#BounceForWhat #30DaysOfBounce Day 4: “Where They At (The Original)” by DJ Jimi.

“We gon’ start this shit off right / We got DJ Jimi in the house tonight . .”

In the last edition of #30DaysOfBounce, we left a New Orleans fully under the spell of MC T Tucker and DJ Irv’s smash hit “Where Dey At”. The management of local radio station Q93 initially felt that the record was too racy for airplay (which is pretty funny considering some of the other records that already got airplay, plus the far-from-conservative energy of the city at large), but DJ’s Davey D and Wild Wayne defied their management by breaking this first official Bounce record on the air, historically playing it twice in a row upon this dramatic debut. This act represented the monumental migration of the homegrown P-popper’s anthem from gritty clubs like Big Man Lounge, Ghost Town, Dynasty, Newton’s and Jim’s to the mainstream, with untold consequences for the local and regional music scene. The city was under a “Triggerman” trance, its people converted to children swaying to the tune of the veritable Pied Pipers Tucker and Irv.

But back at Big Man’s, Irv’s former partner Jimi was caught in somewhat of a personal conundrum. On one hand, he wanted to be happy for the watershed success of his best friend Irv. On the other hand, Jimi was the one who had introduced the “Drag Rap” (aka “Triggerman”) record to Irv in the first place, and indeed they had together developed the strategy of extending the “Triggerman” energy in the club by spinning the instrumental while one of them hyped the crowd up on the mic. Now that Irv had taken this formula to another level with a hit record, Jimi couldn’t help but feel miffed at his own missed opportunity.

But the realization that an opportunity was missed can in itself present new opportunities. And with Tucker and Irv drawing first blood, Jimi saw the opportunity to improve upon their formula with a more inventive version of his own. So he enlisted his colleagues Devious and Mellow Fellow to create what became “Where They At (The Original)”.

As much as Tucker & Irv’s “Where Dey At” will always hold a special place in my heart as the first official Bounce song, I’ve always felt that Jimi’s version was musically superior and more fun. Devious and Mellow Fellow were much more creative with their samples (particularly on the dirty version), going beyond “Triggerman” to incorporate other samples such as “The Tower” by Ice-T and one of my all-time favorites “Ain’t You Fresh Co” by Fresh Co & Miz. (These samples would go on themselves to become standard samples in later bounce hits by other artists.)

Also, Jimi’s smooth delivery and voice were a welcome contrast to Tucker’s menacing bite, even as Jimi retained Tucker’s crassness with statements like “shake that ass, hoe” (and much iller statements that I won’t repeat here lol). Fun fact: in my poem “My Gumbo” when I say, “Your gumbo tastes like it must be your money ‘cause it ain’t your face”, I’m actually borrowing one of Jimi’s lyrics from “Where They At”. But my favorite part of the song is at the end when he breaks down the music, has about 2 seconds of dramatic silence, then says, “Sliiiiiide and do the P-Pop!” Talk about a pregnant pause lol.

My only beef with the song was really with the video. Anybody from New Orleans would look at that video and say it didn’t really represent us well. I get that it was low budget, but it didn’t have to look like a cheap knockoff of MC Hammer, Oaktown 357 and Bobby Brown. And them dancers wasn’t really gettin’ it, ya heard me? Smh.

All said, Jimi offered a great addition to the Bounce legacy with this dynamically-produced party song. He may not have hit first, but history would show that he hit hardest, considering the fact that Tucker peaked with “Where Dey At” and never released a full album while “Where They At” yielded Jimi a national distribution deal and a resulting album. And on that album, Jimi would introduce the Bounce flavor to a wider regional audience while also introducing another New Orleans rapper who would go on to be more successful than he could have possibly imagined…

Next episode: “Magnolia Projects keep slingin’ iron…”