Tuesday 30 September 2008

Jazzy Jeff & Mad Skillz - Live (2005)


There was recently a thread on the DWG forum about embarrassing DJ moments which got me thinking. I've definitely had my fair few over the years. Feedback / speaker humming, taking the wrong record off while it's playing, jogged needles, etc, but top of the list has got to be the night I was warming up for the legendary DJ Jazzy Jeff. After rocking a packed out club for just under two hours I was feeling pretty amped by the time he was ready to do his thing. 'The Magnificent' was using Serato and I was still keeping it primitive with the good old fashioned vinyl so the switch over wasn't as straight forward as I was usually accustomed to. The laptop needed to be set up and during the minimal commotion I was asked by his sound guy to move one of my crates. Simple enough - picked it up and moved it down to the floor below the turntables. Anyway, about 5 minutes later whilst still spinning I get a tap on the shoulder. I turned around to face a very pissed off looking Mad Skillz holding one of Jeff's vinyl 'plates' which had a nasty gash right across the whole playing area. He then signals to Jeff and explains that I'd just scratched the plate whilst moving my crate. Of course I apologized straight away and Jeff was extremely cool about it all, telling me not to worry before giving his sound man a right ear bashing. Although I couldn't really take full blame for it - the plate had been placed on top of my other crate without me being told - it was still a very awkward and embarrassing moment I'll never forget.

Mad Skillz later apologized for being a little abrupt and I got a chance to chat with Jeff and get my records signed whilst playing an extra quarter of an hour or so while the sound man ironed out the problem. I gotta say Jazzy Jeff is one of the nicest Hip Hop 'celebrities' I've ever met - extremely humble and an all round really friendly guy. On top of that he's without a doubt the greatest party rocking Hip Hop DJ on the planet. Check out the first half of the two hour set he played that night...the Gang Starr and P.R.T. tracks are from the end of my set which I'm gutted wasn't recorded. The first record Jeff plays is 'Party Groove'. Enjoy...


Jazzy Jeff & Mad Skillz - Live (2005)



3 comments:

pipomixes said...

If that would have happened to me I would have just curled up into the fetal position and hoped Jeff would have mercy on my soul. Good thing Jeff is as cool of a dude as he is.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Old Skool Rap, cheers for the CD. I love it. It is the perfect accompaniment for making the Sunday meal, I found.

noam_moshe said...

HUGE DJ Set, is there any option to get the 2nd hour?