It’s not easy to describe the Jersey club movement – so I’ll let the Sliink do the talking – but rest assured it’s music to dance and groove to, no doubt. Lucky then, he opens with this: “I’ve been working on a lot of new music,” New Jersey based DJ and producer says. “I’ve been giving my family a lot of time also. But I just got back from Miami a few hours ago on a quick business trip with Dell/Alienware, my new sponsor.”
Rightly so though, DJ Sliink pays homage to his younger brother DJ Sliim, who in many ways was his inspiration. “I was always a basketball kind of guy; I thought I wanted to do that for life until I found a love for music. I would always come in after practice and my brother would be making ‘Jersey club’ music.” Indeed, he tells the story of how in NJ, the Jersey club scene was always a culture and a feel good type of music.
“We got the torch passed down from Baltimore to DJ Tameil. And as I got deeper into the genre I fell in love with it and started to do my research and wanted to pay homage to the OG’s. I started producing back in late 2006 and since then I have been perfecting my craft and pushing the sound. It’s such a beautiful thing to see people dance to what I grew up on in NJ!”
Studio wise, Sliink claims he’s been pretty busy working not only on his own stuff but also working on polishing up the productions of others, partly because he wants to see the genre succeed as a whole, but also because he enjoys working with others, taking their inspiration and working with original music. “I get to do different things with all of this; I want to get back to my earlier vocal stuff for example. I really want to get back to that more ghetto style of music. Original music drives crowds insane.”
Going on to describe his sound as unique, he tries to define it in terms of a raw club style. “When I travel the world, I get different inspirations. I felt it was crazy when I got introduced to EDM. I think Diplo was one of my first tastes of EDM. I’ve always liked his work ethic and his ability to place a record.”
In time too, Sliink admits he has developed his own style, whether it be experimental, Jersey or electronic. “Truthfully, I have to say that I just do whatever I feel. I think a lot of people care too much of what others would think. I always want to be open to maturity and development.”
To that end, Sliink describes the scene in his home state as mature and cultural and still on the up. “My friends and I do something called ‘Thread’ which is more of a mature underground scene, something we really lack in NJ. New Jersey still loves Jersey club music to the fullest. The rest of the USA always responded great to it as well, but it’s a fresh sound to them and just fun music. It’s so much about the culture that the rest of the world might not get. In years to come, I will always shine a light on it and hope that they really get into it more. I feel like it’s in the top five genres but it doesn’t really make it to these big festivals – yet. I really salute the people outside of Jersey and around the world that are producing it. I love the sound and they’re keeping the genre pushing.”
Finally, Sliink conveys his excitement about what is going to be his first trip to Australia. “I’m super-excited,” he explains. “I’m sure they heard a bunch of Jersey club music – but now the king is coming down! They can look forward to hearing some raw sounds and I will expose the crowd in ways that I got exposed. I’ve always had a hip-hop background so I play Jersey club, hip-hop, even R&B when I’m feeling it. You learn to be open-minded as a DJ and I’ve always learnt to entertain my crowd. You can’t play too much of one thing. I always move through a few genres in my sets; I might even play some trance type songs once in a while!”
BY RK
