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JAZZY JEFF: PHILLY’S FINEST

Philadelphia’s DJ Jazzy Jeff lives something of a dual existence. To the casual rap fan he’s known primarily for his role as sidekick to Hollywood superstar Will Smith, with the pair releasing such mainstream-friendly rap hits as ‘Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble’ and ‘Boom! Shake The Room’, while also bringing hip-hop into your living room in the early-’90s with the groundbreaking urban sitcom ‘The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air’.

As an influential figure in the Philly hip-hop scene of the 1980s, Jazzy Jeff not only helped introduce rap to a wider international audience with the Fresh Prince, he also elevated the art of turntablism with such developments as the infamous transformer scratch. In more recent years his musical talent helped launch the career of soul star Jill Scott, with Jeff also releasing ‘The Magnificent’ in 2002, a critically-acclaimed album project that mixed soul, jazz and hip-hop with help from Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman, NYC rap legend Freddie Foxxx, The Roots’ ?uestlove, and a posse of then upcoming production talent.

Having recently closed down his Touch Of Jazz studios, Jazzy Jeff’s latest album, ‘The Return Of The Magnificent’, is seen by the down-to-earth DJ as the beginning of a new chapter in his already impressive career. Taking sole control of production duties this time around, Jeff has once again enlisted assistance from a diverse cross-section of artists, including Rhymefest, Big Daddy Kane and Raheem DeVaughn, resulting in another soulful selection of Philadelphia-flavoured beats and rhymes.
B&S: Looking back, how much of a lasting impact do you think Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince had on hip-hop?
JJ: It’s hard for me to take myself out of Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince to really see the impact we had. I’m sure we had quite a large impact, but sometimes I would like to be the person who could step outside of himself and answer some of those questions like, ‘What impact did you have on the DJ culture?’, ‘How big was ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’?’, ‘How important was ‘The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air’?’ Kenny Gamble told me a long time ago that when you’re making history, you never realise it while you’re actually doing it. I didn’t realise at the time that we were doing anything monumental, we were just doing what we felt was right for us.

B&S: It’s been five years since the release of your last album, ‘The Magnificent’. How did you approach the new project?
JJ: I’ve always looked at music as being like your favourite restaurant. You might go to that particular restaurant because of the way they cook their steak, so when you go there and they say they only have chicken, you get upset. So with ‘The Return…’ I still wanted to maintain the same theme that I used for ‘The Magnificent’ but progress in terms of the songs I recorded. I didn’t want to go too leftfield and confuse people.

B&S: ‘The Return…’ has a very refined, mature feel to it both musically and lyrically. Is maturity something that’s missing from hip-hop today?
JJ: I liked the recent albums from Nas, Jay-Z and Snoop because each of those records showed that those artists are getting older. Hip-hop is at a point right now where we need those records from 30-something artists to sound like 30-something records. It doesn’t make sense for someone like a Big Daddy Kane to be making a record for someone in my son’s age group. We need music out there that represents that older age demographic because there are plenty of people who’re 30 and above who grew-up listening to hip-hop and who still want to listen to it, but they can’t find anything they can relate to. So we need a Rakim to make a record for Rakim fans today. But older artists can’t get that radio support unless they’re making records for 14-year-old kids that talk about selling drugs and shooting guns.

B&S: With that in mind, how different is the music business today compared to when you first came out in the 1980s?
JJ: We live in a time where people aren’t fans of artists anymore; they’re fans of particular records. That’s why there’s no artist development in the industry anymore because labels just want artists to sell records straight away before people move onto the next thing. Back in the day every one of our favourite artists made that record that we kinda didn’t like, but we rolled through it with them because there was a sense of loyalty between the artist and the fan. But today artists are terrified of making a record that we don’t like because they think they’ll be dropped by their label. If you don’t have great first week sales then an album is over to a lot of people now.

B&S: Do you think websites such as MySpace are part of the solution considering the outlet they offer upcoming artists?
JJ: I think something like MySpace is definitely one of the tools that can help. This is a very non-industry thing to say, but I think the Internet could possibly destroy the record labels, but at the same time it could also save music. The radio only plays the same ten songs all day, but when kids have the opportunity to go online they’re not downloading those same ten songs, they’re experimenting and listening to different things.

YOU CAN READ THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH JAZZY JEFF IN THE NEW ISSUE OF B&S 995 - ON THE STREETS NOW!

‘The Return Of The Magnificent’ is released June 4 on BBE Records.
Words Ryan Proctor