My response to the rumors
OK, seems like it's time for me to clarify some shit. I've heard a lot of crazy rumors, and I'm tired of uninformed, one-sided, fanboy rantings from Aziza et al.
point by point:
I believe I said "girly kid from the hood", but who cares? I am a kind of girly, nerdy kid who grew up in a shitty neighborhood without much money and there is nothing wrong with that. Unless you hate poor people or you're a homophobe or something. Jamie/Aziza is a fucking hypocrite, buddying up with the LGBT community now that ballroom is fashionable, but at the same calling me a sissy and fag. You can't have it both ways.
I don't want to tell y'all what he told us about his past. It's OC.
I am admittedly an outsider to the world of footwork, but at the end of the day I am a poor kid from the Midwest and my upbringing was not substantially different than that of Gant's or Spinn's or other footwork DJs who didn't grow up in the projects. I grew up around a fair amount of crime and violence and dysfunction--we always had clothes on our back and food on the table but it was a struggle for my mother (who is a fucking saint, by the way). I fought HARD to get out of that situation, and I am proud of the fact that I can now live a middle-class existence.
Aziza is a very wealthy kid from England who pretends to have some sort of insight into this world, so take that with grain of salt. Dave has lived in Chicago, but he currently lives back with his parents in their fancy neighborhood in Portland, Oregon.
At the end of the day it's not my job to prove my poverty credentials to a couple of fucking privileged rich kids living off their parents.
Was telling press before our tour that we were a nightmare etc when we were paying expenses and taking care of our end ourselves. He continued to tell them, he wasn't looking forward to handholding us along the tour.
I never told press that Spinn, Rashad, etc. were a "nightmare" before the tour. For the record, working with Rashad IS a fucking nightmare, but I am a professional and I don't trash-talk an upcoming project. Even afterwards, I have gone to great lengths not to shit-talk, even while these petty fucking divas shit-talk me left and right.
He earned the same as 3 footworkers and 2 djs made plus myself earned every night
I earned the same money that Spinn earned, same as Rashad earned. The footwork dancers were working for free, to my understanding (except for the Sadler's Wells gig, which was a dancers-only gig). Jamie (aka Aziza) was not on the tour's payroll. I don't know whether he paid his own way or whether Spinn & Rashad paid for him--I had no business relationship with Jamie so I can't say.
He'd throw fits and promoters would complain about him regularly.
I am a very professional guy, and I am pretty easygoing for the most part. I get along with the overwhelming majority of promoters just fine. I can be uptight about the equipment being correct, the flyers spelling my name right, or stuff like that, but that's because I run a professional show and I expect others around me to be professional as well. Spinn, Rashad, and Jamie are unprofessional, and it made it difficult for me to work with them. Case in point...
He would do weird things like take the Serato box home with him trying to sabotage parties,
As a professional DJ, I bring my Serato box to the gig. Spinn and Rashad came on a month-long international tour without bringing a Serato box! They just expected that they would be able to borrow mine, but they never actually ASKED me to borrow it, so I didn't realize they were counting on using it. For the first gig of the tour (Brighton) the club had a Serato box so it wasn't a problem. But on day 2 (Paris) I was tired and wanted to get some rest after my set, so I packed my stuff up and went back to the hotel, not realizing that they were counting on using my box. I get a text message from Mike Paradinas saying “we need you to bring the Serato box back so Spinn & Rashad can play!” I had NO IDEA they were expecting me to leave my gear at the club so they could use it because a) professional DJs bring their own box and b) THEY NEVER ASKED ME. Jamie then shows up to the hotel calling me a pussy and a bitch and all sorts of sideways shit, and STILL I let them borrow the box, because if the show stops it reflects poorly on all of us.
print tickets and not give us our tickets while we would print him his and give him his
I am not your manager, your booking agent, or your mommy. Since when is it my fucking job to print out your cot damn boarding passes? Be a professional, you sniveling fucking manchild.
steal money from the dancers claiming to be their manager etc.
The dancers weren't getting paid on this tour—just travel and lodging. That's pretty standard for dancers on a lot of tours (unless you're Madonna or something). They had one paid gig, which was at Sadler's Wells, and paid them $500 each. I organized the Sadler's Wells gig for the dancers singlehandedly, without taking a cut. My motives for doing this free work were to a) promote a scene that I thought needed promotion, b) get the dancers' flights paid for so we could afford to bring them on our tour, which would hopefully result in more interest from promoters and more bookings. I loaned the dancers a total of US$450 so they could eat until their Sadler's Wells gig rolled around. They never paid me back. Marcus Noblett from Littlebig (our agent) offered to intervene and handle the situation—he took responsibility and said he would make sure I got the $450. He then backed out on that promise, and we got into some heated arguments about it. In the end Marcus's made good on his promise to reimburse me the $450, but by that point neither of us had any interest in working with each other in the future. I believe Marcus is still waiting to get repaid by AG, Litebulb, and Manny...
He lied over and over about his role organising shit
This tour was initially supposed to be a tour for my album (Women's Studies) and for the Bangs & Works compilation. Mike P asked me who I wanted on the tour and I said Spinn & Diamond. That didn't work out because of their beef or whatever, so then I suggested Spinn & Roc, but Roc didn't have a passport, so then we asked Traxman. His passport was expired, so then we asked Rashad. I was hesitant about Rashad because he had previously been denied entry to the UK (for not having a work visa) and I didn't think we needed any sort of undue attention brought on us at border crossings. I had a hand in picking the lineup of this tour, and I helped two of the three dancers get their passports. Additionally, I sorted out the aforementioned Breakin' Convention showcase at Sadler's Wells--the real high-profile footwork performance outside of America. This is a big accomplishment and I am proud of it. Mike Paradinas or Marcus Noblett can confirm that this is all true.
Even his booking agent quit on him cus he's a proper diva.
See above about the $450.
His party with Dave was his way of getting in with the Tekz as Quam is Teklife and Dave was ready to quit after two. He never paid anyone shit and was known for stealin trax
My party with Dave was a way of reaching out to young talent and trying to bridge the gap between the North Side and the South Side. I gave Dave Quam his first paying DJ gig so you'd think he'd show a little respect for that. Dave & I paid the DJs whatever we could afford to pay from the door and the bar. We never promised something that we didn't fulfill.
Any questions? Ask me to my face instead of believing a bunch of childish hoodrat gossip. Chrissy at murderbot dot com.
