i-DJ: Jim-E Stack

Bouncing out sketchy beats, Jim-E Stack balls hard. Rising fast on a steady diet of Justin Martin, Claude Von Stroke and J Dilla, he is the very tall New Orleans producer and DJ, who isn’t so new.

Dropping an exclusive mix for i-D online, here James Stack (aka Jim-E Stack) remembers his early formative years, spent grafting, partying and discovering how to create music, just the way he likes it:
“I think I really started to develop into the producer and listener I am now throughout my four years in high school. I was always drawn to music as a kid, but I didn’t take it that seriously as a pursuit until I started playing drums in the jazz band at my high school. I mostly made friends with the older kids in the jazz band, who were more experienced musicians and listeners, and they would always put me onto records I didn’t know. After school on Fridays we would go back to my homie’s house and listen to Bay Area shit. Then my mom would ring the doorbell and take me home because I had gone awol and wasn’t answering my phone. ‘Git It’ by Roach Gigz and Lil 4 Tay was played standard at house parties and school dances. Somewhere in the middle of high school I discovered Switch/Solid Groove, and later Karizma, whose sounds are probably clear as influences in my music. In the last year or so Dubbel Dutch has had a huge impact on the way I hear music and make it. I’ve learnt a lot from him just over AIM, whether it’s about combining some niche genres or how to use some PC soft-synth from 2001. His stuff is always ahead of the curve and inspires me to get weirder and take more risks, so I had to include that remix of his.
Living in New Orleans has definitely affected my sound over the last 2 years. Before moving there my tracks were just weird dance tracks. I feel like always hearing New Orleans bounce music in the club and on the radio made me more aware of hip hop as being dance music. Southern hip hop, whether it’s DJ Jimi or Z-Ro, has influenced the feel of my original tracks since I moved there.
Aside from the more recent tunes, this mix is all about the music I discovered in high school, which guided my taste as a listener and producer, and still does.”
Jim-E Stack’s Good Years EP ‘Come Between’ is out now.
soundcloud.com/jimestack
Text: Milly McMahon
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