DJ Jazzy Jeff And Serato Celebrate Hip-Hop 50 With Digital Campaign – VIBE.com
DJ Jazzy Jeff and Serato have launched a new campaign highlighting the talent at the turntables. Paying homage to DJs who have impacted Hip-Hop’s storied 50-year history, the social media movement shares gratitude for the disc jockey.
“I’ve been linked with Serato pretty much from the beginning, so that’s like family,” explains the Philadelphia native of his participation in the campaign. “I was happy that they asked me to kick it off, and I think it’s fitting. I also love the fact that I feel like they let everybody else get their 50th tribute out and they said, ‘Okay, we’re going to close this out with the DJ.’”
Serato’s first-ever product Pitch ‘n Time, created in 1999, revolutionized the way producers worked with audio through high-quality time-stretching and pitch-shifting technology. Soon thereafter, the release of Serato Scratch Live, followed by Serato DJ Pro and Serato DJ Lite, transformed DJing and ushered in a new era.
“This celebration is for the people that know and understand and appreciate what we do. And if you don’t, if you care to try to find out, there’s a whole bunch of places that you can find out what the DJ culture is about. And if you don’t want to, I leave it to the people who do,” detailed the Hip-Hop pioneer.
Through the campaign, DJs will highlight their work on social media, posting their unique routines and using the hashtag #ThankYouDJs. The campaign kicked off on Monday (Sept. 24) with DJ Jazzy Jeff. DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore, DJ Scratch, DJ Jazzy Jay, GrandMixer DXT, and DJ Cocoa Chanelle are also set to participate.
Serato has also developed custom Hip-Hop 50th anniversary badges, stickers, and filters. Additionally, the campaign invites the next generation of DJs to upload their own routines on social media.
DJ Jazzy Jeff performs on the Hangout Stage during the Kick-Off party for the 2017 Hangout Music Festival on May 18, 2017 in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Hangout Music Festival
VIBE: Can you explain what goes into a DJ routine and the process there?
DJ Jazzy Jeff: There are so many DJs that had routines, a lot of the routines were routines that were done on records. The cuts that I did on Jazzy Jeff [and] Fresh Prince ‘Brand New Funk,’ the cuts that DJ Scratch did on EPMD’s “So Wat Cha Sayin,’” are just two of the famous routines that people know from the records. And then you’ve got the battle DJs that have done routines, that have won world championships, that a lot of the scratch DJs know by heart.
I love the diversity that, it can be a routine that was done on a record, it can be a routine that was done in a battle. And then you have some people that just came up with brand new routines, but it’s all to celebrate the importance of the DJ.
What would you say is the most important or the most impactful role of the DJ in Hip-Hop? Whether it be the party starter, the hitmaker, or the music breaker… can they even be ranked?
That is an amazing question. You almost answered the question, they can’t be ranked because all of them have a certain level of importance. You can be the DJ that is on stage with your favorite rapper. You can be the DJ that is in the booth at your favorite club, or you can be the DJ Premier, the Dr. Dre, who spawned an amazing production career. But to me, I think that’s the important thing for people to understand, that a DJ isn’t one-faceted. Your favorite producer could have started off as a DJ, which they probably started off as a DJ, playing records.
I played records, and I wanted to be able to make whatever I heard, and that’s what took me down the path of being a producer. But it all starts with the DJ, and I think the fact that the DJ can be celebrated on different tiers and different genres, not everybody is a scratch DJ. Gilles Peterson is one of the most respected DJs in the world, and he’s a play selector. He’s respected because of what he plays. DJ Craze is one of the most incredible scratch DJs. Dr. Dre is one of the most incredible producers ever, and his whole backbone and basses came from the DJ. I love the fact that we are being celebrated for all of the things that we do, and not just, okay, this guy just scratches and this guy just does this. It’s kind of like, we do it more than one way.
DJ Jazzy Jeff performs on stage at The Nokia Urban Music Festival with the Prince’s Trust at Earl’s Court on April 16, 2005 in London. The UK’s largest urban music event is hosted by the Prince of Wales’ royal charity and features credible names in hip hop and R&B from the UK and US alongside workshops in break-dancing, MCing, beatboxing, music production, DJ skills and an Artist Advice workshop for breaking new acts.
MJ Kim/Getty Images
Besides not needing to spin vinyl anymore, what would you say is the biggest difference in DJing something now versus when you first started?
I started playing records at a house party in West Philly, and somehow, I ended up playing records at a house party in South Africa. I never in a million years thought that two turntables and some records would take me around the globe a hundred times. It really goes to show you that music is universal, music heals. That was one of the biggest things that I realized during the pandemic when everybody was stuck in the house, scared to death, not knowing what was going on. [DJ] D Nice started playing records in his kitchen and pretty much calmed everybody down. That pretty much shows you the power of the DJ and just the power of music.
What have been some of your favorite career memories as we celebrate Hip-Hop 50?
Oh my God, my whole year has been a giant ‘aha’ moment. We just finished the biggest leg of the F.O.R.C.E. tour with LL Cool J and the Roots, people were coming out every night performing. I hadn’t been in an arena tour in 37 years, and the last time I did it was with LL. We talk about that every night, that we were on a rinky-dink tour bus. We were kids when we were doing that, and this was LL Cool J’s tour. The fact that something that we started doing as kids, and we are now in the driver’s seat pretty much directing the direction of culture is amazing. It’s like we started off in the mail room, and now we’re the CEO.
Where would you say someone who wants to start DJing, where would you advise them to start?
Well, and no shameless plug, but I have an online DJ course exactly for [that]. There are people that enjoy music and want to learn…The way that I designed this course is very simple and basic to teach you the fundamentals for you to ask yourself, ‘Do I want to continue on and go deeper?’ Or, ‘That was cool and I’m done.’ There’s no right or wrong way, but there are a ton of courses and YouTube links of people showing you techniques for you to figure out if this is something that you really want to do.
Do you think it’s still essential for newer or emerging DJs to learn how to scratch vinyl?
Nope. I think that is all subjective of how you want to learn…And I know there are some of the diehards that are like, for you to learn how to DJ, you should learn how to do vinyl, you should learn how to do that.
It’s up to you. I know I’ve had a bunch of people say, ‘You know what? I learned how to DJ and I think it would be cool if I figure out how to do this on vinyl.’ And then you can go down that rabbit hole. If you’re comfortable just doing it with digital vinyl or you’re even comfortable doing it with CDs. I go back to the true essence of, why do we DJ? We DJ to play music for people to have a good time. I don’t ever remember a time that somebody was angry that I was [not] playing vinyl. They’re angry if I don’t play the music they want to hear.
How do you hope to see DJing and Hip-Hop continue to evolve in the next 50 years?
I didn’t expect it to be where it’s at now. So if we can continue with the same trajectory, I’m all for it. I never in a million years thought that, like I said, that I would be traveling around the globe playing music for people. And the fact that DJing has allowed me to do that, if we can just keep this going for another 50 years, I would be extremely happy.
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