Music
The legendary turntablist and Red Bull Thre3style judge on the tracks that shaped his life…
Whether he be booming and shaking the room, hanging with the Fresh Prince or getting thrown out of the house by Uncle Phil, DJ Jazzy Jeff has played a big part in all our lives. Now he’s overseeing the next generation of disc jockeys as a judge at the Red Bull Thre3style world final. Before he heads to Toronto, the native Philadelphian talks us through the tracks that have influenced him...
The first piece of music to stop me in my tracks was…
“First and foremost I was too young to pick my own music, I was easily influenced… someone else was the DJ. Growing up, my brothers were playing everything from Marvin Gaye to Stevie Wonder, jazz fusion like Weather Report and The Mahavishnu Orchestra and I’d soak up all this music like a sponge. There wasn’t a barrier to what I’d hear growing up, we’d have Whitesnake records playing as well as the Rolling Stones, Chick Corea and Billy Cobham. I think that somehow stayed with me throughout everything, that love of music never went anywhere.”
The track I would play to shock my parents is…
“Fuck Tha Police by NWA. That would probably shock the daylights out of my mom. When I was coming up, there wasn’t really a lot of music that would shock my parents because all I would listen to would be classic soul. If I’d played NWA in front of my mom, that may have changed my DJ career!”
The track most likely to make me cry is…
“The last Tribe Called Quest album [1998’s The Love Movement] because I miss them. Before they split I never really knew how it felt to have favourite groups break up. I think sometimes you think your favourite album will be followed up by another favourite album. When you realise that isn’t gonna happen, it’s sad. I was absolutely in love with The Pharcyde and it’s tough to think that I’ll never get a new album because they disbanded and, rest in peace, J Dilla passed away.”
The song I wish I’d written is…
“Move Love by the Robert Glasper Experiment. I’m one of those people who when I get a favourite album that may be the only thing I play for three months. Robert Glasper’s first album [2004’s Mood] was amazing to me. I don’t understand why Move Love [from the 2012 album Black Radio] struck a chord with me but I just loved the way it touched me emotionally.”
The album I’d rescue from a burning house is…
“What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye. What you didn’t realise at an early age was how much of what was going on then – the Vietnam war and everything else – he put into that album. At 10 years old you just think it sounds good, you don’t think, 'that was some deep shit that he said right there'. It was so important for someone to capture a moment through music that 30 years later I can still get. Now I’m not sure it would be considered commercially accepted for an artist to write about what’s going on in 2013.”