Q+A with DJ Jaycee

To kick the new year off in PxP style we sat down with Aphilliates/CORE DJ's/Disturbing Tha Peace Records (Ludacris whattup!) DJ and all around cool guy Jaycee. Read, rinse, repeat, tell a friend to tell a friend to tell their mother and most of all... enjoy; Black Thought not included.





1. Break down who you are, where you're at, what you currently do for
the fans @ home reading this.

Jaycee, renowned Detroit representer currently living in Atlanta. At
this moment I'm chillin' the fuck out on my couch but in the last few
weeks or so I've rocked nightclubs overseas on my own in Dubai, Germany,
South Africa, Ethiopia as well as arena stages in those same countries
with the man known to the world as Ludacris.

2. How did you break into the DJ game?

I was originally bitten by the DJ bug in Detroit while listening to The
Wizard and Mojo on WJLB and watching Michael Saunders (current PD at
Orlando's 102 Jamz) spin at our school dances. But upon moving to
Atlanta (Decatur specifically), there were 2 extremely spoiled kids that
lived in my hood named Aaron Davis and "Boobie" who had turntable setups
at their cribs where I'd always go to practice afterschool. You could
say I broke into the "game" officially in spring of '93 when I mopped
the floor with a whole DJ crew at their own "Come Catch Wreck"
competition at Clark Atlanta University. I embarrassed them so bad that
they fronted on me by not giving me the championship belt that I was
supposed to have gotten after winning. That would be the first of my
many experiences with "politics of the game."

3. Now it's 2007, almost '08. You're part of the world famous
Aphilliates crew and Ludacris' tour DJ. Is there anything else you want
to venture into or conquer?

The next natural progression for me to venture into is music production.
My ear for it is great and I've dabbled in it sparingly here and there
over the years but never really been focused enough to buckle down with
it due to my love of spinning and traveling the world with Ludacris
among other things. I've also gotten reacquainted with the love I
acquired in high school for writing so there just may be a book
(surprise!!!) on the horizon.

4. We've read your blogs on MySpace. When is the film documentary or
book coming out?

I'm in the process of coming up with a rough draft of
my book as we speak. The key is trying to find the right balance of
interesting DJ shit plus life & my extensive travel tales to write about
without it coming off as a Superhead tell all sex joint which shouldn't
be hard so once I find that balance it's on and poppin!!





5. When it comes to music, what is the one aspect you'd change about it
creatively or business-wise?

Great question. I wouldn't really change the creative process too much.
The business though?? Shit needs a complete rehaul. Lotta people holding
positions that they have no business having. I understand the idea of
putting some of your friends on but some people take that concept too
far.

6. Your mixtape catalog is impressive, albeit brief. Why so few of them
when most DJ's drop 4-5 per week?

Let's just say that the type of music that I'm passionate about and the
mixtapes that I like to do (with actual mixing and skills on them)
aren't really embraced by the mixtape buying public too tough. My DJ
peers and certain industry heads recognize them as dope but real talk,
they ain't the ones buyin. I work hard in the lab to put things together
well but damn, shit is kinda disheartening when after you work so hard
on something, regular folks just look over it like "ehh, gimme the one
wit the nigga who aint doin' all that DJ stuff on it or the one where 10
different records are playing at the same time." So I just do joints
when I'm inspired. That works out a lot better for me and my mental
state, haha. I plan to get focused and maybe knock out 2 a month. My
catalog could be a lot more thorough cause I've done a ton of starting
and stopping in the middle of so much dope shit recently that I think I
must have A.D.D. Then I've put so much undue pressure on myself over the
years that unless the mix meets the personal standards I've set for
myself it won't even make it out of the crib. Sounds crazy but I just
respect my craft too much to do something half ass. I tagged my Rane
mixer at home with the saying "I dont make regular mixtapes, I make
timeless classics" and that's a creed that I wanna continue to subscribe
to.

7. Your thoughts on your fellow Aphilliates (Drama & Don Cannon)
arrests?

Damn. I had just landed back in the A at 10 that very night from a
hospital visit to a friend who'd been shot on some home invasion shit
and visiting my girl at the time in Minneapolis and I was planning on
heading to the studio to clear my head a little bit when all of a sudden
my phone and pager started blowing the fuck up with folks asking me if
I'd heard about the raid. I was like "nah", then I started making calls
to Cannon, Drama, Jeanise, and Sense but no one was answering phone
calls. So then my friend Lynnie called and confirmed everything but it
still didn't really hit home until I saw it as the fucking "top story"
on the news at 11 ahead of murders, rapes and Catholic priests smelling
like little boys bootyholes. Overall, a sad day for DJ's and the death
of the mixtape game as we knew and loved it at that point. I'm not clear
on the status of the case but trust when I say my crew are about to
return like Voltron on niggaz. Not like The Aphilliates went anywhere
per se but shit is about to get real interesting. What's fucked up is
how certain labels are now trying to make "legal" mixtapes but not
including the DJ's who really got a lot of their shit crackin. I smell
bullshit...

8. Backtracking, what made you decide to become a DJ and stick with it
for so long?

I was a gifted athlete, great at basketball, long distance running, and
swimming but I had a tyrant asshole of a father who really took the fun
out of that for me so sports was a wrap. I was interested in aerospace
engineering for a minute but didn't wanna do the "going to school for my
whole life" sorta thing so I gave that up. I was kinda unfocused after
high school, doing bullshit jobs like working at clothing stores in the
mall but I started working at a record store and that was what kinda
reawakened the inner DJ in me. Music had always been a part of my life.
I'd been fascinated with wax for years, collecting records at an early
age so being a DJ wasn't a stretch. I used to have dreams of being a
dope DJ like Jam Master Jay and Jazzy Jeff as a kid, but I had no
earthly way of knowing that I'd end up pretty much following in their
exact same career footsteps. Sometimes I think I'm still dreaming but
then when I step on stages and hit the tables in clubs all over the
world I'm like "wowwwwwwwww!!" I realize that I'm truly blessed to be
doing what I do and the passion I have for spinning is what keeps me
going in spite of the crap that sometimes occurs...

9. Rapper Saigon once said "what do you call a DJ who can't
scratch?/that's like a wide receiver who can't catch." In this climate
of CD, mp3 and iPod deejays, does the art of scratch, mixing and
blending hold the same weight today in hip-hop as it did when it was
considered a new art form?

It's sad to say but honestly, the values that inspired me to be the DJ
that I am don't seem to carry any weight these days. And nowhere is that
more apparent than the city that I live in, Atlanta. When you go to
clubs and hear mp3j's playing music with drops and sound effects all
through them, that shit irks me. What REALLY irks me though, are the no
talent dudes who create entire sets out of the whole Crooklyn Clan
catalog and fake the funk behind turntables like they're the ones
creating the mix. What happened to coming up with YOUR own signature
shit? And just who the fuck created the term "mash-up" anyway? For as
long I can remember the practice of taking vocals from different records
and mixing them with different beats was always known as "blending".
What the fuck is a mash-up?? But what REALLY REALLY REALLY irks me are
the trendy shmedium shirt & skinny jean wearin' niggas who aren't even
real DJ's who don't even have a clue of how to mix nor do they bother
learning how to, but yet manage to hold down resident DJ status at hot
spots every weekend. I'm normally not a hater but fuck it, when it comes
to shit like that I hold my hater flag up high. What part of the game is
that??


10. On that same note, what's your take on hip-hop's current climate
artistically?

The current climate for hip-hop is pretty cloudy. Values and standards
have changed to the point where the most mind fuckingly wack shit gets
the limelight while the shit that NEEDS to be heard and seen in the same
space gets no love. It's all good though. Everything comes and goes in
cycles so pretty soon the quality shit is gonna come full circle. Don't
get me wrong, there's PLENTY of quality shit out there now. If you take
the time to look you will find.


11. What's your advice to anyone who wants to do what you do or just
become "paid and popular"?

Shit, as far as being "paid and popular" I was gonna ask you what your
secret is cause I need to know my damn self. But to anyone who wants to
do what I do, all I ask is that you take the craft serious and do it
because you really love to do it. Busta Rhymes once said that "hip-hop
is the only thing that provides jobs for people who don't even love it."
That statement speaks volumes.

12. Any shoutouts, drunken confessions, plugs?

Shouts to the cities of Detroit & Atlanta and my immediate family, my
turntables, the Aphilliates, Ludacris, my new publicist TM, Zakiya &
Shalewa for keeping me grounded at all times, Applejac & Rage, Kaos,
Troy Davidson, Lance, Gaffle, Jazz & the Earwax crew, Scientist, Tony
Neal, Balwa, Lorna, Sasha, Peanut Butter Jones (I got the Reese's haha),
JLo & Aimee, and Tiffini. Hope I didn't leave anyone out.

Plugs?

Trying to get the production swing of things off the ground at the top
of the year with a few key submissions, looking for placements. All it
takes is a couple good ones and I'm on my way. More clubs to rock, more
of everything. '08 should be better than '07 by far....

Nothing to confess but I REALLY wish for one specific chick to go play
in traffic while in the middle of the Ford Freeway in Detroit.

PxP: Thank you Jaycee!!

No, thank YOU for still wanting to interview me after I had you on hold
for so long!!!

[fin]"