It’s no shit that DJ Jazzy Jeff is rap vet. In fact, he’s contributed more to hip-hop culture than his Fresh Prince sidecar stint would ever have you believing. Now on London’s respected BBE label, Jazz, whose career arches back to the late 1970s, has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity around the globe. Besides burping out classic mixtapes with regularity and rocking Philly’s “Illadelph Experiment” monthly with the Roots’ ?uestlove, Jazz also tours the country with Scion, spinning hip-hop classics. Live in ’05, here are Jazzy Jeff’s 5 monomanias of the week.
5. Age with dignity: If Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald can perform in their autumn years then why can’t De la Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and The Roots? Hmmmm.
4. Radio Free America: Why is it that your favorite radio station plays 20 records over and over all day long? I’m not mad at what they play on the radio, I’m mad at what they don’t.
3. Sweet nostalgia: Whatever happened to penny candy, dollar house party records (not CDs), rollerskating, Speed Racer and slow dancin’ at a party?
2. Deflated: If you had a flat tire and so did someone else in another state (at the same time), would you go there and fix his tire before you fixed your own? Why are we in Iraq when shit is not yet fixed here in the U.S.? Fix your own tire first.
1. Porn free: If teenagers are wild now, what is gonna be considered wild in 10 years? Scary.
Performs Tuesday, Jan. 11, with DJ Premier, DJ Graffiti, DJ P, Ruckus Roboticus, Haul and Mason at the Magic Stick (4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313 833-7665). No cover; RSVP at scion.com/metro to gain admission.
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