I once got a very short email from DJ Big Wiz. Not name dropping I swear, it’s just that when someone you respect takes the time to write and say thanks to you - a kind of no one (in my case, for a review of an Aesop Rock gig) it confirms the feeling you had for that person was the right one. And it means you know you’re on the right team. With that in mind, this from EL-P @ definitivejux.net:
People keep asking me what's up with JUX. There's been some talk, there have been some rumors. Some half true, some way off. Reports of our demise have been mildly exaggerated. Here's what it really all boils down to.
This year, a decade after starting DEF JUX and after overseeing the releases of some incredible albums including the forthcoming release of my dear late and great friend Camu Tao's brilliant "KING OF HEARTS" LP, I'm stepping away from my duties as artistic director for the label to concentrate on what I love most: being a producer and an artist full time. This is something I've been contemplating for a few years now, and can't think of a better time or, with the eventual release of Camu's record, a more poetic way to transition into a new direction... READ MORE
So it seems the current incarnation of Definitve Jux as a record label is about to put on ‘hiatus’.
Jux had a lot of haters over the years and personally I have no idea why. Even if their music and the many artists they signed weren’t your particular brand of vodka – you couldn’t front on the sincerity and ambition inherent in the Def Jux family.
Now I’m sure a whole bunch of articles about this are going to be shat out online and in the music press by ‘professional journalists’. So instead of documenting a chronological nostalgia trip of the last 10 years (starting at Rawkus and ending in a totally surreal public debate between Cage and Vaste Aire for example) I thought I’d just show my respects the old fashioned (and lazy) way – by posting some good old music video highlights from what was/is undoubtedly one of, if not the most relevant and influential independent record label since Sub-Pop.
Now there are too many clips to post here, so it’s just a selection – and the Risky Business vid is tagged on because A: I have love for Murs, and B: It may be the cheapest video I’ve ever seen!
