Hailing from the streets of Los Angeles, J Wells honed his production skills with hip-hop legends like DJ Quik before becoming a full-fledged D.P.G. member. His latest release, Digital Smoke, is a blunted collaboration with legendary rapper Kurupt. Today’s hip-hop game is constantly moving, and J Wells is on a mission to honor those who came before him while ensuring the West stays a force to be reckoned with. J Wells joined DJBooth.net’s Nathan in preparation for Digital Smoke‘s June 5th release to speak on the current state of the West Coast hip-hop, address the divide beef between L.A.‘s Black and Latino communities, and pick the greatest weed-smoking song of all time.
J Wells Interview Transcription
DJ Booth: What’s up everyone, this is Nathan from DJBooth.net and with me today is a cat who’s repping West Coast hip-hop to the fullest, J Wells, how you doin?
J Wells: What’s the word!?
DJ Booth: Why don’t you take a quick second to introduce yourself to people…
J Wells: I’m Bonzi J. Wells, official D.P.G. member, putting it down for the West Coast.
DJ Booth: You’ve got a joint album with Kurupt comin’ out on June 5th called Digital Smoke, what’s the message you’re trying to send with this album?
J Wells: Well I’m the digital master. I’m a very meticulous producer when it comes to sound engineering and mixing. I was trained by some of the best like DJ Quik and Battlecat. We on the West Coast have always taken a lot of pride in sound and production. I’m one of the new guys, and digital is a representation of the new era. I’ve really mastered digital recording, making it sound dirty and almost like analog. I’m on the digital side and Kurupt is the king of smoke from back in the Chronic, so Digital Smoke only makes sense. You feel me?
DJ Booth: I feel you. A lot of people hear West Coast hip-hop but they can’t tell you what it is, it’s a “I know it when I hear it” kind of thing. Can you describe what West Coast hip-hop sounds like? How do you know it’s a West Coast track when it comes on?
J Wells: Like I said we’ve always been very meticulous about sound. It’s a lot of good mixes, a lot of funk, but I think that now with the evolution of what’s happening with music, West Coast music can be anything. Some of Game’s records are just as East Coast as Jay-Z. In the past people associated it with the G-Funk sound, the Roger Troutman sound, but it’s evolving from that and growing.
DJ Booth: How did you and Kurupt first connect and start making music?
J Wells: We met about 2001 on Snoop’s Puff Puff Pass Tour. My homeboy J-Ro invited me to roll out with them on that tour and Tha Dogg Pound was on the same bus with us and I’ve been cool with them and Kurupt ever since. We’ve developed a great working relationship and we’ve just been making classics.
DJ Booth: I know you said you had a lot of mentors in terms of production, J-Ro of the Alkaholics and Quik, and on this album you’re trying to establish yourself as a rapper too. Do you see Kurupt as a rapping mentor in the same vein?
J Wells: Everybody that I’ve worked with has been a mentor to me as far as rappin. I started off as a rapper when I was 12 years old. That was my first dream, I wanted to rap. I started getting into beats at 15, and then from 15 on up the rapping took a back seat and I just focused on being a producer. Being respected as a producer I was able to work with some great talents like Snoop Dogg, Rakim, Ne-Yo, Goodie Mob, Sleepy Brown, and just from being around different talent you learn from everybody. I’ve grown to be able to not just produce but make a full record, and rap on the record, and be a complete artist.
DJ Booth: The lead single off of Digital Smoke is called “All I Smoke,” and has you paying honor to some of your influences, maybe some of the people you were listening to when you were that 12 year old rapper. Who were some of the people you admired when you were comin’ up?
J Wells: When I was that young I used to listen to Redman a lot, definitely N.W.A. and Snoop, and Dr. Dre of course; I’ve always loved Dr. Dre’s work. DJ Quik as well and Battlecat; Battlecat was kind of like a mentor to me even back then. I met Battlecat when I was 16 and I met Quik when I was 18. The song was not only talking about people I looked up to but people that were mentors to me.
DJ Booth: You’ve got a lot of features on this album, Roscoe’s on there, Gail Gotti, are there people you’re mentoring, people you’re helping come up?
J Wells: We all part of a crew. We got Y.A., we got Gail Gotti, we got Styliztik Jones, we’re all associated…hold on one second (J Well’s phone beeps).
DJ Booth - I can see you’re blowin up, you got people on you phone every five minutes.
J Wells: Man, if it ain’t my manager, it’s my business manager, you know how it is.
DJ Booth: You got a whole entourage?
J Wells: I just decided to go a different route. I came up grindin’ on the streets. When I made the Wolfpac Mixtape and the Digital Master I used to sell them out the trunk of my car, a lot of people don’t know that. I sold 50,000 CDs collectively on both albums, but a lot of it was me going hand to hand. Then I progressed and got to dealing with the stores, I had a list of 20 stores that we would solicit. Buyers would just buy straight from me. From that I got into the corporate world and changed my flow of things.
DJ Booth: What do you think has changed since you’ve gotten more into the corporate world instead of doing the “Too Short selling CDs out the trunk of your car” thing?
J Wells: What has changed?
DJ Booth: Is your life any different; is your music any different?
J Wells: It’s a process. The corporate world requires patience, but it has allowed me to spend more time in the studio. I started working on a lot of TV commercials. Scoring TV enables you to do the things you want to do.
DJ Booth: You’re obviously doing a lot and I’ve heard you described as part of a new West Coast Movement, what’s that phrase mean to you?
J Wells: To me there is no new West Coast, we’re all West Coast, we’re all part of the same thing. To say new means you’re calling everyone else old, and I don’t really feel like that. I feel like the whole problem with the West Coast is separation. We all together, we all are comin’ up together, and we as the ‘new guys’ have to embrace the cats that came before as well as them embracing us. I’ve always been embraced; Snoop has shown me great respect along with Dub C. and a lot of the G’s from the West Coast. It’s all about the new guys paying homage to the guys before but also just saying we extending it. That’s what I say on the song, I’m an extension of this, these guys aren’t old we just keeping it goin’ and I’m a part of it.
DJ Booth: In terms of the whole West Coast do you think that there’s a separation? Do you feel like there’s a unified movement with cats in L.A. and the Bay, Sacramento, and in the Central Valley or are people doing their own things?
J Wells: It’s getting better. There’s always been a separation in the West Coast. I’ve always spent a lot of time in Atlanta, I’ve got a house down there, and I’m back and forth a lot. Down there I see everybody working with everybody. Over here it’s a lot more clique-ish, you got the gangbang element in L.A. and that’s created some separation between certain crews. I think Snoop Dogg is trying to be a leader and bring people together like we did on the Big Squeeze record, bring in so many different people on the same record; we talked about doing a tour for that record. To me that’s what it’s about. I think it’s getting better but yes there has been separation on the West Coast. With new guys coming out and saying “we’re the new West Coast movement,” that creates more separation.
DJ Booth: Talkin about working in Atlanta there’s a couple of tracks with Goodie Mob, explain the process of bringing some Southern flavor to your music?
J Wells: I did Goodie Mob’s single Play Your Flutes about two years ago when they released the One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show album on Koch. They’ve always been great friends of ours and we’ve had a great working relationship with Outkast and the whole Dungeon Family, back from when Kurupt worked with Organized Noize. We were down in Atlanta, and Kurupt comes down to Atlanta to work with me and Daz, and we were just in the studio one day and boom the record just came to life. A lot of our music is just naturally done, just people sayin “put that down, put that down,” and there you have it.
DJ Booth: Speaking of vibing, this album obviously makes some references to smoking, what do you think are some of the best weed smoking songs of all time?
J Wells: Endo Smoke, that’s a classic.
DJ Booth: “I Got 5 On It” is a personal favorite.
J Wells: I’m trying to think of some songs off the Chronic…
DJ Booth: Well the name of the album is The Chronic, so you can probably just say that whole thing.
J Wells: Yeah, the album as a whole. I like the Ice Cube One (singing) “Smoke some weed…” let me think. There was one that Nas made I think it was called Purple, there was one that Nas made that was just crazy. Pretty much just The Chronic, which was a definite influence.
DJ Booth: Maybe some of the cuts off Digital Smoke can make the all-time list…
J Wells: We got one called Weed Types where Kurupt is going through all the different weed types people smoke. You got the kush, blueberry, the hash, just going through all the different weed types.
DJ Booth: Well that will definitely do it. Well Digital Smoke is set to drop June 5th, definitely look out for it, why don’t you let people know your MySpace page and where they can find out more about you and your music.
J Wells: One thing I want to be known is that as far as the West Coast I really have to send a shout out to the Latin community for the love and support they’ve shown the D.P.G. and J Wells music. When I’m at shows I see them and when I’m selling CDs on the streets the Latins would show me so much love and support. So this album I’m really dedicating it to the Latins. Go get the album June 5th, its lowrider music, it’s a summertime classic. You can check it out at www.myspace.com/jwellsmusic and the website is bonzirecords.com
DJ Booth: Just to end on a positive note, I want to pick up on something you just said. I know that in L.A., and I live in L.A., that there’s a lot of trouble between Black gangs and Latino gangs, you think there’s that same kind of friction carrying over to the hip-hop game?
J Wells: I think that we in hip-hop have to come together to stop that. That’s why it’s important for me to let it be known that I got a lot of love for the Latins. When I was on the streets out the trunk of my car those were the people that most supported me out of everybody. They’d give me their last five or ten dollars. They wanted to support the music because they love the music. I think what Snoop did on Vato; we need more records like that because we are an example for the community. It’s important for me to say I got love for the Latins and what they do, for coming to the shows, for buying the records, because they’re a part of this too. Eventually I want to do a record with a Latin rapper, I just haven’t found the right one, but that’s something I want to do.
DJ Booth: It’s definitely good to hear someone bring some positivity to that situation and I hope everyone checks out Digital Smoke on June 5th and I appreciate you taking the time.
J Wells: Yes sir!
DJ Booth: Thank you, peace.
J Wells: Peace.
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