Jimmy Jatt
You were a bit ill, how do you take care of yourself, considering your busy schedules as a top DJ?
Luckily, I’m not someone that usually has health issues. I always tell people that I have been in the business since the late 80s and till now, I have never missed an event because of ill-health. I always thank God for that. This one is a normal breakdown that I need to attend to myself. It is probably that I have worked too much and need to take some rest.
Due to the nature of the job, artistes have turned their day into night and night into day. Does that have any health challenge on you as an artiste?
I’m a kind of person that doesn’t sleep at night, even when I am not working. This is because my system is used to my job. I am more active at night. And even during the day when I wish to sleep, my phones and appointments won’t let me. So, to be honest with you, I don’t think I get enough rest, but I’m used to it because I don’t think there is any rule that says you must sleep for a particular length of time every day.
So how do you rest?
As you can see, when I am not working, the only place you can find me is in my house. Resting doesn’t necessarily mean that you must sleep. I could stretch my legs and just watch TV, play with my kids, be around good people. That is even more relaxing. It is not that I don’t get to sleep, but I guess I hardly sleep for more than four hours in a day.
When you started this job many years ago, parents didn’t encourage their kids to become DJs because they believed it was a profession for riffraffs. But now, many of them want their kids to be DJs. What can you say about this?
For me, that was one of the reasons for being a DJ. At the beginning many people were looking down on the profession and I made up my mind to stick to it. It was my mission from the outset to prove the critics wrong. Today, it is a mission accomplished. I am glad that to an extent, parents now walk up to me to say their daughter or son wants to become a DJ. Gone are the days when people say they don’t want to see you around their kids simply because you are a DJ.
Have you experienced that before?
Yes, but I can’t really remember dates. But back then, a lot of mothers and aunties will not want to see their daughters around me because they believed I was not a responsible person.
What about your family?
My family was not against it. My families are even responsible for what I am today in terms of the direction. My Dad was an importer of electronics, so I grew up toying with gadgets in the house. My mum and brothers were into music collection, so there are a lot of albums in my house. So I grew up listening to a lot of music. At some point, I got more into it, besides, my brothers were actually DJs, but may be not professional as I am. So in my house, there was no opposition because it was what they made me. Of course, before I became a DJ, I was more into break dance and rap but it was my brothers that actually spurred me.
Gone are the days when DJs used to carry records to shows. Technology has made it easier now. Is it a good development in the industry?
It is evolving. It is a normal thing in life, technology changes. Right now, you can have all your music on a laptop. It is a good thing but it has its own bad sides as well. The bad side is that it now accommodates every Tom, Dick and Harry. Everybody that downloads enough songs on their laptops now think they can become DJ.
Do you have a regulatory body for DJs in the country?
We have a DJ Association of Nigeria. It is new anyway, so it might not be as prominent as it should be.
There have been allegations that DJs aid piracy in the country?
That is a big lie. One bad apple can’t spoil the rest. There are some quacks that will always do it. I can’t do it and I know a lot of professionals that will never do it. But, of course, with the level of poverty in the country, an Alaba marketer can employ a hungry guy to go and copy tapes and bring to him. And then if you look at it from the other side too, find out if some artistes are actually paying them to do pirated mixing of their jobs. So it is a collective problem, it is general and I don’t think professional DJs will do that. I don’t even deal with Alaba, except when I have an album, and they are always original materials.
You have about two or three albums. What has been your experience with pirates?
Of course pirates dealt with me. At times you do a single and before you even complete the full album, it is already on pirated compilation. So I am a victim as well. It is a general problem that can be solved by the authorities concerned. There is a law against everything in Nigeria, but whether the laws are being implemented or enforced is another thing. Is there anybody that has been arrested for piracy and jailed? Even in government people embezzle a lot of money and go unpunished.
Every job has its own tough side. What are the hazards in the DJ job?
Yes, every job has its own hazards but for me, if you are really passionate about your job, you won’t even see those hazards. There is risk in going out every night in an environment where security is not guaranteed, and I have been working nights all my life. I have been attacked few times. At times you mount a stage where an event is not going accordingly and people get angry. In such a situation, an artiste can take off, but as a DJ, you can’t take off because I have my equipment. So will I secure myself and let people destroy the multi-million naira worth of equipment? How do I do the next show? You see, the problem is not about losing the equipment, but because you have a show the next day.
Now that some artistes prefer to play live band at shows, does it have any effect on DJs?
No, it doesn’t. A lot of the artistes know that even if you are playing live, you really can’t do without the DJs. When Wyclef came to Nigeria, he had a DJ, when Beyonce came she had a DJ, so the DJ will always have an impact in every live performance.
In the 80s when you started as a DJ, we had Soul, R&B and the rest of them. Now it is Hip hop. How will you compare the music then and now?
Apart from Hip hop there are other genres of music ; people still play Jazz, it is just the one way traffic around here. People want to listen to one brand of music, and unfortunately, everybody can’t play one single brand of music. That is why you see an artiste that is supposed to play pure R&B now trying to play other kinds of music. It is not the fault of the artiste, but the market.
So which kind of music really sells now; is it the high tempo or what?
I won’t say a particular one sells more than the other. I play music from low tempo to high tempo. Mood depends on what you might want to listen to. If I want to listen to music now, I don’t want to listen to political messages; I want something that will cool my nerves. If I have to listen to music in the club, I don’t have to listen to the one that will remind me of the problems in the country. And if I’m in the car going home, I might still play those ones that address the ills of the nation. Then when I get home, I need some slow songs that might set the mood for me and my wife to get romantic.
What about the societal and moral issues?
There are songs that deal with moral issues. I don’t expect an under-age person to be at a night club for instance. So they are allowed to play whatever they like, but the radio stations should not allow that. Radio should deal with what they should deal with. But unfortunately, some radio stations just want to play what DJs are playing in the club, and that is wrong.
You have mentioned the issue of romance, but as someone who doesn’t sleep at home in the night, how do you make it up to your wife?
You see, my wife is my best friend, so I try to find quality time for her. I don’t work 365 days in a year, I don’t work 30 days in a month or seven days in a week. Mine is not like that of an average banker that leaves home 5 a.m. and gets back home around 10 p.m. I still have the luxury of being with my family.
How do you deal with your female fans?
I am a veteran in this game; I have been around for so long, so if I don’t know how to deal with fans generally, I’m not talking about the female ones here now, then I will never know.
How will you rate the level of Nigerian music now?
Nigerian music as far as I’m concerned is the biggest in Africa right now. It is about to take over worldwide, so there must be something we are doing right, whether people say it is not. People in the 90s believed they had better music while those in the 80s thought otherwise. Everybody thinks their era is better, but the reality is what is on ground is what the people want now and you have to give it to them. Technology has made music a lot much easier to make music.
What is the difference between a song that is radio success and commercial success?
I don’t see too much difference there, but there are songs that are radio friendly, they get a whole lot of airplay on radio but don’t go beyond that; people are not buying it and all that. Then some other songs are selling very well but lack content. There is even no spot for them on the radio.
As a veteran, can you give me like 10 names of these people?
No, I don’t mention names.
So which genre of music is in vogue now?
There is no genre of music in Nigeria right now, honestly. I belong to a lot of award committees in Nigeria, and when you want to classify some people’s music you just don’t know where to categorise it. Then you will just end up saying Afro Hip hop and all that. Let’s look at Tuface for instance; he does reggae sometimes, R&B and others, so where do you want to classify him as an artiste? Except for a few ones, it is really difficult to classify Nigerian artistes. What form of music does D’banj play? Is it reggae, R&B, Hip Hop or what? Only few of them can really define their album.
What should we expect from DJ Jimmy Jatt now?
I just launched my face cap line. That is what we are pursuing, hoping that it will become a bigger brand. I just put out a new single entitled Ko Mi Je, so we are just consolidating on that and working on other compilations and hopefully, we will be able to put out more songs before the end of the year.
How do you rate yourself?
I have never rated myself. I see myself as someone that is trying to grow, a DJ that is trying to improve himself. I always want to be better with the next event.
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