My childhood dream of playing bass guitar in a funk band died when Jheri curls fell out of style at the end of the 1980s. I’d fulfill those funk aspirations as a drummer almost three decades later, but finding six other musicians and forming the next Kool and the Gang with music being what it was in 1991 just wasn’t happening. Like many Gen-X-ers growing up in New York (between Queens and Westchester County), I discovered hip-hop was more than just an instruction manual for my teenage mischief – it was a more realistic musical outlet.
After my first internship at Power Play Studios in Queens in 1992 – where I swept floors and watched Large Professor work – I bought an SP-1200 sampler, taught myself to make beats and met Vance Wright (Slick Rick’s DJ), who owned a recording studio in New Rochelle, NY. I started working there in 1994, at the age of 17. I learned the basics of the music biz, audio engineering and being a gofer: one of my first assignments was to pick up grilled turkey sandwiches for Greg Nice of Nice-N-Smooth. Settling on my given nickname (J-Zone) as a stage name, I went on to attend Purchase College and my senior project accidentally became my debut album in 1998-99. Flying by the seat of my pants, I generated enough buzz to continue releasing music through 2008. In that decade-long run, I collaborated with the late great Biz Markie, Devin the Dude and E-40 and Lonely Island, to name a few. I moonlit as a DJ and freelance writer for years. I also taught music classes at Purchase. But by 2008 I’d become frustrated with the rap game, began to dislike my own music, hit rock bottom and walked away. In 2011, I wrote and published a memoir (Root for the Villain: Rap, Bullshit and a Celebration of Failure) chronicling my hip-hop ups and downs with no filters and plenty of profanity and punctuation errors. A perfect and timeless slice of literature it wasn’t, but it helped me come to terms with a career chapter I needed to close.
Hoping to find passion for music again, I picked up drumming as a hobby the week the book was published, when my father bought me a cheap Sonor drum set (at a tender 34-years old). I fell in love with the drums almost instantly, but the discipline, sacrifice and dedication required to learn a new instrument seriously in my mid-30’s was the spark I needed to return to music full time. I released my two final hip-hop albums over a three year transition period, fusing my newfound drumming passion with what was familiar from my past. But in early 2016, I realized I’d been mailing it in on everything but the drums and was rudely reminded (at a SXSW showcase gone bad) that my interest in being a hip-hop artist died a decade prior. That SXSW show was my second rock bottom in less than a decade – and my turning point.
Self-conscious about my atypical path to drumming at first, I soon discovered playing grooves from the perspective of a producer and DJ was a unique approach that helped me gain both touring and session experience across multiple genres. I’ve done sessions for Danger Mouse (for Black Thought, Karen O, Michael Kiwanuka and Broken Bells), Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys (for Hermanos Gutierrez), Just Blaze, Lord Finesse, Kelly Finnigan, Binky Griptite (of The Dap-Kings), ’70s funk band Manzel, Prince Paul (for De La Soul) and many more. I have a series of drum break records that have been sampled by artists and producers like Mark Ronson and the Alchemist. Rock band Vampire Weekend sampled me on their 2024 single, “Capricorn,” as did hip-hop super producer, Madlib, on “Road of the Lonely Ones” in 2020. On stage, I’ve served as a live drummer for artists ranging from Texas soul-blues duo, Greyhounds, to soul singer, Ben Pirani. I’ve also held the drum chair on stage for Black Pumas guitarist Adrian Quesada, promoting his Boleros Psicodelicos and Jaguar Sound albums. I played drums on four tunes on the former, and we appeared on the legendary Austin City Limits’ TV show in January 2023. I’m a founder and/or longtime member of bands in multiple genres – The Means of Production, The Zone Identity (soul-jazz) and Lulu Lewis (rock). My passion for drumming also inspired me to launch an interview series called “Give the Drummer Some” in 2015 through Red Bull Music Academy/Red Bull Radio. I’ve been fortunate to have in-depth discussions with legendary drummers like Questlove, Mike Clark, David Garibaldi, “Funky” George Brown of Kool and the Gang and Bernard Purdie as part of my education. (Check ’em out ).
I’m grateful for it all, but my heartbeat is The Du-Rites, my funk band with Tom Tom Club guitarist and my longtime mastering engineer, Pablo Martin. The endeavor began in 2013, we released our self-titled debut album in 2016 to unexpected praise and the band has been instrumental in helping me rekindle my passion for music. We’ve released seven albums and eight 7″ singles in the tradition of the funk bands I grew up listening to. The Du-Rites have opened up for The Skatalites and RJD2 (live), and played on songs behind Eddie Palmieri, Robert Glasper and Ghostface Killah. The film score for Bobbito’s Rock Rubber 45s documentary features our music prominently. With me on drums and Pablo on bass and guitar (we split the keyboard duties), I’m finally making the music that started this wild ride back in the 1980s. It took 30+ years to get here – with a lot of insane twists and turns and a rap career sandwiched in-between – but sometimes the hard route makes the ride more rewarding. Only sometimes! The small victories and urge to sit at my drums and make it funky should keep me going till I can’t anymore.