Oh shit - DJ Jimi's Where They At? has a video

Yup, it's yet another "look at what video I've just found on Youtube" post :

DJ Jimi - Where They At?



1. I can't really figure out whether this or Where Dey At? by DJ T.T Tucker and DJ Irv was the Bass Rock Express-style song you can pinpoint as being the inception of New Orleans Bounce because opinion seems to be divided on which was the original and which was the rip-off; Wikipedia and that Amoeblog post about the history of Ca$h Money Records seem sure that Where Dey At? beget the sub-genre since it appeared on a release called The Red Tape in 1991, while other pretty credible sources contend that both songs were released in 1992 but Where They At? came first and DJ Jimi then successfully sued DJ T.T Tucker & DJ Irv. Contrary to belief, I'm not a black dude from the 5th Ward who was all up in the clubs of Naw'leans shouting "LET ME HIT IT FROM THE BACK 'CUZ I GOT A JIMMY HAT!" and "RIDE THAT DICK A LIL' HARDER AND A N*GGA MIGHT BUY YOU A STARTER!" to either choon back in the early nineties so I can't shed any further light on the matter, but most of the thematic concerns running throughout Bounce can be traced back to both songs and the pair of them are composed around samples from Drag Rap by The Show Boys AKA the "Triggerman" break AKA the song 8 out of 10 Bounce songs sampled so let's not sweat the argument over which was the O.G here unless anyone has any concrete evidence. If you could construct a scale for "Triggerman" inspired songs with Drag ´Em "N" Tha River or Like A Pimp being a 10 and We Ready (live) being a 1, then the clean video version of Where They At? ranks around a 7, with the explicit version you'll find at the end of the post being a definite 8.5.

2. If we disqualify Rae's Snow Beach 'LO jacket from the Can It Be All So Simple video for only being half yellow, who had the best canary coloured jacket in a rap video : DJ Jimi in this, YZ in In Control Of Things, Puba in Check It Out remix, Cam in Let Me Know, or Biggie in Get Money?











3. Why wasn't Juvenile in the video when Jimi put the other featured rappers from his album in it? I suppose The Juvenile as he was known then would've been about 13 at the time, but if video cameos are good enough for Lil' Romeo, then they're good enough for Juve, and perhaps it's karmic retribution that Bounce For The Juvenile went on to become the song from Jimi's album which he's now primarily remembered for, at least outside of New Orleans.

DJ Jimi ft. The Juvenile - Bounce For The Juvenile



4. So, there's some decent pum in the video with the lycra short wearing back-up dancers, but Jimi's female protege (I always thought she was M.C.E but here she's billed as Devious, who I thought was one of Jimi's producers?) really is as busted as her rapping on Bitches Reply (notable for being the song where the "ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT" over the "Triggerman" beat sampled on Project Pat's Chickenhead comes from) and the vile Lick The Cat would suggest. Was Jimi firing cheeky subliminal shots at her with the "IT MUST THE PUSSY, 'CAUSE IT AIN'T YO' FACE!" chant? It seems plausible :



5. Where They At? strikes me as being the sort of song that your average miserable nineties boom-bap purist would wag their finger and kiss their teeth at, but the difference between this and an NY party-jam like Showbiz & AG's Party Groove is what, exactly? Other than Where You At? getting played at clubs/parties which WEREN'T wall-to-wall sausagefests of scowling dudes in hoodies, I mean. Anyway, Here's the mp3 of the dirty version of it so you too can introduce the phrase "OOPS, IT'S YOUR HAIR - PICK IT UP, HOE!" into your lexicon :

DJ Jimi - Where They At?