So tell me a little bit about your background?
J: Grew up in VA, outside D.C. and was raised by my mother.

How old were you when you started getting into hip hop?
J: Damn...I would say like 11 or 12...hell maybe I was 9...somewhere around there.

What did your mom think about the music you were listening to?
J: Mom has always been supportive of the things I've done or gotten into. She was always bumpin' some Motown in the car and never tripped if I slid some Roxanne or BDP in the tape deck. She would always ask me "what did he just say?" (((laughs)))


That sounds like a pretty cool mom. So at what point did you start getting involved actively with the music?
J: Probably around '89 or '90 when I met my man Sean (DJ SMD). He was a kid from the neighborhood who was into hip hop and the first to get a pair of crappy gemini turntables and the mixer with the sampler on it. We just started building and making weekly trips to Twelve Inch Dance Records in D.C. and getting the latest wax. I was buying records and didn't even have a turntable of my own so I spent a lot of time at his crib. He ran with these other two kids and they wrote rhymes and I would play around and write some rhymes so we formed The Vertebrae. We had no tapes and didn't rock a single show. All we had were some fresh ass logo T-Shirts. We were dope yo!

What made you switch from the mic to the turntables?
J: I always had an interest in the turntables first and just did the rhyme thing because they kept telling me I was good at it. We were tired of rhyming over everybody elses instrumentals so Sean and I decided to utilize the sampler on the Gemini for more than just a bomb drop sound or whatever we were using it for. So that became the focus along with scratching and all that type of stuff.

And that led into buying old records?
J: Definitely. Sean's stepdad had records so we would listen to like Funkadelic and shit like that and were blown away that we had the same record that Ice Cube or whoever had sampled. At that point it was all over and the sickness began. I just started buying little things here and there not knowing what the hell I was doing. It really didn't progress until I met Asprin.

How far do you and Asprin go back?
J: Asprin and I go back about 10 years now. We met at a grocery store that employed us. Dude was bugged out back in the day (((laughs))). He was rocking some polyester outfit and listening to jungle, but he showed potential so I took him under my wing. That's my brother from another mother right there though. Crazy stories, some record related and some not record related. I ended up going to the same college as that fool too and that is when the record bug ate at us hard.


So tell me a little bit about this “OFF THE RECORDS” series that I keep hearing about.
J: While Asprin and I were in college everyone seemed to be making tapes and we wanted to do one. I think around that time I was into the tapes that Mr. Dibbs was doing and then I heard that DJ Faust "Man or Myth" and I knew if we were going to do this it was going be a little more than just playing songs. So Asprin let me hold his 4 track for about 2 weeks and then he did his part in a weekend (dude is ill like that) and the rest is history. Got a little fame off that and did part 2 a few years later when I was living in Atlanta.

Rumor has it that there is an “OFF THE RECORDS 3” in the works. What should heads expect from this one?
J: Expect more of the same...the bar was raised when Diplo and Tripledouble dropped the 2 AEIOU joints but we're just gonna do our thing and hopefully people are still interested. As with the first two, expect more depressing slow groovers from me.

So who/what helped you out with some knowledge in the record field?
J: In the beginning like a lot of people, Asprin and I would look at the inserts of hip hop tapes and CDs and write down what was sampled and go and try and find them and when that DJ issue of Rappages came out with all the breaks listed at the bottom of the pages, best believe we busted out the magnifying glass and wrote those down too. As far as a mentor or anything like that I would have to credit Moodswing 9. The Vinyl Monkey den master. I love that dude and he is straight up nuts. We met through some message board back in the day talking about Portishead and he sent me a CD he had just did called Live Poets. From that we stayed in touch and he used to tell me rock joints to look out for because at that time like everyone else I'm only looking for Al Green, Bob James and joints with Afros on the covers. I remember him saying, "forget that...look for white dudes with Afros!" He inducted me into the Vinyl Monkeys a few months later and the rest is history. We still keep in touch today but we barely even talk about records anymore.

What would you say is you favorite record related memeory? I know you’ve done a short film about diggin’ for records. Tell us some stories.
J: My absolute best record related memory of all time has to be Asprin's Lou Donaldson "Hot Dog" incident. My man got the record and of course I was stupid jealous. The record had a bit of a warp in it but was still playable but Asp wasn't having that so this kid reads somewhere about flattening out records in the oven and next thing I know, "Hot Dog" had become a Salad bowl. Shit was tragic but brought many years of amusement afterward especially when I finally found my "flat" copy! (sorry Asp!). To this day I bring that shit up to him and we laugh for hours. Yeah, so I did do a little film about diggin' back in college for a film class. It was called "You Got Another Copy?" Not a lot of people have seen it but I am working on getting it on DVD and getting it out there. Other than that, I have a whole Tom Thumz section in my record memories but we don't have time for those stories...what up Tom? I also co-hosted "The Breaks" with DOP on WREK in Atlanta while I was there for a year...that was mad fun. Oh and I can't forget all the lessons with my homie Gregizm down in the Drips Lab. Word!

Tell us about your some of your biggest hauls in the record game?
J: Funny question...because about a month ago I scored 600 Library LPs for like $200. 1000 series KPMs, Conroy, Parry, Themes, Bruton, Standard...on and on...all the major hitters were in there too...Background Action, Afro Rock, Drama Suite, Fantasia, etc...Other than that I've been very fortunate in my travels and use every resource I can think of to score stuff.

Who were your influences once you started making beats?
J: I'm from the era of Large Professor, Pete Rock, The Beatnuts, Muggs...so definitely those guys but then also was into DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, Ninja Tune and shit like Portishead.

How would you describe your musical style?
J: I don't even know if I have a musical style...I still enjoy a good loop...never been into really chop heavy stuff except for recently I've been experimenting with chops. I guess due to the way I make beats I am limited but even when I had an MPC 2000 I was still really only doing loop sounding stuff. Also, my attention span is short so lately i've been doing instrumental things that only clock in at about 2 minutes.

What are some of you future goals?
J: Find some steady work and try and finish an EP that I am doing with the cats from Asamov (look out for them real soon) and hopefully be able to own an MPC once again.