Who hires Jazzy Jeff and
DOR
Two Ron Toe 9,903 Posts
does not want him to play hip hop and kicks one of the greatest of all time off the turntables?
DOR
Two Ron Toe 9,903 Posts
Comments
Seems like its holding up its name well still.
I was a stage tech for this show and I can tell you that the ONLY thing Jazzy Jeff was warned about was pushing his mix too hard. At the risk of damaging an audio system worth over 50 grand, he was POLITELY asked multiple times to lower his outputs. He acted like a complete prima donna - not a professional. Jeff was not removed from the stage, his completely disrepectful MC was. Jeff responded by walking off. There is an issue here of professionalism and responsibility for ones actions. How you can possibly chalk this up as racism is a total mindblower. You have to ask yourself...why would P&L book Jeff, knowing who he was and what he played if they intended to boot him off the stage in the name of racism. Does that sound like an intelligent PR move? The doors of P&L are open to anyone who comes to enjoy a safe, fun atmosphere."
"pushing his mix too hard"
What the hell does that even mean?
The dude meant 500 Grand btw.
But since when does a DJ have total control over the volume on a sound system in a club? Am I wrong?
I smell bullshit.
right, its not like they just plug the speakers into his dj mixer and call it a day.
I could see the sound guy that works for the club.
Engineer - "Ahhh guys... I'm in control of the volume."
Club owner - "Shhhhh, shut up"
lol
why "lol"? maybe his rider says that his own engineers do the soundboard. who knows? i'm sure jazzy jeff is a great guy, but apparently there are 2 sides to this story.
The square wave argument doesn't make much sense. Square waves happen all the time with feedback, which happens much more with rock bands. PA systems are built to handle this.
I don't know...
First.. The stage tech at the event that I posted above said they asked Jeff repeatedly to turn down the volume. Not someone from his "production" team.
The fact that a half a million dollar sound system doesn't have some sort of limiters (As posted above). Shit, at the place I work we have about 100 rooms with sound with almost all having some sort of a limiter/noise gate, etc so nobody can blow shit.
Any club with an expensive system would have a sound engineer that would be able to bring down the volume without anyone noticing. Even Jeff's dude on the board.
Look what Jeff posted right after he got booted.
"HOW DID THEY KICK ME OFF STAGE IN KANSAS CITY FOR PLAYIN HIP HOP...I'M A 25YR LEGEND...THIS IS SOME BULLSHIT10:08 PM Jun 6th from web"
"I MEAN I WAS PLAYIN SHIT LIKE JUST A FRIEND...ITS A HEINEKEN COMMERCIAL FOR GODS SAKE...AND 3000 PEOPLE WERE ROCKIN...WTF MAN10:15 PM Jun 6th from web"
"KC LIVE SUCKS...THEY SAID THEY WANTED TOP 40...LOOK AT THE TOP 40 LIST JACKASS10:34 PM Jun 6th from web"
I've met Jeff once. Not at all to say he wouldn't lie. But I highly doubt he would make that shit up mins after it happened.
Hopefully he did and he can walk away smiling...but if they F*ck with his funds and try to blame it on his actions etc then thats super sus....
??
The Fresh Prince stirring shit up?
This is a perfect nickname.
I'm sorry for the crowd and for the performer that the performance went down this way. I hope Jazzy Jeff got his full payment.
JRoot
They told Z-Trip not to play hip hop and he went along with it. Booking Jeff and thinking they could tell him at the last minute not to to play "rap" is just a dumb owner not racism. This is a large public square so they wanted lame top 40 pop/rock big deal. I hate to burst your bubble but the general public still could care less about DJ's doing there thing. You think with all the "Becky" posts this would have been realized by now. The owner of that place is just another Becky not a Klan leader.
no. lame top 40=hip hop. go through the list.
club/venue owners are notoriously and openly racist, but defend what they do as being econcomically justified. its not that they don't like black people, its that they want to attract "the right crowd". i have first hand knowledge from club owners and promoters that this is common practice.... it is unbelievable we have a black prez.
This is what's still killing me. I can maybe understand asking Jeff to play old school and/or house instead of hip-hop, as he can and does that often, but Top 40? Why pay all that loot just to hear the hits of the day that play in every bar in the whole state? Regardless of the fact that hip-hop = Top 40, couldn't they have gotten Joc Max or some other more local dude to the play the hits at a cheaper price? Why hire a name and then have them do what every other DJ in the tri-state area could do?
"Yeah, hi, Henry Rollins? Great to meet you. Big fan. Anyway, about tonight. Can you leave out the hardcore punk stuff and throw some Fallout Boy or My Chemical Romance in there instead? You know the kids like that. Yeeahhhh, that'd be fantastic. Oh yeah, and go easy on the volume, ok Hank? Great. Thanks, beb!"
If as a clubgoer, you know Jazzy Jeff well enough so that you'll say "oh yeah, I'm there!" wouldn't you be pissed if he's just playing Lil Wayne and all that? Maybe that's just how they roll in the deep midwest.
what f*cking world are you living in?
I always thought dude was from Canada, but could be Mars.
What's even more fucked is someone realized that there was going to be shit over this and they made it a false sound issue and then even going so far as to say Jeff damaged their sound system.
http://a.longreply.com/150525
"There was in fact extensive damage done to the system due to the performance. There are twelve high end drivers in the main cabinets of the sound system. Nine of the twelve high end drivers of the sound system were permanently damaged by the ???square??? sound wave being sent from the artists production which put the overall system is distress. Had the levels been adjusted in a quick manner the system would not have been damaged"
That is FUKKEDDDDD
peace, stein. . .
p.s. jazzy jeff puts on one of the best 4-6 hour shows evar.
I live in the real world with regular working class people. My boss doesn't even know who Frank Zappa is for pete sakes. You all are living in some fantasy DJ world where every club is full up hipsters who want hip hop and rare breaks.
Give me a break. I fully realize that top 40 is full of rap. But do you really think most people follow the charts? When the general public says top 40 they are taking about pop and rock. When they want rap they say rap. Have you ever played a gig at a normal bar? I've done a lot of them and when they say top 40 they don't want rap.
Hell I used to do a hip hop night at a bar. I showed up one week and the bar had changed ownership and I was told 5 min into my set to start playing techno. So I started playing techno and collected my check.
You really want to insist that not wanting hip hop equals racism. That is just dumb.
I fully admit that this promoter/owner is an idoit for booking Jeff and then not wanting hip hop, but to scream racism is silly. They guy thought he was booking a famous DJ that would draw a crowd and he could order around. Insead he booked a hip hop legend that I bet he doesn't even know. Hopefully Jeff got paid and every one can move on.
Even if some club owners are racist it doesn't change the fact that different clubs play different music. The customers will descide if they want to support the club or not.
If show up at a club and start playing Gang of Four and they say we want Lil Wayne I can yell "reverse rasicm"?
No seriously, you're absolutely wrong on this one. When a club says "no hip hop" what they mean is "we don't want to attract too many black people." This is common knowledge. It's so obvious on the face of it. You seriously don't see that?
ON SECOND THOUGHT: I realize I was overstating things here. There are any number of situations where a club can have a "no rap" policy and it's completely legitimate and uncontroversial. For example, if you're running a country music bar or jazz lounge, then sure, "no rap" makes sense and should give no offense.
I think, in THIS CASE, there seems to be a pretty coded racial policy at play. A club owner cannot simultaneously say "play top 40" and then say, "no hip-hop" and remotely be speaking in good faith. It is completely illogical.
It only becomes logical when you realize that "no rap" = "we don't want too many black folk" in which case, when they say "play top 40" what they're really saying is, "play music white kids like but black kids don't."
right on the money IMO. I think a lot of bar/club owners think negatively of the stereotypical hip hop crowd. "Dress like thugs, weed smokers,don't buy drinks because they're high or they drank in the parking lot before they came in." etc. Bottom line is that only money talks to these guys and djing is not an art to them it's a job and "when you're djing for me at my spot, I'm the boss so you play what I want you to play. YOU HEAR ME BOY?"
My favorite is: "we don't want too much hip-hop here because it attracts the thug element."
For the record, I think it's absolutely fine if nightclubs want to control what kind of music gets played but be upfront about that shit (i.e. don't book Jazzy Jeff) and don't act like a bunch of kneejerk assholes about it either (i.e. don't kick out Jazzy Jeff).