About me: I’m from Jackson (Jafrica), Mississippi. I’m a software engineer and educator by day. And while writing code and teaching are my professional callings, my passion has always been music. I played violin in middle school, learned some very basic piano, tinkered with drums, but the turntables are my instrument. Before DJ’ing I was an emcee and poet. I have three hip hop albums and one published volume of poetry. I am also a published essayist.
Favorite genres: Honestly, I don’t believe in genre. I believe that ALL music is simply a form of human expression. The artist uses their instrument much like a painter uses a brush or a sculptor uses a chisel to create from within, bounded by their own physical and inner limitations. So I focus less on the aesthetic and more on the execution of said expression. Genre was conceived by capitalism in order to filter these artists to certain segments, thereby establishing some sort of control as to who listens to what.
Growing up, I never listened to an album and thought, “Oh, this is rap. This is jazz. This is country. This is rock.” I just listened to it for what it is, always trying to understand the artist and where s/he was coming from. How did they make the bass do that? Why does the drummer sound like they have two extra hands? What was going on in their life to write that? And so forth. I guess to me music represents freedom. And where there is freedom, why intentionally place yourself in bondage?
Favorite musicians: Whew…
Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver, John Coltrane (my son’s middle name is Coltrane), Miles Davis, Common, Erykah Badu, Parliament/Funkadelic, Earth, Wind & Fire, Carole King, Jay-Z, Outkast, Donald Byrd, UGK, Jill Scott, Michael Jackson, D’Angelo, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Jordan, Billy Higgins, Art Blakey, Isley Brothers, Mayer Hawthorne, Curtis Mayfield, Gil Scott-Heron, Phyllis Hyman (THEE greatest voice in the history of sound leaving the human body), De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, Anderson .Paak, Robert Glasper, Kendrick Lamar…I could keep going.
Q&A:
How long have you been collecting vinyl? Do you remember the very first record you bought?
I’ve been a collector since about 2004. My dad had a really nice collection. Growing up, however, I wasn’t allowed to touch his records or the stereo. But when he wasn’t in the house, I would sneak in the den and try to operate the stereo. I’d pull out the albums and just study the album covers. As a teenager, I was heavily into cassettes and CD’s. That’s where my paychecks went. Not shoes or clothes. No, I was in a record store every Tuesday so that I could buy CDs.
When I moved out, I took a few, probably 5 or 6, of my dad’s albums with me. At that time, I was really into Gil Scott-Heron, so I know that I had First Minute of a New Day with me. However, the first vinyl album that I purchased with my own money was Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. LOL And I kept it in its seal for about 8 years. I don’t know why. I just did.
I’m approaching 3,000 albums now. I have about 12 more to collect. By the time this is posted, I just might be at 3,000. Collecting vinyl is fun. It’s like discovering pieces of you that you didn’t know existed.
Why drew you to vinyl DJing over digital?
Personally, I like the feel of vinyl. I like looking for a song on the wax, dropping the needle and cueing it up that way. People say that listening to vinyl as opposed to other mediums is very intimate because you HAVE to be in the room with the record. And that turntable (for the most part) is stationary. Can’t just pick it up and take it with you everywhere, so you have to be intentional with the music. You develop a relationship. Well, that’s how I feel when DJing with vinyl. It’s imperative that I know specifically where a song begins and ends on a record. I HAVE to know the record. And I have to take care of the record. I can’t let it get overexposed to heat. I have to keep it clean. I have to make sure that it’s stored properly so that it won’t warp or get damaged some other way.
Do you prefer originals or reissues when DJing? Is there a noticeable difference in sound quality?
I’m not particular about originals or reissues. However, sound quality is very noticeable. And it’s not so much the reissue, as much as it is how the record was pressed.
**Physics Nerd Moment**
The reason older albums sound ✌🏾different✌🏾*read better* is because the musicians used analog instruments and recorded on analog tapes with multiple channels of sound. These analog tapes were then pressed straight to physical objects (vinyl, 8-track, cassettes) So you get a richer, purer sound because it’s straight from the source. Once CD’s became a thing and music started becoming digitized, the sounds were compressed and stripped down, removing or reducing physical sound waves. Now for CD’s, it’s not much of a problem. Music started to be recorded for CD, so the sound quality isn’t really compromised. For vinyl, however, especially with reissues, people were taking analog tapes, digitizing them, and pressing them back onto objects that are made specifically for analog sound. Imagine if Jack Daniel’s took a fifth of whiskey, poured it in a tub half-filled with water, and then poured it back into the bottle and distributed it. Kinda the same concept. But this is also a part of the reason I hate color vinyl. The quality of the vinyl is inferior, so the sound is definitely compromised.
Where are your favorite places to crate dig and/or buy records online?
Well, one of my closest friends owns a record shop, Offbeat (@offbeatjxn on ig). I go there A LOT. He is always getting a lot of new as well as pre-loved albums from all types of aesthetics. I also like T-Bones Records in Hattiesburg, Ms. It’s about an hour and fifteen minutes from me, but when I’m down there, I make it a point to stop in. There’s a few spots in New Orleans that I like. I went to VIP Records in Long Beach, CA for the first time back in August. That was great! And the owner is from Mississippi, so that made it more special. As far as online, I’m not a big fan of it simply because I prefer the stories and community that go into brick and mortar. However, I do like Funk Trunk Records, Autumn Records, as well as a couple of vendors through Discogs.
Tell us your favorite album art of all time and why it stands out to you.
LOL My favorite album art is Lou Donaldson’s Good Gracious. For a few reasons. One, if I’m honest, which I always work to be, I’ve been Lou Donaldson plenty of times in my life 😂. Two, the photography was done by Kwame Braithwaite and he employed the hairstylist for his Grandassa Models troupe as the lady on the cover. Blue Note made me a fan of Kwame Braithwaite and his work. He was very important in presenting the natural beauty of Black Women without objectifying or exploiting them. His work shows that Black Women are beautiful simply for being beautiful and don’t really need mainstream America, men, or any other entity’s opinion or assistance with it.
Have you ever discovered one of your favorite producers or musicians through reading album liner notes or credits?
Oh absolutely!! And, for me, that’s one of the greatest advantages to physical copies over streaming. As I mentioned earlier, I love the stories and community that goes into brick and mortar digging. There was one particular shop I frequented that is now closed. I used to go there two, maybe three times a week! So much so, that I received a 20% off discount as soon as I walked in! One time while I was there, they were playing Yesterday’s Universe. I was really digging it. I asked my friend who worked there who it was. When he mentioned it, he said “Yeah, they’ve done some work with Madlib before.” So I bought the album. While listening and reading the liner notes, I decided to do some more research on it. Come to find out, Madlib did the entire album and used a bunch of pseudonyms as if it were a compilation album!
But that’s the thing. With streaming, no one ever says “I remember when I stayed up late on a Thursday night so I could add ‘such and such’ on Spotify”. No, with physical, you can read the liner notes, find out who produced the song, background vocalists, drummers, etc.
I was listening to Quincy Jones’s I Heard That album and reading the liner notes. I noticed a particular name on there, Mortonette Jenkins. Mortonette is a vocalist. She was a part of Quincy’s background session vocalists, The Wattsline. She’s also done some work with Michael Jackson and Elton John to name a few. Well, as it turns out, Mortonette was also my grandfather’s wife for the last ten years of his life! I thought that was so cool to see her name on some albums that I absolutely love.
How do you organize your collection? By genre, alphabetically, or something more personal? Do you keep a special section just for records you play out at gigs?
Soooo…as stated earlier, I don’t believe in genre. However, I do keep my albums organized by aesthetic AND alphabetized. It helps me to locate albums when I’m preparing for a gig. Most of the albums that I use in my gigs are albums that I love listening to. There may be five albums that I own that I would only play for a gig.
For me, DJing is very personal. I tell potential clients that I am an exclusively vinyl DJ. And that what they’re getting is not so much a human jukebox, but rather an experience through music. I look at my DJing as live art. I don’t create setlists before I perform. I usually know what song I want to start with and how I want to end. The rest is made up as I go along. I’m sharing my live thoughts and feelings when I’m performing. So I usually bring along albums that contain songs that certain people in my life would want to hear. A lot of times, I’m thinking to myself something like “If Talia were here, what would she wanna hear?” I also like to play things that express my overall mood at the moment. Prayer and meditation is important before I gig so that I can be my authentic self.
There is a stark contrast in my overall mood when DJing compared to when I was performing poetry and rapping. As The Ugly Poet or James Crow, everything I ever wrote came from a place of anger. When I’m DJing, every single set I’ve ever done has come from a place of love. And the way my albums are organized kinda reflects that.
What’s the most meaningful record in your collection and why?
5th Child’s God Got My Back by far. It’s an album from my brother. Not only that, but my son got his first production credits on this album. He was 17 when the album was released on vinyl. He felt so good seeing his name on the back of an album. Every time I play the song, the dust from the record seems to find its way to my eyes and they get a little watery as the song is playing. It makes me extremely happy seeing his dreams realized in this way.
Share one life lesson that music or collecting has taught you.
Music, again, for me is freedom. The musicians I enjoy the most are the ones who use their ability to strive for and share their ideas of freedom and the paths to get there. Music teaches me that we are all connected. We all know that feeling when someone else loves a song or an artist as much as we do. I don’t think we emphasize enough what James Brown was on to in reference to “the One”. Everybody has to meet up there. You can do your own thing, be as bad as you wanna be, but you’ve got to meet on “the One.” Now, musically, the One is in reference to the beat, count off ‘ONE…two…three…four…ONE…two…three…four…ONE…’ and so forth. But there is also the One. The One who creates all in existence. The One who is the foundation for all things funky. The One who supplies the rhythm in us all. Do ya thang. Be as bad and as funky as you wanna be, but know that you GOT to come back to the One. That knowledge that you gotta come back to the One should encourage you to stay in the pocket and not fuck up the groove for you or anyone else.
What advice would you give to someone just starting their vinyl or DJing journey?
This particular advice goes to both: Be your own person. Don’t get so caught up in what you see others doing and how they move that you reduce yourself. For vinyl collectors, your collection needs to represent YOU and YOUR tastes. How someone else may feel about a record should never be a concern of yours when building your collection. If you like a particular artist or aesthetic, go out and get it. Don’t worry about whether others will appreciate it or not. My collection contains some OG autographed Blue Note pressings, some Eastern African funk compilations, some prog-rock groups from the 70s, nasty blues and southern soul from the 80s, singles from NBA players, Bollywood soundtracks, and much more in between! I choose not to limit my ears and what they like. But my collection is MY collection. It’s very much how I perceive all in existence.
The same sorta applies to DJ’s. Be you! No one is better at being you than you. I feel so confident in what I bring to the DJ world because it’s me. I learned enough of the technical stuff to consider myself a DJ (I’m still learning). The rest is how I express myself. My sets are my sets. There’s enough room for everyone to be themselves. You have club DJs, lounge DJs, radio DJs, etc. There should never be a point where you can barely tell one DJ from the other based on the music they play. Stay true to yourself and you can be booked and busy like me. I’ve never done it for the money. As Quincy Jones once (at least once) stated, “once you bring up money, God leaves the room”. Use this craft to connect with others and to connect others. You can’t put a price tag on that.
***Wow!! I hope you enjoyed this enlightening conversation with DJ Daddy Bug as much as I did! He dropped so many gems about music AND life, leaving me so inspired to continue my journey of collecting and discovering myself through music! If you want more wisdom from this amazing selector, follow him on IG @djdaddybug. If you’d like to be featured next, be sure to message us on Instagram (@soultaurean)!
