Los Angeles-born deejay JayCeeOh spent his high school years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School, the same place Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller and the founder of Rostrum Records, CEO Benjy Grinberg, attended.
Throughout Wiz’s rise to fame, JayCeeOh held him down with mixtape features, radio plays and was even a special-occasion tour deejay for him. A pivotal moment in JayCeeOh’s career was when he attended Emerson University in Boston, where he was the urban-music director at college radio station WERS. While in school, the “Master Of The Mix” winner would play records by Wiz Khalifa before the world was aware of his music.
“They all went to my high school,” JayCeeOh says in an exclusive interview with HipHopDX. “They were both younger than me. More in my year was the guys who started Rostrum. Those were like my dudes. I ran in that circle. So when they first signed Wiz I was in Boston at that point. I was on the radio and doing mixtapes. They were like, ‘We just signed this guy Wiz. Check him out.’ I would look out every time I had a mixtape coming out and I would get exclusives. I had a bunch of Wiz exclusives before anyone. I was playing him on the radio and I was one of the first deejays to give Wiz love outside of Pittsburgh.”
JayCeeOh’s ties to 412 Hip Hop are an important part of Jay’s story, but it’s only a portion of it. The Taylor Gang affiliate has worked with Talib Kweli, KRS-One, Little Brother, Wiz Khalifa, J Dilla and Sean Price, among others. He has also provided music for well-known brands (Nike, Red Bull and Warner Bros. Records, among others) and won several national deejay battles.
His most recent victory was in the SMIRNOFF “Master Of The Mix” reality show where top judges like deejays Kid Capri, deejay Mia Moretti and Ben Maddahi critiqued contestants. In the end, deejay JayCeeOh took home the crown over other finalists like Chris Karns and Incrediboi. His prize for the win was $250,000 and an opportunity to be SMIRNOFF’s official deejay.
The victory was particularly satisfying given JayCeeOh’s Top 5 DJs. “I’m influenced by a lot, but I will sayA-Trak, Kid Capri, Jazzy Jeff, Revolution, and Craze,” he says. “Give or take. I mean there are a lot of people I looked up to coming up.”
Since emerging as the winner of the SMIRNOFF presented “Master Of The Mix” VH1 show, the Taylor Gang deejay has been on the road spinning, mixing, scratching and producing music as SMIRNOFF’s official DJ. He says he hopes the exposure leads to additional opportunities.
“There are tons of people I haven’t collaborated with that I would like to,” he says. “At this point in the Hip Hop realm, I would love to fucking do a joint with Kanye or Jay. I would love to do a record with Drake. Right now I’m focusing on production. I have a lot of beats that I have been waiting to unleash for this moment. Now that I have won [“Master Of The Mix”], it’s all eyes on me. Now when I present shit to people they are like, ‘All right, I’m going to check for it.’ I’ve had credibility for a minute but now it’s like, ‘VH1 TV champion.'”
JayCeeOh says he hopes to be on Wiz Khalifa’s forthcoming Blacc Hollywood album. “I got a batch of beats I’m about to unleash,” he says. “I just got the win and I’m about to send out these beats to a lot of artist within the next week. Wiz gets first pick on what I got coming. Then we will see where everything goes.”
JayCeeOh’s tour dates and the new track “Till A Boy Get Kill” are below:
07.27 Hollywood, CA AV Nightclub
08.01 West Hollywood, CA Greystone Manor
08.02 Chicago, IL H.O.M.E
08.03 Chicago, IL Board Room
08.03 Chicago, IL Hard Rock Hotel (Lollapalooza Event)
08.04 Los Angeles, CA X-Games (Private Event)
08.09 Hollywood, CA TRU Nightclub
08.10 Denver, CO Beauty Bar
08.13 Hollywood, CA The Cosmo
08.16 Hollywood, CA Supperclub
08.17 Reno, NV EDGE
08.23 San Diego, CA BASSMENT
08.31 Hollywood, CA Sound Nighclub
09.13 Dallas, TX Avenu Lounge
Picture Credit (Colin Brennan)
