WAX POETICS AT THE PLAYLIST RETREAT
The Holy Grail might as well have been inside Roland’s trailer at DJ Jazzy Jeff’s latest Playlist Retreat. Those lucky enough to get an invite to the private event got a sneak peek at the Roland TR-1000 Rhythm Creator, the company’s first analog machine in more than 40 years. Roland Marketing Director and DJ/producer Matt Chicoine demo’ed the machine for the crowd, who “oo’ed and ahh’ed” like it was the second coming of Christ. A roster of turntablists and producers, including Shortkut, Dibiase and DJ Perly, rotated in and out of the trailer, anxious to get their hands on it. They stared at the machine in awe as they fiddled with the knobs, just basking in the 808 and 909 sounds emanating from the board.
“It’s crazy to think that it’s been 40 years since Roland has released an analog drum machine,” DJ Numark tells Wax Poetics. “The Roland TR-1000 put sound first instead of features. The idea that they expanded the dynamic range of the 909 and 808 built into the unit with the capability to sample made the retreat’s mental gears turn. Many of us were thinking full bandwidth sample packs and drum sounds with outstanding apparent volume. Fly shit!”
That was only a tiny sliver of the magic happening inside the Playlist Retreat. Held September 21-25 at Jazzy Jeff’s Delaware home, the event brought together DJs, producers, MCs, singers and other creatives for five days of community building. Attendees, a mix of pillars of the culture and burgeoning artists finding their footing, mingled in the catering tent while DJ Maseo of De La Soul provided the soundtrack. JAY-Z’s longtime engineer Young Guru casually loaded up a plate as Mannie Fresh of Cash Money Records fame caught a ride on a golf cart. A basketball game took place on Jazzy Jeff’s outside court, which was positioned right next to his studio. Nearby, drummer extraordinaire Daru Jones, Grammy Award-winning producer Jimmy Jam, Gang Starr’s DJ Premier, Kool DJ Red Alert and Jazzy Jeff gave each other daps all in the spirit of community.
It bordered on a religious experience. Having the chance to witness a collection of talent as robust as the Playlist Retreat invitees was both divine and simultaneously intimidating. It’s one of those things that makes you question your own capabilities, talent and contributions to the culture. Imposter syndrome reared its ugly head—albeit briefly—but a meaningful conversation with someone like Maseo or DJ Shortkut quickly made you realize that those thoughts were nothing more than a fleeting intrusion—and not indicative of reality. Because reality is, you were among the gifted for a reason.
“At the very first retreat, Lord Finesse looked at all of us and said, ‘You’re like Professor Xavier and we're the X-Men,” Jeff says, referencing the Marvel Comics characters. “And that’s what it started to be—this gathering of the gifted.”
That was most evident during what Jazzy Jeff has christened the “Playlist Challenge.” This year, he split up everybody into 20 teams, all curated by him, and tasked them with creating a song together in less than 24 hours. People holed up in their respective areas to write, record and mix their songs. Some didn’t sleep and instead, worked well into the wee hours of the morning.
“The Challenge didn’t start until almost 11 p.m.,” Daru Jones explains. “We had several obstacles. Focus…’s computer program wasn’t working, so we spent an hour troubleshooting that. And you had to book the studio ahead of time and each team only got an hour. Once we got in there around 2 a.m., we found out our files were corrupt, so we had to work around that, too.
“We turned in our song right before the 1:30 p.m. deadline. What should have been a two-hour job turned into 13 [laughs]. But I had a dream team of collaborators because everybody contributed equally. Everybody came with their A-game. There was so much adrenaline, you didn’t want to sleep.”
Sleep deprived but full of perseverance, each team (with names like Bread & Butter, Ying & Yang, Ben & Jerry’s) then presented their songs on the closing night. It was another testament to the spiritual nature of the retreat. People stood up on their chairs, hands in the air, clapping like they were at a Baptist church service. They exchanged glances like, “Wow, did you hear that!?” Jazzy Jeff stood on stage like a proud father and nodded along to every beat as he watched each creation come to life. His plan for bridging the generational gap was working.
“Not only do the new attendees or the younger attendees need this, the veterans need it,” he says. “One day I realized that I don't bring the veterans to teach the young kids, I bring the young kids to teach the veterans. What we lost is the courage. We’ve had all of the experience in the world, but we don't jump like we used to when we were younger. I want the veterans to take those risks again.”
And Jazzy Jeff is certainly a veteran. As one-half of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, he received the first Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 1989 for "Parents Just Don't Understand.” The duo’s most successful single, 1991’s “Summertime,” earned them their second Grammy and reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. They’re also the third rap group in recording history to receive a platinum certification, after Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys. He’s now in the position to extend his hard-won wisdom to aspiring artists and help mold the future, something he doesn’t take for granted.
“Most of the people that come to the Retreat are independent artists that have the freedom to create what they want,” he says. “We feel like if we can develop a community and the tools that the independent artist need, they’re OK. What I appreciate with somebody like a No I.D. is he kept speaking art. I've always said the music business is art meets commerce, and what happened is when the commerce takes control of it, you start to lose the art, you start to worry about things like bots.
Like somebody paying for something to be No. 1. What you have here are people whose desire is not to be No. 1. It’s like, ‘I want to get my art out to people who appreciate my art. I want to go on the road and play my art for people who appreciate my art.’ It's not about the chart.”
Jazzy Jeff is in the unique position to have perceptive on both sides. He’s been signed to a major label, he’s been a Billboard chart-topping artist, he’s won Grammys, MTV Moon Man Awards, American Music Awards—but he remembers what it was like to be hungry and just starting out. He remembers the control major labels had over his artistry at one point.
“That's what allows me to sit in this seat, because I've seen that side, and I was never happy on that side,” he continues. “I was successful but it was just…”
Jeff briefly trails off and is suddenly reminded of yet another engaging conversation that took place during the retreat.
“Often, you’re the talented one and someone without the talent is telling you how to do your talent. If you've never built a house, I don't know if I'm gonna listen to you on architecture, because you don't know where to put the beam and the house could fall. But someone put you in this position. Or, you’ve seen someone build a house and now you think you're the expert. I can’t remember who I was talking to the other night, but they were saying the ability for them to put out music and not have an overseer telling them that their music is good or not was so important.”
That’s the crux of what the Playlist Retreat is all about—the freedom to create. It’s about collaboration and community. It’s about checking egos at the door. Ultimately, it’s about love—the love of music and love for the culture.
“We look at what's needed,” Jeff says. “Over the past two years, especially after the pandemic, we leaned very heavily on the mental health aspect. We all had those challenges, but you have to put this painted face on to make everybody believe that everything is perfect in your world when you're sharing your art. It’s not like that all the time.”
For now, Jazzy Jeff is going to take some time to reflect on what the retreat meant to him…until it’s time for the next one.
“I need three, four months of the holidays and the weather changing to do that,” he concludes. “And then when we get to the top of the year, that's when it kind of turns into, ‘Hmm, I wonder what we could do to make it better.’ We won the race. I don't think about how we can make the car better for the next race until we just get a chance to go, sit, chill, process and kind of get back to the planning stages. But we’ll be back.”