Jimmy Jatt has paid his dues.
DJ JIMMY JATT has changed the face of Disc Jockey in Nigeria. In this interview, he tells FUNKE OSAE-BROWN about his life, career growth and new appointment as the brand ambassador for Remy Martin.
The warm evening breeze sweeps across the landscape as I drove into Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, Nigeria. The road has taken on a new form and I wondered at the level of development taking place in the large Lekki Estate. Perhaps the new Remy Martin exclusive membership club located in the axis has contributed to the development Lekki is experiencing.
I halted the car in front of the black gate, the structure before me is secured by a grey wall. Here, I am supposed to meet the subject of my interview at the media meet and greet for the chief executive officer of Remy Martin.
As I walked into the well-furnished club, there was the subject of my interview spotting his trademark spectacle and cap, DJ Jimmy Jatt. He has brought glamour to the job of Disc Jockeys as one of the pioneers of modern DJ.
Recently, he was unveiled as one of the brand ambassadors of the popular cognac, Remy Martin. It is one of those rare opportunities that comes the way of DJs but Jimmy Jatt has paid his dues. If he is named a brand ambassador of an international brand, it is well deserved.
“It feels good because it not your usual kind of brand,” he tells me that evening as he settles comfortably at the club’s VVIP section. “It is based on who you are. What you are as a person is not just the face, they look at how you influence people and how you affected people’s lives. How you define yourself as a person. For me to be picked for a brand like Remy Martin, that is great. Sometimes you do things without you knowing it affects people’s lives that much. So I am excited.”
It will not be wrong to say Jimmy Jatt pioneered the art of Disc Jockey in Nigeria more than three decades ago when the trade was largely unpopular. Today, he has not only mastered the art but has popularised it. He laid the foundation for the art in Nigeria.
But it has not been all rosy for him. There were nights when his life had been on the line when he refused to grant the wish of a guest at a party to play the music he requested. He recalls a night when the eight feet stage he was performing on collapsed beneath his feet.
“I survived it,” he says, “and it ended being a great night. People were saying it must have been embarrassing but it was not for me. It was embarrassing for the people who constructed the stage. Some equipment fell on my feet. The good thing about it was that I was more focused on satisfying the crowd. I quickly put all together. The music went on and it turned out to be a very good experience, nasty but very good.
“The second experience was when someone pulled a gun to me to play a song. The guy had come up to me to play a song and I told him I will play the song in due time, when it is right. He came the second time but I was not sounding too nice. I told him to stop disturbing me, I will play it when it is time. The third time, he came and pulled a gun to my side. I had to play it immediately.”
For Jatt, there are days when he feels he never had good outings.
For Jatt, there are days when he feels he never had good outings. Those were days when he had to mask his emotional traumas just to satisfy his audience. Yet on those days, he tried as much as possible to put his best foot forward. In the end, his audience would return to him to tell him how much he killed it for them.
“Sometimes, I finish a gig and everyone start coming to me and say: ‘you killed us tonight.’ While I was not having the best time. In my mind, I was dealing with some other things and people were feeling happy. Even my worst nights had not really been bad. It is just the way I feel and I know maybe if I was in the best of mood I would have done better than what I did. There are times I feel I wasn’t in the best of mood but this is work. I love music. I don’t do DJ because it a job. I am a DJ because I love music. Even I am not in the best mood, I have to play.”
He was on stage once when he got a call that he had lost his mum. Another time, he was performing when he got a call that his father was dead. Yet the music played on and Jatt was there till the end of both gigs.
“Those were the worst periods of anybody’s life,” the pain of his loss still visible in his voice as he spoke on the night of our interview. “But that is the strength of music; when you are playing the music at that time everything is equal. But when you are done you may now break down. I was playing at Access Bank’s end of year party when my mum died. I didn’t have any DJ assistant. It was a crucial party. I couldn’t abandon it.
“I was playing on stage at the Wet ‘n’ Wild Benson & Edges Golden Tunes when I was called that my dad just passed. I couldn’t get off stage. I still did the show fully without anyone knowing something went wrong but I knew I was not having the best of time.”
Jatt says when he started the business of DJ three decades ago, it was seen as a job for people with low lives and school dropouts. Nobody believed in him yet he trudged on. His mother was a teacher, which means he was brought up by a disciplinarian.
From the onset, he had made up his mind to prove doubters wrong.
However, from the onset, he had made up his mind to prove doubters wrong and change people’s perception about the job of a DJ. Hence he never engaged in all the negative habits synonymous with the trade. He is not a smoker.
“I was brought up well. I ask myself why would anyone judge someone based on what they do which is not negative; because what I do is play music. I make people happy. I had parents who would go to the studio and say: ‘next time I see my son here, I will get you arrested.
“Many people just assume that for you to be a DJ you must be the worst person on earth, a womanizer, an alcoholic, weed smoker. I was never into any of these things. My parents were not disappointed when I got married. And I will not disappoint my wife. Next I had kids. My kids should be proud of what I do.”
All these got Jatt determined to do things differently and be successful. Eventually, his success story was able to change his parents mind about his career as a DJ. Today, he has become a role model and a strong brand whom many young people aspire to be like. And his staying power has been knowing who he is.
Finally, Jatt says he is very affordable. So when next you have a party, DJ Jimmy Jatt is just a call way and he will be there to perform himself!
About The Author
