DJ Jazzy Jeff: "Music Saved My Life" - BlackDoctor.org

A great workout for many of us, consists of a great workout playlist. Fueled with the songs that keep us going, a great playlist energizes our mind and ears--and the legendary DJ Jazzy Jeff still continues to do that, not in a traditional gym, but on the dance floor.

At the age of 54, Jeff "DJ Jazzy Jeff" Townes made a name for himself after being one of half of the chart-breaking duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince with rapper-turned-movie star, Will Smith. Now, world renown for his skill on the turntables, Jeff shares how he prepares to make people sweat on the dance floor.

"I play everything. My whole thing is taking people on that journey that you’re supposed to take as a DJ, no matter what type of music that is. When I came up and I was carrying a crate of records, I would have a hip-hop crate and an R&B crate, and you would have a reggae section and you would have some rock records and some breakbeats. You had a smorgasbord of music that you picked from through the night."

"As the whole DJ thing evolved, it started to become like, 'oh, he’s a hip-hop DJ,' or 'he’s a house DJ,' or 'he’s an electronic music DJ,' and a DJ is supposed to be able to play whatever makes the people move. Now, it’s going back to people playing a more eclectic set of music. During the course of the night, I can play a David Guetta record, a Mobb Deep record...So you're like, 'he’s playing a dance record, and now he’s got everybody singing Mobb Deep!' Like, 'How did he do that?' I don’t know anybody that likes one type of music."