A reinvigorated Jazzy Jeff produces 'Memoirs of Dayne Jordan'

South Philly rapper Dayne Jordan has a valuable friend in Jazzy Jeff, and vice versa. Jazzy Jeff has produced Jordan's album, The Memoirs of Dayne Jordan. And Jordan has taught Jazzy Jeff how to use Twitter.

Jazzy Jeff - born Jeffrey Townes - has been Philly-famous since the '80s. Along with local DJ Cash Money, Jazzy put "scratching" on the map with the 1985 track "Jazzy Jeff Scratch," the B-side to a Korner Boyz single. That year, at a party when the DJ bailed, he met and collaborated with Wynnefield native Will Smith, and the rest is history: DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince were born. They went platinum, nabbed Grammys, and Jeff appeared on Smith's NBC series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air when he wasn't winning acclaimed world DJ-championship battles.

Along with his own albums - 2002's The Magnificent and 2007's The Return of the Magnificent - Jeff and his A Touch of Jazz Studios were crucial in developing the early careers of Floetry, Eminem, and the Roots.

"I'm super blessed to be doing this as long as I've been," says Jazzy from his home in Wilmington. "I love it when people link me to anything from my past."

Jordan says, "I'm definitely a fan of Jeff's from way back."

He and Jazzy Jeff do about 200 live DJ dates throughout the world each year. Jordan is a warmly personal and detailed lyricist-rapper with a new album: The Memoirs of Dayne Jordan. Produced by Jazzy Jeff at A Touch of Jazz, it marks a birth for Jordan (his debut album) and a rebirth for Jazzy Jeff, his first production work since 2007.

For Jordan, it's a big step in a career that started with the moniker Dosage and a few cool mixtapes. "I think what I did as Dosage was premature," Jordan says, "not in a bad way. I was just without a good, sound base or guidance. I was winging it."

Jazzy Jeff had been touring with another MC, Mad Skillz ("he was great; we just never bonded in the studio") and wasn't looking for another partnership like the one he had with Smith, his actor pal with whom he speaks regularly. He got to know Jordan when, during a Jordan session at A Touch of Jazz, Jazzy Jeff was fiddling with equipment.

"I asked him to test a microphone, and just heard something, you know," says Jazzy Jeff. So Jazzy Jeff pulled out a track he wrote, produced, and loved ("anyone who heard it was, like, 'Wow' "), brought it to the studio, and let Jordan have his way.

"He just turned it into something great, a real story," says Jazzy Jeff. The resulting cut, "96," was about how Jordan envisioned his life as a 96-year-old. "I just thought that was clever," says Jazzy Jeff. "He had something."

Jordan was pleased that it was happening. "I knew that I had a lot to learn about the business and how to write songs. Jeff encouraged me, pushed me to go deep."

"Dayne was verbalizing things that he never did in life, let alone song," says Jazzy Jeff. "All I did was paint a musical landscape.

"The time was now," he says. But the process was gradual: "We didn't tell anybody we were recording together - like two years - which meant Dayne took flak from the rest of Philly's rap community, as though he were quitting."

"There was no rush," says Jordan. "I was growing, maturing."

Jordan also helped Jazzy Jeff out a little. "I had an honest conversation with him, flat-out told him that someone of his caliber is not as active on social media as he needed to be," says Jordan.

But the producer was eager to learn: "Dayne actually composed tweets for me to work on, to reach out to our fan base regularly. Remember, I came from a world where your fan base was owned by your record company - they opened the door to it when it was time to do a project and closed it again when that project died down. Today, contact with your base is 24/7, and the project never dies down.

"A year from now," Jazzy Jeff says, "when someone new discovers Dayne's Memoirs, it will be fresh. Then again, we'll be on to the next thing."