When it comes to selling mix tapes in the Deep South, there are only two DJs who hold the distinction of being the hottest selling DJs throughout the whole region. One is the legendary DJ Screw (RIP) of Houston who in the genre of music known the world screw music. The second DJ is DJ Jelly out of Atlanta. Jelly's claim to fame is that he was the first Southern DJ to sell major units (he clocks in at about 120,000 units per year) while doing all Southern mixes. Prior to Jelly, there were other DJs in the South doing mix tapes and some were even doing Southern mixes, but none of these DJs, except for Screw, were able to move units and impact the Southern market like Jelly.DJ Jelly began his illustrious DJ career when he was a teenager throwing parties in his home town of University City, MO. "I used to have these small clubs and throw parties. I was the host putting the party together and one of my boys used to be the DJ. I used to look at him and say 'I can do that'. So I just started DJing. I still remember the first song I starting cutting. It was Whodinis Big Mouth. I thought that I was jamming because it was just [so] easy."Jelly's natural ability on the turntables earned him an apprenticeship with U City's legendary DJ Kutmaster K, who took the budding DJ under his wing by letting him hang out with him on various gigs and would occasionally show him a few things about the fundamentals of DJing.Jelly proved to be a quick study and a fast learner. It wasn't long before Jelly was rocking the wheel of steel at parties around the city. As the word began to spread around town about Jelly's high-energy parties, he soon became one of the most popular club DJs in Union City. He also studied Kutmaster K's mix tapes intensely and after awhile he began doing his own and selling them to family and friends.In 1989, Jelly graduated high school and moved to Atlanta with the intention of pursuing a career in music. He won a scholarship to Atlanta's prestigious School of the Arts. At Atlanta's School of the Arts, Jelly was introduced to a whole new world of music including jazz and reggae. He continued mixing tapes in his dorm room at night while attending classes in the day. Eventually he landed an internship at Bobby Brown's studio which turned out to be a tremendous learning experience, but it didnt pay any money. Jelly needed a job. As luck would have it DC of the infamous group Tag Team hired him as the house DJ at Magic City, a popular strip club in Atlanta. The dancers loved DJ Jelly's style because it was party oriented and put the patrons in a festive mood, which meant that they spent more money with the girls. Jelly went on to DJ at other upscale strip clubs such as the Gentlemens Club and Club Nikkis. In addition he also worked at some of the city's hottest nightclubs, including the Bounce, the Atrium, Club 112 and Club Zion, where he currently holds court every weekend.In 1990, DJ Jelly met MC Assault and the two started doing mix tapes together. "MC Assault came up with the idea that we wouldn't do all that talking over the record. Then I would bring in old school flavor of cutting phrases from different records for the intros. Then we added the 808 bass, and then we mixed in stuff like NWA with Too $hort, and then we'd take an old R&B record and add a funky bass line to it."If you've ever listened to a DJ Jelly mix tape then you know that it is nothing but one continuous mix. Its like a non-stop party with Jelly cutting, mixing and blending hot record after hot record. In essence, what Jelly does is remix records by taking the beat from old R&B or hip hop songs and match them with the verses from a current R&B and rap song. But the key to Jelly's success is his focus on Southern music, not East Coast music like so many early southern mix tape DJs were doing. The impact of DJ Jelly's mix tapes are felt all over the world. The Atlanta based DJ has a huge following in Germany, Japan, Korea, France, and the UK, where his tapes and club gigs are in high demand.In addition to being one of the Souths leading DJs Jelly also heads up the Oomp Camp production team, which has produced tracks for Baby D, Loko, Intoxicated, Pastor Troy, Too $hort, Youngbloodz, Young Jeezy, Crime Mob, Lil Jon, Rasheeda, Hitman Sammy Sam and TI's group P$C. And in addition to all of this he still finds time to work at one Big Oomp Record stores and serves as the official tour DJ for Bubba Sparxxx, Baby D and Hitman Sammy Sam. Jelly has a syndicated mix show called Oomp Camp Radio which runs on six stations including V-103 and Hot 107.9 in Atlanta. He also holds down an hour long mix show every Tuesday evening on V-103 with Greg Street. And if thats not enough to keep him busy, he hosts an entertainment TV show called Live With the Oomp Camp which broadcasts through out Central and North Georgia every Saturday at 2 AM.Jelly is also one of the key DJs in the South that record labels go to, to break artists. In the past ten years he has been responsible for breaking Outkast, Kizzy Rock, DJ Smurf, Goodie Mobb, 112, Total, Faith, Jagged Edge, Lil Jon, Lil Scrappy, Trillville, Pastor Troy, TI, Baby D, and Young Jeezy.Over the years DJ Jelly has won numerous awards and accolades for his outstanding work as a DJ, including the 2001 Justo Mixtape Award for Dirty South DJ of the Year. He has won ten trophies from the Southern Entertainment Awards, including Club DJ of the Year, Best TV Show, Mix Tape of the Year, Best R&B Mixtape and Best Dance Mixtape. With all of these things going on, Jelly still remains humble and grounded, counting his blessing each and everyday."I feel blessed to be in the position to do what I wanna do," says Jelly. "I'm blessed to be able to make an impact on hip hop as well as help create a form of hip hop called 'crunk'. So far its been an incredible journey, but its just the beginning; the sky really is the limit."
