Snappy 7: DJ Double J spinning my way through law school
Jeff Waringa, popularly known as DJ Double J aka Jazzy Jeff, sat down with Nairobi News and got candid about his love for deejaying.
The 39 year old father of two, who has been doing what he loves since 1993, is the resident DJ of Florida night clubs.
1. Childhood and Family – I’m a Kenyan who was born in Uganda and I moved back to Kenya when I was 6 years old. Married to Cynthia Kokonya, the love of my life who is a banker in Nairobi and together we have two wonderful children, Jermaine Jeffrey aged 8 years and Hailey Waringa who is 4 years old.
I love to spend my Sundays with my family, even my daughter knows that when it comes to Sundays, its daddy’s kitchen time. I love to cook and barbeque and that’s how I pass my time with the family.
2. School – After moving back from Uganda, I was enrolled at Unity Primary School in Umoja then later joined St Mary’s Yala for my secondary education.
3. Why a DJ – It’s a profession just like any other, but when I started we didn’t have all this software’s that are cropping up every day. You had to learn how to spin a record using the now fading vinyl.
My love of music started when I was in high school, I quite college to learn how to deejay and I have been doing it for more than 20 years now.
4. Influence – As the name says the internationally known DJ Jazzy Jeff of the US was one of my earliest models, but the person I mostly admire and still look up to and who helped and showed me the ropes of this business is the legendary DJ Kariz. People nicknamed me Jazzy Jeff as a result of the song “Boom Shake the Room” by Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff which was popular when I was a rookie and I used to like it.
Dj Kariz and Hussein Mohamed helped me a lot when I was still learning and trying to get in this industry. I owe them a lot.
5. Accomplishment – My biggest accomplishment was being crowned the National DJ in 2000. There used to be a National DJ competition involving DJ’s from East Africa competing on one platform.
6. What next and retirement – I worked in the judiciary for five years as a legal assistant and that’s the reason why I decided to pursue a degree in legal studies.
After I graduate is when I will think of retirement, but for now I will stay put and try and train the young and upcoming DJ’s.
7. Advice and parting shot – My advice to the young DJ’s is to take everything step by step. Deejaying is art and there is no way you can learn how to deejay today and start scratching the following day, take your time to learn the ropes.
There are a lot of music genres out there, explore, dig deep and learn about the kind of music you want to play.
It’s a shame because the vinyl era has died, only a few people in Kenya can deejay with vinyl, everything has gone digital.