His status as a family man
may qualify him as an adult but free spirited and lively Jimi Amu,
otherwise called DJ Jimmy JATT, displayed his youthful and jovial
personality as he sat down with our correspondent for this interview
held in his Lekki residence.
The father of two discussed
extensively his struggles to give the art of Dee-Jaying a makeover and
turn it into what it is. He also shared with us his plans for the future
as well as the reason why he remains a force to reckon with 20 years
after he made dee-jaying a career.
Let’s go back into your
early days as a young boy. Share with some interesting childhood
memories especially the ones that gave you a hint of what was to be your
chosen career.
Growing up for me was basic. I was born
in Lagos, precisely Lagos Island, Obalende. The neighbourhood then was
just a small community. Everybody knew each other, which for me was
nice. I was surrounded by fun and happy people and very liberal parents
but my mum being a teacher will not allow you certain things. But then,
there was still some level of freedom which explains why I can still
turn out to be a DJ and my parents did not disown me.
What would you say influenced your journey into music?
I will give that to my family. I have
brothers who were big influences in terms of music and my dad and mum
too were music collectors. Usually we jolly party, not party like big
parties o, but it was always a fun and lively atmosphere every time.
Without a doubt, that influenced my love for music. I always say to
people that if there is anybody that has a problem with what I become,
it is the problem of my family. My dad, my mum, my brothers because the
only thing I was surrounded with were entertainment and music related.My
dad was into importation of electronic gadgets all over my house. He
was collecting his own kind of music, the Nat King Cole, the Fela, Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade and my mum was doing same with the Bongo Zikwe, Abba, and my brothers too, the Shalamar, Solar
era and I wasn’t really out going. I have always and still am an indoor
person, so they dump them all in the house and go out and by the time,
they come back, I am telling them what track is the best on the album.
You would have thought I would have
turned out a musician because DJs hardly existed then, so I picked up
music and when I got into my teenage years, I started doing my demos,
started rapping and a little bit of singing, dancing but as fate would
have it, I ended up as a DJ mainly because of the acceptance my kind of
music (rap) had at that time. If you were rapping at that time (mid
80s), nobody will listen to you, so I started playing tracks
for neighbourhood parties and all of that which made me a little popular
plus I was the break dance champion in the neighbourhood at that time.
My brothers were DJs too and I soon started following them to gigs I
think that was what kind of directed me into doing it. It then gradually
became something I found interest in and I started doing it in the
meantime till I found something else, so I am still doing it in the
meantime.
Really?
But the main time has become a life time.
Growing up as a child, before the idea of DJ popped up, what profession did you look towards?
To be honest, I always said Law because
then there were three occupations everybody wanted to do, lawyer, doctor
and engineer. Again, I am a strictly Arts student back in school, then
for some reasons, people say I like arguing. I actually like to defend
things and I have always had that since I was young.
What made you decide to make dee-jaying a profession?
There was never a time I decided to DJ. I
started dee-jaying out of passion and love for music. It was a
transition from being an aspiring artiste to being a great dancer to
settling behind the deck to play music for people that want to dance. It
wasn’t like I wanted, it just got to a point I said to myself if this
thing can take my time and these people are ready to pay for it, I might
just start collecting the money, so I made the decision to start
collecting money for it. Looking back, I would not say there are regrets
because I didn’t see it as a job.
And when you started to charge for your services and gradually made a career of it, what challenges were you faced with?
Luckily for me, my parents were very
liberal and like I said earlier, I think my family should be held
responsible for me being a DJ, so I didn’t have any problem from my
immediate family, but by extension, people judge you from a distance,
they assume that for you to be a DJ, someone playing music at parties,
you must be a useless boy. It is bad enough to know that at that time,
the disco hall is believed to be for stubborn and disobedient children
and all they go there to do is womanize and involve themselves in
negative vices and you as the DJ, you are perceived as their chairman. A
lot of people didn’t want their children to relate with me. I had
friends who I dared not go towards their gates, this is just one of the
challenges, apart from the technical and other challenges, but thank
God, it’s a different story now.
For someone who has come this
far in the game, what would you say is the prospect of dee-jaying as a
career in the present day Nigeria and in few years to come?
Well, I would say great. Things have
changed. A lot of positive energy has been channeled into it. Back then,
it wasn’t as easy but now, in a street, you can find close to a
thousand DJs. While this is a good sign, it also has its negative
consequences because there are no bodies yet to say which one is good or
bad. Generally though, the future of dee-jaying in the country is
bright. A lot of music are released daily and which are available for
downloads, when I started, I bought the CDs of all the songs I played
but now, some artistes practically beg you to play their songs.
In recent times, the industry
has experienced an influx of DJs, what efforts are you putting in place
to mentor the upcoming ones and ensure that they are on the right track,
to allow for the longevity of the profession?
I have done that and I
still do. I have always being mentoring from the day one I started out
as a DJ. Remember, I said there weren’t a lot of DJs at the time, the
onus lied on me to groom youths that I saw had interest in what I was
doing and I put them through. The ones I put through then, are now
established and putting some other people through now and that I think
is the way it should be. I have always loved to share knowledge and that
is what I do. Right now, I have boys in Asia, Europe, America and all
across Africa.
A lot of times when you hear that I
travel and I have gone to one country or the other, the truth is one of
my boys is there, and when they (show promoters and organizers) ask him
who he thinks they should bring from Nigeria, he is definitely going to
say oh my boss, let him come so I go everywhere based on the number of
seeds I have planted in terms of people. For example, if I go to South
Africa, sometimes, Waxy facilitated it. He used to be my box boy, a lot
of people don’t know that and he is top notch in SA. You look at it and
feel good, it’s like your children growing up and succeeding, so for me,
I’m shocked when people say when are you going to start mentoring? I
think the question should be when are you going to get loud about people
you have trained and how much you have mentored people? I have always
done it, I do it constantly and that’s how it has always been, but then
we were always looking at ways of doing it more that’s why we are coming
up with a TV reality show.
Tell us a little about that.
I don’t want to let the cat out of the
bag. It’s a TV reality show for the DJ’s, it’s not a DJ competition we
have done that severally. It’s not about the best scratcher or the best
mixer, but one who can handle and is good at everything. I look at
myself, although I might not be the best in terms of mixing or
scratching or whatever but I like to claim the best because I do
everything and I do it adequately well. Some DJs can scratch like hell but
their song choice and ability to meet people and know what will work
for them is bad, some other guy has that but his mixes are terrible,
some other guy has that but not the approach to the business, so these
are all the things that we want to develop in DJs and let them realize,
especially understanding the business part of it as well. It has gotten
to that point where people should realize it’s not enough to mix and
continue talking, so that’s why we are putting up this programme and
hopefully so we’ll be able to come up every year with an outstanding,
successful super star DJ.
When is it going to kick
off?
We are Nigerians we don’t use date and time but we are hoping it starts first quarter early next year. Hopefully.
You mentioned scratches, mixing,
understanding the audience as things expected of a DJ. Are there more
qualities or talents a DJ must have?
I wouldn’t say it’s a God given talent,
that’s a lie, because I don’t know where they trained me to play music
before coming to this world, but at least to an extent it’s something
that has to be inside of you. You must love music, for me I grew up
being a DJ because I like dance, so when I am dee-jaying, I put myself
on the dance floor, there is something somewhere it is not everybody
that has it , some people do it because of what is available to them and
some only got into it because they look and say e be like say these guys dey make money o!, it
doesn’t work like that, it’s not like buying and selling, it’s not
business, so if it is not in you somewhere, it can only take you to a
level, it won’t take you beyond.
Having spent over two decades in the trade and become a reference point in it, do you see yourself quitting anytime soon?
Quit! I ain’t quitting, I can’t afford
to quit, if I do a lot of boys will give up if I quit. All I wanna show
is that we can make better things out of the DJ rather than giving up. I
am still a DJ and I am still going to be a DJ for a long time, the
reason being that I think I am guilty for luring a whole lot of people
into the profession and I owe it to them to always show them the way to
go, so I am not going to stop being a DJ so when they get to a point
they won’t think they should stop too. Take doctors for instance, at
some point, they might slow down or even retire officially but they
never stop being doctors, same with Lawyers. There is nothing like ex-
lawyer or doctor, so I am thinking of getting to that point where there
will be no ex DJ.
So what I am doing is constantly looking
at new grounds to break to let the young upcoming DJs know that if I
get into this I can develop from being a neighbourhood party DJ to being
a national DJ, to be a major constant where the headlines come, to be a
recording DJ to own your own album, and to probably own your own, TV
reality show, radio show, radio station, TV station, to own your own
night club, to go into merchandising, fashion line. Speaking of that, I
own one, D triple J which is going to develop into a
big one eventually, we already started with snap backs. We are starting
to develop our own TV reality show, there are so many things. I am on
the edge of shooting my first movie, as a DJ, these are things that we
will unveil as we progress. I do this because I need all these for the
young people in the field to say we can do this as well and we can
even grow bigger because by the time they are ready to do it, the
platform that will be available to them will be bigger than this, but I
am a DJ and I will keep being a DJ, that is my primary assignment so I
expect a guy that is just getting to it should see how I am doing my
routine well, look at all that, get into it, and it keeps expanding, for
me I don’t want boys giving up, because I used to do it, I make bold to
say, if I stopped DJing, a lot of young boys will probably do same
which is why I am doing all of these.
Let’s take it one after the other, starting with the fashion line. Tell us about it.
It’s the D JJJ fashion line and for now,
it’s just a snap back line but definitely we don’t think it is going to
stop there. We will keep working with the head and may consider going
into some other designs soon but for now we are doing the snap back.
Tell us briefly about the upcoming movie.
I sit here and I am looking at some
things, and in line with what I do trying to develop people, I have come
across a lot of people that work with me in the Jimmy Jump off as a TV
show , and they have great ideas and all that and I am like how do we
develop this, I am not limited to just developing DJs but I look at all
these other guys in different areas, then I am like this is work, we’ll
create a platform whereby these guys can do what they want. We have a
lot of cinematographers, script writers, young people that players in
the movie industry, might not give room to operate. I see a lot of jobs
vacancies and they want five years working experience, when will they
get the experience if they (employers) keep saying that. I give fresh
people the opportunity to come out and do their thing, I mean my website
was the very first website that the guy that designed it did and since
then he’s gone to do a lot of stuffs. So about the movie, it is what I
have seen in a lot of my crew members, so I decided to exploit that as
well, and like I said they will get all the detail.
When are you looking at for the release?
When we are satisfied with what we have done, the date will be revealed.
What is the movie going to be like?
Next question please.
Let’s delve into the origin of
hip hop in Nigeria, you being one of its pioneers. What challenges did
you face while creating a market for it, despite the strong holds the
Apala, Fuji and Waka had on the audience?
It was tough. I mean, first of all, one
of the major challenges was that there weren’t enough record labels in
existence, and don’t forget in Nigeria as against now that all the
labels are independent labels, KENNIS Music, Storm
records and the likes, we know the owners, people who with their own
efforts got it going but at the time I am talking about, there were
major record labels. There was Sony Records, Premiere Records, EMI
and all the big labels you hear about were all there at that time, but
they were not in tune with the street as far as I am concerned with the
youth market. I think they were all guilty of thinking this is what the
people want and dishing out a whole lot of that as against trying to
find out what they want, and they don’t even, sorry to say,
irrespective, I don’t think they really developed people until the
people developed themselves to a recognized level which boils down to
the same five years working experience to get a job, I was talking
about. If you don’t give someone a job to start with, how does he have
the five years job experience? Same way, if you don’t give an artist, a
raw talent that you discover on the road an opportunity, how do you find
that artist to become a superstar, and that was what I think most of
them were guilty of. It got to a point where everybody just took charge;
some of the artistes then told me that it was at the road block or one
of my shows that they decided to take charge of their own music. They
said if this much could come there and watch him, they might as well
come with at least 2,000 copies of their works, because many people used
to be there.
A lot of artistes used to come there to
perform or drop their cassettes then because there were no CDs so the
mentality of independence started developing. I think Storm record as a
label was formed right in front of my studio in Obalende, he started
with Junior and Pretty, took their works to the studio and that was how
it started, that was how the independence effort started which has
resulted in what we are doing now, it is just that it is busier now
because at that time, your music can only come out in two forms either
vinyl which you cannot independently produce or it comes out on tape.
The TV which becomes visual and all that were not available at that time
and promoting music was tougher then because there were no twitter,
Facebook, and the likes. There were no privately owned radio stations,
the ones available were all government owned, and there were things they
will tell their presenters not to touch, most of which were relating to
the type of music we were birthing then (hip hop). Then the
privately-owned radios started coming up and opened more to the genre.
Not long ago, I was talking to some upcoming artists, I told them ‘you
might be travelling round the world but don’t ever think you are doing
more than the artists that were before you, it’s just that the
opportunity that came their way weren’t as big as this. They tried a
lot, in actual fact, they did more because to finish a song then usually
took the efforts of about 20 people, but now to record, it’s almost as
easy as just open the software on my laptop, knock in the beat, plug-in
the microphone, and then record.
What would you say is responsible for your relevance even when a lot of young talents have found their way into the game?
Because I am always involved. I
understand the power of change and I flow with it sometimes you are open
to changes. I am not that kind of person that will say one era is
better than the other, because I move with now. I’m like a moving
encyclopaedia of music because I grew with the music that my dad
collected, I dealt with the one my mum collected, the one my brothers
collected and the ones I collected, and I am dealing with the ones my
peeps (daughters) are collecting now. I am that kind of person that can
tell you about Elvis Presley, Jim Hendricks, Will Smith, Willow Smith,
Wizkid and if we are talking about artists long gone, I still can tell
you about them, and I can tell you about what is coming out next,
because I am involved. That is because I don’t disrespect, I think a lot
of people in my own generation are guilty of saying there is no more
music or music has finished, the truth is do the music now and do what
is existing is now.
I am not one of the people that will
tell you there is no more music, that’s not to say I wholly support a
lot of crap that people do, but the truth is, the volume of music that
comes out now is so big that the amount of crap in it is much but there
are still a lot more content in it, but before the amount of music that
comes out because of the cost and effort involved was so controlled and
had to pass through a whole lot of process. You work with different
people in the studio by the time you finish it will still pass through
label signing and all that but now I can knock anything on my laptop
without even playing to the person closest to me, I can upload it on the
internet as my new single. It is as simple as that, that brings in a
lot of untested music, so they come from the guy that thinks I’ve made
the best music in the world and trust me once it posted, no matter how wack it is, there are some people somewhere that will like it and the guy does more and posts it.
Do you not fear that one day, you may be kicked out of the game by one of these budding DJs.
No, I don’t because as much as I am
running, I am equipping people around me with enough force to run
alongside. I equip them with what they need to have so I can feel
threatened. They may not know this but I am psychologically putting them
on the track for a race and I can’t allow them over shadow me. I can
wait for them and let them catch up with me, so we can run together but I
cannot allow them overtake. That’s why I do not feel threatened, and on
my own part, I am doing all that is possible to get better by the day.
One common fear attributed to
the art of dee-jaying is people not responding to the songs played. In
20 years of being an active as a DJ, has there ever being a time this
happened to you?
No, because I am a very smart DJ. I
always have backup on, trust me when I am playing a song, I already have
three other songs lined up for you because I always think of the next
songs, and I am very quick, so before it damages anything, trust me, I
have switched. There is a way I do my own that even you will dance to
the song that you have always told people that you don’t like, because
of the way I will bring it and the way I will merge it with the last
song, you will dance to it halfway before you remember it’s the song you
don’t like and before you make up your mind not to dance to it, another
song is playing, so I am quick with it. If I wasn’t sure for so long I
am sure of it now, I always move the crowd, I am the master at that and I
always deliver. Come with the biggest problem of your life, or be in
the most sorrowful mood, I will get through and I have always done that.
When people book me for weddings the older people are always worried,
like the bribe’s mum but you know what, when the wedding is over, it’s
those people that will come and say can I have your card because their
child or whoever is getting married and they will want me to come and be
the DJ at the party, and that is when I believe the job is done because
those people that know me already believe in me, but those people that
doubt and then come back to say ‘fun mi card e yen’(give me your card) and I get that all the time.
Speaking of which, how do you
handle occasions like weddings which is different from the street
carnival and gigs you are used to?
Trust me, weddings are not for every
DJs, because at the wedding you have the little bride, the bride and her
maids, the bride and groom’s aunties and uncles and of course, their
parents, so you have four generation or five generation of people to
play for, so you have to be able to cut across those people and satisfy
all of them. A lot these DJs are either very young and can’t deal with
the older folks, or are very old that they can’t understand what the
younger people are saying, some are just there. I Jimmy JATT, I don’t
have to tell them, I deal with the younger ones because I have two
growing daughters and I know their music and their mind sets. I can play
their party, I know all their songs then I will come to your own
(interviewer) people and then deal with their kind of music, then the
adults, my own people I know how to deal with them and then we will move
further and deal with my brothers age group and they will dance and ask
themselves, so I could dance this much and then we move to the older
people, remember my parents, I will deal with them too, it’s all about
connecting. How well you have dealt with the people and how well you are
connecting, how well you have dealt with the music. I am into
everything, and I am using this opportunity to let you ever think of any
DJ for next wedding don’t think too far just call right now cool DJ
Jimmy JATT.
What inspired the release of the Definition album?
It’s just in line with what I have
always done. You get to a point where you think you can do things and
let people leverage on it. I had passed the level of mixing CDs and
other people’s songs, so I thought we might as well get into the studio
and create our song and put it out there. Right now, if you go back to
the album, it might look like 75% of the artistes on it are big names
but if you remember back then in 2007, you will realize that they were
up-coming at that time. It was just something that was necessary for me
at that time. We owe it to upcoming DJs to tell them there is a lot that
can be done.
Should we be expecting another of such?
Definitely, we have released a single
early in the year, ‘Ko mi je’, with I.G.H.O, Muna, Orezi, and Sauce Kid.
I have quite a number of songs recorded already, once I think we have
enough materials, I am not putting a date to it and we are also working
on a collective, like a movement, more like a record label. I have
released enough information.
And is there a tentative title for it.
No, not yet.
Should you not have been a DJ, what will you have loved to be?
To be honest with you, I have sat down
and thought about this, but whatever it will be, it will be music
related, probably something that will make me behind the scene but will
be around music and entertainment. I am a very shy person, it’s amazing
how I have gotten away with it. I am very shy, that why I wear face cap,
so it blocks half of myself, I don’t like being out there, but
unfortunately, this Jimmy JATT guy has spoilt that for me.
Tell us what informed the birth of the Jimmy’s Jump off show
It was at the time, a request from fans
who wanted me to be on TV and I didn’t want to be on TV doing a talk
show, because I don’t talk too much. I also didn’t want to get on TV
just mixing songs for people to watch, I figured that will wash off in
matter of years, so we started the very first video mix show in the
country and in a while lots of places at least it was the first on
Nigerian TV. We did that for a year and added new segments to it.
Let’s talk about marriage and fatherhood. How long have you been married and how has it been?
I have been married for close to 17
years, people have the mentality that once you get married there are
laid down rules and regulations you must follow. If you are dating
someone as a girlfriend and you are having so much fun why should you
think that once you are married you can’t continue with what you do. I
don’t understand this is what makes us happy together, as for me and my
wife we still live like boyfriend and girlfriend, we started like that
and we are still like that. She is my babe and I still trip for her,
added to that, I have two lovely girls and I look at three of them, and
these are people who don’t treat me like DJ Jimmy JATT, so I am just
loving my family. Sometimes, when they travel maybe on a vacation or
something of the sort and I am alone, I’m like would I have been living
this way, all alone? So for me, it’s been good and I love them
unconditionally. That for me is the best thing I have in this world, if I
am permitted to say ‘thing’ but of all that I have, my family is the
best.
Tell us about your relationship with your daughters
Just like my parents, I am very liberal,
especially in sensitive things like career choices. Unlike some
families who believe that every child must be a lawyer because the
father is. That must be a boring home, diversity; I mean there should be
somebody who can bring some fun into the family. I’m not really going
to say I am looking at my kids becoming a DJ, it’s not by force, my
father was not a DJ and my mum wasn’t, but the truth is if they come up
to me and declare interest, the essence of doing all I am doing for DJ
is to help young people get into it and make life out of it and if that
is what I am doing, are my children not part of the young people? The
only thing is that dedication is key and of course, education too. You
must get educated even if you may not practice, take Kelechi Amadi-Obi
for example, he may not be practicing Law but the knowledge is working
for him. So for my children, I have taken time to understand them, they
like taking pictures, so I have bought for them a camera to help them
with it. That even more fulfilling because that is something you would
have done for pleasure and you are making money with it.
And your painting ability, you don’t seem to be doing much with it. Why is that?
Okay, I draw and I paint although I have
not done a lot of it in a long time but it is still there. The DJ
things have gotten me busy these days but I can draw and paint. I think
I’m just an all-round arts person. Even though I don’t have a painting
of my own, I still like to support, every wall in my house has paintings
hung on it. Perhaps if I wasn’t doing something that I love doing, I
would probably be painting for fun.
What other thing do you do apart from being a DJ?
Nothing. Of course every other thing I
do is interwoven. I have a TV show, a production company, an equipment
leasing company and I have little money in some other people’s business,
they can always tell me how it is, I’m not involved in running it. But
what I do primarily is DJ, I do naming, bachelor’s eve, even burial
ceremonies. For bookings and details call…
Let them call me so I can get my share
Okay then.
Let’s get more personal. For someone who has been exposed to lots of songs, is there any song particular you like so much?
How now? Is that possible. How many
years of music. No way, I have a lot of songs that come into my head but
there are a lot of great songs.
From a DJ’s point of view, what is a great song?
Different songs do it for me. A great
song comes in at different times and does for me what I want it to. A
song that helps me keep the club going is a great song, a song that
helps me get through hold ups and similar situations is also a great
song. A great song when am at a wedding is different from a great song
when am playing at a carnival. Great songs for me varies and it depends
on when and where it is needed.
What genre of songs does it for you, knowing that you are exposed to a variety of them?
I’m very pop inclined but I am open to
everything. I grew up being surrounded by everything. I listen to jazz,
gospel, hip hop R&B, Fuji, Juju, a lot. I am not limited to a
particular genre, I listen to and follow all of them but I am very pop
inclined.
What is your take on fashion?
Fashion for me is self-confidence,
comfort. I don’t follow trend, I buy things because I see it and I like
it. I then try to make it work for m, not that boys say this is what is
trending. That is why some people look like puff-puff in outfits because
it doesn’t suit them. Sometimes, am forced to believe that my own
fashion sense to some people might be monotonous because you always see
me wear my caps and my glasses and most times jeans but that’s what I am
comfortable in.
Finally, what’s your word of advice for youngsters who want to follow your path and become a DJ?
First of all, the music industry in
Nigeria is really growing and it can only get better than this, as such
the dee-jaying aspect of it will keep growing alongside and I think the
part of entertainment in Nigeria that will shock the world in years to
come is the dee-jaying because every other aspect has been explore
thoroughly. For anyone that wants to come, I always say, it’s not like
buying and selling or ordering for containers. This is passion driven.
You have to have a passion for it, you need to let the love for it keep
you going. It’s also not enough to say, I have learnt to mix. It is a
whole package and all things must be learnt. When you are coming into a
profession like this, you don’t start calculating how much you spent
buying equipment and all. It doesn’t work that way.
Thank you very much for the chat, sir.
You are welcome.
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