 Down-South:
Yo, we’re here with the world famous DJ Jelly, one of the South’s most revered
DJs. DJ Jelly, how’s it going with you?
DJ Jelly: Nothin’, what’s up with you Charlie?
Down-South: It’s all good. Like always, let’s start by talking
about your background? Most people assume that you’re from Atlanta, is that true?
DJ Jelly: Naw, I was born and raised in
Union City, Missouri just outside St. Louis.
Down-South: That’s the same place that Nelly’s from?
DJ Jelly: Yeah, the same neighborhood.
Down-South: Did you know Nelly coming up?
DJ Jelly: Naw, but I knew his management
people and all of his producers and everything, we all grew up together.
Down-South: So what was it like growing up in Union City?
DJ Jelly: U. City was a nice lower [middle]
class suburb. I had everything that I really needed so it was cool. I couldn’t really
complain about much because I was straight.
And music has always been a part of my life as far me being you and buying records at the
corner record store all the time.
Down-South: So you were into music at an early age?
DJ Jelly: Yeah man from the rip. I was just
always into music. I can really remember when I started doing it. I was just always buying
records and doing theatrical stuff. I did plays in middle school and that type stuff.
Down-South: So when did you discover hip hop?
DJ Jelly: I discovered hip hop when
“Rapper’s Delight” hit hard. That’s when I discovered hip hop…I
mean really just trying to learn the words and everything. That’s when I got into it.
Down-South: Damn, that was back in 79. How old were then?
DJ Jelly: I was about 5 or 6 years old back
then.
Down-South: Okay so when did you first pick up the turntable and what
kind was it?
DJ Jelly: My first turntable was like on of
those little GPX. It was like my father’s turntable.
Down-South: Man I used to have one of those Grand Prixs turntables. Did
you tear it up?
DJ Jelly: (laughs) Oh yeah believe it,
believe it. You know what I did I took the 45 thing off of it and took a pencil ad cut it
real short so I could scratch.
Down-South: Did you tear up a lotta records before you learn how to
scratch?
DJ Jelly: Naw, I didn’t tear up too
many records that I can remember, not that I was perfect with that shit but I just
didn’t tear up too many records.
Down-South: Okay, let’s talk about DJs. Were there any DJs that
influenced you?
DJ Jelly: Yeah, back in St. Louis there was
a DJ named Kutmaster K. He really, really made me appreciate DJs. He was real creative
back in the 80s. He used to mixing all of that stuff like Chicago beats and stuff. He was
just creative…just real creative. He was mixing different forms of music. See,
that’s the kinda stuff about the mix CD stuff they used to mix it in. It didn’t
even matter where it was from if it was jamming, if it was a groove, if it was he swung
with it. He’s one of those old school DJs. He’s probably your age.
Down-South: Okay, then I know how he do it.
DJ Jelly: You see what I’m saying if
it’s jamming, it’s just jamming.
Down-South: And that’s the way hip hop used to be. Like Rakim said
it ain’t where ya from, it’s where ya at.
Down-South: Were DJing heavily in U.C.?
DJ Jelly: Naw not really, I used to throw a
lotta stuff in neighborhood. I used to have these small clubs and I used to throw parties.
I was like a host. I would be the one putting the party together. And one of my boys used
to be the DJ and I used to look at him and I said man, I can do that. So I just tried
DJing. I still remember the song that starting cutting. It was Whodini’s Big Mouth. I
thought that I was jamming because it was just easy and I was just cuttin’.
And the Kutmaster K, who I just hung around all the time because he was an older cat
–he made these mix tapes that I always used to listen to. So what I started doing was
gettin’ all of the records that was on his mix tapes and trying to duplicate the
mixes.
Down-South: When did you move to Atlanta?
DJ Jelly: I moved to Atlanta in 89.
Down-South: What brought you to Atlanta?
DJ Jelly: Music man, I found out that Bobby
Brown was building a house here in Atlanta. I graduated from high school early and I was
ready to go. It was weird. I didn’t even question it. I said I’m going to
Atlanta. A week later I was in Atlanta. That was weird man; I swear to God, I was just
talking to somebody about that today. I just dipped. I just got on. I got a little
scholarship in art and I just came on to the Atlanta College of Art.
Down-South: Were you there when the artist Radcliff Bailey was there?
DJ Jelly: Yeah, Radcliff was the one who
introduced me to jazz.
Down-South: Yep, that his thing, jazz. He’s a big John Coltrane fan.
DJ Jelly: Exactly. He introduced me to John
Coltrane and Miles.
Down-South: Yep, yep that Radcliff…dang, it’s a small world!
Okay, now at what point did you start DJing in Atlanta? Did you start out rocking parties
in Atlanta?
DJ Jelly: Uh, uh, I was just in college with
my turntables. I just always collected music. But I was just mixing in my dorm room. I got
a job at Bobby Brown’s studio at the time. I was just basically being an apprentice,
running around getting coffee for folks and mic’ing up bands and stuff. So then I
said shoot, I need to go to a club and DJ so I can make some extra money and DJ or
something. And DC from tag Team gave me my first DJ job. He hired me. He said Jelly can
you talk shit to women –this was at Magic City—and I told him that I could. I
ain’t never DJed in a juke joint and here I am in Magic City DJing.
Down-South: How did you do that first time out?
DJ Jelly: Man I was nervous. I mean I could
DJ then, but it was still a nervous situation.
Down-South: Yeah, I heard that Magic City is no joke for a DJ the first
time out.
DJ Jelly: Yeah, them girls wanted to kill me
and everything.
Down-South: They wanted to kill you!
 DJ Jelly: Yeah, I was playing what I wanted to play back
then. You see in Atlanta it was different. Because I’m gonna tell you something I
hadn’t never heard of “Set it Off” I first came to Atlanta. I had never
heard “Set it Off” in my life until I came here. But, aw man, they got me hip to
it though. Because in St. Louis we were hip to all that Luke shit. Bass music had just
started to take off back then. It was like the early years of the bass scene. Kilo was a
little boy rapping. He came in the club.
Down-South:
Once you got on at Magic City did word travel around town about you?
DJ Jelly: Yeah, because the I DJed in the
strip clubs was not only did I talk shit, but I would create a party and I would actually
do the real mixing and cuttin’. A lotta DJs would just throw on a record and talk
shit. Me I would be doing it all.
Down-South: I imagine that would be hard for girls to adjust to dancing?
DJ Jelly: But it worked out. They actually
got with me. They saw that they could get paid. My style was more party so the fellas
would be there enjoying themselves which would make them spend more money. So after a
while it registered, it really registered with them. They were saying ok, he can really
mix and he’s making these niggas spend money.
Down-South: How did you go from there to making mix tapes?
DJ Jelly: After I had stopped doing Magic
City I went to the Gentlemen’s Club. It wasn’t called the Gentlemen’s Club
then it was called the Room then. And, at the same time I was met up with MC Assault. That
was in 1990.
That’s when you all started doing mix tapes. D you remember the first mix tapes?
DJ Jelly: Yeah we named it Maximus. See like
at that time Edward J was the man. J Team, Smurf, Kizzy Rock all of them was running
Atlanta back then. MC Assault came up with the ideal that we wouldn’t do all that
talking. Then I would bring in all of that old school flavor of just like cutting phrases
from different records and stuff for the intros and alla that. Then we added the 808 bass
and then we mixed in stuff like NWA with Too $hort and then we’d take an old r &
b record and take add a funky bass line with it.
Down-South: So you guys were actually remixing records on your
tapes….
DJ Jelly: yeah at the time we didn’t
think of it like that, but yeah that exactly what we were doing.
Down-South:
Okay at the time the South wasn’t really known for being a lucrative market for mix
tapes so was it hard selling them at first?
DJ Jelly: Yeah, it was because at the time
because it was something different. At the Edward J was the shit. He was killin’
‘em. He had DJ Smurf and DJ Kizzy Rock selling mix tapes with him. He was killing
during that time. You can ask anybody, he was killing ‘em with them mix tapes.
Down-South: Okay when did you first started to make some real noise
around the South with your mixed tapes?
DJ Jelly: Fraeknik blew us up. That was
around 1994. That was when we broke that song “Whoop, There It Is.”
Down-South: The thing that stood out about your mix tapes back when I
first heard them was you was the first DJ that I heard to mix all or mostly Southern
music. Usually when you buy a mix tape it would be mostly East Coast music with a little
West Coast joints thrown in and if you were lucky, you might get a Southern jam here and
there.
DJ Jelly: Yeah, people were scared to touch
them back then.
Down-South: But by 96...97 you became and remain one of the most
important DJs when it comes to mix tapes in the Southern region and beyond.
DJ Jelly: I don’t know I just felt like
during that time…..like in 93 I was spinning on the radio. That was when I was
spinning a lotta Outkast….because I was so fed up with the G-Funk Era I was man! That
when Outkast had hit and Eightball & MJG’s Comin’ Out Hard had hit. I
remember when we first brought Eightball & MJG to Atlanta in 93. We brought him and
MJG in for a concert and it was a flop because didn’t nobody really much care about
them then. But I knew then that it was going down. I was man these cats is coming straight
outta Memphis rapping hard and Outkast coming outta Atlanta rapping like cats talk on the
streets. It’s going down.
Down-South: Okay, let’s talk about Outkast for minute. They are my
absolute all time favorite group of all times. And that’s another way I came to know
about you because I’ve followed their career pretty closely and I know that
you’re the DJ who broke their music in ATL. How did that happened?
DJ Jelly: I don’t man. First of all
Ray, one of the producers, used to come to the flea market and one day he saw me and said
damn Jelly, we need to hook you up with these cats that we’re recording because they
need a DJ. At the time I was working with MC Assault on the MC Assault album. This was
when we first started saying well we need to concentrate on making albums. And I was kinda
committed so I said well naw, I’m gone chill out but I would like to check them out
and see what’s going on with them. So they gave me a sampler of their stuff and I was
blown away, dawg. Cause I ain’t gone even lie when I heard the “Player’s
Ball” single on the compilation I wasn’t really impressed until I saw the video.
Down-South: Man, I ain’t gonna lie I was all on that single when I
first heard it. I liked it because it had that Curtis Mayfield feel to it. It was a soul
thing happening.
DJ Jelly: Right, but at the time I
wasn’t hip to that.
Down-South: Now to be honest when I first heard “Elevators” for
the first time it didn’t grab me right off. I had to listen to it a couple of time
before it hit me, but when it hit me I was hooked on it. Me and you, you mama and you
cousin too rollin’ down the strip on Vogues, coming up slamming Cadillac
do’s….
DJ Jelly: Man, I got in trouble for playing
that song on the radio.
Down-South: I heard about that….
DJ Jelly: Gipp and Andre came down to the
station. I was doing all mix show weekend. I was DJing for the Goodie Mob during that
time. And Gipp was like Jelly we need you to play this record.
Down-South: I heard that when you played that record that night the next
day it was the number one most requested record in Atlanta and the label was upset with
them for that. Is that true?
DJ Jelly: Yep.
Down-South: So you had a lot of power to break records then…still
do.
DJ Jelly: See that’s the thing that
they didn’t like about me over at the radio station because I would play something
that wasn’t the norm. I wouldn’t go too far out but just a little bit outside of
what they would normally play. You gotta change it sometimes. I don’t wanna play what
every DJ plays because then you get to sounding like every DJ…Every big name New York
DJ and no disrespect to them, but that was killing me.
But [overall], I can’t complain about radio man. It was good to get in it and learn
how the system works and what I’m dealing with as a DJ. Because you gotta think about
it I am a person who loves music. That’s the bottom line I love it. So it was
shocking to learn some of the things I learned working on the radio, of course. But I had
to learn it. I had to learn that side so I know what I’m dealing with.
Down-South: So are you on the radio in Atlanta?
DJ Jelly: no, actually I’m on XM Radio
so I on radio all over the nation.
Down-South: Okay, let’s talk about the production. How did DJ Jelly
go from being a DJ to a producer?
DJ Jelly: Well, actually I have a production
team. It’s myself, DJ Montay, MC Assault and Freddie B, who really introduced me to
everybody. They do all the production and I contribute the ideals. I’m like Puffy, he
might no do the beats, but he know what they need a producer. That’s me.
Down-South: Okay let’s name some of the albums that you’ve
produced over the years. I know about the MC Assault album.
DJ Jelly: Yeah, that and that Major Bank
album, that was our first album. Hell, all of the Oomp Camp records.
Down-South: How did you hook up with Big Oomp, CEO of Oomp Camp Records?
DJ Jelly: I met him when we were out on the
streets selling mixed-tapes. We met him out in the park one day. And some of his people
were tellin’ him that yeah these some good people you need to mess with ‘em. And
we just all got together and started brainstorming. We got a couple of little flee market
stores together and just started building from there. We started off with stores and then
we decided to get the studio together. So we got a studio together and then we started
making albums. This was in 1996…97 somewhere up in there.
Down-South: Okay a lotta mix tape DJs have graduated to doing their own
records commercially. Are you planning on doing an album?
DJ Jelly: That’s already going down.
Man, I’ve recorded about 25 songs already and I’m rappin’ on some of them.
Down-South: DJ Jelly is rappin’?
DJ Jelly: Yeah. It’s not something that
I plan to do. I mean I’m not all caught up in just being a rapper. It’s just
something that I can do and I’ve got the opportunity to do so I said well, hell, why
not just go on and do it.
Down-South: Okay what’s the name of the album and when can we expect
it?
DJ Jelly: Well there’s no actually
title and the title won’t be released until this summer.
Down-South: Okay Oomp Camp just recently signed a big deal with Epic will
your album be coming out through Epic too?
DJ Jelly: I’m not really sure. The guy
who really made that deal go down, me and him are really good friends so it’s a
strong possibility that it will, but, you know, we’re definitely look for the best
situation for the album.
Down-South: Okay now you’ve also released a couple of mix tapes
commercially through Warlock, right?
 DJ Jelly: Yeah, that Down South Bounce Volume 1 & 2
and I finished up a third one last month. That’ll be coming out next month.
Down-South: Which do you like doing better the underground mix tapes or
the commercial tapes?
DJ Jelly: Underground, underground because
I’m gone tell ya something more than likely I’m going to make my album like a
continued mix. The Down South Bounce is basically like a compilation where I have it mixed
in with about eight to sixteen bars where I do a little something in between.
Down-South: Right now I’m gonna put you in the hot seat. What’s
hot right now in the South in your opinion?
DJ Jelly: Right now that Baby D, TI and
David Banner who are all my personal friends. I mean I know all of them. I’ve been
knowing Baby D and TI since I was young, but David Banner we’ve been going back and
forth collaborating for about five months now. And he’s mad cool. He’s like
family now.
Down-South:: Lastly aside from yourself the only other DJ that has that
universal reverence would be DJ Screw, God rest his soul, then there Michael Watts and OG
Ron C of the Swisha House Click who are making strides but asides from that there
aren’t that many Mix tape kings down here. Where do you think the mix tape market is
going?
DJ Jelly: I’m gonna be honest with you
it’s something that hard to say. But what’s hurting the market is that a whole
lotta DJs be giving me mix tapes and it ain’t nothing but a bunch of songs thrown
together. It’s really a compilation album, not a mix CD. But ya know I think that the
only advantage that ya boy Kay lay and nem got is that got these freestyles and these
exclusive songs, which to me is not a mix CD. It really an album, which what they’re
doing is releasing album. To me that’s not a mix CD, mix CD. To me DJs have gotten
away from the art of DJing. Yeah, you got the marketing going on and all of that and the
resources in the form of the new exclusive music, but they’re not making mixes.
They’re not taking the art of DJing to the next level. All they’re doing is
putting these songs together. That’s cool if that’s what they wanted to do, but
it’s not me.
|
