Detroit-based ghetto tech/juke/bass music stalwart DJ Godfather (a.k.a. Brian Jeffries) has presented the world with his sprawling full-length debut, Electro Beats For Freaks (Databass). It’s an electro-charged opus filled with 44 tiptop club tracks and a slew of collabs. We connected with Godfather to learn more about his bouncin’, party-perfect release.
What prompted you to create a full-length album at this stage in your career?
DJ Godfather: It’s been a super long time since I released a full-length project. I’ve released so many EPs over the years. I realized a lot of people are not aware when I released a handful of EPs.
I wanted to create something that will get more attention and releasing a 44-track album almost two hours long will do that. Plus I made the album a continuous mix on purpose. You can skip through the songs but the beginning and ends of the track mix into each other. I did that so it will be harder for other DJs to play the tracks at first.
This album will be kind of like a sampler to DJs and a full album to non-DJs that just want to listen to the music. For me, it was another way to get all of the attention from the tracks on one project. I will be releasing EPs off of the album a month and a half after the album comes. There will be instrumentals, dub mixes, acapellas, BPM transition versions and more for the DJs.
You’ve got a few collabs on the LP. How did they come about?
All of the collabs I have are with different vocalists. Some of the lyrics I made up, and some they made up. I hate my own voice so I love getting good vocalists on some of my projects. I have long time relationships with most of these artists.
Are you at all concerned with how some of the tracks will be received in the current climate?
Not at all, it’s entertainment. If you are referring to a few of the tracks that have swear words it’s just plain fun. Anyone that really knows this music know’s it’s the house party version of electronic music. Ghettotech is more than a genre, it’s a culture. There is no other genre of dance music that has turntablism, a dedicated dance called jitting, and multiple influences from other genres all in one. People get fixated on the few tracks that have sexual references and think that’s the entire culture. There are hip-hop records 10x worse anyway and that will never change.
