QLS Classic: Jazzy Jeff (Part 2)

Grammy-award winning DJ Jazzy Jeff joins Team Supreme (again!) to talk hip hop, DJ culture, and what it was like to work with Will Smith.

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Episode Transcript

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 Part two of DJ Jazzy
Jeff on q LS Classic. Now this is a little
bit different. Part one was courtesy of August two thousand eighteen.
We didn't even get to part two until almost a

(00:21):
full year later. So here we are May fifteen, two
thousand nineteen, almost a year later, with the great DJ
Jazzy Jeff Part two QLs Classic. Let's go eating we
eas roll call, Prima po roll call, roll call Rodah,

(00:59):
sure this even quite Yeah? And Jazzy Jeff rep request Yeah,
I can't I read Roma road call, m roll call.
My name is Fonte Yeah and I'm just kicking it Yeah.
On que l Ash Yeah, with the magnificent roll So

(01:23):
Prima roll call, So Prema Prema roll call. My name
is Sugar Yeah, Yeah, I'm always high. Yeah, didn't we interview?
Yeah this guy? Rolla road call, Prima Soma roll call.

(01:44):
First you grabbed the hat, yeah, then you grab the
hat yeah, then you flip the hat. Yeah. Make sure
it's a Scotder Catma Prima road call. That was so
Prima roll call. I'm on pay Bill. Yeah, don't get
it silly? Yeah, how killed today? Yea be anymore Philly

(02:07):
Roll Call Prima, roll Prima Prima, roll call. It's yeah
back with Jeff. Yeah, a better Aquarius. Yeah, I ain't
met one yet. Roll car Ro Prima roll Call. My

(02:32):
name is Jeff. Yeah, this is true. Yeah, I'm back
on q LS. Yeah for part two. Rolla Prima roll call,
So Prima Prima, roll call, Prima Prima, roll call, sub

(02:53):
Prima Prima, roll call starter cap Okay, okay. Other role
would have been something about one. Okay, alright, so von
Bell Yo. Shout out to Boss Bill, who made it

(03:16):
um explicitly clear that he didn't want any eating on
this show. I should have Yeah, I should have listened.
It was almost died during roll call. Like we have
this shout out to the studio. We're still at in
our Phillip pilgrimage where the Milk Boy studio a k

(03:37):
of the studio um and their fancy cheese here and
fancy cheese that might there's something about there's something about
when that organ's drill starts, there's a level of panic
in the air and intro. That's that's some early QLs

(04:00):
reference for our listeners. Yeah, and I heard it, Oh yeah,
when my my love for Latin Quarter stories, when those
drums happened. That makes someone's getting their ass beat at
the Latin quarter. When that when those roles come in. Yeah.
But when I heard the Oregon thing, I was like, oh,
I'm eating cheese. Oh I don't know, I'll swallow it
real quick, and then that was it. I was choking. So, um,

(04:26):
this is a historical first, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, we
have our first repeat guest, we knew this moment was
happening kind of Okay, half the people weren't here at
the time when Jeff came before. So this this is
the full, the full throttled Jazzy Jeff episode with all
the members present. But um, would you like to tell

(04:49):
them why we had to have a part two? We
didn't even get the Will Smith. Yeah, Will Smith. So
we can start like the Biggie record previously over need
to Die. So, Jeff, you were five years old when
you got your first all right, Jeff? So all right?
We ended uh talking about the DMC battles and how

(05:14):
Jeff wanted to It's one of my favorite episodes. I
actually not only my narcissistic I'm also sponge full of information.
I remember that he uh used the wrong turn tables
and still won the battle against was it DJ cheese?
Okay cheese, that's ironic? What you used like a belt?

(05:39):
Drought direct? What was wrong? It was two setups and
one of them wasn't acting right, and everybody that used
that set up lost. Uh, and he dissed me, and
I got mad and I wanted to beat him on
the bad set up. So I did beat him. Yeah,
so did he whooped his ass? Yes? Um? So then

(06:00):
once you're crowned king, uh, what happens? Like? I mean,
they gave me a big cup and you were like
all of the all of the d m c s
after that, or the new music seminars, they gave a
belt and they gave me a cup. I mean, I
appreciate the cup first, the cup, but you know I can't.

(06:26):
I came home. I can't have The funny thing is
I came home and went straight to W D A
Y S. Because you know, did you cut? Did you cut?
Is that the night that you cut? Baby? Let's go go?
You went to DS. This is in the eighties and

(06:46):
you stayed on the only thing that musk it was
you cut big chump beat, a big drump beat four
minutes straight and it's that wasn't me. No, no, no, no,
you were cutting it. Yes, you were cutting big jump. Yes.
I don't know if it's after this night particular. No,

(07:08):
I probably wasn't. What. You know, we we lived in
d A, Yes, you know, we we we had kind
of had carr Blanche that you just kind of show
up stop by when you want. Yeah, yeah like that.
I like that. Yeah, shout out to uh everyone at DS.
Uh Jay Ones and and well j Ones is now

(07:28):
uh he's he's a record is now the right hand
man of DJ. Yeah. Yeah, but you know that was
doing the no Wrap workdays that had their make show
at Friday nights between like nine thirty and TI cut

(07:48):
Master Butter and uh, who's the name Lawrence Lavon? Yeah
yeah yeah, Uh that's also the night that Larry know
he was a guy from phill Yeah. That always these
glorious names that if you if you're a French name
and black dude, that's quite glorious. Um. So I guess

(08:11):
we can start with how did you meet Will Smith? Uh? Okay, Um, well,
you know, back back then, it wasn't uh like a
bunch of really big groups, you know, it was it
was everybody had a DJ on that block. Um, and
then they we would all kind of get together, you know,
at the Wind the Hotel, Philadelphia, Wagner's ball Room, just

(08:34):
all of the spots in the city. Um. So I
knew of Will. I knew, you know, I he was
on a flyer with me for a couple of shows.
So I knew the group that he was with, this group,
the Hypnotic m c S. Yeah. Um. And it was
crazy because this is kind of well not kind of

(08:56):
this is pre cell phone, pre anything. This is like, yo,
I gotta call you in the crew. If you don't answer,
we're done. And somebody called me and said, hey, I
got a party for you on fifty nine and Woodcrests tonight.
And I picked up the phone and I called Ice,
who is my m C And Ice wasn't in the house,

(09:17):
And you know, I was like, okay, you know, I
gotta go and do it. So, you know, we jumped
in the car, we drove up there. Come to find
out there was two doors away from Will. So when
I came and set up, of course, you know Will,
and I want to come down in the basement and
kind of see who's doing the party, and then realized
it was me. It was like, oh man. So he
was like, hey, where's Ice. I was like I couldn't.

(09:39):
I couldn't find him. He's like, yo, you mind if
I rock? And I was like na, and we got
on and it was a It was a anybody who
DJ's or anybody who raps for a good DJ knows
that there's this chemistry and you know, my my brain

(09:59):
works in ball so I kind of know, like, listen,
your fourth bar is gonna be your punch lines breath.
So I'm kind of like, yo, I'll drop out or
just do a scratch there. And it was just but
it was also Will with somebody that watched and was like, okay,
Jeff does this with this hand, and he does this
with this hand. So he would tell me to do something,

(10:20):
but he would always tell me to do it while
I was on the opposite hand to set it up.
So for me to realize that he paid that much attention,
and then him realized that I paid that much attention,
it was kind of like one of those things like
I was like, Yo, this is the best night of
my life and this is crazy, and what you're doing
to Mare? I got a party to do to mar
and you know, so essentially you two are having an

(10:43):
affair with each other. Yeah, oh absolutely. How do you
tell your respective cruise? Well, how do I don't really
know how he handled it? I know, um, you know
what it was. It was. It was a couple of
shows that Will and Ice did together. Um, and you
could definitely tell the difference. Is there an age difference

(11:07):
between the two Um, Ice might be a little bit
maybe two years older than Will mm hmmm, so is
that dog years and MC years? Like no, no, no, no, no.
But you gotta understand this was so early. You know,
it might have been twenty rat records out, so we're
not even talking about the records. We're just talking about everybody.

(11:29):
It was. You know, it was a main cruise in Philly. Um,
and it was just kind of like eighty five eighty five, Um,
and it was it was no, that was eighty five. Yeah,
it was eighty five. You're still cutting shout, Yeah, we're

(11:51):
doing all of that. Um, you know, we we were
doing something with drunk with a drum machine. I had
a routine that I did with a nine on nine
that was that I used to do this thing with
a none on nine and uh uh this boss foot
pedal that on the back of the none on nine. Um,
there's a there's a trigger out and and the trigger
out is the rim shot. So if you plug the

(12:13):
boss foot pedal up to the trigger out, any time
you hit the trigger out, it's going to trigger the
boss foot pedal. There was a mic input on the
boss filp pedal. So me and Will used to do
this thing called the copy rock that all you have
to do is program a bet and just leave the
space at the one that if he would you know,

(12:36):
it was almost like sup and he would say a
punchline and I would go from record to play and
it would automatically play, and everybody was like, oh my god,
Jeffrey Will, he's scratching Will's voice. Yeah, we really, yeah,
we was always ahead of well, you were always ahead
of it, like you in technology. I did a session

(12:59):
with in two thousand six seven and he was recording
vocals in Ableton like back then. I want to say
I found out about final scratch from you. Yeah, somebody
quoted you or something. Yeah, And I smoked my votes
my first bab pen with you. So I'm always across
the board shame in my technology game. Listen, you know,

(13:25):
so how are you finding about? You're not up on
this next? Like, well, I don't think, I don't think
you are? You know you you you know. I grew
up going downtown every day, going in the phonkal Mark
every day, and staring at the equipment that you can afford,
you know, and and then getting cool with them, like
you know, listen, I bought a I bought an echo

(13:48):
machine on layaway. People don't even understand. Later I was
going down there putting three dollars. They got mad at
me because of course, you know, they got a right
every time you put money down on the seat and
my receipt that ship was going to the backside. Three dollars,
two dollars, and they listen, man, why don't you don't
bring nutting down here less than the twenty because I

(14:11):
can't do three, you know. But it was just so
I could get on the mic and go do it,
do it? Do it? Wait? Were you were you ever
that type of DJ where you did your own. Uh,
you gotta understand. Listen, I was DJ and before they
were rappers, So like, what else are you gonna do?

(14:34):
You get on the micio shout out to such and
such from fifty second and Addison Girl Girl Girl, Cirl
you know right, your mama's here. Yeah, I know them. So, uh,
in doing these routines, then how do you guys? What's

(14:57):
the next step? Is it word up records? And yeah?
Well you know what. Everything happened really fast because Will
was on his way to college. Um when it was
he was going to m I T. Oh, yeah, he
was what was going to m I T? Like he
was he was serious and it was kind of like
we hooked up. Like I want to say that this
party had to be sometime in maybe January. Um, and

(15:27):
and I know you'll remember this like Philly. Philly has
a schedule. Philly has a calendar that you know from
you got January February. As soon as March come. Bartram
would always have the first prime of any of the
high schools, so that kicked off prim season. So every
Friday it's Bartram, then it's mass Bomb and such and

(15:50):
such and such. So if you were a DJ, listen
you you worked, you know, not not even if you
didn't do the prim you went with g Q jewel
or for the afterpark at you know, either at the
Wind or it was what was the joint on parks
Cornacopia parkside eat. Your cornucope was the small ones, but

(16:11):
the schools they had good money was on park side. Wait,
so spun our engineering the other rooms put his hands
up for cornucopia side note, I went to the wrong cornucopia.
There's there's a cornucopia bar or in fifty second and Gerard, Yeah,

(16:31):
and I walked in that motherfucker like second right right,
and it was not the after So okay. So this
is also because you gotta also explain that, um with
hip hop culture in the eighties, Uh, we weren't going

(16:53):
to the mainstream clubs or none of those things. Like
all this was it was renting ballrooms. Like the Wind
was the ballroom. The Wind wasn't a club you rented
to win. You rented the hotel Philadelphia. We didn't have
like I almost want to say that the first club
that we actually had was after midnight. Wow, Like after

(17:18):
midnight was the specific was the club? Yeah? And you
know that was the spaghetti factory. No, no, no, I'm
talking about the first after midnight. There was what was
the eighth and Cherry. Yeah, the first after midnight was
Ethan Cherry. Athan Cherry's was l L understand the spaghetti
warehouse after midnight. Oh, that ship lasted about three months.

(17:43):
That that had the potential to be Philly's best club ever.
And the people in the neighborhood was like, nah, y'all
not doing that here. They had a skating ringing after midnights. Yeah, listen,
that was that was open for about three months? Really? Yeah? Wow?
But read after did that? That was? That was Ethan Cherry? Wow? Yeah,

(18:04):
that was Athan Cherry? Boss Bill? Were real allowed to
play that freestyle? M h no, Sorry, I mean I
rather asked permission or rather apologize, you know someone I'm
trying to figure out you got that? Yes you never
heard it. Of course I heard that. I'm just shocked

(18:26):
that you got Well, no, I'm not shocked. Do you
know who I forgot who? No? I absolutely know who
he is. So what historical shows up you've seen? Listen?
I mean you know everything that was after midnight, because
like I said, you know, once after midnight came we
wasn't really going to the win because we had a club.

(18:48):
You know that was kind of like, yo, this ship
is popping every week. So you would go down there
and you know, and and l would come through, and
Big Daddy came would come through, and Stets the Sonic
would come through, and you know, it was it was,
it was the home. I finally got Big Daddy Cane
to talk about the Jazz Fresh Battle. But I got that.

(19:08):
I got that. You have a battle on tape. Yeah, yeah,
I got that, Chef. It sounds like there's gonna be
a trade happening here. We don't ever trade. We just
give each other stuff. We don't call it trading. Okay, Yeah,
that's by the way. The after Midnight is definitely the

(19:29):
Philly Latin Quarter, especially when I mean a big part
of Phillies presidence in late eighties. Hip hop also has
to do with the fact that um, because uh, with
the exception of the Muscle of Carol lewis getting a

(19:50):
fresh fest and to maybe the Nassau Coliseum, Mass Square
Garden really wasn't having that. So you really couldn't get
good hip hop in proper venues. Thus you either go
on the Latin quarter or you're going down to dispect
you at night? Yeah, or in the spectrum of course,

(20:11):
quarter of that stuff. Um, so, how do you guys,
how do you put routines together when it's time to
do How long did these DJ gigs for starters? Man,
he was playing for an hour? Wait? I mean, well,
you gotta keep him out. It was nineties seven DJs
on like it was always a million ded Come on, man,

(20:32):
you listen. Don't make me pull out them and see
how many people were on those shows. You weren't doing
three or four hours. Now. First of all, let me
just explain, because I think I haven't been you would
have been a debt. You've been a debt man, you
know what I mean? People booked me. It was a
question love played for I was like, again, don't do that.

(20:53):
I don't do that. I can't do that. Look what
you did just an hour? Well, listen, back then, were
not just that. What you have to understand, the Live
at Union Square show was twenty minutes. You didn't do
shows for an hour. Ship we had two records, like

(21:13):
they didn't know that. Yeah, but they didn't know that
we were going to fill in the gaps like that,
Like that was. You gotta understand, when we started doing shows,
we just were taking what we were doing at the win.
We were taking what we were doing before we had records,
and you would add that to your records. So it's
kind of like, Yo, I'm gonna start off and I'm
gonna cut these three records. Ready Rocks, he gonna come out,
he's gonna do the beatbox, and then we're gonna do

(21:35):
these two records exactly. So you were only there to
don everybody was that's it, that's it, and you just
you know, it was kind of like, yo, we need
to you know, we need to show up. Well, first
of all, you gotta understand, we didn't know what they
were doing. We thought what we were doing in Philly,

(21:59):
we thought is what everybody else. So we got to
New York and started doing it, and it was just
kind of like everybody's going crazy, and I'm just kind
of like, what are you going crazy for? Y'all do
the same ship. I found out when Reek first got
to stretching Barbados, Ree thought everybody was freestyling. Oh no.
So that's why Reek became such a stickler for freestyling,

(22:20):
because again, it's like WHOA must be doing this and
not I supposed to be doing this and try absolute
album absolutely so wow, okay, so okay, well making your
twenty minutes seven? Uh are you thinking of like okay
song in the moment or no? No, I mean everything

(22:42):
was DJ R in it. You know, it's it's kind
of like you knew the records that were DJ records.
You know, it's typical you know, dances, drummers, beat this, this, this, this,
you know what is something that people know that you
can manipulate, that they can see what you're doing and
you know, and that they know that what you're doing
is something special. So you just you just got these

(23:03):
records that you would just do and you would just
change them up. You know, if you got if if
you you got a hundred different records that you can
cut and you only need to cut two, you know,
that's fifty shows doing different routine. Right. But when did
you realize that certain records are hotter in other cities

(23:25):
that you that might not have been man, let's stend
aso the drummers beaten Houston, No and no no, I
mean and trust me, it wasn't until we started going
out that you started realizing there was two things we
remember us doing. Um, I remember us doing a Richmond

(23:45):
Coliseum and I did a DJ routine and halfway through it,
I looked up and everybody was just staring at me,
and I was like, you have no idea what I'm doing.
And it was like wow, Like if you pay attention,
that's why on the Magnificent you here will telling me

(24:06):
what to do and then I do it. Like we
realized how you have to do it is you have
to tell people Jeff scratching like a bird, and then
when you do it, everybody's like, oh my god, like
they didn't get it, like hip hop hadn't come that
far and all of those places, you know that to
the point that people understood what a hip hop DJ

(24:27):
was doing. So it was the same thing that it's
kind of like, okay, I'm I'm I'm cutting dances, drummers, beat,
and then you get someplace and you do it and
you got that look like, Okay, they have no idea
what this record is. That's where Rock the Bells came from,
That's where Peter Piper came from, because you cut everybody know,
Like that was my biggest criticism. Um, when I used

(24:50):
to watch DJ's and DJ battles that they would do
these amazing routines, offer records that nobody knows. It's kind
of like, how do they know what you did to it? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
you have no perspective on it because I don't know
what it is. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out that
for Stroke right now, because still I feel like the
only people that are truly mind blowing at what Stroke

(25:13):
Elliott does and Jeremy as well, is the roots on stage,
because the whole audience is just like a silent stunt,
like you know, occasional Instagram will be like like all
of it, all that is is just picking popular records,
but he and he does them how they're supposed to
be done, and then he flips it once he slips

(25:35):
it one on one right the same. Basically, we gotta
figure out a way, like when he were saying, like
instructions like a bird and breaking down right here, that
sort of thing, and when do you decide? Like that's
what I was asking, like, when do you decide? When
I go to d C. Okay, I'm gonna play my ship,
but also I know I can play this because this
this record was hot here and we almost have to

(25:57):
go to find out, you know, because guy blessed that
time music was different in every place that you went to,
you know, and you appreciated that. You know, I enjoy
doing those shows. That Columbus, Ohio was different. You know,
you go to you know, d C or Virginia. You know,
you got a little bit of that go go stuff

(26:18):
that you can kind of add it. Like you you
you heard what each territory musical taste was. You know,
I'm scared of that today. Oh yeah, we don't have that.
We don't the other day. Regional like there's no regional
sounds and only the foundation. Like I know, I feel

(26:38):
like Jamaica Funk is like a regional record, like it's
like a d C to those kind of classes. How
did you ject? I mean you and um Will when
y'all first, So your first deal wasn't directly with no no, no,
no no, but we did. You know what was funny? Um?
You know word up was an extension of pop art,

(26:58):
which was you know yeah, oh yeah, well understand Dana
Goodman owned word Up, so you know it's the good
Man brother. Yeah. So it was funny because um, Dana
lived around the corner from Will. So me and Will
did the demo of girls Ain't Nothing but Trouble and
Will gave it to Dana because we would you know,

(27:20):
we what did y'all even cut it on listen? I
had a I had a drum machine and a four
track and it was just kind of the original was
done on the Ford track. Well understand, the original original
was done over Moments in Love. Yes, I have that
big yeah with do on the Shoe? Do you still

(27:40):
have that? No? I don't and I need that. I
need to Will Will go crazy for that, dude. I
we lived on in London. We have that someone of
my stories unit I got that she had do shoe.
We got to go to the story tomorrow. There you go,
Yeah we do, but yeah, you know we we we
did it. He gave and he gave the demo to

(28:02):
um Dana. So it was funny because Will called was like, Yo,
Dana wants to come over and talk to us about
putting out a record. And I was like, all right.
So Dana comes to my house and Dana walks up
on the porch and you know, you hear stories of
Dana and Larns. Dana walks up on my porch and
my next door neighbor, Keith looked at Dana and said Pie,

(28:23):
and Dana looked at him. So, first of all, I'm like,
who the fun is Pie? And Dana looked at him
and said Hawk. So now I'm kind of like, who
the fuck is are um? And then they hugged and
it was like yo, man, what's going on? How you doing?
And he was like what are you doing here? And
Dana was like, I'm coming to check out the young
boy in his you know, in his demo. And Keith's

(28:46):
face got really serious and he looked at Dana and
he was like, Pie, that's Jimmy Town's son. I mean,
Jimmy Town's brother. Don't funk with him. And I was
looking like, what's going He said, That's that's family. That's
I'll never forget that. It's like, that's family. So what
did you just save you from that? You don't know

(29:07):
what just happened? Well, I know Dana pulled a gun
out on Will Wait what oh yeah, yeah, yeah, so
it's a whole bunch of that. But yeah, that none
of that ever happened to me. Wow. Okay, yeah, so
let's talk about the let's not let's not gloss over

(29:29):
the crafting of girls. Ain't nothing but trouble. What's some
major ship, Because it was like by that point you
could choose, you could choose two squads. You need to
go the schooly d squad of where everyone else was going.
What I call like, uh, you know, blues is uh,

(29:52):
blues is crafted. Uh you know, like the first chord
and the fourth and the fifth. In other words, you know,
you're set up lining here and then your second set
right here, and then your first set line right and
then the punch line and if you no no no
no no no, and then then I'll take your sister too.
And with school e D it's the same thing with

(30:13):
It's like the two set up lines. I went to
no no no no, and then I no no no
no no no no no no and win no no
no no no no no no no, and then the
punch line stuff, and then I pulled my gun. Y'all
could have easily went there because everybody in their mom
was going to the School e D narrative route you

(30:35):
guys chose. I felt you guys were more trying to
go to slick rick route, which kind of Will's version
of Slick Rick Click. He sort of carved his own lane,
which I still don't know what people decided to call
it or whatever, but it's it's more like, you know,

(30:57):
I felt like that was the next step that Dotty
should have went for, Yeah, for Doug and Rick, and
it didn't. Now it's you guys, so like, how did
you guys craft? It was just like Will was. Will
was a great storyteller. So he he had girls Ain't
Nothing but Trouble written, um, and I just programmed a

(31:20):
beat and grabbed the TV tunes record and played our
Dream of Genie, um, yeah, and and he wrote it.
But you know, like I said, I remember doing shows
playing that, you know, cutting the instrumental of moments and love,
and Will would do moments. You know, Will would do
Girls and nothing but Trouble. And I was blown away

(31:43):
at how everybody was looking at his mouth like waiting
for the next line. And I was like, yo, like
this is crazy, Like this he's got some power if
you know what I mean, You're telling something that that
that's that visual that you can kind of see it
in your head. So he was always a start. He
was all yeah, he always had that that level of

(32:05):
of writing. Uh, that was very visual. Now doing business
with Goodman was I mean, listen, you know what this is?
This is this is back in the day. Um, there was.
I had no aspirations to make a record like that,
wasn't it? You know? My in my brain, I had

(32:28):
my life set. I was about to go work at
PGW because they had great benefits. I was gonna take
a two week vacation and why would And I was
gonna get a house on Colls Creek Parkway so I
could look across the street at some grass like that.
I really thought that that was it. Go to path Mark.

(32:50):
So when it was kind of like hey, let's put this,
let's let's do this record, we go on the studio
and basically, you know, take my drum machine and record
it and fly Girls and that but trouble In and
Will Will does it and he puts it out um
and it starts getting played on d A S and
then it starts getting played on BLS in New York.

(33:10):
And then we have to go to New York and
then we do Latin Quarters and we do this and
next you know, when North Carolina, like this this was
all happening really Fast Girls dropped two days before We'll
graduated from Overbrook, so like that listen. That was oh man,
Like he was the the graduation party and you gotta

(33:33):
he was bawling. He was bawling because it was a hit.
Oh man, it was. It was playing it everywhere like
and and and it was also in my brain, I'm like, Okay,
he's about to go to college. And he started. We
end up, we go to l A and start doing
stuff and the next you know, we got a call
like they you know this, it's blowing up huge in London.

(33:54):
They want you to come over and do Top of
the Pops. And we didn't know what Top of the
Pops was the top no listen. So we get over
there and we didn't have work papers, so they wouldn't
let us perform. So we literally flew over there for
them to say, Hey, this is DJ J Jeff for
the first person. We said hi everybody, and they played
girls Ain't nothing but trouble, but you couldn't perform. Now

(34:16):
we couldn't perform. I hate like that, like but it was,
you know, and it got to the point that it
started gaining so much traction that Will kind of went
to his mom and dad was like, you know, I
gotta I gotta see what this go, you know, And

(34:38):
now you know it's crazy because it was played on
the radio and us doing all of that traveling. You
gotta understand, we didn't have a family member that had
ever been to London, so it was kind of like listen,
I can't say that I got okay, you know um.
And that was it, like it it started and never stopped.
You know. We did Girls in That My Trouble. Of course,

(35:01):
you know, Dana wanted to do Guys Ain't nothing but
Trouble because everybody wanted to do an He was like,
let's let's answer our own record. So who's like no, no, like,
you know, ice cream Tea. I think Lady B new
ice cream Tea. So we did Guys in up by Trouble.
Then we did just one of those Days, which is

(35:22):
the record that I hate with. Let me tell you,
let me tell you why, let me tell you why.
Listen listen. So Dana, Dana is in the studio. So
first of all, the first lesson, don't it's girls in Him?
But Trouble comes out and that ship says Produced and

(35:45):
written by d Goodman and I was just kind of like, okay, um,
if he did that, I'm just trying to figure out
what did I actually do? Like, I'm trying to figure
it out because I know we came in the studio
and then Dana would give these instructions like turn the
kick Jown up, and you could tell the engineer who

(36:07):
was terrified of Dana. He's kind of like, I don't like.
I would watch him put his hand on the knob
and never turn it, and he would like, turn the
kick John up and he would turn the volume up.
They had Eurie speakers that the old Eurie speakers had
the light that when they would clip, the light would
come on. Every time the light came on, he would like,
that's it. And I'm just saying, he just turned up.

(36:28):
But you know what your secrets say for me, because
I know he didn't really know what he was talking about.
So Dana, wait time out. I believe that of the
studio zone Jeff chest Okay, I thought it was he
also did the good and Stuff. Yeah, no, that was
Joe the Butcher. So Dana felt that the hook of

(36:52):
Girls Ain't Nothing but trouble follow Me was too slow.
The hook was too slow. So he kept saying, I
want to speed it up, and I'm saying, you can't
speed up the hook and not speed up the record.
So they splice the take and sped it up. So

(37:16):
if you listen to just one of those days, oh yeah,
get to the plate. Oh wait, I know what she's
talking about. It gets really fast and it slows down.
Always wondered about that. Yeah, that's yeah. I thought that
was harfect. You You have to understand that the hair

(37:38):
on the back of my neck is rising, that you're
playing at all to go no matter how this is,
my song takes over your life and you just can't
seem to do with dr thing right. And when the
day was over, you just hadn't say you said, man,

(37:58):
it's just one of those hold on, watch the town
chance hold on. Yeah, And he did it and he
released it. You always thought that was kind of weird,

(38:21):
But I thought that was just how No, no, no, no,
that was that was so so the good ones, I mean,
where they were the street guys like Street, I mean
and and and you know, not taking not taking anything
away your life. Yeah, I'm sure are they not listen?
I don't know, I mean, but you know the funny
thing is like Dana and Lawrence Goodman, especially Lawrence Goodman.

(38:45):
When you think about it, Lawrence Goodman was the first
deaf jam. Lawrence Goodman had salt and pepper, you know.
Lawrence Goodman had like everybody, you know, everybody, he had everyone.
What happened, you know, man, You know, sometimes you can't
separate church. And because his sons, his sons were the youngsters.

(39:12):
In my head, I thought he worked for like PGW
or something, so you know, it was and it was.
It was crazy because then we put the album out.
We went in the studio and recorded the album. Thank
god he didn't speed anything up other than that or that,
and the album comes out and the album starts to
blow up. So the only money that we were ever
making was from shows like you know, and and you know,

(39:36):
I knew, I knew where this was going. Um And
then what happened was Jove reached out and was like, yo,
they want to pick the record up. So I remember
I was going up to the meeting with Job and
I was just praying, like because the only to me,
the only chance of success that we would have is
to get either off of World Up Records or have
major distribution like we did with jobs. Was he just

(39:58):
the label or was he the manager? No? No, no, no,
no he was he was just a label. He was
just a label. So when we signed, or when he
signed to Jive, you know, that's when we could officially
get rid of the run DMC album cover. I love
that though. Who was that? That was Dana's man. That
ship was wag. That was whack. He took run DMCs

(40:22):
album cover and we did it, and man, like, listen,
fuck them. I felt some kind of way. He was
just like, how are you gonna just had a run
DMC cover? No, we listen. That was not cool. That
was so not cool. That was absolutely not cool. I mean,
I still have a copy of that, and I'm not

(40:43):
getting I was gonna say one, it's very expensive to find.
But I saw that as amage. I never saw that
as were biting. Well, he was biting. It's called rock
the house. He was biting. But you know it's if

(41:03):
it's under five years, then it's biting. But if it's
over ten years, it's maybe that's the rule now whole much.
I mean, listen, run m here just come out. So
did they ever say anything? No, No, I mean thank god. Listen,
the people who bought the word up vinyl did not
equate to the people who bought the job corny. So

(41:25):
the holes of the world up rock the House? Was
it the exact same record? Did another version of girls
that wasn't on that wasn't on until the album that
was y? Yeah, but that was also after that was
that was after parents, that was job with the job chasing. Um,

(41:46):
while we're talking about job and you got signed over,
there was there any trepidation because they already had a
Jazzy Jeff on the Well, you know what, let me
tell you something. What saved me because he sued me
really oh yeah, he tried to sue me for twenty
million dollars, which I thought was the absolute joke because
I'm just like, where then are you gonna get that? Um?
But um, when we sat down in that meeting talking

(42:12):
about you know, like when we were doing the distribution deal,
I said it. I said, wait a minute, are we
gonna have an issue because you have a Jazzy Jeff
sign to your label? And they said, no, will take
care of it. But I take care of the means
promoting his record, you know, And like what it was

(42:33):
it was. That was Jazzy Jeff from the four plus
one More. Yeah, he did a solo deal on job
Um and then you know when when everything started. I
don't know what happened with him, but you know, after
some years he was just kind of like yo, like
you you took my name and I'm like nicking my
name is Jeff, Like you know, but did you have

(42:59):
any other did you have other options or man I was,
I was Mixed Master Jeff before I was Jazzy Jeff.
But that ship was way too expensive. You try go
on getting a shirt with Mixed Master Jeff. Was like,
you're lucky my ship wasn't j Jeff. Since we're on,

(43:22):
since we're on the topic of the name, I wanna
fact check discogs really quick. Are you on this because
all boys records? Yes, okay, Corner Boys, yes, okay, that's
all need to know. Oh yeah, and what were those records?
What they were? They were Philly groups, Philly groups that
you I did scratches on like this was yeah, oh wow, wow, listen,

(43:45):
you was just trying to be on the record, like
I said, Man I was. I was trying to get
crap down at PGW, which is filled up your gas works, right,
I was trying to be down there like yeah, you know,
I just scratches on that. No, you didn't even look
my name. You know, I didn't expect it happened. You
mentioned earlier you were talking about good men. They was
like you no, that's Jimmy Town's brother. So what was
your brother? That was? That was the seventies. You know,

(44:10):
they was in all kinds of ship, so you know,
it was just like people people knew, Like I didn't.
I didn't know the level of respect that my brother
and my brother's friends had until after I got older
that you realize, you know, like, okay, they was you
know this is back gang boards, you know, yeah, you

(44:30):
know this is all of that. So you know, I
think they knew, you know, they knew of each other.
And evidently for him saying that had more to do
with you know, I know how you get down and
I'm just letting you know, that's family, that's that's dope.
That's crazy. When um, when y'all did um the first

(44:52):
album Rock the House, when it went to jive, U
was there any other? Who else was on? It was?
Who didn't need there? So like who who the other?
I mean, what made y'all say, I think this is
a good fit for us. Well, well, first of all,
let me do let me just say any label was
a good fit back then. So it wasn't like we

(45:15):
was picking and choosing. It's like whoever came, you know,
because you really looked at it, like the my closest
path to success is getting this so that everybody can
hear it, And everybody wasn't going to hear it on
world up records? And how did that? How did rock
House didn't go go yeah, and you know before he's

(45:38):
the DJ, I'm the rapper, were like no before. So
it's just you know, and that was we got a
chance to tour and we you know, that's we went
on tour with Houdini and we went onto a run
DMC and you know that's that's where everything starts, you know.
And and in nine six it was it was us,
it was Kid in Play, it was Salt and Pepper,

(46:00):
it was Man Tronics, it was Kumo D like all
of us did a million shows together because we all
came around and came out around the same time or
not whatnot. It was just like, you know, like I said,
it wasn't that many hip hop groups. So the hip
hop groups that came out and popped and were Jazzy,

(46:21):
Jeffer Fresh, Prince Salt and Pepper. You know Man Tronics
kidn't play. Uh who am I missing? You know, well
Judini were already out there, well, Eric being rock calm,
like we all came out at the same time. Chu
d with w guys the Extra Strength Posse. Yeah, whenever

(46:42):
I was like, damn what I got. I always wanted
to know, like if the roots were out back then,
like what category instrumentalists number twelve? I was like, what
I gotta do to be in the Extra Strength Posse?
Do you acknowledge that you're the first person to use

(47:04):
funky drummer? You know what's funny? Um Bambada said that
to me. Oh, Bamboda said that to me at the
New Music seminar when I won Bambada because Bamboda had
heard that the Magnificent and he was like he came
up to me and he was just like you both
your bold motherfucker and I'm never looking at him, and

(47:27):
he was just like, because you you let the record
go because people were scratched. No one ever let it go.
But I was just like, okay, I'm you know. I
can't tell you the amount of times that I have
tried how many times I've made pause tape just to this.

(47:58):
When I heard this, I was like, what the hell
is this? Would I would take this to Funkle Martin,
you know, Bob down the Market, Bob rest in peace, Bob.
I no one could tell you who it was. And
for like at least a year and a half until

(48:18):
I discovered in the Jungle group, like a year and
a half later, did I know where it came from?
How come nobody use that break? I don't know. Listen,
they weren't using brakes then? Were you just sat? I
was the first person to do it, and people are
the first person I've ever heard using pizza president, And
I'm not just talking about just the Do you actually

(48:40):
used the rest of the as we Go project? Was
first project? Oh okay? Yeah? Wait uh seven idiot? Yeah,
but you used it in a musical way for more
flushed out musical way, where Marley Mom just used project

(49:03):
as you know a stab or that sort of thing. Um,
So okay, So in doing this record, can you give
us any what was doing those uh post post fresh fests.
I guess they were Deaf Jam tours by then, or

(49:23):
whoever it was had at the time, LLL Tours or
what was that? Like, Oh man, that was that was amazing.
You're it's twenty thou people, twenty people and you're you know,
and you're going, you know, you're, you're it's twenty thousand
people in Albuquerque, New Mexico. So you also, like I said,
you understand, I'm I'm still thinking, I'm supposed to be
at the gas company. What am I doing in Albuquerque,

(49:46):
New Mexico? We were going to cities by this point,
you're still thinking like when this job? Oh man, I
didn't think this ship was gonna work out till a
couple of years ago. I still think a couple so
after after rocking the house like that went gold, I mean,
did that change financially? Like, I mean, what you know? No,

(50:07):
come on, come on. We talked about the music business men.
We ain't never been good. But what I will say is,
you know you're making money doing these shows tours, you know,
And and it was funny because I went through this
thing of I remember, you know, Will and I I
don't even remember exactly how much we were getting paid.
All I know is I was pretty much coming home

(50:28):
with about two thousand dollars every show. So I would
not put it in the bank, like I put that
ship in a box underneath my bed, and until it
got to the point that I don't have enough box,
don'teath my bed with this, and you know I was,
I was afraid to put it in the bank, Like, yeah,

(50:49):
you want me to take it? So I went to
the bank, I opened up the bank account, probably getting
them about fifteen thousand dollars. They put it in the bank,
and I would come to the bank every week and
to has it my my my show money, you know,
you take some out deposit my show money. And one
time I went because when I wanted to buy my
first car, I wanted to withdraw and they said my

(51:11):
signature didn't match. So I'm like, wait a minute. My
signature matches every week when I make a deposit, but
it doesn't match when I make a withdraw. And I
got mad and asked to see the bank manager and
pulled all it was. What was citizens? It was? It
was no, it was melan. I still got my red

(51:32):
debit card. When the debit cards first game out but yeah,
you know you you don't. I didn't think this was
gonna be real, you know. Um, and we we we
got through the first album and when we went in
the studio to do He's the DJ on the Rapper,
we actually did the DJ album because it was a
double album. We did the DJ album first in Philly

(51:55):
and then we went to London to do He's the
DJ on the Rap. And while we were in London,
we got a call from Barry at Job saying Dana
wants to sell the rights to Jazzy Jeff from the
Fresh Prince completely the Job. And I was like, oh,
ship like because I understand any money that we would

(52:17):
have gotten paid from Jive had to go to Dana first.
How did that happened? I mean, come on, dude, we
were signing the Word Up, Word Up signed the job.
You never signed direct first join. But listen, I don't know,
you know, people getting tu you know, he needed something

(52:38):
and you know, and it was this it was this
weird balance because he wanted to He wanted to sell
it Monday. Then we get to call Tuesday, he said no.
Then he went back Wednesday, Yeah, I want to sell it,
and then he said no, and then it was kind
of like, we want X amount of dollars and then
he came back and he wants more, and you know,

(52:59):
it just kept lutuating, and I've remember the day that
they called and said the deal is done. You're you're
signed directly to John so we at least, you know,
once again, we think, okay, we this gives us the
best shot. But that that sparked the call to Mr
Magic to get the cassette of Live at Union Square

(53:20):
and say, hey, let's put it on the album. Um
that you know that that sparked parents just don't understand
and Nightmare on My Street. Ye tell the story real quick.
The second album was always intended to be a double
No no, no, no, no, we we the The whole
idea was, okay, everybody likes Jeff is a DJ, let's

(53:41):
do a DJ album. Would have been like a side
for him and a side for you. No, it was
really supposed to be like a DJ album. You know,
these are beats and Jeff scratching and all the rest
of this, and it was just kind of like, I
don't know if the world is ready for this, and
we did it and it just kind of sat there
so When we went to go into the studio to
do the the Jeff and Will album, the idea came out,

(54:02):
why don't we mix all of this stuff and make
it a double album? Oh okay, and so all the
all the the m C stuff y'all did in London
at the at the Job studios in London, So the
album would have been initially the album at his side
three inside floor side for was the djil and that

(54:24):
was completed as is. Yeah, I mean we did. We
did some extra stuff in London, like we did. Um,
we did. He's the d JOm the rapper in London,
like a lot of the the DJ stuff of me
cutting and Will rapping with just routines that we would do.
Ye like that, but that was all, you know, we would.

(54:45):
We'll be at the y m C A and on
Job rhythm tracks and we'll just say, hey, Jeff, you know,
what do you think about SESSI session. You would answer like,
I gotta say, that's one of the strangest songs like
I've ever heard on the radio. I grew up Indian
and that song was always on the radio. Yeah, we
haven't tried to house party style really. Yeah. They would

(55:05):
just play they would play it on the radio. You
know what, I gotta admit that I was six seconds old.
I'm now realizing that, Oh yeah, he's the DJ on
the rapper is a MC side and the side like
even the sticker on the on the front of the
album said it was comes with bonus DJ album or

(55:26):
something like that. Yeah, damn I or scratch record I
think they called it. Yeah, he was trying to work
out seconds. You're twenty one seconds old. Like, I'm just
realizing that right now. Y'all had to live in London
when y'all when you record it? Now, we did it
in a mouth. So was Battery Studios not fully developed

(55:48):
in New York in the GiB building yet, No, it
was in London and London Estate was done in London.
I see, I see, Okay, So making the video obviously
wait time out Nightmare on My Street. Please tell the

(56:09):
story of and we're listening. We you know it was
we did the record Nightmare on My Street. I used
the piano line from Nightmare on My Street and this
and this the screens and all the rest of that
um and it came out and the you know, parents

(56:31):
of songs stand came out and just went crazy. Um,
and we knew we had Nightmare like it was. It
was you know, it was funny back then record companies
would try to hold hold records back, but radio stations
were playing Parents and Nightmare at the same time, so
it was kind of like you already know what the
second single is gonna be. I'm just like, oh my god,

(56:52):
his biggest parents, his Nightmares going to trump this by
a million. We shot the video and um, and we
went on tour. And what I didn't realize, like, we
had a segment on tour that Charlie mac would dress
up when the sweater and he had a Freddie mask
and Freddie glove and he would come on stage and
he would kill me and lights would go black and
all like we had a whole skin. I didn't realize

(57:13):
that New Line Cinema sent lawyers to follow us on
the tour and they watched this, and then all of
a sudden, we just got a lawsuit that was like
New Line Cinema assuming you guys for Nightmare. So our
lawyer basically went to New Line Cinema because radio. Unfortunately,
New Line got the Fat Boys to do a Nightmare

(57:36):
record and it had to promote. So now radio stations
are doing the Nightmare contest, which record do you like
the best? So we're blowing the fat boys out and
they were getting met and it was almost kind of
like we were trying to express to them that this
is going to do nothing but help your movie, and

(57:57):
just out of principle, they were like, nah, so they
suit us, and uh, well, I mean, we gave him
a bunch of money and we had to agreed to
perform in two movies. Listen, So this is funny. We

(58:18):
had to agree to perform in two movies, but it
was up to us to accept or decline. So the
first movie that they gave us the script for was
house Party, because if you think about house Party, it's
a DJ and a rapper. So they made House Party
around me and Will and we were like, nah, that's

(58:41):
weird because they just can't admit they were wrong and
just nah's why. That's why the whole thing a video
disappearing like I had a copy that you didn't know it. No, listen,

(59:02):
it's the whole videos up now. I mean, but you
have to have done a lot with new Line since anyway, like, no,
we did you ever do the too? It was I
don't even remember what the second movie was, and we
just we were just like, no, Will has never done
a New Line movie because just understand this was before,
like we didn't look at it like they're offering us

(59:23):
a movie roll. This was kind of like, yeah, this
is kind of like, yeah, you know, this is payment
payment back, so we would just free. No, no, they
probably would have paid. I'm very sure they would have
paid a minute. But house Party was Yeah, but you're
talking about House Party as we know it now. Somebody

(59:44):
giving you that script in night seven eight, you might
not have thought that. You know, this is back when
we don't know what to do with raps, so we
don't even know if we wanted on television. So let
alone you're gonna try to put it in the movie.
We kind of like, listen, we're not trying to Yeah,

(01:00:04):
wrapping just one second Street was eighties. This is what
they chose. I've heard that somebody once in my life,
so like Michael Jackson, right, say that or signed belt

(01:00:35):
Slap bass Man. Yeah that just yeah, that wasn't it.
That wasn't it. New Line y'all fucked up? And then
who who Deny came with the next one for the
next movie. What anyway I Gotta Swing It? That was?

(01:00:57):
And then the video was like taking place outside the
the Nightmare Street House or something. I missed that because
I was on b ET every day after sail Knowledge
every day after school. You're serious, it's called anyway I
Gotta Swing It? I'm pretty sure. Yeah, Man, like the
knife That's a Nightmare on Elm Street song Welcome Back

(01:01:19):
Steve Man. How did it for the like the samples,
because it wasn't until I got older a lot of them.
I was saying the samples that I was using, Like
I mean, like west Chester Lady like like that, Like
how you were the first to use jazz samples? Pretty much,
I'm I became a great digger because of a Touch
of Jazz. Like I need to know what that Harlem
River Drive sam was and and all that ship Like

(01:01:42):
those were the first records I bought? Were the records
that you used on Touch of Jazz? Was it? Was
there a reason that you didn't go to everyone's using games?
Well everyone, yeah, using the Ultimate Beach and Breaks. You
could have easily went there and just made a mix
of that, but instead using records that weren't on Ultimate

(01:02:05):
Beats and Breaks, Well, you gotta think this, this is
what you also got to think about, what what volume
of Ultimate Beata Breaks with Dances drums beat three? Yes,
so I had three volumes to choose from, Like this
is what I'm saying, like this was so early. There
were only three volumes out, Like it was like it

(01:02:29):
was we didn't have this plethora of sampling information that
we had. Then my brother, you know, my brother and
the record you know, like I grew up with Chick Career,
Herbie Hancock, my Havision, New Orchestra, you know, Stanley Clark,
George Duke. Then my dad was West Montgomery, Jimmy Smith,

(01:02:51):
all of us. I'm the sponge. So all I decided
to do was kind of like yo, let me go
and grab some of the records that he would play.
You know, I know those albums front to back, not
just for the samples. It was just kind of like
you know, ship at ten years old, I can't listen
to Houdini. So you know, I wasn't the Marvin Gate

(01:03:15):
Stevie Wonder. I was the Chick Corea in return it forever. Yeah, listen,
I gotta give my brother credit, like he My brother
came in and he showed me how to take the
record out the jacket, put the record on the turntable,
don't put your fingerprints on it. And he was like, listen,
I can't if he was like, you can use my

(01:03:36):
stereo when I'm at work. My brother worked all day.
So I was ten years old, and I would put
a cassette in and I wouldn't make tapes, you know,
and you know, like I said, I'm making chick corea tapes.
You know, explain explain how, um, you've told me this

(01:03:58):
story like years ago, and I was just like, what
the fun? Explain how you were up for a Grammy
and yet y'all are broke? How does that happen? I mean,
I think everybody in the room know how that happens. Um,
But you know it was, Um, is this the year
you guys of the Grammys? No? No, no, no, no,
this was this was another year. This was after that.

(01:04:21):
So on the rooftop okay, and that was for y'all.
Y'all were nominated for He's the DJ. Right, y'all got nominated. Okay,
they didn't want to televise it, right, you know, they
were kind of like, nah, we think we should give
another category to Garth Brooks and he was like, yo,

(01:04:43):
he got nine, like you can give hip hop one,
especially if hip hop is easily the one, two or
three top selling genre of music like you. You know,
you've got nine country and Western categories like you. You know,
but this was at the time that they were every much.
You know, you almost felt like you were on this

(01:05:03):
scale of is hip hop gonna be here or is
it not? Like and there were powers to be that
kept saying it's not, it's not. And we would get
mad every time somebody said that, because you know, this
is this is your dream, like somebody's you know, basically
trying to squish your dream. So you know, we felt
like we needed to take that stance, you know, for

(01:05:25):
for the for them to kind of understand. But you know,
you you you have this vision of grandeur. You know,
I'm signed to this label and this is how it's
gonna be and you're gonna make this money and and
you're gonna do this and you know, and we sold
a bunch of records and you know we we because
the second album well uh um and and and you

(01:05:50):
made money, but you're never paying attention like the one
thing that I've realized, especially back then, if you know,
you're twenty two years old and you put out a record,
and the record sells, and somebody gives you a two
hundred thousand dollar check, I don't know a person alive
that checked it to see if it was supposed to
be two hundred or it was just supposed to be

(01:06:12):
nine hundred, Like you don't check it, And you know,
looking back in hindsight, they knew that. You know, they
knew that, just like record companies knew that. You know. Listen,
You're never gonna take this to an entertainment lawyer for
him to read your contract. You're gonna take it to
your cousin who's the plumber, because he's the most business

(01:06:32):
savvy person in his you know, because if if I'm
trying to get a record deal, nine times out of ten,
I need money, and you think I'm gonna take money
and give it to a lawyer, like, no, I'm gonna
keep every dime. I have to be on the safe side.
But they know that. So it was the same thing

(01:06:52):
that you know, you get to the point that you
know you you you learn these terminologies like cross collateral zation.
You know that you're just kind of like, you don't
pay me my money before you have to give me
the budget for the next album. And you say that
the budget for the next album came from the money

(01:07:13):
you're supposed to pay me. And I'm kind of like
that ship makes no sense. Like it was gangster. It
was gangster, but it was just kind of like you're
you're paying me with my own money, you know, like
and and you you know, back then, you couldn't really
fight it, you know, you would, you would say something,
and then then you're deemed the troublemaker, you know if

(01:07:33):
if you're asking questions that somebody don't really want you
to ask. So, y'all, so this was for the third album,
for the end in this corner that well, now, like
all of this stuff started to happen, you know, it
started on the first album and it really came you know,
it really came on He's the Djim the rapper, and

(01:07:55):
and and then the third album. How how different was
the post Yourman TV rap effect of your life? Once uh,
the second album comes out and blows up because you're
saying that, Okay, the second I went triple platinum, but

(01:08:15):
that was very unusual from completely that was unheard of. Well,
you know what, back then, you know, hip hop was
solely urban. It was solely urban, like most black music
that would come out. The whole idea is you have
the black stations that are playing it, and then if

(01:08:35):
it catches on, they would say that it's going pop,
and that just meant it went over to the white station,
you know, and that's when the record. So what I
knew is everybody's idea is we you know, you know
you got something when it goes pop? Girls, Ain't that
My Trouble was a black record, parents just don't understand,

(01:08:57):
came out as a black record and turned into a
pop and that's when the whole Jeffrey Willer from the
suburbs and all of us, this is happening at which
confused the daylights out of me because I'm kind of
like to me, girls, and that My Trouble and paris
As don't nderstanding the same record. This is different subject matter.
How did you keep the secret? Saw a sample of

(01:09:19):
that song? So, man, how did you keep it secrets?
I don't, I don't know. Is it still don't mind?
I don't listen and listen I would not be sitting
here if did you deal with it? No? I mean, listen,

(01:09:42):
I don't. But the song is so ubiquitous, Like how
did they not? I don't know. I have no idea, man,
I have no idea, and I don't believe that. I don't.
I don't believe that the powers to be didn't hear it.
I think it was kind of like, hey man, that
ship is cool and just left right? All right? What

(01:10:02):
was the time differently between parents? Just don't understand. And
then because I felt like the TV show came in
my I skipping. I didn't want to know. I like,
that's what I want to know. Two years between okay
and yeah, it was that I bought it in this
Corner album and like it just what was going on
with your quarter? I was, wait, time out? You about
to slender in this corner? I was about to help.

(01:10:26):
We're about to fight? Yeah, because I love that? But
what what was y'all James everything? Yeah? Yeah, we're number
one body to use the bathroough was drafted. I was drafted.
You only had a mustache. If you dont come on,

(01:10:47):
I didn't, I was, I was. I can yeah, I
can dig it. I feel as though that's my favorite
record of yours. Yeah, really it's not. Wow. I had
a conversation with somebody, um and they were asking me
about all of the albums, and what I told him

(01:11:07):
is every last one of our albums signifies a time
period for me. So you know, you got you you know, Uh,
Girls ain't nothing but Trouble is new. You don't know.
You know. I always tell everybody you have your whole
life to make your first album. You only have from
the time from your first album and your second album
and make your second album. Um. And but you know

(01:11:30):
we we did. Girls Ain't nothing but Trouble for the
most part, in my mind's basement, we did. Um he's
the DJ, I'm the rapper in London. So both of
those Rutgers were done in Solitude. So I came up
with the idea of I want to do the third
album at Compass Point in the Bahamas. So we went

(01:11:55):
to the Baham because you know, I'm I'm, I'm just well.
First of all, it was flying because it was in
the Bahamas, but I was about being comfortable. I was
really trying to keep the cycle going of Solitude because
we were so big when we went into the studio

(01:12:16):
to do that album, that we needed to go somewhere
off the map. What the problem is. We were big
and had a lot of money, and let's talk about
the fact that the Bahamas held all of our equipment
and customs for about ten days and we're down there
on the beach with a casino. So it was, you know,

(01:12:40):
we had a house on the beach and we were
flying people down and you know, and it just we
we were not in the right headspace. Like that's what
I'm saying, Like I can listen to that album and
I understand everything that you're saying because we were in
you know, like it was we you know, Will would
write for twenty minutes and be like, Yo, I'm not
feeling I'm about to go to the casino, you know.

(01:13:03):
And we we left after month with about two and
a half records done. So of course it was kind
of like, oh, we're in trouble. So we ended up
in Kjam in Philly and we finished it. Um but
when you think about it, girl, you know, girls ain't
nothing but trouble is kind of relatable. Parents just don't
understand is relatable. I think I could beat Mike Tyson

(01:13:27):
only your motherfucker that. No, Mike Tyson, who's making some money,
would say that. We didn't even pay attention to that
story about that. But the thing is is that it's
kind of ship talking, which is relatable because everyone says up.
But you know what, and the video and all the

(01:13:48):
rest of that, now we was on because for me,
I guess, like because I was a big Tyson fan
and nobody thought that, like, nobody really thought they could
beat like you. But like you watched the video and
I don't think you believe it either, No, we didn't,
So I mean I think that was why the song.
I think that's why I think the rollout, the rollout

(01:14:08):
of that song kind of derailed and in this corner,
which I still feels a solid right, yeah, And I
have a story about the song. I think I can
beat Mike Tyson. I believe it's fifth grade music class.
Fifth grade music class. Um. The assignment is everybody has
to lip sync a song for the class. So I

(01:14:31):
choose me and my friends we chose. I think I
can beat Mick Tyson and the teachers. You know, he
films everybody's lips sync routines and we're watching them while
we're doing ours and he's got this angry look on
his face, and at the end of the performance, we're like,
why why are you so angry? He's like, oh, I
turned the camera off. We're like, why you can't bring
music with cussing in here? Apparently he didn't like when

(01:14:53):
Will says, I'm getting the hell out here, and at
the end when he's like, god damn, so we got
we got in trouble for that. Thank you out so
much to PG cousin. Yes, yeah, I think, yeah, I
have yeah, my I think one of my um end
So this was third grade for me. We had to
go fourth grade. We had to recite like a poem

(01:15:14):
or something to some ship, and I think I wrapped
wheels verse from time to Chill like that was. That
was my recital. I got an A on it on
the assignment. But I gotta tell you I normally frowned
at any use of the jam as a break. No more,
owner was the ship. That was the ship. Why do

(01:15:41):
you have something against the jam? The break? I mean,
because it's like it's like the ny thing, Like any
time I heard it, I just think a VH one.
So then you don't like Actley road clip either I
really don't like I respect it, but I never liked
it and liked it really ship boy Bill. I never

(01:16:03):
like athletes roses click. It just reminds me of like
and even if you're really gonna talk about it, the
album was slapping that. While we're on this subject for
a second, I listened to that even the album a
couple of weeks ago, and people were only piste off
because the dudes on the cover didn't sing. The weren't
the ones that were singing. It was a good record,

(01:16:25):
so the quality of the songs didn't matter to nobody. No,
and I think too with the tragedy with then was
that they were too ahead of their time. Now it
wouldn't it wouldn't matter at all. That's that's going back
to why everybody was piste off about the brend MC cover.
It wasn't nothing. List put out now and we'll be good.

(01:16:54):
Settle please settle along, you know, debate whatever, who summertime,
we will summer. It was not it was not it
wasn't made for it. Will listen. Let me tell you
what's funny. Hold on, let me tell you what's funny
for me to be there and to hear all of

(01:17:16):
the like understand that. The first time that I had
experienced this was when we were on Fresh Prints and
I started getting the Will stop this show so he
can go car shopping. And I remember coming in mad, like, Yo,

(01:17:38):
that should never happened. How did it just go? Sit?
And We'll just started Laughing's like, yo, that's what they do,
Like they just blatantly lied. I was you know, I'm
kind of like, you can't blatantly lie. Understand. Will wrote Summertime.
Summertime was made for Will? You know what it wasn't
Any told us that the music was made for rock Him.

(01:18:00):
I've heard it. I've heard that something remember came from
somebody that didn't want to pull in fingers? Someone did?
Was it search that? All I'm saying is like I
was there. You know what I mean. I'm like, sof No,

(01:18:25):
it wasn't. It wasn't for rock Him. It wasn't written
for rock Him. That song was birth from Will being
in in l a for the first year of the
Fresh Prince, and of course the season's changed and it's
not the same out there as it is in Philly.
In Philly first day today outside everybody's outside cars, blasting

(01:18:48):
cars clean. They're driving down the street. South Street is
popping right now. That's that's what we all had. Anybody
who has a four season climate, No, when spring comes,
everybody comes out. The girl gained a couple of pounds
and she looks great, skinny last year. And Will called

(01:19:09):
and was just like, yo, what's up. I was like, Yo,
seventy five degrees. A'll just got mcar clean, went to
plaques and says, we just havn't just Philly dialogue. And
that was reminiscent to that. You know, that was something
to him that that's what he wrote about, Like the
whole versus Summertime is basically talking about the season changing

(01:19:30):
from winner to to to you know, wait, we're forgetting something.
We're forgetting a very important fact. If it were not
for I think I could beat Mike Tyson, Will and
Jeff wouldn't have performed that on the Arsenio Hall Show,
and Jones would have never seen that performance. So technically

(01:19:59):
changed it was. It wasn't totally that they paid attention
to parents because they've been watching. Oh yeah, they paid
attention to the parents, Like from from the parents on down,
they were like, he can he can act. Yeah, they
kept except for the opening credits, you know, so you know,

(01:20:19):
Quincy was just kind of like, that's something for you.
Remember my mom being upset that they didn't use the
mom from the video? Yeah? Who was on what the pen? Mom?
The mom? And they was extras? I don't know, you
know someone that was earth Yeah, Vanessa Williams. Vanessa Williams

(01:20:44):
was the girl in the car with Will. That's right, Yeah,
Van's Vanessa. That's a rocket ba baby that's her. Yeah. Yeah,
and you know that's Nola Darling and the tone Lottal
video right. Yes? Ye were you always a parted out equation?

(01:21:06):
They figured out the show stuff? Just act like when
did they they? When did they realized? They was like, uh,
this mother right here we missing out now listen. They
Will did the pilot um, and then when they first
started doing the episodes, they were just like, you know,
because you and him had chemistry in the video, you
should come and do the show. And I was like, nah,

(01:21:28):
wait what I mean listen? First of all, I didn't
that wasn't what I wanted to do. Um. It was
also weird because when when when Will went out and
did the audition and came back and he was like, yo,
I got a TV show. Understand. I'm thinking this is
a dude holding the camp corner. I didn't think it
was a TV show until he showed the pilot and

(01:21:50):
then it was people that you've seen on television in
the pilot. But then you realize that this is professionally done.
I'm like, oh, ship, this is like looked like the
Cosby Show. Um. So when they were like, hey, you
know you you want to do it? I was kind
of like no, and they were like, listen, we we
want to put you in three episodes and and if

(01:22:11):
you like it, you got two more to look forward to.
If you don't like it, you got only two more
to do. I hate to tell you this now my
favorite cutting and scratching of yours. Oh my god, it's
from the pilot when you're cutting up the uh the

(01:22:31):
classical music like I can tell I can tell you
authentically cutting it. But is this the fact that you're
doing set up cups for a stab that I you
saw that you saw that I had to be tru

(01:22:52):
nothing and it was I love like I watched that
so many times. Man, you talked before. Maybe you've had conversation.
You were talking about how the difference between music money
and TV money and how TV takes so much better
care of you. Listen. We you know, it was funny
because you know, back in the day, you had a

(01:23:15):
Nike Connect and the Nike was sending Nike was sending
you some sneakers. They sent you, you know, some Airmax
or something. Um. And then we get on TV and
they are bringing boxes and boxes of stuff, and you know,
so we was getting music stuff and TV stuff. The
TV stuff was just ridiculous. They would have you go

(01:23:38):
to the warehouse and you would just bring it. They
would just you know, your car was full of stuff. Um,
you know, and they just took care of you. And
what I didn't realize was there was an episode that
we did of our Cineo Hall and they would always
black out the Nike Swooze. They would put an X
over it. They would always because you know, you couldn't

(01:24:00):
sell it. And Arcina asked me something about me still
living at my mom's house, and I was like, listen, man,
I love my mom. I'm comfortable here. And when he
said it, I took my feet and I put it
on the couch and I crossed my feet and that
Air Jordan logo was there. Yo. I never got laced
with that much stuff in my life ever, just from

(01:24:24):
crossing my feet and that logo up there, because it
was kind of like they couldn't blur it out. So man, listen,
the boxes just kept coming. So outside of the money though, Jeff,
when was the moment that you knew I kind of
liked this ship? Yeah? Whatever, I didn't. You know what

(01:24:47):
was cool? Well, first of all, you're doing a TV
show and you're used to being on stage with twenty
five people. It's a hundred people there. So it was no,
it was not an ounce of nerve herbs at all
because it's a hundred people, you know, and you don't
but because your brain is not thinking of how many
people are actually going to see that. And it was

(01:25:09):
really different because it really changed the you're going out process.
It wasn't you know, I could go to you know,
I could go to Springfield Mall and and and kind
of get away with it. You know, you do the
TV show and you're going to spring film all and
it's sixty year old white women calling you jazz away up. Now,

(01:25:35):
we're not doing that TV y'all you'll realize that secretly
the Fresh principal Air is responsible for Friends, right really
all right, so you know the you've seen the jay
Z video for al right, so basically I'm not boy

(01:26:02):
for so basically I heard about it, all right, something
I thought the one that he did for yeah, so basically, uh,
I don't was branding Tartakoff still president of NBC at
the time when you guys were doing Fresh Prince. Okay,
so uh, he had a chance to also get Living Single,

(01:26:23):
and he he said one of his regrets was letting
his his staff for his uh yeah, his staff for
his uh co workers talk him out of getting Living Single.
He said, I always love that show, and the thing
was like, well, we already got uh Fresh Prince of

(01:26:44):
bel Air, Like we don't need to it's basically the same,
And so it went to Fox and in his regret,
he was like, yo, I always wanted a show like
Living Single. So then he told Marta Koffin and them
to make me a white Living Single and thus made Friends. Yeah,

(01:27:05):
but based on the fact that they already had the
Black the Black Comedy Show on NBC, so we don't
need a second one. So that's crazy. We got the
way ten years for a black person on their So
was the Gabrielle Union and I, oh, I didn't watch.

(01:27:26):
I didn't watch it. I didn't not have the wait.
But y'all watch Sex in the City, but I didn't watch.
I watch this se I just know that Jesus the
City had fing in it. So it was like, yeah,
you know, people don't eisode. So with the with the

(01:27:50):
meteor rise of the Fresh Prince of bel air Um
and instead of this being a side gig to jazz
each other for the Fresh Prince, how how are you
now figuring out what your life is about to be?
As far as oh, I was terrified, really well, I
mean that David Spade joke upset you? What David Spade joke?

(01:28:13):
Never mind? I know you don't remember the Hollywood minute
where they let him they'd let him just go like
Eddie Murphy. Uh, actually Eddie and Charles wouldn't because of
something that. But Charles Murphy came to third with David

(01:28:35):
Spate's ass and David like hit like actually stayed away
like that's why he won't come back to Anither reunion
specials to eight. He came back finally for the the
fort celebration. Yeah, but he wouldn't do Bill Cosby jokes.
But he came back at least. But you know, it's
like Spade just going rogue for three minutes, and I

(01:28:57):
guess the punch line was uh no, no, no no,
and Jazzy Jeff wants to know, are you going to
eat that? Oh wow, you got that joke instantly? Why
would you get that joke? I think David's face is funny.
So okay, at that time, you didn't, I mean, did

(01:29:18):
you think that this is the end of the career
and that we're just I mean, you know what we um.
You know, you gotta understand that. Well, when you think
about it, the Fresh Prince came out when we had
summertime out, so we were actually on the biggest high
we've ever been on show. Um. Yeah, but it's but

(01:29:45):
you gotta understand that it was You're also, you know,
paying attention to the trajectory of other rap people, and
it's kind of like, Okay, we had not gotten to
the point that we had any legacy artists, so it
was kind of like, Okay, I don't know if this
ship is like three albums, four albums and then we're

(01:30:08):
gonna go to something else. You know, um understand it
was a huge accomplishment to have, you know, go from
three million records to a million records on and in
this corner was deemed a failure and come back with Summertime.
There's there had never been a rap comeback, so you know,
to kind of get to the point because like this

(01:30:29):
would you have to keep in mind, we want to
we wanna Grammy in nineteen eighty nine or eight, and
we won one in ninety three, Like who else want
a Grammy in that time span that that was hip hop,

(01:30:51):
So we were supposed to be old and and and done.
So Summertime you're looking at it like, okay, we're back.
But the thing that scared me is this is uncharted territory.
I can't call it. I don't know if you listen.
And that was that was that was scary because you know,
you like to be around with girls. Ain't a troubled

(01:31:13):
parents just don't understand. And then Young MC came out
with Bust. The move was a completely left field. Now
we got tempo. Now you're dancing and ain't nobody was
dancing girls? Ain't uber trouble. So so you started seeing
all these shifts and now you're trying to pay attention
to what the shift is. So you know, we got
and then the TV show came and I'm like, okay,

(01:31:36):
I'm a reoccurring character. The money is great, but this
isn't what I'm trying to do. So but they're giving
you more storyline. Now you get like many to float

(01:31:59):
on stop ain't from the cosmic show. Yes, from the
from Leo B. Don't think Limpa Malcolm Jamal Warner for
over a decade. I like her? Wait really yeah that
was he was engaged to. Um so what's your name? Um? Yeah,

(01:32:23):
tell Michelle Thomas. That's Michelle Thomas. Yea, I said, Williams
roops Man. Sorry, So like how when y'all got to
the to the last album on job, the co Red album?
How did that? I mean you would think that Okay,
were on the TV show shows still popping like man, listen,

(01:32:44):
So we got to when we when when we did
the promo tour for the the album after matter of fact,
when we did a promo tour for home Base, Um,
you know we you you know how you go on
to different regions, you know, the promotion God there and

(01:33:04):
we got cool with a couple of them, and it
was wild because I remember him saying to Will and
I he said, ever since and in this corner, Jive
has been betting against you. Guys. He's like, they don't
they don't believe in you. He was like, you did,
you have the biggest record of your career and they
think it's a flute. So they're they're really not you know,

(01:33:25):
believing in you, you know, and so you started to
kind of feel that that's kind of like, yeah, it
was just you know because because you know, around that
time was when they start messing with new kids on
the block. You know, now now understand they got straight
dedicated pop act that back stream and then you know,

(01:33:48):
and then you know, so they're making money overhand over fists,
you know, and you almost start to become this afterthought.
The The only thing is we had the popularity vote
because of the television show. But they, you know, they
were kind of like nah. So when we you know,
we got to the last album, in my brain, I

(01:34:10):
was kind of like, Okay, what other hip hop actor
you know that has reached the last album? So I'm
you know, so now now my business brain is going in.
It's like, okay, you didn't cross collateralize every album that
we had. When you get to the point that you
have nothing to cross it too, you gotta pay me
all that back money. So I'm like, oh my god, like,

(01:34:31):
you know, let's just keep up, you know, so that
we don't have a complete failure, but we're gonna end
up getting some money. So we The funny thing in
our deal they had an option for greatest hits. So
first of all, the greatest hits in hip hop deems
your career. So when we got to the last album,

(01:34:53):
they were like, listen, you know, we want you guys
to do the greatest hits. And we were like, well,
we really don't want to do greatest hits because we're
not done and we think this signifies the end. And
they were like, well, we really want you to do
the greatest hits. Um. And it was wild because in
the mail a four thousand dollar check came and it
was it was for the album, and I was just like,

(01:35:14):
yo album, Oh yeah, Like as soon as we cast
it then we're liable. And what they didn't expect is
we sent it back because we we knew like now,
you know, we got TV show and all the rest
of this. So we basically sat down, you know, we
sat down and basically said, listen, you know what we

(01:35:34):
we've been on job for ten years. You can't really
say that for a bunch. We we we had a
lot of success, but Will wants to go and really
get deep into his movies. Jeff really wants to go
and get deep in his production. Quietly, Will and I
were looking to sign a really really big record deal
with somebody else, and you know, they were like, hey,

(01:35:56):
no one has ever come to us and said this.
You know, we're gonna see it down and we're going
to think about it. And we were like okay, And
two weeks later we got hit with a lawsuit from
job Listen. Jobs sued us because they said our extracurricular
activities are interfering with us making music. And I'm like,

(01:36:18):
wait a minute, didn't understand. I don't think it was
Barry like this, this goes beyond the president and the
vice president, and you know, but it's you know, it's
just it really got to a point that I was
kind of like, that was the wow. So this is
my this is my retirement party, and I don't get

(01:36:42):
a go watch, I don't get a party, I don't
get a cake. I get a lawsuit. You know what
I mean? Ten years you know me and Will probably
collectively with albums and singles, so ten million records for
jobs and we got a lawsuit like that's that's how
we went out, like and I and I said this,

(01:37:03):
people don't understand Will and I have zero ownership of
any of the records. We did nothing. So everybody, oh
my god, you know you guys, Summertimes is the anthem
every time they play that ship. We get zero because
we had to do that in the settlement with Jobs. Now,

(01:37:26):
what I will say my redemption was that gave me
my freedom. M Everybody kind of looks at it like,
you know, you and Will kind of split up. I
could have I could have went with Will at two Sony.
I couldn't go back into that. I just I was
out of just broke. It made so much sense for
Will because Will had a movie deal at Sony to

(01:37:48):
the movie. But what I loved was the first record
that Will did, Like every record that Will has done,
I had some level of involvement. For record Will did
was the Wild wa West soundtrack and that sold five
million copies. The next record that Will did was Big
Willie saw twenty six million copies. We did the American

(01:38:14):
Music Award and we got into elevator with Barry. It
was it was Barley the owner, Claude, it was a
couple of other people and we got we got an elevator,
and the elevator door closed and barriers like, hey man,
you know, congratulations, you know to you guys, you know,

(01:38:36):
winning and you know, like, oh, thank you, and it
got quiet, and I looked over at Well and it's
kind of listen, I'm pretty sure you know, riek. You know,
when Rick is going to say or do something, we
gotta look. And I looked, and I when I looked
and I saw Will's jaw line bulgan, I was like ah.

(01:38:56):
And Will turned around and he said, yeah, this is
really good for someone that you threw in the trash. Yeah, listen,
it was no, we didn't do it. No, it wasn't
like that, you know, and everybody calmed down. The elevated
doors opened, and listen. I jumped on Will's back because

(01:39:18):
that if there was ever a redemption to think that
you did you know, you you thought like Okay, it's over.
It's over and done with, you know, And it was
kind of like, okay, cool, wow, wow, Wow, we got
a movie called Men in Black. You took residency of

(01:39:43):
the studio four when you always have residency there because
when I was interning that rough records, you always had
your studio there. So talk about developing the second phase
of the Sound of Philadelphia, uh with Dre and Veddel
with Carv in the Ivan, and I mean it's you know,
it was always my passion for production UM and I

(01:40:10):
basically took all of my money and bought equipment, you know.
So I always had a room, you know, I always
had a studio UM and it and it was just
really the desire to have to have or find like
minded people that wanted to make records, understand. UM. I
remember when I when I when I got the studio
for and I put the studio in UM. I almost

(01:40:35):
had a meeting with all of the studio owners in
Philly because they didn't they thought that I was trying
to open up a commercial facility and I was like, no, no, no,
no no, I'm opening up a production studio, which I knew.
They all thought I was crazy and I was like, no,
I'm I'm opening up a studio that's just going to
be for music production that we do, because I know

(01:40:59):
if I don't have this, I'm gonna rent one of
your guys. I'm just I'm just with already on equipment,
so let's do it. And it was just literally, you know,
you start finding guys, you know, I would. I would
go to music stores, you know, and you would see
somebody in the music store playing keys, and hey, what's
up man, you know you want to try to do
such and such and um. And it just started like

(01:41:19):
we had no idea what we were doing, you know,
and you just learned by experience. You learned, you know,
by cutting stuff that wasn't good, doing stuff unorthodox, you know.
It was. It was a lot of the records that
I made, I did stuff that you weren't supposed to
do what, you know what jazzy jeffro in the Fresh Prince,

(01:41:42):
So it was the same thing the entire time. We
had a touch of jazz. No one ever knew. We
never had an engineer. It was never an engineer. Oh
we did like feed out Keith you know myself. We
never had an engineer, and and and hear me when
I say we never had an engineer Jill Flowetry music.

(01:42:06):
Oh no, they did all of it. Listen, if you
look at the back of Jill's album, you know who
mixed Jill's album. George Glass. You know who George Glasses,
Marsha Brady's imaginary friends. I did wonder about that. I
just figured there was They would not have accepted that

(01:42:28):
I mixed that album. We weren't there yet. We weren't
there yet. First of all, you got a hip hop
guy that is responsible for this kind of music, Like
I was smart enough to know, don't put your name,
Like like I know people who and this is this
is sidetrack. I know DJs that have mixers out that

(01:42:52):
their name is on the mixer, and I'm like this,
you know how hip hop is. I'm sorry, it could
be the he this mix in the world. I can't
use it if your name is on it. Like, I
think it's the genius thing that we have people that
run major music festivals behind the scenes that people don't
know because they know this can't be the sess and

(01:43:15):
such festival or the suessance like hip hop. Hip hop
isn't based like that, so it was the same thing,
like I'm not gonna listen to anybody singing that jazzy
Jeff got something to do with ye. It's like you
just don't you just don't say anything. But still I
don't really all that. All that ship so all those guys,

(01:43:39):
because I mean at the time when we first when
I first really met you, was around that time. It
was like oh two or three when they listening, it
kind of just came out and everybody was telling us like, yo, man,
Jazzy Jeff, I gotta copy your album from Jeff. And
I was like, he knows who we are, Like I
didn't think you had no clue we were listening. I

(01:43:59):
never stopped scouring for music, and I know Scott listening
for people. You know, that was the whole thing, Like
it's it was a love before it was a job.
So you just you know, it's kind of like you
know you you it's when you hear something and it resonates,
you want to pass it on. That was that was

(01:44:20):
another thing like with with with Jill when we did
um we I met Jill twice. Um My son's mom
introduced me to Jill and we saw each other and
we talked and it was almost kind of like this
ain't the right time. And I remember riding up the
street and I rode past Footworks when when Bobby Doo

(01:44:43):
and Rich had it and Jill was standing outside and
she said, Hey, what's up? And I said what's up?
We started talking Jill Um. I took Jill to the
studio and I went through a bunch of music and
I gave her a track and she left. And next
day Jill called and said, I wrote something, and I
picked you up and drove and we parked on Penn's

(01:45:05):
landing and Jill sang me long walk from beginning to
end whoa. And went to the studio and cut it.
And it was just kind of like tell Vita Aldre, listen,
you know we're cutting, and we just all of jill songs.
The bulk of Jill's first album was done in probably
about nine days that she was just cutting and we
would do it. What I did that was extremely unorthodox,

(01:45:28):
especially at that time. I had a CD burner. I
burnt those nine songs, and I gave it to everybody
I knew that loved music, like because before you kind
of got on. I gave it everybody, but it was
crazy because it actually ended up in the Sony office
that the Sony executives thought it was something that they

(01:45:50):
signed because everybody was playing it in the office. But
that's how it got. It got to Jimmy, Jammy, Terry Lewis,
and they flew us out there because they wanted to
sign it um and it's made it made this way
to well, you know, I didn't choose Michael, I choose
Steve mckeevere. Okay, So I'm gonna tell you half of

(01:46:16):
this because I know I know you would understand the
other half. I chose Hidden Beach because I knew they
were going to let us do the album with no interference.
Because I had a very good friend. We had a
very good friend that I realized did some stuff that

(01:46:40):
he didn't get credit for, and that was the deciding
factor to make me go to Steve. I'm not listening,
I'm not because I'm I know he would know, and
you know, but it was it was crazy because it

(01:47:01):
was almost like it's almost like you have a really
good friend that tells you don't mess with this girl, right,
and and that's why you chose the person that you're
with now. And it was it was you know, so, wait,
where was you got me in this equation? I'm just
in the slightly around the corner. Wait, do you remember

(01:47:22):
driving the yellow path Finder? I remember driving so all right,
remember I told you all the heavy's gonna kill me story?
Let me, I told you all the heavy d is
gonna kill me story? Right? Well, the original one was right,
was a mirrors first drive by. I was walking down

(01:47:46):
like late at night on Chesterton Street in Philadelphia, and
this yellow path Finder drives by me and then stops
and then like gray poupon style, goes backwards and rolls
down the window, and I was sereing lee shipping on myself.
I was like, uh, this is where I die. Someone's
gonna kill me in a yellow path find and somebody

(01:48:08):
killing you in leello path and a banana yellow path fun.
And it was Jazzy Jeff like, what are you saying? Yo?
You're in the roots, right, jazzy Jeff? Oh Jeff, I
love you man, And he sped off And that was
how it met him. But then I started working at
Studio four and you know, so then in the jail

(01:48:32):
and you got me? Um, which how did that timeline work?
I first saw Jill. There was a poetry slam fifty
second in Baltimore, fifty fourth in Baltimore like Deep West
filling she was doing to sexy pons Yo that was recently. Ye,

(01:48:58):
I'm telling y'all, Jill was always even the dude she
It's something about Jill's voice similar to that of when
Diana Williams talking. It's like you will do anything. And

(01:49:18):
it was just unexpected because everyone else was coming from,
you know, backstage. Okay, And up next we have a
young brother from No No, No, No, no no, give
it up for Richmondina ladies and Gentlemain come on, do
his poetry and and leave. Jill Scott decided to sit
in the audience, and so we had no clue. Is
up next? We got a sister from North Philadelphia give

(01:49:41):
it up for Jill Scott. Lazy Joe and no One
came on stage and then this woman starts singing Joda,
see is freaking you acapella from the audience. She just
marches right to the stage and I was like, who

(01:50:02):
is this woman? I put two in two together. I
met Jill during the do You Want More? Era? Uh,
apparently her ex boyfriend not the old word her ex boyfriend,
not ex husband, not ex husband, Uh, was cheating on

(01:50:25):
her with a girl that lived next door to me
on South Street. Well, I don't know whatever, but the
first word she said was I'm gonna cut that motherfucker's
dick off. So that's how Jill Scott. So then when
I put two and two together that, oh, that's what
I'm gonna cut that motherfucker's dick Also the Glamorous Life girl.

(01:50:50):
Can y'all just cool sees Glamorous Life video? I don't know,
I never heard that. It wasn't I heard it wasn't
what that you told me one time, Jeff that Jill
initially when she came to her, she didn't really want
to sing. She really wanted to just do poetry. She
was heavy on Yeah, Like Jill did not want background

(01:51:13):
vocals on her songs. Wow, you know, so we we
had to kind of convince her a lot of that.
Like the funny thing is I remember when we did
is getting in a way she did not want to
put background vocals on that, And Drey's mom was in
the studio and Drey's mom actually sang backgrounds with her
on that. Because Drey's mom was like girl, if you

(01:51:35):
don't get your button that boot. So that's Jill Andrey's mom. Man,
that was an official first single, right, No, you know
what was funny? The first single was long Walk, you
know what I said. I remember being at the radio
station and being like, you don't need to hear get
through everybody off because their first single was a poem. Yeah,
but that was the streets. Wasn't ready for that. I

(01:51:56):
remember being a long Walk brain No either, it was
the stations. We need to do one where shes gonna
put the basiline on her face and I remember selling
that at the radio station, like but then she gonna
come on everybody want to it's Philly Sorry, just fighting
over soul records? Fighting still fighting? How did? How did?

(01:52:20):
What was the difference between like say the jail record
and then the Floortry situation? Like success? Like when I
tell you that, like I said, it mirrors. Um. You
know we we we did Jill and music pretty much simultaneous.
So for both of them to come out, we were
on cloud nine. You know. They were just sending people down.

(01:52:44):
It was it was weird because you know they would
send people down with instructions like they we want a
jail record, and it's kind of like, what, we can't
give your jail record because we gave it to her,
We can give you whoever you're sending record. Um. And
that was really the first time did I understood that
record companies. Steve McKeever said something to me that I
never forgot. He said, everybody in the music industry wants

(01:53:07):
to be second every You reminded me of a story. Um.
So the day that we shot that Soul Quarium photo
for Vibe, the beginning of the end, right, So okay,
nine nine am we shot, we did a shot in

(01:53:29):
the same Vibe magazine with Jill the Roots and Jill
did their thing right. It hit me that Lyric Cohen
I knew that this shoot was going to go down
and Vibe magazine and begged and begged, please let music
inside of this photo of you guys are doing because

(01:53:52):
he's part at the time. Did I know music? No,
I didn't know music. I had no clue. And music
so child, yeah, music, soul child music, I didn't know.
I believe that just to to force the will on us,

(01:54:14):
no pun uh. They had Music and his people waiting
downstairs in a car service to see if there was
like a change of heart, and it was always like like,
it's very unfortunate that That's how I was reminded, and
I totally forget about the times where he came to

(01:54:35):
the jam sessions and all that stuff pizza or something. Yeah, exactly,
it's so because there was so well yeah, it was
like it was like literally like who who and the
vibe people are like, yeah, can we le or Cohen
wants to Adam in the photo as well, because can
you can you shoot you? Just like yo, we know
each other, Like I don't know who music soul child.

(01:54:58):
I had no clue who he was at the times,
so it it just it started what could have been
potentially an even worse taste once I did two and
two and like oh the guy from filling oh he
used to come, and then it was like cool whatever.
But at the time I remember that music almost was
in that photo. Almost in that photo. That was the house,

(01:55:22):
the carving and I even built. Yeah yeah, so so
breakdown like the cruise. When we talk about touch of jazz,
it was carving car and it was Dallan Rate and
then piece Pat shout up um because you know it
was it was it was multiple. You know you had

(01:55:45):
keV Brown, Yeah, obviously you had Um Peace you know,
peace move Pat. Pat McClain James introduced me to Pat McClain.
Okay um and he because I remember think you told me,
or maybe it was keV told me the on the
on your album Africa Porter Prints. That was everything did.

(01:56:12):
Everything he did was a two track. I love Pat
was let me choose my words. Pat eccentric. He was
very eccentric. Like Pat would make the most beautiful song
you ever heard, and he would say, you know what,

(01:56:33):
the universe doesn't want this to come out, and it
would cut his keyboard off and we would be in
the room like but see. You know, he was also
the guy that he would he would he would do
a record and make some money and you would give
him like three thousand dollars and Pat would leave out
the studio. And the reason why I Rise is laughing

(01:56:53):
is because she was there for all of this. That
Pat would come in and say, God is gonna bless me.
I just gave a home much man, three thousand dollars
and you were kind of like Pat, you're homeless, Like
you're homeless and that mcause he was homeless to listen. So,
but what um with all the mcs that were there? UM,

(01:57:17):
like where there, like Paulia, what's going on those guys? Now,
y'all stop? No? Wow? I mean, you know, Paul, Paul.
When I started going back out on the road, I
took Paul. I took Paul when The Magnificent came out,
because you know, I wanted that to be kind of
a launching pad for Paul Um and then you know,

(01:57:40):
baby black Chef, you know it just you know what's
crazy is when I started going out on the road, Um,
I started going out like thousand UM and went went overseas.
Was completely blown away at the fact that I I'm

(01:58:00):
in this club and it's two thousand people here, and
I'm kind of like, well, who is performing. I'm used
to the wind Ballroom and it was a strong two
fifty in there, and you know, when you start doing
these and not just that, you know, just going through
all of the issues in the music business. I'm playing
for two thousand people and at the end of the night,

(01:58:20):
somebody's handing me an envelope with four thousand dollars in it,
and I'm kind of like, what damn. I gotta wait
like seven months for my four thousand dollars from the
record company, and you just gave it to me afterwards,
and I gotta play tomorrow night, and the night after
that and the night after that. So it really took
that first tour. And I came home and you know,

(01:58:42):
and everybody's asking when it's the check coming, because everybody's
waiting for a check at the record company, and you know,
you gotta wait until everybody delivered the signs and all
the rest of this, and you know, the agent call
was like, Yo, they loved it, they want you to
come back. I went back in the second time, I
love to everybody and was like, I'm coming home a
week later. So now I'm coming home with about forty

(01:59:06):
dollars to do all of my shopping and get all
of the ship that I want. And no one knows
i'm home, so the phone's not ringing, nobody's complaining. Um.
And then the third time when they called, I was like,
you know what, I'm out. I'm out because I already
see you know, I see this hamster wheel and I'm like,
I can't keep running on I can't keep running on this.

(01:59:26):
You know you you um like there was a level
of I felt, you know, even you know, even with
like the Jill situation, you know, I felt that we
were in a good cop bad cops situation that the
record company is always the good cop, Like I would
watch the record company by her gifts and take her

(01:59:47):
on trips and all the rest of this, And it
wasn't even the fact that I was. It was really
kind of like, you know, I felt like there was
a certain point in time that Jill was looking like,
how come you don't take me on trips? And I'm
sitting like, because I'm waiting for the motherfucking money that
the dude that took you on this trip to send me,
you know, not understanding the record company regime. That's kind

(02:00:10):
of like you're the good guy and I'm a bad guy.
So you know, it was you became Dana in a way,
not Dana the person, but I just mean, it's interesting
how to roll. Yeah, And I was like, nah, no,
I'm not doing that. So I tapped out. I was like,
I don't I don't want to do that. I realized
that um and and and also my second tour was

(02:00:34):
a tour in Asia, and I went to Bangkok, and
why are you laughing? You think so listen. I went
to Bangkok and there's a mall in Bangkok that my
man took me to, and everything in the mall was
illegal everything, and you could go into this store and

(02:00:56):
you could get DVDs. What you know, DVDs are big
MP three's, which are small, and they were selling DVD
m P three's. They were selling the Beatles Anthology everything
the Beatles ever made for twelve dollars. And I remember you.

(02:01:16):
You would go in and you were look in the
book and and and you give them the number. You know,
the Beatles were a hundred and such success and they
had jazz guitars. So I was like, okay, I example
this and get this, and you know, I'm giving this
guy like thirty six dollars and he gave me all
of these DVDs and all of this music. And I
remember walking in the middle of the mall and I said, yo,

(02:01:37):
it's over. It's because this hadn't hit the States yet,
and I was like, it's over. I just bought the
Beatles Anthology for twelve dollars. How much is my ship worth?
Like I was like, I'm I'm I'm out. So I
tapped out because of something I saw before it came here.

(02:01:57):
And you know, and how did your so just feel
about that though? Because did you give him? How does
that work? Hell, I ain't get nobody no notice. Listen first,
let me tell you something. If you tell everybody in
the hood you're moving, oh you ain't gonna have no furniture,
They're gonna steal all your ship. So trust me. I
had a whole covert thing. I had a guy that

(02:02:19):
took all of my equipment and put it in the storage.
He came down and scouted out the studio, and you know,
it was like, listen out, this is what I'm gonna take.
I don't care about this um. And you know, I
knew the studio hours. I knew everybody staying there until
about four thirty five o'clock in the morning. So we
came in at six o'clock and they cleaned the entire
studio out and by the time, oh man, they came

(02:02:44):
and it was it was they opened that door and
that ship just swung open with that wild, wild West breek.
But you know what, but like at the exact same
time that I closed the studio, I actually moved out
of Philly. Oh my god. So you know it's crazy, everybody,

(02:03:07):
This is the funny thing. The only person that I
kept was I Rise, So I Rise knew all this
covert ship here what I was listen. You know, she
knew and it was and it was crazy because everybody thought, like,
this is, this is this is this will tell you
something about the ego. I needed everybody to think I

(02:03:28):
was doing bad. And this was at a time that
I just once I discovered that whole DJ thing. So
I understand. I was in the DJ atmosphere before the
DJ bubble hit. So I'm sitting here like, yo, I
ain't never made this much money ever, and no one

(02:03:49):
would expect that. And it was kind of like yo,
So me closing the studio and moving, it was like, yo,
what happened to John? Heard? He's not doing too well?
And you had to eat that? Like I was cool
with eating there the truth, I was cool with you. Listen.
I remember I remember the first time, it might have
been about seven eight months after I moved. I remember

(02:04:12):
it was a fight coming on, and I invited James
down to my crib for the fight. James Port, James
and I stood in the door because when James pulled
up to my house. James sat there and I know
he was kind of like, I know this naked only here,
like get out of here. And I opened the door

(02:04:33):
and my dog ran out, so he's kind of like
this nigga got a dog, Like what is this? I
had the paved ways and the light and the people
were not watched out and I was like hey, and
James was like what. And then I ended up breaking
it down, you know, because you ended up you sold
so your old crib, the old crib to his mom. Yes,

(02:04:56):
I did. This was at a park, so wait. I'm
literally like wait wait, yeah, I put it up for
sale and the person backed out. The person backed out
the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and I think I text our
mayor because our mayor said something to me. He was

(02:05:16):
just kind of like, yo, uh damn, why didn't you
tell me you were selling the crib? And I was like, oh, man,
I didn't know. You know, I didn't know that. You know,
I wasn't just gonna randomly pick up quest Love and
be like hey, I'm selling my cred, you know. And
it was crazy because I hit him on Thanksgiving and
I was like, yo, the sale of the crib fell through.

(02:05:37):
Let me know if you want it, and he said,
I'll call you back, and he caught me in tim
Medisine's like we wanted listening. That was it. That was
a that was a done deal that we just furnished.
We just readdid the entire crib like you still got
the deep We had to take all that. It's a

(02:05:58):
brand new It was in the nineteen house. Now, that's
the first time I met you. You don't even know that.
I was driving in that apartment with Diana and she
saw you as you was coming out. We was coming in,
and she said, Jazzy, Jeff, please tell us how you
organized all right? First of all, yeah it you moved

(02:06:23):
to Delaware and we were all like why, But then
you also like lured a lot of people to Delaware.
I didn't for a minute, right, he was there. I
forgot even was down there first second. But I meant,
like James and Tuba and like, I now see the

(02:06:44):
allure of living in Delaware. However, can you explain what
the playlist retreat is? It's it's almost like a secret
that no one knows about or really understand ends. What
the magnitude this is salty and jealous even though they
still should they know they shouldn't be doing you are

(02:07:05):
literally like your playlist retreat is yea, the illuminati. It's
the illuminati of producers and musicians. And having gone there
and seeing it myself, you had the first one. I
was at the first one. I came late to the

(02:07:27):
last one and had about four tacos and didn't realize
that all the tacos were laced with scooch. I thought
I was gonna die. Y'all got mad photos of me
sleep on your couch. I was just like, yeah, I
think my first time it was before it was before

(02:07:47):
you officially doing the playlist, But the first time I
came to your crib, me and Pool we did a
little brother song and that honestly, man like I never
told us, but dude, that really changed my life. It
totally made me rethink what it what success quote unquote
looked like. Because we got there and the first thing
you did, Jeff cook some chicken. I always do that.
He bads some chicken, and then we was like, all right,

(02:08:08):
we're gonna you know, kind of salty. We're doing this
now here because I thought like we just go bro,
could we do the next one. I'm sure there's gonna
be a part of three. Hey, I'm just saying, you
know you women there at one time, five women we

(02:08:29):
ECU divers. I'm alright making you. I'm auditing because I
was like, is this some female music makers up? And
now I know the k Yeah yeah, but now it
was like you cook chicken. And then we went downstairs
and you told me how like you got the Mexicans
from home depot studio. And then he was like yo,
I'm like all right, so we're gonna see He was like, oh,

(02:08:49):
I got these rooms. And I just remember like sleeping
that night. And I was like, yo, Jeff got a
hip hop bed and breakfast, like you really like this
is a whole another business. And so like when me
and my wife we bought a second crib, I was like, yo,
I want to do that, Like I want to have
a place where I got my studio. If we go late,
somebody want to crash, it's the room right over here,

(02:09:10):
you can crash. So now when they come to your studio, Fonte,
like they come spending night, like when you said yeah,
like well, when Madison came down, her and her her
and Ned they stayed in the hotel right right around
the corner. But you know, while we were in there,
if ned was like I'm gonna lay down, you can
go right in the next room, And that just something,
It really just was a big inspiration for me to
like so to the point where I quote unquote was

(02:09:31):
in a booth not too long ago in a session
and that ship felt totally like what is like that
felt antiquated, like because we just did all that stuff
right in the room together, you know what I mean, Like,
you know, it's it's it's funny. UM. I do a
lot of work with Red Bull three Style UM, which
is a global DJ competition UM. And maybe like the

(02:09:54):
third or fourth year that we did it, UM, they
you know, each night they would have a special guest DJ.
So you wu see z Trip, you see eight Track,
you see Crazy, you see all these guys. The third year,
they decided to bring all of the DJ's in and
keep them there for the entire week. So this is
what I realized. This is the first time that I
have ever spent a week with one of my peers.

(02:10:18):
Like I'd see you at a show, I see you
that night, Like when you get to spend a week,
You get to have a lot of conversations. You you
get to talk about the good stuff, you get to
talk about the bad stuff. You start getting personal. You
started swapping music. Um and and when I realized that,
that became my motivation and my energy to DJ for

(02:10:42):
the entire year. Like everybody couldn't wait for three style
because it's like we're gonna get together, We're gonna go out,
We're gonna do it. So I was like, you know what,
I want to have a DJ retreat, Like it really
started off as a DJ retreat. Um I did, Um,
how did you convince these people to travel from all
points to the globe? These aren't people coming from like
New York. And yeah, like when when um, I remember

(02:11:12):
when um my wife threw me a fiftieth birthday party.
Matter of fact, Layah and I Rids was there. You
were supposed to be there, but you saw me up
so um. But it was funny because the level of

(02:11:33):
preparation that was put into that birthday party, Like it
understands they I did a show for the NBA for
their London game that I was accidentally put on the
late flight. Like everything about this ship I was mad,
Like I'm getting mad right now because you know, I

(02:11:54):
considered myself kind of a savvy person and I had
no clue. Like my wife to this day still think
I knew. I had no clue that they sent me
on the show out of the country and put me
on the second flight because all of my friends from
overseas were on the first flight. Oh oh, they mapped it.

(02:12:16):
So you know, we came back. I landed. Wife picked
me up from the airport, and you know, it's kind
of weird because she picked me up. She's like, hey,
you know, you know, I know you're gonna have because
she asked me what I wanted. I was like, I
want to get together some of my friends and let's
do a man dinner. And she's like, I know you're
gonna do your man dinner, So I want to celebrate
your birthday with you today. Okay, cool. So we drive,
the whole crew leaves, We drive to a hotel and

(02:12:39):
take a shower, change my clothes, she got my my suit,
she got everything. I'm kind of like, okay, that's cool,
and we're get in the car and she starts driving
and we get on ninety five. So I was like Okay,
I guess we're not going to dinner in Philly. So
we're driving and getting into good conversation. We get off
at my exit, so I'm like, okay, um, maybe we're
going somewhere in Delaware there and she wants to kind

(02:13:01):
of check up on the kids. So it wasn't until
we got to the edge of the driveway that she
stopped and she said happy birthday, babe, and I said
thank you. And she said close your eyes and I
was like what and she said close your eyes and
I was like fun. She got me and I closed
my eyes. We drove down the driveway so I can feel.

(02:13:24):
Instead of going to the back, she goes around the
circle and she said, okay, you can open your eyes.
And when I opened my eyes, it was two black
dudes with parking attendant jackets and heat lamps. And I
was like, what the old man, man man? And it

(02:13:44):
was so thought out and elaborate the way that my
brain works that instead of saying, oh my god, this
is great, I was like, we can pay this ship together.
So the next day and the president of Sarado was there.
So the next day we I was like, listen, I
want to do a DJ retreat and says it sus

(02:14:05):
and the president of Serata was like, hey, you know,
we'll be one of the sponsors, and we pulled out
a yellow pad and we started writing the idea down.
During that time, UM, I was you know the same thing, me,
me knowing about you guys. I would always collect music
and I I got linked into STRO, I got linked

(02:14:25):
in the Tall Black Guy, got linked in the fourteen
KT and it was one of those things that I
got it. And I started using Twitter because when I
would know, you know, when I knew it was STRO,
I just went to his Twitter page and just like, hey,
man is jazz Jeff, Yo got some of your music?
Big fan? He hit you back, Oh my god, and
then you end up getting a folder of music from him.

(02:14:47):
So now I show up and I'm playing all this
ship and everybody is like, Yo, what the funk is that?
What the fun is? You know? And and you kind
of get known for playing stuff that's really dope that
no one knows. So and picking the DJs for the retreat,
I was kind of like, well, why don't I invite
the what the funk guys too? You know, like because

(02:15:11):
now what we can do quest Love DJs, STRO makes music.
Wouldn't it be great if Stro made the music? Give
it straight to Chust Love and christ Love is the
music messenger, and and that's how it started. And it
puts them in the roots and listen, listen, you know,
but it was it was really to kind of get
people together and kind of collaborate. You know, I started

(02:15:34):
feeling some kind of way. Um is, as much as
I love my role as a producer, I started getting
mad because it became extremely selfish, old body, Like everybody
got a laptop, everybody's making their own beats. You know.
The reason why I touched the Jazz was special, and
the reason why the Roots Studio was special is because

(02:15:56):
it was a hub where everybody kind of came and
didn't music. Everybody's hub is their computer and you can
hear it in the music. There's no collaboration, and it
was kind of like, no, no, no, no, we gotta
let's figure out a way to get it back. Um.
Also with the biggest thing for me was I get
mad that a lot of the equipment manufacturers make equipment

(02:16:19):
without ever consulting the people who use it. Man, listen,
and I'm kind of like and then you get mad
because you make some ship and then I get it
and I'm like, you know, I don't like this ship,
and then you're mad. I was like, well, maybe you
should have talked about before you did it. So it
was kind of like, I want to create. I want
to I just want an open dialogue. I want to
invite the manufacturers that you can tell us. Make everybody

(02:16:42):
sign an n d A, tell us the new ship
that you got, and let us tell you if you
should even do it. You know, no, that's not a
good idea. Talked someone out of doing something that they
thought was needed on the marketplace. How do you remember
that first present you with a meatless turns. You're the

(02:17:02):
guy I would think that you would at least want
to hang on to nah. You know, you know, I
am a purist and I play for purists. What what
happens is you get on this stage and it's me

(02:17:26):
and one other guy using turntables. So now they don't care.
They don't even put the cinder blocks under the table,
now they, you know, And they got subs on the
stage and I'm listening to the dude before me sound amazing,
and I'm telling the guy take all the base out.
So now now I don't sound as good as he does,

(02:17:49):
you know, so it starts to get to a point
that you know, Okay, so I'm I'm the I'm the
last Mohican. And it's not even that I switched. I
still chose something that enables me to do everything that
I do. So right now you're using needle arm I'm sorry,

(02:18:10):
armless turntables right now? See Oh you're on some next ship.
Oh yeah, right now, djaying and you give me this interview.
But um, what I will say, Like I leave Wednesday
for a month long tour. My first show is Friday.

(02:18:31):
Just check Instagram Saturday. Are you I can't imagine what's
more mind blowing than without a needle? Check Instagram Friday.
He's gonna be DJ with his mind now. But I
ain't wrong what I ain't wrong when I say you
didn't induce the Rotto to the at least to this market,

(02:18:53):
because I feel like I remember when DJs was like
if it weren't, I was. I was one of the
Serado guys, remember you. Cdj Jeff got me on. CD
J Jeff was how I found out about Final Scratch,
which was predated to serato. So yeah, so we actually no,

(02:19:14):
Richie Harden was how I found out about the final
scratching and then I found out you used it and
that kind of made it official. So are they with
scratching now? Have they? Um? Do they have it? So
you can pretty much scratch streams now? Yeah you can
do that. Yeah, yeah, you just made uh what do
you call title? UM? Have you tried that yet? The

(02:19:37):
only issue with that um which is smart because of
course you know, my brain is always trying to go
into finding that. The workaround You have to have internet. Yeah,
that's why I don't like it. You have to have
good internet. You have to have internet because because because
I downloaded something, I downloaded something and it worked perfect,

(02:19:59):
and then I cut my internet off and when I
went to go load the track, and it was like,
you need to sign on the internet for this because
think about it. You can record in serato, so you
could basically stream that song and record it and not
just that even if you have internet. See. But this

(02:20:21):
is the crazy thing. When you push when you push record,
it tells you that it's a song that you're playing
that can't be recorded, and it stops the recording. So
they found workarounds, So I was like, I'm cool, I'll
just get to record. Do you think that, I would
say yes. So do you think that will replace the
MP three? Do you think that? No? Na, Na, I

(02:20:43):
mean listen, let me. You gotta keep in mind that
vinyl sales at all time high. But you know that
because they're just charging like forty bucks for a single slap. Well, now,
you know, it's just it's a new generation that you know,
when you really sit and think about it, there's a

(02:21:05):
new generation that miss what Vinyl gave you. Vinyl gave
your cover, Vinyl gave you credits, Vinyl gave you something
to look at that not only could you listen, and
you could touch it. So you know, there's a reason.
You know, everybody who's who's tried to press vinyl in
the past four or five years has seen a extreme
significant time of getting your vinyl because of urban outfitters.

(02:21:30):
Oh yeah, you know the records, you know, even that
urban But yeah, I'm I'm about I'm about to solve
that problem. I've kind of stopped buying records and I've
I've started buying CDs again, really really, and I'll tell
you why, because I mean, I have I have accounts
with multiple streaming services and it only takes you know,

(02:21:52):
one Yeah, it's just like to get rid of my
favorite song off the stream service and it's no longer there,
so fuck it. I might as well just have the
CD and my arsenal so I can rip that motherfucker
to my iPhone whenever the funk I want to now
and how I want it. Yeah, now, I'm with you.
I still got all my CDs. I still I haven't
got rid of them, because you just never know, never know,

(02:22:13):
like they just like I went on Spotify Monday and
Thundercat's whole ship was and it was like, what the funk? Yeah,
I mean it's back now, but it was just gone.
I was like, what paid that? I mean, I mean,
it's it's it's I supplement with my own personal streaming
server now, all right, so you won't reveal let us know,

(02:22:36):
but you know what it is. I think I want
you to see it, Okay, don't don't want you don't
because because I cause I could have, I got it
and I've done it in the house, and it was
just kind of like, you know, you had that desire
to just shoot it and just post it, and I
was like, Nope, I want to be in front of
a thousand people and do this ship and that reaction

(02:23:00):
and then I'll post it. Because once I posted, you know,
it was kind of like when I used the needless
turntable and I was picking it up and you know,
people freaked out. So I can't wait for another freaking
tell us about the upcoming uh plate well to playlist project.
Um the first one and that was in a week,

(02:23:21):
in a week, in a week, which I know I've
done that before and I'll never do that again. Well,
you know what it is, the trying to record it
and release it in a week is hard. Recording it
in a week Piece Kate, Piece of Kate, and especially
when you kind of get a routine and a method
down like we we got. We got the method we

(02:23:43):
you know we got. Don't ever stop releasing it now
because I mean, all you gotta do is just uploaded.
Well no, do you know what it was is we
had to mix it. We had to mix it, and
so it's we recorded and it was basically we we
with the first and we finished. Glenn cut his last
focal about six pm Friday, and we needed to be

(02:24:05):
done by midnight on Sunday, so Vida al and I
basically stayed up for seven two straight hours and not
only mixed it, but there was a guy sitting in
the mastering lab that as we mixed it, we had
to send it to him, and then he had to
send it back and we let to prove it. So
it was kind of like when we got there, I
was like, we ain't never doing this again. We need

(02:24:27):
to Listen. I'm in the bed at nine o'clock if
I ain't doing the show, yes, I'm happy with that. Listen.
I get to see the sun set and rise. That's
how you stay looking twelve Listen, Hello, listen, I can't
do that, man, services no, no, will it be in June.

(02:24:52):
It'll be, It'll it'll be released in June. Okay, so
it'll be released in June. But let me just say
this for anybody that has been looking for anything. And

(02:25:12):
I don't even like making comparisons an oh, listen, when
I tell you you have never in your human life
heard someone sing and wrap like her, It's always been there,
it's all. But yo, when I tell you, when you

(02:25:35):
hear yeah, man, like she went there. Man, she went there,
she went there, she went there. It's time. Yeah, brother Jeff,
thank you. Ain't we finally closed or no, we got
to close it. We have to close it at the

(02:25:57):
retreat this year about to say you got we got
done on tape. This is this is the fifth year.
This is the fifth year. I never in the Maion
years we would get to year five because you have
no idea what it takes to throw something like this,
like it is emotionally, physically and mentally draining, but it

(02:26:21):
is worth all of it, you know, Like stro wouldn't
be on in the roots if it wasn't for the retreat.
You know, um, we you know we we we never
posted it, but we put up almost like a chart
of people and the connections that they made and records
that they made. And it's absolutely ridiculous. One of my

(02:26:43):
records came out, uh to me and Row waiting for
your record and Paris and Rich that one that was
a retreat record. And this is June right because I'm
about to start looking at it's an August the record show.
Um August. I mean, I'm like, should I say this

(02:27:06):
out when? When it is? Because it's it's early August.
This because you just got to understand. It's just you know,
it's it's August Man. Shout out to Mantas. Mantas is
at the retreat every year. So first of all, fight
club anyway, Jeff, we thank you very much. Shout out
of Corey towns like I get that shot, dude, I

(02:27:29):
text so disrespected. I'm text so so that we mean
Corey like slander, all kind of ship. It's so great
too because she brought us Jill. I'm an there you
go all right on behalf of the Bills and Coy
and Sugar Steve and Fin Tikolo and Lady like ya

(02:27:53):
Jazzy Jeff, thank you very much. Another great episode. Thank
you only on and Door kick it Will. I was
in a club one Friday. A lovely lady comes to
walking my way. She woke up and she said hello,
I said, hid my heart Radio. This classic episode was

(02:28:15):
produced by the team at the door. You'll never forgive me,
I said, why? Then she bit me. For more podcasts
for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.