right now digitally available,
but when will it be in store? Will it be
in stores? It's hard hard, No hard copies are coming. Listen,
I'm doing this. All independence have to come a little
bit later. They're they're on the way Okay, good, that's
good dimension. That's good dimension. Um. Yeah, so you were

(07:27):
you were saying that you keep in shape because you
just run across airports NonStop. See. But that's the thing,
my Achilles Hill is being on the road because you know,
for every coffee shop in every airport, hotel food, Yeah

(07:49):
it is, So how do you resist that? And I
know you live at home in in Lynett's kitchen, which
you know, as far as I'm concerned, you guys catch uh,
your your fish and all your seafood in the backyard
of where you live. So like, how just just remaining

(08:10):
active It's not it's not even an exercise thing, you know.
It's really when you got sixty pounds on your back
because you try to take every gadget in the world
and you're pulling a little portable studio on a pullbag
and you're in London Heathrow and your gate is thirty
five minutes away. You know that feeling. So it's a

(08:32):
lot of walking. You know, you get mad when you
first go out because you're winded and you're tired, and
you're mad you needed hurts. But by the time you
come home, I would say you're o J Simpson. But
you know what I'm you know, yo, Wait, have you
ever uh have you ever successfully to me, like to
successfully navigate through Heathrow without them thoroughly checking my back

(08:56):
Like heath Throws one of the yeah, most anal retentive
airports in the world. Like you can have a piece
of like gum in your bag and if you don't
take it out to let them know that, then they're
they're taking your whole entire fiber apart of that bag.
Or you just wait for your bag to go on
that separate lane. That's the worst. That separate lane. You

(09:19):
realize that there's nineteen people in front, right, you're missing
your flight. So y'all traveled too much? Yeah, that whole
thing was like, no, it's for real, Like Heathrow is
one of the most anal retentive. I mean most of
them quality rhymed about that even on their first record,
Like the first time I ever had to have the check.

(09:42):
Has there been between the two of y'all you've been
around the world like times? Has there been anywhere you
haven't been yet? Um? I just went to Kenya? That
was that was your first time? Um? What was that? Like?
That was probably top three experience of my life. Why,
um listen, First of all, I was, you know, I
don't change I don't change the way I played anywhere

(10:04):
in this world at all. Because let me let me
get you my reasoning. Um, you don't go to Africa
and play afrobeat. That's the ship that they hear all
the time. And that's the biggest mistake that I think
a lot of DJs because you think about it when
you get DJs that come to feeling and be like, oh,
I'm about to play Crown Rulers, and you're kind of like,
come on, dude, I came to see you play. I

(10:27):
didn't come to hear you play how you think I
want you to play. So I never changed the way
that I play. Because people you're seasoning rest. You don't
change the dish you call me out. I mean, listen,
you know it's never too late though, right, Yeah, But
because you know what it is. It's kind of like
imagine going to your favorite restaurant and and they change

(10:47):
the menu every week. You're upset. You're like, I came
for the fish. I want to fish in the corn bread.
What what's the meat loaf? Okay, but I'm gonna ask
you about the Kansas incident. That's always my worst nightmare. Well,
you know what it is. Kansas was me walking into
that didn't have anything to do with me playing. That

(11:09):
had more to do with the wrong event in the
wrong place. You know, Like you can't you know, because
I I had situations like that. When you know Djam
passed away. I did one of his memorials in Las Vegas,
and I did it in the place that they didn't
want you to play hip hop, And I'm kind of like,

(11:30):
how do you have me attribute to a hip hop DJ?
And I play hip hop? Like, I'm kind of like, yo,
So you try to do this ship by name only
that's still going on? Well it not now, but it
was what was the name? Can you name? What was
the name of the club? World? Um? What's the situation? Well,

(11:53):
I don't want to start with a bad DJ versus
I want to start with the earth I did. Uh.
I was on tour with Sion, and Sion was doing
these parties all over and we went to Kansas City
and played in the Power and Light District. UM, And
it was funny because I got there Z trip had

(12:13):
went on before me and I came out and we
started playing. Like five thousand people outside. We started playing
and people are rocking, and you know, my my sets
are very eclectic, like I'm gonna play some hip hop,
I'm and go here him and do this, and you know,
at the end of the night, you're gonna get a
little bit of everything. And my road manager at the

(12:34):
time came out and put a towel on my table
and walked off. So I looked, and I'm looking at
the tower that I already have, and I'm just like,
why did you bring a towel over? So he came
out and brought a bottle of water, and I had
water on the table, so I knew something wasn't right.
So he ended up coming over the third time and
he leaned down and he said, listen, they're about to

(12:54):
cut you off because they're saying that you're playing too
much hip hop. And before they cut you off, I
wanted to let you know so that you can make
the decision. I said, oh, Ship, tell Skills, we're out
of here. So he went and leaned and told Skills,
and Skills turned and looked at me and was like word,
and I was like yeah. So right in the middle

(13:14):
of everybody rocking. I just said, oh, listen, it's non
stop nine stop. Like I think I was playing Rihanna
at that so I had to stop button and Skills said, hey,
I'm sorry, Kansas City, but we just got word that
they don't really want us playing hip hop in here
and they're about to cut Jeff off. So before we
let them do that to us, we wanted to make

(13:36):
the announcement to you that we apologize and we hope
that we can come back and play for you soon.
And took everything off and I walked our stage. Everybody
thought it was a part of the show for about
two minutes, and when the road manager started coming out
and breaking my equipment down, people went off and I

(13:57):
went downstairs in addressing room. Skills standing outside and they
kicked Skills and how to venue because they were mad,
like they were this is the behind the scenes thing
that you wasn't supposed to pull the curtain back. So
the hotel was across the street. I ended up walking
across the street and had no idea how big this was.
And I remember this is early Twitter. I posted Wow,

(14:19):
right party, wrong place. I was like, this is the
first time that I ever someone ever threatened to kick
me off in twenty five years and went and checked
into the hotel. I called, you know, my manager at
the time, and he was like, change your flight. You know,
we had like a nine o'clock flight. He's like, get
on the six o'clock flight, he said, because I guarantee

(14:39):
you they're gonna be pressing everybody at the airport. So
I changed my flight and we got on the plane
and flew at six o'clock and I landed. By the
time I landed, Associated Press had called me like it
hit everywhere, and I was just like, like, it got
so bad that the owner of Power and Light was
the owner of the land of forty forty cloud And

(15:00):
it got so bad that he called jay Z for
jay Z to call Will for Will to call me
because he wanted to talk to me, and he was like, listen,
I need to meet with you so I can officially apologize.
Didn't you win the first Grammy for hip hop? Hey, listen.
They was trying to get me to come back, like
what they It was just the area of no. No,

(15:27):
It had nothing to do with that. It was kind
of like you know what powering light is Like, powering
light is kind of like, um, I don't want to say,
uh Exfinity Live, it's like one of those. But it
was kind of like we're not really trying to have
that hip hop element because from what I heard after
I left was they were like, you know, we don't

(15:47):
normally come down here. They don't like you in sports
jerseys and baseball hats and yeah, yeah, basically talk. But
you know how it is you kind of some times
you skate under the radar because it's like that's jazz
from Fresh Prince of val Air, not knowing that I'm
playing mob D but what was playing like Z was

(16:10):
playing mash up, so he was sneaking. He was sneaking.
But understand, no one said that like all of these
days that we did. No one said when you come
here that you have to play like this, Like you know,
a lot of times people tell you how you want
to play. I'm like, I'm cool, Like if I can't
do me, then how do you How do you handle it?
Because don't I don't. I don't that. I don't accept

(16:32):
that at all. Even at the most prestigious gifts. I
won't take him. If you don't want me, then don't
book me. Always your whole career. Always if you don't
want me, don't book me, man ah, because you know,
you know how this Vegas Vegas got like that, you know,
Vegas got to the point that it was kind of

(16:53):
like what we kind of want this, Like I remembers, listen,
I don't do Vegas anymore. They listen. I get a
million officers to do Vegas and I turned them down.
But you remember, like we we you know, question, I
had a resident residency, had the same spot and I
never forget the first time that I did it. When
I was done, they came down or someone said, well,

(17:15):
we'll have a report for you, and I was like
a report. I ain't never had a report. What what's
the report? Like, we're gonna give you a report, you know.
And it got to a point that you know, oh yeah,
you were great and this was cool, but it was
kind of like, so you got people down here like
checking on me, like I've been dj in Vegas before,
everybody who works here, you know. But it's yeah, I'm like,

(17:38):
at the end of the day, if everybody's having a
good time and they're buying drinks and everybody's could leave
me alone, this is weird. Now because it's like the
variety that you have that allows you to DJ in
spaces that your average your your your your average guy. Okay,
well I'll be explicit le honest, because I mean it's

(18:03):
the white elephant in the room. Obviously, you and Cash
are Philadelphia got and your level of celebrity has allowed
you more oxygen and more leverage and where you are now,
and it's also on how you you freaquent and how
you handle your business that part, you know, so I

(18:23):
can't ignore that, but it's like, are you I'm I'm
the type of person that dreads when November comes around
because in my head usually when December gigs come, I'm
always like, damn, January is coming and it's going to

(18:44):
be another year where someone born in two thousand and
two or you know, someone born who will be twenty
one or whatever. You know, I won't know what don't stop?
Do you get enough is more? It's like those records

(19:06):
that used to be instant. You remember how like you
would play the opening horn riff of like Troy Ye
and it was like chaos, and then the moment when
they stopped, when that stopped, Yo, when I had one
of the worst incidents. Well, my first incident of that,

(19:28):
I did it Howard's home Coming. Oh, I remember when
you do the whole you know. I remember when you
would play all of the current stuff and then you
would kind of got Eric B for President and everybody
would lose their mind. And I dropped Eric B for
President and everybody just stood there and I was like, wow,
like because now Eric B for President is the entrance

(19:50):
to where I'm going. So I'm like, oh, Ship, you
don't know the door that I just opened up. I
don't know if I can go in the house now.
So I was kind of you know, and I remember that,
But that was the first time that I learned a
lesson that you have to pay attention because every few
years the timeline slides, you know what I mean. Like

(20:13):
it was I remember, you know, a couple of years
ago going overseas playing and somebody dropped Eve Who's that girl?
And the club went crazy and I was like, oh, Ship,
this is their classic now. That was so you just
have to keep you just have to keep your your
your music set up in a way that you just
have to slide it slide it, like you gotta pay
attention to who's out there, but are you ready to

(20:34):
men that front and by Farrell is now the new
message by Grandmaster of Blast and yeah like that's old
school now, well you know what it all. This also
comes down to who are you playing for? You know
what I mean? And and so are you playing for yourself?
Are you playing? No? No, no, no, no no. Listen.

(20:54):
I do a very very good mixture of playing. I
take enough me gigs to me to make me happy.
But my job is to play for the people. So
wait when you went to Kenya, because we started with Kenya,
So now I want to know in reference to Kenya,
like what made the what made the crowd go crazy?
And what was there? Like they throw back down. So

(21:17):
where we played it was a restaurant, so we went
and ate. Like when the club opened up. When I
was telling you, they was playing Mary J. Blige album cuts,
like it was one hundred percent pure black music and
deep black music to the point that I was kind
of like, oh, if that's where y'all going, Oh I'm good,

(21:39):
I'm good. So you know it was. It was everything
from some classic house stuff too, mob deep too, like
they I couldn't stump them. Go ahead, what you're saying
about like you know, like so I dance a little bit,
you know what I'm saying, But when you go to Africa,

(22:00):
like you just insecure, you know what I'm saying, Like
you're like, man, it ain't no dance that I can
do that's gonna impress nobody out here. And then but
when Jeff played that music, they're all it's like you're
you're in the home of where rhythm started. You're in
the home like when you when you get I heard
the black people in America was from West Africa. But
when you go to Kenya, they'd be like, welcome home,

(22:22):
and you look around like really like you know, like
this is all mine too, like and and you know,
just the welcoming atmosphere. But you know they got like
bodily and musical superpowers if they want, because that's where
it starts. How many how many days or weeks where
you guts there? We were there for three days? Three days.
We we we played like the first day we got

(22:44):
there coming straight from America or Okay, I was about
to say, like for three days. It's like that lag
do the gig have some food and well listen that Yeah,
it gets like that. We were in Dubai and we
flew from Dubai to Kenya. Um food was amazing, the

(23:04):
seasoning to see. Yeah, you know, because everybody has this
whole thing of when I'm going to Africa, I'm gonna
eat necessarily African food, like they have their food, and
then they have food that everybody eats. You know, it's weird.
When I went to South Africa, there was a place

(23:27):
that it's almost like they know what foreigners are looking for,
like that Africa Africa, you know, like they're looking for that,
and they actually made they have a restaurant that plays
up to that whole thing. But I could tell it's
just like for tourists. Like I asked the guy, I'm like,

(23:50):
real Africans wouldn't need the spot, right, and he laughed,
like tourists like they went to. They took us to
the real deal. But we ate at a restaurant that
was overlooking an African preserve that if you sat at
your table and squint it, you could see a giraffe.
It was deep. It was deep. Like I asked, it

(24:11):
was a big security guard that was with us, and
I was like, let me ask you a question, like
how close are we to the lions like and he
was like not so far, Like he said, yeah, yeah,
like they they will come in the hood. Yeah. They

(24:31):
told stories about gorillas that crossed the road and if
one of them getting hurt, the cars gotta stop. And
if you try to ride past the gorillas to jump
on the car and bang your window, yeah you have to. Yeah,
you gotta stop and let them. Yeah. Yeah, it was Oh, listen,

(24:52):
we went to uh, we went to an African animal. Yeah,
that was first of all. Let me explain Michael Jack
some age. He the guy was telling us that when
a lion roars in full voice, you can hear him
ten miles away. Said the lion will roar into the
ground and vibrate the goun That's how he lets anybody know.

(25:13):
Get out my way. But listen, they were feeding the lion,
and the female lion came over to try to grab
a piece of meat from the male lion, and the
roar that he let out let a little bit go.
That's all I'm gonna say. Like, I never heard no
ship like that of chicken. Listen like that roar, I

(25:37):
was kind of like, I'm cool, I'll take my lions
in the zoo. That was a little deep. I gotta
I gotta gotta experience. Got anyway, I'm glad that I'm
here because they are greatly wanting you to come down.
Do I greatly want you to come down and play.
I am saying that no one has ever carrot on

(26:00):
a string teased me more than the entire continent of Africa.
But you've been a couple of plays to the south.
From the South South, it's different. I've been the South
South South Africa. You almost don't get cool points for
going to South Africa nor America. What are you going,
I'm going to South Africa? Yeah, okay whatever, Like I

(26:20):
got props when it was like I'm going to Kenya
over how they just called called was like listen and
it was crazy because once I accepted Kenya, then Tanzania
called and all these other people and it was just
like it was it was a little too late for that.
Now that I know what I know, I gotta you know,

(26:40):
you need to go like or my what Nigeria? What
I would tell you you will absolutely body that. Like
they asked, they were like who who who? Who? Do
you want to come down and play? We love Premier.
It's like we would love, question love. We don't know
if we can get him. I was like, I'll talk
to him because I'm like, oh, he's not that I
don't want to go will matter time. But wait a minute.

(27:03):
I know you're meticulous about your back line, So do
you just take do you now just travel with all
of your equipment? No? I just so they have Pioneer
turn tables there or Pioneer just ships them. They had
Piney turntables, had Annam mixer. Yeah, and CanYa come home man. Okay, yeah,

(27:24):
listen hotown. I said that when when I was there. Yea,
they had the Flintstone bird. I'm just saying it. Back
in two thousands a date. You know, if I had
to send a carrier pits and to send a few
break beats over to me, yeah, now they would. They

(27:45):
were okay, cool. They gave me a bunch of music too. Okay,
so you know, I go down there. I was getting
tired of people giving you like all their twelve inches
in and everything. You can't say that outright, because you know,
just I was this, you almost need to carry a
bag for the stuff that people give you on a
tour exactly because you just kind of come home, and

(28:06):
it's kind of like, you know, and it's really really
appreciate this T shirt, just like I appreciate the two
thousand T shirts I had that you want me to
take the T shirt with your album cover artwork home.
What's almost like you could travel like a Navy seal
now like you probably could just you know, live off

(28:27):
the swag that's given to you on the road pretty
much and pretty much that I will kill myself, but
I don't start the way I always could. I was
waiting for you to like, yeah, we we always start
at the beginning. But it's also been a long time
since we had an episode of So Jeff, as as

(28:53):
as as the the the music extraordinary that you are
and being one of the mini one of the one
of the first pioneers to actually introduce jazz samples to
hip hop. Uh. We do a game called bit you
Guessed It, in which I will play a quarter of

(29:15):
a second of a particular song and you have to
even guess the artist or the song. He's a quarter
of a second, a second, quarter of a second. Yes,
some are easy, some are not. This is this is
I'm just saying this. This is a round one of okay,
can you name this break packet in the pocket? You

(29:41):
are correct this? Um, I know it. That's the who
makes this original. I don't want to be a player.
Thank you the first I might need help because I
may not know the names, but you'll know that I
know what I'm talking about, all right. Number three Brandon

(30:05):
funk or Bouncing Lady. Yes, I love how you just
that pleasure break? Mm hm do that one more time?
M hm um yeah, that's do doo do doo doo
dunn together do do do the message by some es

(30:30):
me and the bids you ready? Number five? Yeah? Oh
one more time? Yeah yeah, you might stop me with
that one Wait a minute, one more time, Yeah, nope,
one last time, Yeah, nope, game over. Uh that was

(31:07):
Ohio players singing in the morning. See yeah, yeah he
got my big he's uh really all right, let's you're
allowed to strike. Number six? Is that Parliament Funkadelic? Yes?

(31:30):
Number seven, Oh, that is it the bird is playing
Johnny Guitar Watson Superman Lover. Yes. Number eighth, that is
the original. Be a Father to your child, l G
and the Bulldogs your clues wrong single yeah yeah, not

(31:51):
be a father to your child? Yeah, you know what
I'm talking. I gotta have it. Yeah bo hand singing
song from my mother child? Was that ship? Alright? Two
more left, two more left, last one alright, second last one?
Um the original dre ship. Yeah, I want to do

(32:15):
some freaking, but we don't word uh side nude. I
actually thought that was my mom. Oh not only because
dre uses my parents sample and that's it too, So
I thought that you knew your mama. I'm sorry mama
putting you out there like my mom has a similar

(32:41):
size side. I'm not that oxygen oxygen technique on her record,
her record, So yeah, I was very relieved to find
out that, no, that wasn't my mom, but yeah, she
does something anyway. Your last song, all right, this is

(33:04):
this is the comic kazem by my time one more time.
That's not uh one to three four five? Only did

(33:32):
that because of you're connected with Jill Scott and getting
in the way and her dropping that anyway, Uh, even
though I know it. Uh, Sir Jeff Towns, could you
please tell our audience, almost three hours into the show,
where you were born in Wood City, Osborne in West Philadelphia.
We're in West Philadelphia, like are you allowed to talk

(33:54):
about your old neighborhood now if you don't live there,
I am. I'm from fifty seven and Rodman, which is
right next to fifty seventh and Cedar, which is between
Baltimore Avenue and Market Street. Which is funny because you know,
the north side is basically the north south of Market Street.
South side is south of Market Street but before Baltimore Avenue,

(34:16):
so not southwest past Baltimore Avenue southwest. So in how
close were you to that move fire? Oh man, right
behind those stage? Yeah, it was. I was about five
blocks away, like literally heard the gunshots. Like the night before. Um,
you know, everybody in the neighborhood was just like, Yo,
something's going on because you knew move were there, you know,

(34:39):
just going on a block be outside with the ball hall.
Jack Jun was like the floor. And it was crazy
because that night they were like, Yo, something is gonna happen.
And we went up to cos Creek Parkway and it
was I've never seen as many cops. You've never seen
a swat team, you know, in real life, and they

(34:59):
all were out there the big floodlights. Um. And you know,
we stayed up there for about two hours. I mean,
you couldn't get but three blocks close to it. And
then we went home and I never forget it had
to be about five o'clock in the morning. I have
never in my life heard twenty minutes of sub automatic

(35:23):
weapons being fired in your neighborhood. Like it was non stop,
and you you know, you didn't know, like you're hearing
this through your window, not knowing what's going on, and
you turn on the news and you know you have
no clue that in twenty four hours, entire blocks were

(35:43):
like we saw the helicopter fly over, and we saw
when it dropped it, and we didn't know what it was.
We saw when it dropped it, and you heard this
incredibly loud boom that shook everything in the neighborhood and
we were just kind of like, what was that And
they were just like they must have dropped some kind
of explosive And then fire started, and like to realize
this might have been three o'clock in the afternoon and

(36:07):
no one came, Like there wasn't a fire truck around
for a good five six hours. So to watch it
burn a complete blockdown, and you know how the blocks
are that they're connected son blockdown, they went through the
alley to another block and burned one side of another blockdown.
As the outsider, I'm still surprised how y'all let this

(36:27):
go down. But I'm just gonna say that I don't
understand afily y'all. You are a Philadelphia I am, But
I was in d C at the time, and I
just know I felt like if it would have happened
in d C, a bunch of black people would have
took hands when and got around the neighborhood and been like,
I'll be damned if you got to bomb these black
people in these babies. No, you didn't know. You didn't
like understand this is all news media, and this is

(36:47):
after all of this gunfire, and what happened was people
didn't know which which I personally believe that I don't
think anybody from move shot. I think this was the
least shooting at each other because all all it takes
is one shot and and and it was just gunfire
that no one was kind of like known to have

(37:11):
shot somebody you didn't know, so it was just kind
of like nobody moved. You didn't know what was going on.
And to be honest with you, in Black Christian conservative
outlook was wash when in black Christian conservative, I think
it's almost a step ahead of racist redneck uh Southern

(37:38):
Bible Christian conservative. It's almost like you know, uh, I
remember like practically everyone in the neighborhood saw the move
people as heathens. Uh, they eat raw meat, they home
school their kids. But I remember the move. My brother

(37:58):
used to live on forty four from Pounding, So I
remember the first move when naked, so you you you,
you know, you knew about the organization and what it was, um,
and they had a standoff there. I was just a
little bit too young and really understand what it was.
So when they kind of moved up in the neighborhood,
you kind of it was still the same chatter, and

(38:19):
you know, you're getting the information off of television. So yeah,
I was also that was I was heartbroken that day.
I just got dumped by like my first high school girlfriend.
The only time a bomb been dropped in the country.
You talk, I'm just saying, none of that's like a
bomb dropped on my heart. Yeah, man, Like I came

(38:42):
on seriously, like the second they dropped a bomber, like
three thirty, I was right on my porch and I
was just like, yeah, let me go watch the last
Cosby episode. For those of us who weren't there, can
somebody just give us a brief about move, not only

(39:04):
about Move, but about this bomb that I've made. All Right,
So basically, um, move, I wouldn't know how to how
to exactly, I kind of get he's asking about the
correlation between the bomb. Okay, so according South Philadelphia, people

(39:30):
really explain this. This is not a mirror He's I don't.
I don't. I don't want to. I don't want to
be the the all sides guy. But so basically, I
guess there was tension between the neighbors of a hundred
block of Oo Stage Avenue and the Africa family which

(39:52):
that name. All their last names were Africa, similar to
like having an X. They all took the last name
of Africa, and it was like fifteen people in the house. Um,
everyone had a similar look. Dreadlocks. They were more like
a primitive I mean, the thing is that it would
be totally normal now in the times that we live in,
but back then you saw someone dreadlocks, you were just
like snakes in your head and you must move drugs

(40:15):
Like Bob Marley, and you know, and they didn't believe
and they just didn't really believe in the westernized colonization
of where America was their education system. And also they
want to home school their kids. They armed themselves as well, right, yeah,
they armed themselves. So it was like part part uh,
part black panther ideology, educate your kids live like vegetarians.

(40:41):
Uh it's I think the complaint was mainly a noise complaint.
And then they would they were the roof with a
bullhorn and just preached their message and they occupied homes.
They didn't buy the home like it was. And see,
I think one of the things that was different was

(41:03):
this was in a residential neighborhood like so they were
in the middle of the block like this. It wasn't
like they were in the suburbs or had a farm.
They were your next door neighbor. And not to mention,
they were already targeted because in nineteen seventy seven, um
our mayor Frank Rizzo, who was like, I mean, if

(41:25):
you think like Giuliani era New York mixed with Donald
Trump mixed with I mean, just think of the uh,
the worst racist police state mayor you could have. Um
they they had an incident uh Onto and Palton where

(41:45):
it was like, uh, because of a disturbance there, and
then there was a shootout and he made them all
come outside. I just remember the picture of them all naked,
like twenty of them, hands in the air and naked,
get and and some of them died. And so there
was already tension between the Philadelphia police and the Africa family.

(42:08):
So once apro once complaints and protest, uh, we're happening
with the residents. Um, the cops were sort of like,
you know, get out of the house and they're like, no,
this is our property, YadA, YadA, YadA. And there was
a standoff. There was like a four or five days
standoff where they just sealed off the block and you
saw news cameras and news people like bending on their

(42:31):
knees like you know, there's Jack Jones live on k
y w en. Now we're outside of the the Africa home.
And and then or May thirteen, man Um the Commissioner
decided to just fly in helicopter right over their rooftop.
I'm trying to figure out, like what was so distinctive
about their rooftop. They had something on top, but you

(42:52):
realize how how precise your aim has to be to
drop like so they basically don't know if it's a
grenade or whatever, but they dropped some sort of device
that just they dropped a bomb. It was a it
was a legit bomb, first and last time ever on
the United States. Stories dropped. And you see how like
row homes are in Philadelphia, so it's not like there's

(43:16):
a separation. And so they let this house. They tried.
They were like, we're going to burn you out the house.
So they burned them or they literally killed them all
but too. But then the fire spread and then the
next two houses, and then two hours later the entire
block was but then five hours later that one of

(43:37):
the big guests block hit the next block, and then
that entire block hit the block across the street, and
then that spread. So at some point around nine o'clock
we gotta knock saying there was like the block. Captain
was sort of like, okay, just be prepared to I

(43:58):
lived on the fifty second block and this is the
eight hundred blocks. So around like nine pm, even though
we thought they would contain the fire, there was like
concerned that the ship just might spread and spread and spread. Yeah,
it was just it was whatever. It's crazy that I'm
asked that anywhere I go in the world, really, because

(44:20):
everybody's kind of like, YO, didn't weren't you guys the
people that dropped the bomb on a residential area, like
some ship you want to be known for? Yeah? So records? Yeah, yeah, no,
So how did you how did you how did you

(44:42):
start your your I guess that even before DJ and
you have to love records. So what was the first
record you ever purchased or were you like the youngest Yeah,
you know, um, well you know what it is, Like
my brother played bass for the Intruders, So they would
actually rehearse in our basement, um, which was a little

(45:05):
deep because you know, you're so young that you're not
allowed in the basement. That I would sit on the
top step and they would rehearse, and then I would
slide down to the next step and slide down to
the next step to they finally see me and they say,
get back up, you know, get back upstairs. Um. But
then my dad was an m C for count Basie,

(45:26):
So yeah, like my dad, like I grew up with
seventy eights in the house West Montgomery, Jimmy Smith and
Arthur Price sock, so you had those. So it was
almost like being the youngest, I had the best of everything.
I had the seventy eights. You know, my brothers were
you know, my brother was the weather report, my Havish
New Orchestra person, and then of course your sisters. I'm

(45:50):
oh man, Um, I was the mistake. Like I was
the one that was a little bit a farther gap
that it was kind of like, yeah, this was a
hot and every night with my dad because everybody was like,
you know, one person was this you know, you know,
uh forty nine and fifty one, fifty three, and you know,

(46:11):
it got to the point that it was kind of like, yo,
there was like an eight year gap with me, like
I wasn't supposed to be, but you know, but I was.
I was despunged, so you know, and what I give
more credit to was my you know, at about seven
years old, my brother showed me how to take records
in and out of the sleeve. Don't put your hands

(46:32):
on the records. You hold your thomb at the end,
you put your finger in the middle of bringing out.
Don't don't touch touch the vinyl like that. Um and
he had he you know, he had a he had
a receiver. I think I think that shut the window.
But he, you know, he was kind of like, listen,

(46:54):
if if you, if you take care of it, I
will let you use my stare your system. When he
was at work, what like seven years old. But when
I'm gonna tell you was crazy. I'm seven years old
and I'm making chick carea tapes cassettes, like he gave
me a blank assette, and I'm listening to music, not

(47:14):
really understanding what is attracting me to this music. But
I'm like, oh my god, I want this chick career
song and oh look, you know returning Forever, and I
want that. And because the his music was my music,
and I would make these, make these tapes, and I
got sucked in, like I didn't understand it was the
course structure. I didn't understand what it was. It was

(47:35):
just the it was a pure attraction of music. And
then the Stevie wondered the Marvin Gay So that's what
makes you different. You didn't have the don't touch my stereo. No,
I had the exact opposite. I had the exact opposite. See,
I had don't touch my stereo but I also lived

(47:55):
in the house with three collectors that had the stereo,
so I was forced by will two, you know, by force.
I had to listen to their music and don't touch
my stereo on the car and none of that stuff.
So I was that music was forced upon me, and
then I guess Stockholm syndrome. I just like I used

(48:18):
to do this weird thing that This is probably the
first time that I'm ever admitting this, but I would
have a radio and I would go and take a
bath and I would take the radio in the bathroom
and I plug it up and I would sit the
radio on top of the toilet and I would grab
the plunger because you gotta understand, a plunger's a microphone,

(48:40):
it's a horn, it's a base, it's a guitar. Oh.
I would mimic every but you know what I did.
It made me memorize every guitar solo, lick for lick,
every horn. So listen, I was switched. I would have
that ship I would play. Look, the whole entire room

(49:05):
just turned against the first thing you says, I used
a plunger for a mic, like what but no, no, no, listen,
that literally everything everyone in this room, the people cross
the street that frogger are like, listen, man, you know
your imagination and music. It's basically why I'm sitting here

(49:26):
because you look, I'll admit the same thing. When James
Brown was on Dining Shore doing body heat and that's
the first time I saw him do the microphone tricks.
I got the toilet prone to start doing the microphone
and then my mom was like, oh man, so see
I didn't do it in front of my mom. I
had a lock on the door. Oh you knew better?
Oh yeah, yeah yeah. And I didn't put the plunger

(49:51):
near my mouth, you know, but you know, just slash,
you know what I'm saying. But the top like, I
wasn't doing it with the rubber part, the rubber part
which was the horn, and you know you would grab
a roller tallert paper and that would be your muzzle
on your on your trumpet. So listen. I went to
what was Steves just like, wow, where were you allowed

(50:15):
in the bathroom? When were you allowed to curate the
first backyard barbecue? Or like what you consider your first
DJ gig. I started making mixtapes for all of the dancers,
not necessarily mixtapes. Um, if you had a cassette that
had a springloaded pause button that it did it instantly. Um,

(50:39):
you could like you know how sometimes you would have
the pause buttons that you would hit it and then
it would engage. If you had a springloaded pause button,
it would stop automatically. So I would just make the
Love the Life You Live break that all of the
dancers would dance off of. I was the one that
had it that went for ten minutes. Yeah, so I
would go to the end, and you got known for that.

(51:02):
And then it just turned into you know what, I'm
gonna steal some of my brothers records and not eat
lunch the whole time. I'm in school and I'm going
downtown Because you remember Phonkal Mart had three for you know,
two dollars, and I was just I started a record
collection Like that's I realized that the record collection is
the most important thing as a DJ. What was the

(51:24):
first because I did when Rappers the Light came out,
I begged I think twenty people for a dime because
it's like seventeen, so yeah, listen, I had like, um,
what was the first record that you like? Barca's Holy ghosts,
um moving by brass construction because I was a little

(51:48):
pre hip hop, so that's what they play at the
black parties. I just want to make your dream come
true by mass production. And you know, it was it
was all of that. It was the funking soul bands.
When did you play your first block party? Um um?
Probably about eighty seven, nine eighty. I know I was

(52:09):
still in school too, so I know Philly is known
for these uh DJ crews like Astrophuon. Oh yeah, this
was this is way before that. This was super before that.
Would you enough to go off the block? So let
alone have a crew? But it was it was older
DJs on the block, and you know, and that's the
first time that you got in front of two turntables

(52:32):
in a mixer with headphones. Oh yes, I had nothing,
and they trusted you. Yeah, I mean listen. I was
the guy that when they had to go pee, I played. Yeah,
you were like I was gonna say, have you ever
been someone's record dude? Or always That's all I was
to all of the older guys, and it was just
you know, I don't remember what happened, but I gotten

(52:55):
to a point that I would do stuff by myself,
and you know from growing up in West Philly that
we have an iconic public enemy type flavor flame figure
named Crazy D. That if Crazy D was at your
block party, your block party was guaranteed to be a success.
So people would go and recruit him. And they had

(53:17):
a block party on fifty seven Cedar, which is a
big block to two Way Street. And I remember looking
at all of the DJs in the neighborhood. You had
Disco Doctor, had Disco Rat, you had Email Disco, and
all of them had no block parties. They were all there.
So it was kind of like when you don't have
any other competition and they're all they're watching you and

(53:37):
your fourteen fifteen years old in the street with four
or five people and you're controlling them. That that was
the That was the signal. That was the signal in
the neighborhood that that he got it. Like, that was it.
It was that one block party. So how long was
it before you were able to uh? Because I know turned,

(53:59):
I mean I had to get a record budget to
buy my turntables and my mixer and that sort of thing.
So like I was in a lot of cruise that
had equipment you know, it was kind of like I
would mentally practice no, Jeff listen, I'm I'm I'm there
that serious. I would practice in my head. That was

(54:22):
the only way that I can spent just in my
in my head. That was before that. That was before that,
But you know what it was. What what helped was
if you cut grand Master Flash super Rapping at a
party and you killed it the next week, the DJ
in your crew is going to cut that record. He's

(54:44):
not gonna leave it for you. There wasn't there wasn't
favoritism or any of that. So what happened then you
learned how to cut at the party by Treacher's Three,
and then the next week he would cut grand Master
Flash and the Treacher's Three. So you systematically kept going
through records, finding teams to do off of these records
because it was it was that competitive, you know, you

(55:06):
you know the back in the day parties, you know
Grandmaster Flash super Wrapping was paid twenty times because everybody
had a routine off of it. Who who was the first?
Like did you pioneer the whole Let's dance of the
drummers beat? Like what that was? That was a classic?
Like that I don't think anybody necessary like That's what

(55:29):
beat like that to me is is that's Philly. Like
that was one of the things that I would say,
like that didn't belong to any DJ specifically, that was Philly.
That was DJ spend, bad Lightning Rich, that was every
DJ and Philly cut, pump me up, they cut, dances, drummers,
beat they cut. It's time they cut, you know, uh

(55:50):
clear they cut. Like there was just a staple of
Philly records that all of the DJ's cut. But I mean,
who was the first cat that was just like yo,
instead of just pump me up normal, I'm gonna bump
the bump a bump bump, bump up me out like
ways too. Every You know what was funny, I think
when I saved up enough money and got because I

(56:12):
understand all of this early stuff was done on belt
drive turn tables, which I think helped me a lot
because the but you know what it was, it helped
your hands. You know that's my hands got light because
they had no choice but to be like because I
was on the wackiest equipment in the world. So so
without butter rugs, how were you able to wax paper?

(56:35):
You would go and your mom's and pull out some
wax paper, put a record down, you cut it out
and poked a hole in. You start scratching too much.
The wax people would get too big and start slidding off,
and you gotta get some new wax paper. There wasn't
we didn't have any of those tools. We didn't have
butter rugs, felt matt's. You you know, you bought a turntable.
You had the big rubber matt on it that you
just tossed away, and you know, forty five made the

(56:58):
record wabble, which you had to have really light hands
because you would cut well, no, you would put a
forty five underneath the twelve in but that didn't work,
so the wax paper was it. Or you would cut
an album cover and and try to use that. You
try to get a glossy one because it was a
lot more. He would spray w D forty in your mixer,

(57:18):
which I know Steve is just like, oh my god.
You would spray it in the mixer. You knew it
was going to destroy your mixer, but it would make
your cross fader cool. So you know, it was kind
of like listen, I'm gonna I'm gonna kill it for
about three weeks and then the here comes the static
and it's time to retire. And you were just sitting
on the cellf shelf and let it dry out. By

(57:40):
time I dry it out, you could do it all
over again. Can I ask you a questions, just a
DJ culture question, like what is Philly DJ culture in
history mean to hip hop versus other Well, of course
people would say New York, But what do y'all think
that it really means to the culture. Well, that leads
to my next question, because I think that yes or no,

(58:04):
did you invent the transformer scratch? I don't. I don't
give that. If I had to give that credit to anybody,
I would give that credit to DJ spend Bad, the
original spend Bad who used to DJ Forbell. He was
the He was the first person to do something that
sounded like that. There was no name. He was doing

(58:25):
it with the up and down. It was no rhythm
to it, but he was the first person that did
it forward and did it backwards. And then basically it
was kind of like the headline completely. But you know
what it was when you think about it, what grhat
was the theadore invented you took and you said, okay,
flash added some rhythm to it, you know what I mean? Okay,

(58:47):
who who decided to use the cross fader and cut
the scratch on and off? Like it was all of
these add ons that people did. So when he did it,
it was kind of like, Okay, he did it, that
was dope, But he didn't put any kind of rhythm
to it. Like everybody. You know, everybody's rhythm is syncopated.
Nobody was h that that that that that that that

(59:08):
that like everybody's that that. Okay, so see that right there.
So if I was to say what our Philly DJ's
hip hop would be, what it would be something like that,
Like it would be like technique is something that Philly
is definitely in technique like most people, credit has been bad?
Uh you cash money, there's a fourth one? Uh, we

(59:32):
don't play. What I would say that? Well, okay, I'll
ask you who, without hurting people's feelings, who's in your
Mount Rushmore? Oh you're already there. Who Now is this
Mount Rustamore in Philly or just in general? Um? Cash

(59:55):
absolutely um crazy thing? It would be cash Grandmaster now
and Cosmic cav Well I knew you're gonna say Kevi,
but I was, that's wow, that's awesome, like like it's
a little still my idol. Listen, keV keV. keV. keV
was incredible. Cosmic Cav is the fastest DJ ever heard

(01:00:19):
him his finger like he was, he was, he was incredible.
Like I like, we get mad at keV because keV
don't be keV no more. And I'm like, come on, dude,
I know you got that ship in you that don't
ever go nowhere. Wait, he doesn't do what I mean
you No, I ain't saying like that. I'm saying like, listen,
like I said, I get mad that this generation of
people who know cosmic keV don't know the Cosmic Cav

(01:00:41):
that I know. You know what I mean, Like you
know keV Grandmaster. Now like everybody kind of had something
and it was you know, and it was really dope
because you know, when Cash wasn't necessarily from Philly, Cash
with from Yaton and you know, we brought Cash into
Philly and introduced him to all of the promoters and
all the rest of that. You don't considerating, well, well

(01:01:04):
I do, I do. I mean, you know it's kind
of like you you kind of count Sharon Hill as Philly. Yeah, okay,
back in the we used to think that was a suburb.
Yeah yeah, I get it, I get but you know,
but you know, like you know, Nell used to bring
us to South Philly because you wouldn't go to South
Philly without knowing somebody. You wouldn't damn to trying to
go down there in DJ. So you listen, it wasn't

(01:01:26):
like that, Like I listen. I remember keV bringing me
to Mount Airy to DJ at a block party, and
someone snatched this guy's glasses right next to me. He
had a pair of Neil Styles on just like I did.
And they snatched his glasses and didn't snatch mine because
I was up there with keV. I forgot. You grew

(01:01:48):
up in the era of snatching what listen, Gazelle space
Invader hats I remember, I forgot about that era. It
was right, you know, and and I understand I needed glasses,
so my ship wasn't for show. You got transitions before

(01:02:08):
we've even had transition. So somebody snatched my glasses. I
don't know if I'm gonna be able to find I
got robbed too, and somebody took my gazelle. They took
my glasses, took my sneaks. What yeah, at a gig na. Listen,
I was coming home, coming home, and you saw it.
You saw the whole thing being set up. We were walking.

(01:02:29):
You know what's funny is I was with a friend
of mine and we stopped and was talking to this
girl and these two guys walked past, and they walked
back past. So it's kind of like the second past
was kind of like this when you kind of cut
your eye, and the third past they came back and
we kind of looked at each other like, okay, you
know what this is. So as they walked left, we

(01:02:51):
walked right. And what he did is he looped around
and came through the alley and jumped out the alley
with a gun and was just like, give me your glasses,
and I'll just repeat did everything that he said because
it was in broad daylight. So he's give me a glasses,
I give my glasses, give me a chain, give me
my chain. Because I'm like, I'm stalling because my man broke.

(01:03:11):
He broke. I mean, listen, I wasn't mad ship he
had a gun. Iout of broke two damn it. Wilton
I'm playing. I'm playing, but he he broke and you
know I was. I was two seconds away from like, okay,
he doesn't look too confident with this gun, so I'm
about to sucker punch the ship out of him and run.
And what happened? Then his man came up, So now
it's two people. So I was kind of like, okay,

(01:03:32):
all right, let me just get my glasses and give
you my watch and gee, and they got caught. Oh
they did. Long story short. He came to court with
my sneakers on. You listen, you remember how you used
to lace the sneakers up, that how all one side
would be red and one side would be blue. I
knew how to lace my New York strings in the

(01:03:53):
same ship. I knew how to lace my sneaks up,
that this whole side will be read, this whole side
to be blue. He came into sneakers that he robbed
me in. I let the judge know. He said they
were his sneakers. I told him take the laces out
and let him lace him up. And he couldn't do it.
Wait the judge. The judge made him do it. He
couldn't do it, and it gave me the sneakers back

(01:04:16):
and I took the sneaks and through him in the trash.
It's just like, I just don't want you to have yeah,
be such a great episode of of C S I
or l a law or something like you said, no,

(01:04:41):
I get it. That is you sho. You know, how
did you first hear about the d m C S?
Oh man? How many? How many belts? Is that a
real thing? Or just was that folkwords? It wasn't belt.

(01:05:02):
I got a cup. I didn't get a belt. Was
it the very first one? No? No, it wasn't the
first one, but I got I got a cup. Um,
what year did you in yours? Si? Okay? And how
many years were there in existence? Oh man? It was?
It was there for a couple of years before that.
But it was funny because when I got in, fifty

(01:05:24):
of the DJs were mixers, so they got really really
mad at me because I kind of changed the whole
landscape of the d M C. So before you casten
before listen to, dude was playing and he I need
Love Do Do Do, and he's mixing the next record
and I came in like no techniqu and it was

(01:05:45):
just like, we can't keep up with that. What's the
d m C s C. Yeah, I never knew. That's
what DMC stills about it. But so you're saying that
you came Before you came in, it was just about
who had the hottest mix in five minutes pretty much.

(01:06:07):
Who were the previous winners before? I don't know, so
who was growing up against you now? Um? I want
to say, well, because it was too It was the
New Music Seminar and it was the Disco Mixed Club,
Disco Mix Club. I remember Vandy C was in it, um,
and it was a couple of other DJs. I think
whiz Kid was in it. Um. I don't know the mixer.

(01:06:29):
The mixer guys, it was as well, he's not from Philly,
he's from Jersey. He was right, he was, he was.
I was in the New Music Seminar with him. He
was the he was the d m C world chap
at the time. And how did you defeat him? What

(01:06:50):
do you mean? How I was better? But you know what,
like listen and and and he's he's he's cool. You know,
I love that, bro. It was just funny at that
point in time. I was never really I never really
considered myself a competition guy like listen, I like, I
like to do it. I was just kind of like, damn,
I'm really mad that everybody's trying to put this person

(01:07:13):
up against you. It's just like, I enjoy doing this.
I ain't playing basketball to win the dunk contests. I
just like playing ball. But that was a way to
get your name out. So when I got into the
new music seminar being from Philly with Um I did.
That was when I did the Border Mansion for your
Mother thing and down. But it was kind of like

(01:07:37):
he um right before we went on, I went to
shake his hand and and he didn't shake mine. I
was just like, hey, man, what's up. Good luck, you know,
because I was like, man, I like you got the
King cut record of and he didn't. He wouldn't shake
my hand, you know. But it was just it was
literally one of those things that I'm kind of like
listening to the equipment was messing up. I realized that

(01:07:58):
nobody was using their own needles. Nobody was using I
won that with with technology. Because the equipment that everybody
was using, everybody lost on the side, like it was
two setups to set up on the left. Everybody lost
because it was jumping, and when he didn't shake my hand,
I deliberately walked to the left side to make you know.

(01:08:22):
I was like, no, I'm going to show you that.
I'm gonna show you completely. And I reached purposely took
the bad side like Will was piste off because everybody
was like, when you go out to go to the
right side. And I walked up and went to the
left side, and I reached in my bag and I
put my own needles on. I had some a DC

(01:08:43):
needles with quarters on top, and I reached and I
put my wax paper on, and I put my record
on and the funny thing with Steve is gonna kill me.
I reached in my bag and while everybody was looking,
I took the long straw and said sprayed that cross
faded as soon as it got loose. I went my
headphones and I tested the left turn table and I

(01:09:05):
tested the right one. And I looked out at the
crowd at Will and I was like, yeah, that motherfucker
was like like, none of those DJs even thought new,
none to wait their ship or balance none. Only you
were doing that just me. And once I knew, I
was kind of like I'm good, and I started breaking

(01:09:27):
breaking stuff down, doing rhythm scratches with job rhythm scratch
and you know, just stuff that people hadn't seen a
herd before. And that's how you want. That was it?
I see, all right, Uh, I gotta get to your
your production phase. I know Jeff was like, this gotta
We're gonna have to have them back for a whole

(01:09:48):
month production phase. I told you before he got here,
I was like, I don't know how he's gonna do this.
This is a two parter that's waiting to happen. I'm
not stopping. The story is no, I'm just I'm not
telling to stop. I'm just saying, I see he's let's go.
You know, we're gonna as we can get and then

(01:10:08):
we're gonna make him come back again. Yes, okay, So
how did you partner with will Um? You know, every
everybody had a rap group, everybody had an MC, everybody
had a DJ. Wait before I asked that, how did
I heard a mixtape once of you battling Victor do play? No,

(01:10:32):
it wasn't who put that mixtape. It wasn't a battle.
It was people just recorded. But it was kind of
like people used to do call and responses with records.
But I thought he was your record dude, like you know, Vick.
Vick was the young guy that used to come over
the house and I always show him stuff. Yeah, but
then what happened with this thing like your battle with Jase,

(01:10:54):
Jeff and everything that title. What what happened was Vic
on at a Central High party and as a joke,
he took a he took a jab at me with records.
Because we're all cool. He took a jab at me
with records. So it was kind of like, Okay, you're
gonna take a job at me. You don't understand that
I got this laundry list of things that I can

(01:11:15):
do to you. And and Ice, my m C at
the time, was the one that was like Victor Dick,
so now to show you. Because it came out on
a mixtape, you don't get a chance to see what
actually happened. You only hear it. So everybody's like, oh
my god, you killed Vic And it was like it
wasn't like, yeah, can I give a millennium footnote real

(01:11:36):
quick to all the millennials. Victor Dick a k A
Victor Cook ak A Victor do you play. You may
know him from a party called Kissing Grind. Yeah, there
the god of Chris and Grind. Yes, that's that's coming
up with the century and one of the produces the
one of my favorite er about Eric green Eyes. I
always like to put that in there. Yeah, Victor Cook
Cook No, um he so wait, actually you mentioned something

(01:12:04):
very crucial, uh for Philadelphia hip hop heads. The the
high school jams. How were they booked? Because those were
like on level of college jams. But you know what,
all of the DJs were from Central High Like Vick
went to Central Where did you go to high school?
I was in but I was the broom. Yeah, I

(01:12:26):
was out of school by then, you know, but it
was just kind of like I got booked because of
my affiliation with Vic and everybody else. So was there
an agent that just had you all going to high school?
I thought an agent was a guy that you know

(01:12:48):
did these things. Now you just you know, you knew
that you knew the guy who was throwing a party,
and you wanted to kind of be his favorite because
he would you know, and then if he knew that
people followed you, you know, they would they would book
But you never desired to be on like Lady B
Street Beat on Para Nadi nine, or like like what
was your goal the radio? You know what? I didn't know?
I didn't know, Like this was weird because this was

(01:13:10):
at a point in time when I'm out of school
and I don't tell anybody that I'm a DJ. Like
what kind of DJ you know? You were? You were
a radio DJ then, so you know, my mama's friends
coming along. Jeff, you have a school. What are you
doing now? Huh? You kind of like you didn't Okay, okay,
it's kind of like what are you doing now? It's
like I'm a DJ and you don't tell us somebody.

(01:13:31):
I do block parties and you know, house parties that
I'm setting up on people's washing machines and all of it.
Like that, that wasn't a viable So back then, if
I wanted to book Jazzy Jeff, oh, listen, I had
my cool three or eight Yeah, listen, you find your
man who worked at the printing store, and you would
get the card and then somebody would design it and

(01:13:51):
you will put your home number on it. So in
eight three, how much could I book you for? Man?
I was a cool thirty five hours. Wait, what come on, man,
we was just turning five bucks. We was trying to
get money to go to McDonald's on Fort Street University.

(01:14:11):
Like you wasn't getting thinking that I gotta pay you
two bucks to man, I wished somebody paid me two
hundred fifty bucks. But you was wearing eks and your kicks,
was right? I mean, listen, because I had a job.
I worked at Roy Rodgers. Okay, there we go. Which street?
How do you think I know? I lived at that
Roy Rogers? Come on, I was, I was. I was
the chicken cook. Makes a lot of sense, now, don't you. Yes,

(01:14:35):
it totally there you guys, Oh my god, it totally
makes sense. This absolutely makes sense. There. Wait, you worked
at that? Yes, dude, I guarantee you I've of all
my nutricity. I worked at the Roy Rodgers and then
I moved up the street and started working for Steve's

(01:14:57):
ice Cream stret want yeah with the mixed man. I
was the king of the mix ends. So y'all knew
each other, but you don't know each other obviously. I
guarantee you ever a free ice cream. He's like, no,
dot me know you? All right? Wait, let me let
me bring the mood down real quick. Uh. Side note
Philadelphia tribute. Uh. Gary hid Nick used to oh damn,

(01:15:19):
you gotta started frowning already. Gary Hidnick would often lore
his the women inside of that Roy Rogers on forty
really to do? What who is he to do? Sort
of are who's Milwaukee? Yeah, I hate to do that, noise, dude,

(01:15:43):
Who's Milwaukee? Yeah? Yeah? Not David Banner, David, but David
think I killed in jail. David the blonde every Yeah,
he liked it. He liked it. Brian his name. We
had a we had had a version of that Philly.

(01:16:07):
I didn't know he didn't live the butler at that.
He loves the fictions. So Gary was Jeffrey Dahmin. Side
note at his trial, you know it was key hip
hop history. You know it was a key witness at

(01:16:27):
his trial. At Gary trial said G for some red
weird reason either said G used to talk to this
girl in Philly, but he lived crashed in North Philly.
Uh eighty six eight seven, like between his ultra matnetic

(01:16:50):
years or whatever. But he had to for some reason.
He was testifying in the in that Gary Hyde truck. Yeah,
that's a little weird. Yeah, why I just bring the
mood down. Tasty just completely destroyed my Rory Roger days.
I gave oh Man Garrett, Wow, I'm fixed him, Chicken.

(01:17:17):
This is not funny, so uh yeah, from doing those
uh those central This is weird because this actually takes
us back to the beginning of this conversation with pleasing

(01:17:39):
yourself musically and serving the crowd musically. Um. I've noticed
that there's there's sort of a running theme with most
of the guests that are on QLs and which high
pressured dje uh uh scenarios make better producers. Jimmy Jam

(01:18:06):
would often talk about having to u DJ for two
thousand kids in Minnesota, but that made him more in
tune to become Jimmy Jam and of course Dr Dre.
His story is that you know, if you played the
wrong record, you could get shot. Yeah, So I don't know.

(01:18:26):
I feel like I'm in such a privileged era because
like my celebrity allows me to do silly ship Like
I could play a Sesame Street record if I want to,
And it's like quest is you know, I'll play the
Curly Shuffle, three Studies ship whatever. But it's like, how
are you able to experiment or is it just like, yeah,

(01:18:47):
I gotta play the hottest record right now, and that's it.
You got, Like, I assume these gigs are like three
or four hours? Correct, you do three to four hours?
I do too. You can make a point in two hour, yes,
like I can make a point however long. But it's
one of the most important things is for me to
know how long, because for me to tell the story,

(01:19:09):
I have to end. I get absolutely piste off because
I am not able to end because everything you know,
it has the beginning of middle and an end um
and you just you Once I know how long it is,
I kind of know where to go. But how can
you tell that story in two hours? Though? Because it
so it's possible to tell a story in thirty minutes

(01:19:30):
like all the pends. You know, it's like it's not easy.
It's like it's it's actually harder to do it in
a shorter amount of times. Yes, it's hard as hell,
you know, because you you don't get a chance to
build up, you don't get a chance to kind of
get into it. You only so when you do these
gigs around the world, it's only for two hours, not

(01:19:53):
even three we'll see you know what it is. You
gotta keep in mind, I play really really high impact.
When you play high impact, you can't high impact people
for for over two hours. Like there was so many
lessons that I've learned. Um. I remember doing an M
s U homecoming and it was one of those things

(01:20:14):
that I just was hitting them and hitting them and
hitting them. And I remember paying attention to this guy.
He was a little bit heavy and he was dancing
and it was almost like you were trying to get
off the floor. And I keep playing something that and
when I tell you, he was dripping and soaking wet.
And it got to a point that I was like,

(01:20:34):
you're not enjoying yourself anymore. Like you're you're at a
fucking health reason, You're you're you're you're at a point
that you're not enjoyed. And it was kind of like, wow, Jeff,
you know what you have to do. You gotta take
people on a roller coaster ride. You got like it's
cool to send people to the bar. You know what?
I realized a long time, like I didn't come up

(01:20:55):
playing reggae because like I'm gonna tell you why, there
was so many a reggae records you get you know,
I'm coming from funk, soul rock, all arrest of this.
I couldn't add reggae into my my set because it
was way too much and there was so many rhythms
that changed that it was just kind of like, you
know what, I'm gonna leave that to someone else. But

(01:21:18):
what I realized is if I didn't play reggae, people
didn't leave. Who wanted to hear reggae? Once you get
them in, nobody's leaving. That's the first lesson as a
DJ that you have to understand. Yeah, I'm not paying
twenty dollars and the DJ suck to the point that
I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna be mad at you, but
I'm gonna stay so because I know that you're there.

(01:21:40):
My job is, you know what, if you satisfy everybody
in the room for forty five minutes, they walk out
saying I had a great time. So it gives me
the ability to satisfy three different groups of people for
forty five minutes. Everybody walks out like, yo, he killed it,

(01:22:02):
because you can't think case some point, how long do
people dance at a wedding reception? Twenty minutes. Tops. Heybody,
get on the floor with the bride and the groom.
You boom boom boom, boom boom, and it's kind of like, okay,
cut the cake and we out and I'm good, Like
we're not at the You know, this ain't dance interior

(01:22:23):
because people who went to those marathon dance things, they
went there to dance all night. That's not the average club.
The average club is I'm a drink, I'm a finder girl,
and I'm a dance. It's not it's not the whole thing.
And as I'm just gonna say, as the person dancing
on the floor, we appreciate the break to go get
the drink, to not mess up your hair and sweat
your hair out and ship and be like, oh good,

(01:22:45):
he's gonna take it. Oh good. I can breathe for
a second, like we just appreciate it. You know what,
It's funny you said about reggae, because I feel so
Reggae is the one genre that will never die and
that is universally loved by everyone. My first records are
always the reggae records because I had to test the room.
That's the one. Like murder, she will will never die

(01:23:09):
in my lifetime. So that's usually like my first record,
and with the stuff that Drake is doing now, that's
sort of like close. So usually my first ten records
to that, and it buys me time to see. Now
it's weird because I used to be the DJ that
like came out the box hit hit, hit Hit, but
then I learned, like after seventeen, there's fatigue, and then

(01:23:31):
I started feeling myself to the point where I got
off with playing the worst ship ever, not only because
I knew what I had around the corner, but how
great is that feeling? I tell people, it's amazing. If
I got two thousand people in front of me, and

(01:23:54):
I know I got you, I know what the next
five records are going to do to you, Like you
don't know, Like I'm sitting there like, oh my god,
as like fest when we were in when we were
in Africa, and because I have this thing that I
played the original of any Up the Soul Sistem, so

(01:24:15):
you know it's fast, you know, dying down down and
sol Sistem. So everybody's kind of have this look because
it's kind of like you just changed the tempo, like
it's almost like, damn, did he fuck up? And I'm
playing it and you you gotta sell it like we're
selling it. Fests over there dancing Dane dancing, and when
it when it morphs into it, the look on everybody's face,

(01:24:38):
oh shit, oh and it's pandemonium. But so when I
dropped that, I'm excited because I'm kind of like, I'm
looking at the dude just kind of like, what's he doing? Man,
this dude, And I'm like, and I'm just staring straight
in his face. Just wait, because you know, any up
is kind of like with all the ladies. Yeah, that's

(01:24:59):
that's the be and safe for dudes. I'm sitting there like, okay,
go ahead, stand it with that stone face and then
he loses his mind absolutely Okay, So listen this in
closing because I also want to get listen. You said,
for the record, we're doing part two, okay, but then

(01:25:24):
part two gonna be real long too. We're talking touch
of jazz, We're talking we we gotta get to the
production stuff and then but I do want to talk
about the M three project. Explained to me how how
it came to be. I wanted this to be the
last installment of the Magnificent Series not the last record
that I'm gonna do. The Magnificent Series was always a

(01:25:46):
trilogy to me, and wanted to be the Magnificent Return
of Magnificent M three. I needed to let the music
industry kind of get completely out of my way. There's
certain ship that just didn't make sense to me that UM,
I wanted to kind of X. You know. The first
thing that I fixed was having your own studio, because
now I can control the creative process. I can make

(01:26:07):
whatever I want. Nobody can tell me that. I just
didn't have it down to how to release your music
and get it to everybody. So social media and just
the changing world that we live in allowed all of
that to happen, and that's why I was eleven year
gap between the Return of the Magnificent to this one. UM.
But I also wanted to do a record because I

(01:26:29):
made the mistake by making the prototypical UM, let me
have all of these guests on my record, only to
realize that there's no way humanly possible that we're ever
going to do a show. Isn't that frustrating? So it
just got to a point that it was kind of
like listen I'm you know, as many days as we're doing,
how can I make this record to the point that

(01:26:51):
we can go out and support But did you do
that with the other magnificence Listen, I had method man
c else move and you know, it was just kind
of like, yeah, so this will never be live whatever.
So you know, it was kind of like, you know,

(01:27:11):
me and Dane have been on the road for six
seven years. I've made fest was on the Return of
the Magnificent. The funny thing was when I made the
Return of the Magnificent, my son a Mayor, was five,
so you know, it was all and then just sitting
down kind of piecing it together. You know, I was
kind of like, listen, you know what I want to do.

(01:27:33):
First of all, I want to bring back the era
of Cold Crush. I want to bring back the era
of tried, bring back the era of Daylas Soul, of
mcs growing back and forth with each other. Um because
one of the things that I realized, especially being in DJ,
is when you've been around during a cycle, when Am
and I with DJ together and we would do two

(01:27:56):
by four sets, which basically both of us are playing
at the same time, people would lose their mind, and
I'm like, I did this twenty five years ago with
cash money, Like it's not new. Wait you djis morn before? Yeah,
we would do two by four style. I never knew that. Yeah,
that's why I never asked the question. Yeah we would,
we would do that. But it's just what it did.
Is it kind of let me know when you have

(01:28:17):
when the cycle has repeated itself, everything starts over. You know.
It's kind of like the person who's like, oh my god,
Transformers and you're kind of like, wow, you completely missed
the cartoon. Huh, like you think it started now. So
it's from knowing that from the DJ side, I'm kind
of like, you know, me gooes don't actually tag team

(01:28:39):
when they've rapped, like they're not doing daylight solo, cold
crushed stuff, so no one understands about that. So I
was like, yo, I'm just reinventing the wheel that. What
I think is really dope is I had three generations
of m c s that I have Fest who's forty,
Dame who's twenty, and I'm heir who's eighteen. But they

(01:29:00):
all our mcs, they all spit and you can hear
their different perspectives and the songs I was listening to it,
I was like, this is kind of like everybody is
kind of like, oh man, you know, is it that
this is this? It's kind of like I hate categorizing music.
I got two categories. It's good music and bad music.
I don't care the genres all arrested that ship because
you know, you would go into a tire Records and

(01:29:21):
you couldn't find the ship that you wanted because you
classified it as one thing and they classified it as
something else. And I just kind of wish that the
entire stories in alphabetical order, because I could probably find
everything that I wanted. So it's just it wasn't genre specific,
you know. I took two weeks and we came in
and we made all of the music. All of the
music on the album is live instrumentation, UM. And I

(01:29:44):
did it in a way because it was kind of like, Okay,
you know, I don't necessarily want you to know, I
want you to feel the music. I'm not I don't
want you to dissect it. Um. And then invited Dane
ron Festing, our mayor, to come in and Aaron Camper
and we you know, recorded all the vocals and it
was like that was it shout out to errand Camp,

(01:30:04):
shout out to Camper represent So, uh, I'm about to say,
and then we cheat because traveling around the world, if
you watch any of the videos that we put out,
we cheat and shoot videos and all of the places
that we go. So the first video, Skaters Paradise, which
is actually about traveling around the world and how some

(01:30:27):
people would rather spend a thousand dollars on a strip
of the dance instead of spending a thousand dollars on
a trip to Japan. Um, you know, we we cheated
and shot the video all over the world. That's good business,
good business, good business. Well, Jeff, I'm holding you too. Yes,

(01:30:48):
we have to actually we have two extra episodes. Do
we have to do? Jeff? And then Ryan Fest he
gotta come back to his own episode and talking about
how he'd be trying and say the world and ship exactly. Yeah, Fest,
I take Fests around the world with me because he
saved the world as we go. I don't. I don't.
I've never been that person that just kind of ventures

(01:31:09):
off and we would come down and I'll say, Dane,
where's Fest And he was like, I don't know, and
fesss just be like, yo, I just got with some
people and they took me out in Kenya, and I'm
kind of like, yeah, I wouldn't have did that. But
Fest comes back and listen, we were in Balley and
Fest came back after being gone all day that we're

(01:31:29):
almost about to send a search party out, and Fess
was like, yeah, I went to a brothel and I
was sitting outside talking to three prostitutes in a cop
and he had like a five hour conversation, but came
back with the entire information on the country of Bally,
Indonesia in the potato Potato potata. So yeah, you know,

(01:31:55):
Fess is our culture. How's Obama doing? I just figured
you know him. You know, actually we were we were
having some issues in Chicago because you know, they got
the the the Obama Library. It's coming to the South Side.
It's a five million dollar project, is gonna projected three

(01:32:16):
billion dollars for the for the South Side of Chicago.
But Obama, who was a community organizer, won't wouldn't sign
a community benefits agreement and that that community benefits that
that makes sure people don't get harlemed out and broken out.
You know what I mean, Like, when you see what's
happening in New York, it's coming to your neighborhood soon.

(01:32:38):
I didn't already happen in Chicago because where did the
council voting on it today and pushed it through And
so like you know, basically, you know the preachers in Obama,
they gotta get like it's Obama, just trust them. And
the community is like, hold on, wait this three billion dollars,
we need this in writing, and they're like, now you're
not getting it in writing a lot of times to

(01:33:00):
know what's interesting when you this is what black people
got to be careful of when we make big money
and do big projects. Who's in the middle of us
in the community. It's always the middleman. He usually don't
look like the man. You don't look like the one
at the bottom at the top sometimes and yeah, you
know what I'm saying. I mean, Steve Cool, No he

(01:33:21):
is right now. Hey, I'm going to get him an
endorsement deal with w D forty and Okay, so I
don't but you know, my mixers no more because now
they got a knob to make it tight or loose.
I heard your fest over there, watch out for the middleman.

(01:33:41):
You know he talks to rich peop. I'm not there yet,
but for you and Jeff, y'all should watch out for
the middleman if you see a rich person. You know
what I'm saying. I couldn't say wealthy, at least rich.
Come on, Negroes, don't try to play player. Wind this
episode so I can go to my job. Goodbye. I
can't look. I'm just being on my mama house. That's
some Listen on behalf of DJ DJ Jazzy Jeff Ron

(01:34:08):
fess uh Sugar, Steve Fantigolo and his countertops. Oh man,
I love Fante. We speak like he real salty. Day
he didn't, Yeah he real salty? Is he? Yeah? He
his countertops exactly should have been here after But Ron,
that's coming back, So there you go. There you go,
all right? And also unpaid Bill on Testy Street, Uh

(01:34:32):
boss Bill yea evil Steve. Yeah, everyone, this course supreme
and this quest love only on Pandora. We will see
on the next ground. Thank your ladies and gentlemen. You
hate to hear it happen, but you know that's part
one of the Great Jazzy Jeff. Stay tuned for part two,

(01:34:54):
where we get more stories of his life with Will Smith,
making records, DJ and making music. Followness, Passion, the Greatest
ever Jazzy Jeff Qules Classic Part two coming up next time.
Of Course, Love Supreme is a production of My Heart Radio.
This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.

(01:35:19):
For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}QLS Classic: Jazzy Jeff (Part 1)