Puff Sez DJs Aren’t DJs Anymore
Not that too many people take him seriously overall but he has been in the game a long time and has veteran perspective.
Source
Thoughts?
Hip Hop is in a recession being that he ran out of cuts that he can sample. Puff go make another billion selling vodka or making a (whack) band. Puff is not a veteran! Now if it was DR Dre was to say the same thing I would believe it. Puff is just not making club bangers being that Kayne West is what is in, and Puff cant sample that.
When did DJs stop playing album cuts? Outside of scene spots, you’re lucky if you hear anything but.
Maybe Puff must to make some good tunes to keep DJs playing his music.
Maybe he should stay off the Puff.
unless i misinterpreted the article, it sounds that his beef is more with hiphop producers than DJs ? no?
he’s right though… new and interesting hiphop sounds are few and far between these days… it’s not like the 80s and 90s where there was just soooo much good hiphop. Honestly most hiphop I play in my dj sets is from the golden era rather than the latest hiphop tune because 90% of the new stuff suuucckksss…
there’s a few new cats doing good things in hiphop though, to name a few of my favourites
Cool Kids
Kidz in the Hall
K’Naan
To be honest, when he was still rising, he already was amongst the group he was talking smack about. Hell, he still is…
I am really missing oldskool beats like 3rd Bass, PE and all the other oldskool pioneers. 
he’s right, unfortunately. Most DJ’s play the same tracklists with the same hits. Everybody seems to be looking at eachother and to beatport or juno and checking the charts and stuff. Of course with playing album tracks and breaking tracks there are 2 issues: there have to be quality albums released, and you have to have a regular gig/crowd to break a track. These days it’s often 2 hour DJ gigs and the audience expecting the same old hit-records over and over, something they know. It’s time for residencies to come back, just the same DJ doing the entire evening, every week or whatever, building up a crowd and scene, digging into unknown stuff and albums, and creating their own unique sound, where they can actually break a record by playing it over and over till people fall in love with it.
Olaf
I have been saying this for years. The original job of the DJ was to break or promote new music to the masses, period. Look at the early days of rock n roll or even rap it was brought to the public by someone who was not afraid to be different and play a new record repeatedly till the public got it.
Flash forward to today and ask them if they have the new so and so record. Yep, they have it but they don’t play it, cause the first time they did, it cleared the floor (4-5 months ago). As soon as radio is playing it and cute girls are asking for it, then it’s safe to play it.
When I go out, I want to hear new music, cause I could have easily stayed home and listened to the radio.
Sorry to say but Puff is a veteran. He’s been in the game a lot longer then people give him credit for. Before he started BadBoy he was the VP of A&R at Uptown Records, he was the youngest executive in the industry at the time ('89).
He was also responsible for putting life back into RnB music by reshaping Jodeci’s image and sound. He also signed and helped to produced Mary J Bliges first album. The remix of Real Love featured the late great Biggie.
But isn’t it a hard balance to have right now with club owners? I know DJs that, if the dance floor wanes by 40 people, even if 150 are still dancing, get yelled at by the owners and need to “step it up” or whatever. And now, compared to 20 years, there are SO many more DJs willing to spin for less money (cause mp3s are free, right?) and with no ethics of breaking new tracks that you have to protect your turf somehow.
That’s how I see it to an extent. Granted, I blame everyone (the labels, the radio, the fans, the DJs, the clubs/bars) for the current state of the entertainment industry.
I think he’s right for the most part hence the celebrity DJ thing being so popular . But I do think that DJs that are playing in a truly underground environment are still pushing music . But honestly who cares if I’m playing music to people who want to get drunk and stupid and get laid why am I gonna try to push something on them they probably don’t want to hear I’ll save that for a crowd who will appreciate it .
sounds to me like hes just comparing good ol hip hop djing from the days of old, with present day club djs who only play hip hop from the top 40.
i agree with him. most of the music we listen to (dance music) won’t ever get a chance to be played anywhere else unless there is a dj who likes it
I think we are lucky in NZ to have a sweet scene, where people are activly looking for new tunes. If it rocks it fucking rocks, no matter if you have heard it before or not… maybe thats just part of the dubstep/dnb/bass culture tho… or maybe its an NZ thing. not sure.
i think dance music/dj culture is whole other side to music econmics. small record labels dont have the money to have big lawsuits against lil 10 year jimmy who lives in the states with his grandmother and really really wanted that new britney spears song (hes gonna grow up gay).
and thus the small record labels rely only on spreading their name, weather theyre making money off it or not. the only protection from downloading and ripping is the ads on tv, and lets face it, those messages affect no one. music (and all arts), if it is to stay an art (and not just a way to make money off the unaware portion of the population) can only become more liberal with its laws and restrictions. the art side is slowly being wrenched away and i think the begginning of the battle against the multi-million dollar music corporations starts with making all your music free to download, forever. you can make money from performance. if people like ya, theyll come to see ya, ive completely forgotten what i was talking about anyway i feel like this should be a 1000 word essay and im at work so gonna cough awkwardly and stealthily move to the left, and pretend this never happened.
I work in Radio and can confirm Puff’s thoughts. Most of the DJ’s he’s referring to are paid by a radio station to play what they tell them to play. NY is the number 1 US market and we don’t even break many records anymore. Only late night mix shows are able to take chances and break from the “format”. Every song is tested and tested over and over in smaller markets before it sees the light of dayI’ve done mixes for stations where they hand me a list of songs I can play and a “clock”. One new song, one old, one mix, repeat. I would love for it to go back to turning on the radio and hearing something new. LOVE IT!!!
On the other hand…I feel that the artists…like Puff…aren’t giving us DJ’s much to work with anymore.(Hip-Hop anyway) Making up a dance or playing tinker toy beats dont impress me much, hence, don’t get played.
this is what i mean when i say the big productions companies are sucking all the art out of music. the top40 is just full of macdonalds toys these days
It almost pains me to play Hip Hop anymore at a club because, like quoted earlier, until the cute girls see it on MTV, you won’t be able to break songs without clearing the dance floor. Can anyone tell me why “Pop Champagne” is a hit? Three beats and a vocoder. Yipeee!
http://b5.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/00288/58/99/288629985_l.jpg
Keep it old school Puff…except you ask a kid about 3rd Bass today, and they won’t know who Prime Minister Pete Nice is…Give 'em the gas face son.
I sez Puff ball aint a rapper…w00t
Hell, I’d be flipping of the wall like Lucille Ball representing the Cactus on his @$$ and take it Steppin’to the AM.
Ah yeah, the Cactus Album, one of my dearest vinyls. 
(But that’s you and Puff on the picture?)