Last Summer, 2 B REAL - Local Action’s sibling label that Finn runs out of Manchester - recovered and remastered DJ R3LL and DJ Kiff’s Cuff Yo Chick, a seminal Jersey Club mixtape from 2011, for a limited cassette reissue.
42 tracks long, the mixtape was a local smash in R3LL and Kiff’s home of Newark, New Jersey, but also took off online - helping both artists build their names online and build connections to artists and labels in Europe that still exist today.
As well as an incredible listen in its own right, Cuff Yo Chick also feels like a perfect summation of everything that made Jersey Club so fresh in 2011: as it runs through samples of the era’s biggest rap and r&b tracks (‘Motivation’, ‘Racks’, ‘Moment 4 Life’) at a breakneck pace, you can feel the excitement in the air.
When major labels put pressure on SoundCloud in the mid-2010s, forcing takedowns of DJ mixes, unofficial uploads and unofficial remixes hosted on the platform, Cuff Yo Chick was removed from the internet. Many Jersey Club producers lost their entire SoundCloud accounts in this period: just another example of the parasitic relationship major labels have enjoyed with North American club music across the last two decades (it’s ironic that when it came to sampling a Baltimore club music staple on Drake’s Honestly, Nevermind album last year, no one from Universal Music Group bothered to seek permission).
When we were putting together the re-release with R3LL and Kiff, we wanted to provide listeners with more context about that era, so Finn and I conducted an interview with them to find out a little more about the state of the scene in 2011 and how they look back at that era of Jersey Club a decade on. We hosted it as an oral history of sorts to accompany the re-release, but as is often the case, it was overshadowed by the release itself. Now we have No Tags, it feels like the right time and right context to re-host it, so without further ado: here is the full transcript of R3LL and Kiff looking back at 10 years of Cuff Yo Chick.
So take us back, what was happening in Jersey Club when Cuff Yo Chick came out in 2011? And how did you get involved in the scene?
R3LL: Awww man. Around my sophomore year, my cousin was a DJ at the time - he had DJ Tameil CDs and was playing them when I came over. I’d never heard this music in my life before, and when I heard “hit that ass from the back” I lost my mind. I asked my cousin could I have the CD and he told me no [laughs].
So I went and brought a cassette tape and made a copy of his CD when he went to get us Chinese food. Fast forward a few weeks, I discovered they was playing this music at Branch Brooke Park Skating Rink - and that’s where I heard DJ Tim Dolla for the first time. The song was 'AOL Theme Song' and I was hooked. From there I chased the music at every event I knew it would be played.
Kiff: Sophomore year at Irvington High School, the Wu-Tang dance was becoming popular along with the traditional pop-locking dances we would do to club music. Me and my bro Youngin, along with two other people, made a video from our flip phones of us dancing to a Jersey Club song and uploaded it on YouTube. The following week, Youngin threw a house party at his house and we needed some music. He had the speakers, I downloaded tons of music on my desktop tower PC and brought it over. From then on, everything changed for me to pursue DJing and production with Jersey Club.
How important was Soundcloud to Jersey Club at this point? And how much did it help you find ears outside of the East Coast?
Kiff: MySpace was the first platform to allow us to upload Jersey Club music. However, after its popularity died out and Facebook became the next thing, Soundcloud was the only platform to allow us to upload our remixes and post links onto our social media pages. Soundcloud also provided opportunities for us like myself where I connected with artists like Ophex, Sam Tiba, and Ultrademon. From then on from doing mixes for BBC Radio, Brownies & Lemonade and more, Soundcloud played a major role.
R3LL: As Kiff said, MySpace was the first. But when we discovered SoundCloud it was over. I believe Kiff and I was the first to pay for the SoundCloud plan at the time because it provided us with the ability to have 1000 downloads - which we hit with Cuff Yo Chick. But yeah, I will say SoundCloud has and still kinda is a very important place to hear club music. If it wasn’t for SoundCloud the sound at that time wouldn’t have spread as fast as it did.
What was the culture outside of the internet like? What happened at Jersey Club parties in Newark, for instance?
R3LL: The culture outside the Internet was unmatched. The events were so much fun. At times I wish there was more coverage like there is now, but man those times were the best because everyone was there for the music. It wasn’t about the flex or clout. It was about coming together dancing and to have a good time. It was all over the state so every weekend it was something to go to. During that time street teams was a big deal so it was kids coming from all over New Jersey coming to Newark to party to our sound.
This mix is born from sample flips, for the most part. How important is sampling to Jersey Club culture?
Kiff: Sampling is a huge factor on whether a Jersey Club tune will be a hit or miss most of the time. That’s not to say you can’t make a Jersey Club tune without samples, but it’s a lot easier to ‘paint the Picasso’ I’d say when you want to make a track that is going to smash the radio or the clubs.
R3LL: Sampling is gonna still be a very important instrument to Jersey Club. For me it’s all about how you use the samples you have. Example: a Jersey Club song that’s made at its best, you’re going to hear bed squeaks, or the Ludacris “dick” sample, etc. As Kiff said, yes there will be originals without samples but when you can use them in a way to bring out the message of the song then why not?
Cuff Yo Chick was eventually lost to major label takedowns - how did you both respond to this? And how did the scene respond, more broadly, when Jersey Club artists started to have their SoundCloud accounts deleted?
Kiff: We both took it as a lesson about how the music industry works and made some adjustments with marketing our project. Instead, we sent out emails to DJs and people of interests with download links and gave out physical CD copies to the people. When I was deejaying heavy at Rutgers, The State University, I always had copies ready to give out with business cards. Back then we did have social media, but on the ground work was still an important tool of strategy to utilise. The rest is history with how everyone else responded during that time. We both had a great summer with DJ gigs and promotions all throughout.
R3LL: Of course when this happened we weren’t too happy, but that didn’t stop us from getting our music out there. The time period we grew up in made us know how to move with out the internet. We took to the streets and ground promotion. We handed out CDs to people all over New Jersey and moved to sending out directly via email. By doing this it allowed us to connect directly with the people that was interested and jump that hurdle of the takedowns.
As we see bed squeaks start to appear on Drake albums, and major labels mining social media platforms like TikTok for the sort of dance routines and remix culture that Jersey helped to develop, how do you feel about pop culture's relationship with Jersey Club in 2022?
R3LL: I feel it’s becoming more and more undeniable. It’s at the point where you can say people have to respect the sound we’ve been pioneering since [we were] kids. As the mainstream continues to understand and accept the music it more opportunities for us to make waves.
For myself, I always feel ahead of the curve but it all for the better because its like yoooo, I was on the right path and now I’m seeing people catch up and finally understand the music we feel passionate about. I believe and know it’s going to continue to grow and all we have to do is continue to make music we love.
Kiff: In truth, it will be like every other genre, everyone is going to want to do it and that’s awesome. That means to me that we’ve been on the right path all along because that’s a part of our purpose. To spread our culture worldwide so that everyone can experience what we experience.
A decade on, how do you look back at Cuff Yo Chick and this era of Jersey Club?
Kiff: We were ahead of our time with our project and it shows today in the current sound of Jersey Club. The huge difference is the tempo, which by the way, I truly enjoy the 148 and up BPM style of Jersey Club. It matches the dancers’ energy and really catches fire on TikTok. From a production perspective, the break patterns, to hi-hats and kicks really slap and carries the overall tunes. Overall, this project is my reference with people I give advice to on production that it’s important to create a story in your work. Doesn’t have to be elaborate but at least where it creates something catchy for people to attach to and want to get moving.
R3LL: Kiff said it best. We were ahead of our time. A lot of our peers won’t admit it but we really been on a wave that’s not like anyone else. To continue to be relevant since we was 15 to now in our 30s shows that we was on to something. The wild part is we transitioned from just listeners to promoters to DJs to producers to engineers etc. Continuously reinventing our selves and levelling up the sound and style has been a ride. When I look back at Cuff Yo Chick that mixtape gave me the confidence to know I could do anything with Jersey Club and be happy sharing this with others. It’s been a journey and ride I’m truly proud of.
