Jimmy Adewale Amu, aka Jimmy Jatt, comes across to many music fans resident at home and in the Diaspora as one of the best and most successful disc-jockeys that Nigeria has ever produced.
Many fans love Jimmy, no doubt, for his skill and dexterity on the turntable, as well as his ability to thrill his audiences for several hours at a stretch.
But, unknown to music fans, Jimmy did not initially set out to become a deejay. As a matter of fact, disc-jockeying came as a second choice of career to him after his original dream, which was to become a rapper, hit the rocks for want of support from a records label.
After moving around the entertainment scene for a while, in a fruitless search for any label that would be willing to accept his demos, Jimmy, who was then known as Master J, had to turn his attention to disc-jockeying which actually ran in his family.
Recalling his early beginning, in an interview with our correspondent, the celebrated Dj says, “To a large extent, my older brothers inspired my decision to make a career out of disc-jockeying. They were deejays before me and they did a lot to encourage me.”
Jimmy’s brothers proved to be quite supportive in those early days. One of the things they did, our correspondent gathered, to help boost his fledgling career at the time, was to set up a studio for him.
The moment he made up his mind to become a deejay, if only to keep alive his passion for music, he hardly knew that it would turn out to be one of the best decisions that he ever made in his life.
He describes his career as fulfilling, though he wishes the conditions would improve for fellow deejays, as obtainable in other societies. “I have no regrets earning a living as a deejay. Disc-jockeying has taken me to different parts of the world and made me famous,” he says.
Today, Jimmy has not only made a huge success of his chosen career, he commands a large following among the younger generation of Nigerian entertainers. Naturally well disposed to people, many of these younger folk see him as a benefactor of a sort, who has at one time or another given them the opportunity the needed to start out as music artistes.
“I am an open-minded person. I have always identify with younger artistes and their aspirations,” he says, explaining why the youth always flock around him.
While most people around the world, Nigerians inclusive, continue to rail against the decision of the United States Supreme Court to legalise same sex marriage in that country, Jimmy would rather mind his own business than question other people’s sexual preferences.
To prove his lack of contempt for homosexuals, the celebrity deejay, who is also a performing musician with some two albums to his credit, in an interview with our correspondent, says he would not turn down an offer to play before a gathering of gays any day.
“Honestly, I don’t mind playing in a gay bar or performing in a show filled with gays. It is a free world, you know. Why should I bother about anybody’s sexual preferences or relationships? It’s not my business to bother about what they do with their bodies in private or to themselves.
“For me, this is all about business. My job is to provide entertainment and to make people happy. I am neither gay nor bisexual. Everybody knows I am happily married with children. But, if by any means somebody comes to me with any funny intentions, that is when I will make them see the other side of me,” he says.
For the celebrated deejay, whose style of delivery is sometimes seen as providing a necessary bridge between the old school concept of disc-jockeying and contemporary type, hard work, ability to remain focused and to adapt to changes in technology have been the major factors that helped in taking his career to its present height.
Although he thinks that deejays are not well treated and accepted in Nigeria, he sees a better future ahead for the profession.
“I am confident that things will get better in the future. In spite of the challenges facing deejays, especially in the area of remuneration, there are obvious signs of improvement,” he says
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