Fueling the Tank

Walking up to DJ Jazzy Jeff’s Delaware home, it’s nearly impossible not to recall a scene in the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” where his character, Jazz, gets tossed out of Uncle Phil’s house—by Uncle Phil. More than three decades have passed since the beloved ’90s sitcom’s debut and in that time, Jazzy Jeff has established himself as a leader in the hip-hop community with not just his esteemed career and Grammy Award-winning classics but also his Playlist Retreat.

Established in 2015, the private, invite-only event brings together both established and up-and-coming producers, DJs, emcees, and other creatives for five days of community building. The vast property allows for a gaggle of artist trailers, outdoor hubs for sponsors like Pioneer, Splice, Roland, TIDAL, and Ableton as well as two large tents for catered meals and discussion panels. Despite intermittent rain, everyone appears to be in good spirits.

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Outside, Skratch Bastid shoots hoops, drummer Daru Jones lines up for a catered lunch, De La Soul’s Maseo mans the 1s and 2s, Mannie Fresh speeds by in a golf cart, and Kool DJ Red Alert stops for photos, while Jazzy Jeff’s wife and Playlist Retreat co-founder, Lynette C. Townes, runs around making sure everyone is taken care of. It’s almost surreal. For anyone who’s immersed in hip-hop culture—and music, in general—the word “heaven” might come to mind.

On September 24, the day the world was supposedly coming to an end (Google “Rapture 2025” for a good laugh), the first panel of the day kicked off shortly after 2:00 p.m. Titled “Dope Sets, Detours, Dead Ends and Navigating What’s Next,” it featured panelists DJ Jazzy Jeff (real name, Jeff Townes), Natasha Diggs, and Aktive, who dove headfirst into how their careers were affected by the pandemic and how they were forced to pivot when live shows simply weren’t a thing.

A producers panel found DJ Premier, Jimmy Jam (of famed production duo Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis), No I.D., and Don Cannon swapping stories about memorable moments from their careers, including the time Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav told DJ Premier’s father he had “super sperm.”

The “A.I.W.T.F.2” panel (a very polite way of saying “A.I. What the Fuck”) boasted JAY-Z’s longtime engineer and producer Young Guru, Mark Thomas (Splice’s vice president of product marketing), the Recording Industry Association of America’s Dr. Moiya McTier (an actual astrophysicist), and a virtual appearance by Paul McCabe, Roland’s senior vice president of research and innovation.

Young Guru, dressed in a white T-shirt with a pink crewneck loosely draped around his shoulders, spoke passionately about his contrarian views on AI, calling it a “buzzword.” He brought up Timbaland, who controversially launched an AI company in June, as he bantered back and forth with members of the audience about the dangers of AI, inadvertently illustrating what the Playlist Retreat is all about: community. The ability to have spirited conversations without judgement. A place to let your guard down and strip away egos. A chance to unwind, have a few laughs with like-minded people who are just as exhilarated about connecting as you are. A way to de-stress.

For Jazzy Jeff, that was one of the initial intentions behind the Playlist Retreat. Attention to mental health is an integral component to the entire event. Each morning, the Playlist Retreat “Sweat Captain,” Jacy Cunningham, provided early birds with a “wellness reset,” which included cold plunges, fitness classes, and meditation sessions. Having the bandwidth to really get into meaningful conversations was also paramount to its success.

“I feel like our job is to give joy through what we do to everybody in the world,” Jazzy Jeff told SPIN from his living room. “What I started to realize just from going out on the road and bumping into artists like Maseo, it’s all surface-level conversations because we don’t have enough time. When you spend three, four, five days together, the conversation starts to change into therapy conversations.

“I wanted to figure out a way to get us all together for therapy, for healing, for creative energy. I look at it like we are the gas and we want to fill your tank. You can go service all the people in the world and when your gas tank gets a little low, hopefully it’s retreat time again and you can come back and fill up the tank.”

The closing night of the retreat saw it all come into focus. Toward the beginning of the week, creatives were split into 20 teams, chosen by Jazzy Jeff, for the Playlist Challenge. Each team was given a mere 12 hours to write, execute, and record a two-minute (or less) song, not knowing who their collaborators would be. Once the teams were laid out, with names like Ben & Jerry, Fish & Chips, Boom Bap, and Needles & Thread, some stayed up into the wee hours of the morning finishing their compositions. No sleep—just pure grit and determination.

DJ Perly, a member of the Bread & Butter team, stayed up until 6:00 a.m. trying to hit the deadline. The Bronx-born turntablist and first woman to win the DMC US Finals DJ Battle marveled at the dedication of those involved.

“I’m really proud of everyone and what we all created in such a short time,” she says. “I’m truly inspired by everyone’s musical gifts and talent. The whole experience is an incredible whirlwind of memories and moments in such a short amount of time. I already feel a little homesick being away from the retreat.”

Jazzy Jeff admitted he wanted the songwriting challenge to be “slightly uncomfortable.”

“The Challenge is one of those things where I’m trying to get creatives out of their own heads,” he explained. “You have all of that [creativity] inside, but you haven’t used those things in so long because you’ve been in a comfort zone. I want you to tap into your potential and when you hear the end result, you realize like, ‘Oh man, I had that in me all along.’”

As everyone gathered under the tent for the big reveal, the excitement in the air was palpable. People applauded, cheered, and danced to the eclectic rhythms and sounds blaring from the speakers as each song played. It was transcendent for the participants and the people hearing the music for the first time. With that, the conversations around collaboration, creativity, and celebration carried on well into the night.

The following morning, as cleanup began, several attendees waited for their rides to the airport. In the kitchen, Maseo and the Roots’ Stro Elliot dined on waffles and eggs (OK, and maybe a cupcake or two), the Beat Junkies’ DJ Shortkut made his way to the shuttle while saying his goodbyes, and Lynette worked with the Playlist staff to return the house to normalcy.

It will be months before Jeff can fully digest what transpired at this year’s retreat. From an outsider’s perspective, it was seamless. Jeff, Lynette, Playlist Chief of Staff Dayne Jordan, the Playlist organizers, Siempre Security, Dana Herbert of Desserts by Dana, vegan chef Lisa Smith and even the family dog Champ, whose whole body wiggled when he wagged his tail, made the retreat feel like a second home.

“Over time, you start to get a reminder of how special all of this stuff is,” Jeff concludes. “So much is happening at the same time, you’re never going to see everything, but what you do see is amazing.” 
(We are happy to report SPIN did not get thrown out of Jazzy Jeff’s home—even though we kinda wanted to for comedic value.)

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