KING by DJ Jayhood

DJ Jayhood is one of the most important producers from the second generation of Jersey Club.

A regional form of dance music that evolved from Baltimore Club after artists like DJ Tameil started putting their own twists on B-more drum breaks and kick patterns, Jersey Club is one of the most influential and imitated dance styles in the world today. Dance music powerhouses (Diplo, Skrillex, Cashmere Cat) and underground taste-makers (Sinjin Hawke, Her Records) alike have been openly inspired by its raw, sample-driven sound and the dance moves that accompany the songs (such as the recent Running Man Challenge) regularly take on lives of their own.

Although he’s not received the same international DJ bookings as a club producer as some of his peers, DJ Jayhood is one of the most respected and popular Jersey artists in and outside of the state. His remixes of dance classics like ‘Show Me Love’ and ‘Heartbroken’ have racked up millions of plays online, while original productions like ‘Hands on Ya Hips’, ‘Jersey Anthem' and ‘Patty Cake’ are considered all-time Jersey dance classics. He’s also built a successful sideline as a rapper and hip-hop/r&b producer through his production work for Sharaya J and Missy Elliott, and coined his own sub-genre of Jersey Club called Booty Bounce Music (or BBM).

On King, Local Action collects Jayhood’s greatest hits - many of which already have legendary status on Soundcloud and YouTube, but have never been officially released before - with a handful of unreleased tracks from his ridiculous archive of demos. Amazingly, it’s one of the first ever albums from one of Jersey Club’s key players, and although to understand the real context of the music it’s important to trawl YouTube for the dance contests and home-made videos that are so key to Jersey Club, the raw power of these tracks stands up in its own right.