INTERVIEW | MEET DARU JONES — DRUMMER TO SLUM VILLAGE, TALIB KWELI, BLACK MILK AND MORE!

Daru Jones has been a highly sought-after drum­mer in the hip-hop sphere in the last dec­ade, work­ing with fel­low legendary artists such as: Jack White, Nas, Talib Kweli, Stur­gill Simpson, Kim Bur­rell, Ski Beatz & The Sensei’s, Raek­won, Curren$y, Slum Vil­lage, Black Sheep, Dig­able Plan­ets and Camp Lo.

Along­side these artists and many oth­ers, Jones has per­formed at some of the most cel­eb­rated music­al events, includ­ing: One Mic: Hip-Hop Cul­ture World­wide! A 20^th anniversary cel­eb­ra­tion of Nas’s debut album Ill­mat­ic, the 2013 Grammy Awards, Aus­tin City Lim­its, Rock The Bells Fest­iv­al, and the Montreux Jazz Fest­iv­al. All while receiv­ing rave reviews from: Rolling Stone Magazine, LA Weekly, and USA Today. Jones has also appeared on sev­er­al nation­al and inter­na­tion­al tele­vi­sion pro­grams, includ­ing: The Dav­id Let­ter­man Show, Jools Hol­land, Sat­urday Night Live, and MTV.

In 2015 he per­formed on “Laz­ar­etto”, the first single from Jack White’s second solo album, and played a massive part in earn­ing White a Grammy for Best Rock Performance.

Jones is also a pro­du­cer and boutique label own­er who devel­ops tal­ent and releases music through his imprint, RUSIC RECORDS, LLC.  These accol­ades, appear­ances and col­lab­or­a­tions have all earned Jones the title of being one of the most respec­ted drum­mers in the hip-hop game of his generation.

We caught up with Daru Jones last month before he played the Souler event at Miami Art Week. Souler is an online store con­nect­ing influ­en­cers and brands

You have worked with many amaz­ing musicians/producers over the years, who were you ser­i­ously impressed by as far as music­al tal­ent goes? Who stood out the most?

That’s a really tough one. But, I’d like to shine some light on some recent amaz­ing musi­cians I had the pleas­ure of work­ing with such as, Isai­ah Shar­key, Jon Bap and Mark Noxx. I also wanted to add work­ing with Queen Lati­fah was quite a cool and amaz­ing experience.

Pro­du­cer wise, of course Pete Rock, Jack White, Salaam Remi and more. Jack White stands out because of the diverse ses­sions and live work I did with him from many genres from Rock, Hip-Hop, Sou and Country.

Is there any­one you still wish to work with in the future? 

D’An­gelo, Bey­once, Jay‑Z, Sting, Bob James just to a few or more.

Who would you love to work with again?

Raphael Saadiq

Although you were in Pitt­s­burgh, you were able to go back to your roots and work with Detroit based legends you knew so well?

Yes!  Dur­ing the time I star­ted play­ing in Slum Vil­lage band I was liv­ing in Pitt­s­burgh, PA at the time.

Before you star­ted work­ing with Jack White, back when your influ­ences were mostly hip-hop/­jazz based (e.g. J Dilla, DJ premi­er, RZA) did you ever see your­self work­ing with someone like him? 

Yes!

Did that take some adapt­a­tion on your part or did it just come nat­ur­ally to play integ­rate into that music­al style?

Nat­ur­ally because Jack high­er me to bring my fla­vor and style to what he was doing so it was no pressure.

You had a lot of influ­ences grow­ing up, with gos­pel, soul, hip-hop etc, What were some of your favour­ite records grow­ing up?

For Gos­pel it was, The Rance Allen Group, Com­mis­sioned, The Win­ans, and The Clark Sisters.

Soul: Stevie Wonder

Hip-Hop: LL Cool J, Eric B & Rakim, Geto Boys, NWA, De La Soul, A.T.C.Q. , Gangstarr

Who’s an up and com­ing artist you’d like to shout out who you feel like needs more love?

Rolyn­né

Would you con­sider your­self a hip-hop “tra­di­tion­al­ist” or are you always try­ing to find new ways to com­bine with oth­er genres and evolve your sound?

I’m always look­ing to find new ways to evolve and add to my sig­na­ture sound and style.

What are your thoughts on where hip hop is cur­rently going?

Music­al wise, I love the dir­ec­tion on pro­du­cers using more real live musi­cians to cre­ate and add soul­ful authen­t­ic ele­ments.  I like that fact that is going back bars and speak­ing on real glob­al issues.

Is it mostly pos­it­ive or negative? 

Both

Would you like to see the genre shift in a cer­tain dir­ec­tion or revis­it some old styles?

I’d like to see some 80’s and 90’s styles revis­it for authen­ti­city and originality

Are there any gigs you regret not being a part of? 

In 2014, I went to the legendary D & D Stu­di­os (NYC) a week before it closed to meet with one of my favor­ite hip-hop pro­du­cers, DJ Premier.

He invited me to join his new band he was form­ing to do a short tour in Japan 2015. Right after I con­firmed I was avail­able, the fol­low week I received the tour sched­ule for Jack White and found out we were play­ing Madis­on Square Garden on the same day as Premi­er Tour star­ted and unfor­tu­nately I had to back out.

A week later, I was asked to join bassist, Pino Pal­ladino and one of my favor­ite vocal­ist, D’An­gelo for a rehears­al jam-ses­sion in regards to tour­ing with him but due to my sched­ule com­mit­ment with  Jack White and etc. that oppor­tun­ity fell through. I was pretty bummed at this point that 2 of some of my music­al her­o’s were inter­ested in me work­ing with them.

Oth­er then that, No regrets because I believe everything hap­pen when the time is right.

Or for the most part did you take full advant­age of all your opportunities?

Yes, I did. At the same time, I’m grate­ful for each oppor­tun­ity and being able to do me and bring my vibe/style to each work situation.

 How often do you meet oth­er drummers/musicians in gen­er­al out­side of the genres you nor­mally work with?

On a reg­u­lar basis.

Do you think there’s any­thing you can learn from, say, met­al or Lat­in drummers?

Of course, I’m always in the school of learning.