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Jeffrey Towns or Jazzy Jeff as he's best known, the hip-hop DJ from Philadelphia, is a winner of three GRAMMY Awards, a couple of Soul Train awards and numerous others. He is famed for his association with Will Smith (The Fresh Prince) and is currently a close friend of Kenny Dope. Jazzy also worked with the MAW on their NuYorican Soul project, so Jeff's appearance on the 11th Defected In The House series seems the obvious progression. Perhaps taking inspiration from other hip-hop celebrities (like P. Diddy) hitting hard on the house scene, Jazzy Jeff will present his first ever house compilation this November.
Jazzy remarks interestingly, "I just think commercialism has been a real blow to hip-hop. A lot of people don't understand that hip-hop isn't so much a musical form, as a lyrical form over any type of music, so you can do hip-hop over house, you can do it over jazz and opera.
It's interesting remembering the early days when people were saying it wasn't a music that was going to last, and now you can't even turn on the television or the radio without hearing some music that is influenced by hip-hop in some way, and that just goes to show the corporate appeal...
It's funny because in the early days there wasn't so much segregation in music, so we used to play house, funk grooves, soul grooves, but mainly because of my affiliation with Will it was a hip-hop groove; so people had a tendency to think I only did hip-hop. But I grew up playing different kinds of music, so this isn't a new thing for me. I have always been into house from the beginning, pretty much from before the Philly international sound. It was definitely related to doing something fresh, a little less tainted than hip-hop... I had the opportunity recently to do some work with Herbie Hancock and he said something to me about letting your music go where it goes, instead of trying to take it somewhere, because it will always go someplace unexpected and it will teach you something. That really stuck with me, so now I'm like, 'let me just sit back and enjoy the ride'..."
A 4/4 ride these days it seems! 'Soulheaven Presents Jazzy Jeff In The House' is out 1st November.
Jeffrey Towns or Jazzy Jeff as he's best known, the hip-hop DJ from Philadelphia, is a winner of three GRAMMY Awards, a couple of Soul Train awards and numerous others. He is famed for his association with Will Smith (The Fresh Prince) and is currently a close friend of Kenny Dope. Jazzy also worked with the MAW on their NuYorican Soul project, so Jeff's appearance on the 11th Defected In The House series seems the obvious progression. Perhaps taking inspiration from other hip-hop celebrities (like P. Diddy) hitting hard on the house scene, Jazzy Jeff will present his first ever house compilation this November.
Jazzy remarks interestingly, "I just think commercialism has been a real blow to hip-hop. A lot of people don't understand that hip-hop isn't so much a musical form, as a lyrical form over any type of music, so you can do hip-hop over house, you can do it over jazz and opera.
It's interesting remembering the early days when people were saying it wasn't a music that was going to last, and now you can't even turn on the television or the radio without hearing some music that is influenced by hip-hop in some way, and that just goes to show the corporate appeal...
It's funny because in the early days there wasn't so much segregation in music, so we used to play house, funk grooves, soul grooves, but mainly because of my affiliation with Will it was a hip-hop groove; so people had a tendency to think I only did hip-hop. But I grew up playing different kinds of music, so this isn't a new thing for me. I have always been into house from the beginning, pretty much from before the Philly international sound. It was definitely related to doing something fresh, a little less tainted than hip-hop... I had the opportunity recently to do some work with Herbie Hancock and he said something to me about letting your music go where it goes, instead of trying to take it somewhere, because it will always go someplace unexpected and it will teach you something. That really stuck with me, so now I'm like, 'let me just sit back and enjoy the ride'..."
A 4/4 ride these days it seems! 'Soulheaven Presents Jazzy Jeff In The House' is out 1st November.