DJ Jazzy Jeff Says Independent Artists Don’t Need Radio, Press Or Record Companies

25 years after earning the very first Grammy award for a Rap record alongside Will Smith, DJ Jazzy Jeff says independent artists have upended the music industry.

Speaking with XXL, Jeff detailed being inspired by Mac Miller and Odd Future and why he thinks Hip Hop artists have found such success independently over the last several years.

“I talk about Odd Future a lot because I really like the structure of what they did,” DJ Jazzy Jeff said. “We became so engulfed in trying to make everyone happy instead of, ‘This is the music that I make. The people that like the music that I make, that’s who I mess with.’ I think that’s what a jazz artist does. A jazz artist isn’t trying to make a record for everybody to like. ‘I’m just trying to make it for the Jazz lovers to like.’ When you think about it, our R&B and our Hip Hop were the only two genres of music that people went in with the intent to make music for everyone to like. You can’t do that with anything. I think that’s why we started to lose ourselves in that.”

Jeff went on to credit Mac Miller specifically with changing his viewpoint of the music industry.

“What’s crazy is my introduction to all of this started with me linking up with Mac,” he said. “The first conversation that me and Mac had, he sat me down and taught me so much more than I’ve learned in the past 20 years. ‘Who are you making the music for? Why are you trying to be so engulfed in selling music? Why don’t you worry about getting your fan base up and they’ll love everything that you do instead of putting so much emphasis on, “I gotta sell music?”‘ It was such a mind-blowing thing for somebody who’s been in the industry for 30 years to have this 19-year-old school me from top to bottom. But it definitely changed and shaped everything that I’ve done. Me asking Mac, ‘Yeah man, you’ve ever played in Philly?’ And he’s like, ‘Ah man, I sold out [TLA] nine times.’ ‘What? I didn’t know about that.’ You know why? Because it’s not on the radio. You know why? Because his fans know already. I’m like, ‘Wow.’ I’m so busy looking for advertisement in the place that I’ve always looked into advertisement that what I’ve realized is that when you have a one-on-one line of communication with your fan base, you don’t need radio. You don’t need press. You don’t need nothing. That’s why these guys are functioning without a record company.”