3D HIP-HOP ANIMATED SERIES “DA JAMMIES” HITS NETFLIX… The Creators sit down for a Q&A with AllHipHop.Com DJ HUSTLE .
Friday, August 31, 2015 – Internet TV Giant NETFLIX announces the pick up of 3D Urban Family Animated Hip-Hop Series “Da Jammies ” created by Aulsondro “Novelist” Hamilton a.k.a. Emcee N.I.C.E. and William “Dolla” Chapman II a.k.a D.B.I. and developed by Ralph Farquhar -Real Husbands of Hollywood. Netflix has agreed with the creator’s company Toon Farm Animation, LLc. to showcase 5 episodes with all efforts pointing towards getting the next 8 episodes picked up. I hear that this show has some real heavyweights behind making it a success in Galen Walker Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Deb Pierson, and Blacktree TV the number one Digital Urban Channel.
DA JAMMIES also has a lot of your favorite urban stars in it, from Danielle Nicolet – TV One’s Born Again Virgin, Kel Mitchell, Alisa Reyes, Darius McCrary, Tiny Lister, James Avery, YoYo, Kurtis Blow, Little JJ and more… So I sat down with Emcee N.I.C.E. and D.B.I. to get the inside scoop on this hot new hip cartoon.
DJ Hustle: Hey what’s up fella’s? Thank y’all for coming out and chatting with me about Da Jammies, you guys must be excited?
Emcee N.I.C.E.: Yeah Man! Very! It’s a great time for Hip Hop
D.B.I.: Yeah I agree this moment couldn’t have come any sooner.
DJ Hustle: So tell me what is Da Jammies about?
Emcee N.I.C.E.: Da Jammies is about 5 kids from the suburbs who attend a performing arts school.
D.B.I.: Yeah, they aspire to be the next greats in Hip-Hop and R&B while dealing with everyday life as kids, you know, going through life’s lessons.
Emcee N.I.C.E.: That right, they also rap, sing and dance, we like to call the characters triple threats.
D.B.I.: And we’re not talking “kiddy” rap and or singing, they actually rap like your favorite Hip-Hop stars from Jay Z to 50 Cent to Redman to Fat Joe…
Emcee N.I.C.E.: Yeah, we tried to be as authentic as possible without going overboard making it seem like it was just a straight underground Hip-Hop cartoon.
DJ Hustle: That’s cool, in looking at the characters, they just pop off the screen with vibrant color and their hip look, I don’t think I have seen anything like this, what inspired you guys to create this?
Emcee N.I.C.E.: Well one day, while playing Madden, D.B.I. and I reflected upon the old cartoons our parents use to watch or would have let us watch.
D.B.I.: Yeah from Fat Albert, to the Alvin and The Chipmunks, or Scooby Doo. Emcee N.I.C.E.: Hahaha! Yeah and my moms tried hit me with The Partridge Family
and I was like what is a Partridge? Hahaha!
D.B.I.: Either way with all of the reality shows hitting the airwaves, we felt like the kids were missing out on the different life values and lessons that those cartoons had imbedded in them.
Emcee N.I.C.E.: Yeah there is a lot of mindless T.V. now-a-days especially, when you look the U.S. education rankings and see that we have not only fallen behind, but we are being lapped by the world, when we are the nation that sets the trends.
D.B.I.: Yeah what we’ve been able to learn, the kids today are missing out on. The shows today don’t really have substance, the animation everyone seems to be forced to gravitate to Anime, which doesn’t have real movement, like 2D and or 3D although the story lines are there.
Emcee N.I.C.E.: That’s right! So in creating Da Jammies, we wanted to make sure that it wasn’t preachy, that it was hip, trendy, musical, and brought in some of those old school values.
D.B.I.: Exactly! We touch on all of the things kids are going through now. Emcee N.I.C.E.: Yeap! From Anti-Bullying to Homelessness to…
D.B.I.: to Self Awareness to Unity and doing it together! Unity
DJ Hustle: You guys seem to be in sync
D.B.I.: Yeah when you’ve been at this for more than 10 years that’s what happens, haha!
DJ Hustle: Are you guys just the creators or do you have any other roles on the show?
Emcee N.I.C.E.: Yeah we do, we serve as Executive Producers along side Ralph Farquhar whom is the Executive Producer of Real Husbands of Hollywood that created Moesha and The Parkers and was also a part of Disney’s The Proud Family.
D.B.I.: We are also the Music Supervisors, so any music in the show we had a hand in, to actually Co-Starring as the main characters, I play the voice of the character “Dolla.”
Emcee N.I.C.E.: and I’m the voice of the character “Novelist”, we are like the co- leaders of Da Jammies.
DJ Hustle: Who are the other stars in the show?
D.B.I.: For Da Jammies we have Danielle Nicolett who voices “LaLa” -The Singing Diva, Alisa Reyes who voices “MoMo” – The Earthy Poetess, and Anderson Johnson Jr. who voices “Seven” -The Asthmatic Soul Singer.
Emcee N.I.C.E.: Da Jammies nemesis is The Battlebrats, a couple of sneaky and jealous rich kids whose main goal in life is the see to it that Da Jammies will never be successful. Their leader “Mike Fresh”, is voiced by “Kel Mitchell” and “Timmy Smalls” is voiced by Shane Tsurugi
D.B.I.: Then you have “Principle Cransberry” (The Ultimate Opportunist) voiced by Darius McCrary. Then there’s Tiny Lister who voice “Big Horus” & Jamal “J.Naugh- T!” McCants who voices “Lil Horus” (The Bullies) Along with Buddy Lewis jr. who voices “Klondell” (School/Mall Cop), Marcus T. Paulk who voices “Shamus” from the S.U.B.’s
Emcee N.I.C.E.: Other stars include the Late Great James Avery, Kurtis Blow, Yolanda “YoYo” Whitaker, James “Little JJ” Lewis, May May Ali and more…
DJ Hustle: Whewwww! Your cartoon is full of a lot of talent! I noticed the show has a distinctive look to it and with you guys having your hands in everything, are you responsible for that as well?
D.B.I.: No not entirely, when me and N.I.C.E. created the Jammies world as a 2D ten years ago, the coloring and multitude of things you could do today did not exists. We would travel back and forth to Nova Scotia, Canada to work with an animation company that didn’t even understand Hip-Hop or the movement but caught on quickly and helped us paint the foundation.
Emcee N.I.C.E.: Yeah it was when Ralph Farquhar came on board to help with the development of the show having worked on Disney’s “The Proud Family” that we were able to take Da Jammies to another level. He had access to top animation
directors Tyree Dillihay and Ron Myrick along with pretty much any urban star walking the planet given his proven success with “Moesha” and “The Parkers.”
D.B.I.: Yeah, Tyree was real instrumental as well by being an illustrator and a director that not only understood the world of Hip-Hop, but he too was a Hip-Hop head. So in knowing that, he could explain artistically the culture and movements that we wanted to convey.
DJ Hustle: That’s what’s up! You guys are doing it. One more thing before you go, no one really knows who you guys are even though you’ve done some recognizable things, so who are you?
Emcee N.I.C.E.: Me? Well I have been on over 25 records in the last 10 years co- producing 2 Pac and Nas’s “Thugz Mansion,” I was on 6 soundtracks as a lead vocalist/rapper of the group KansasCali which includes Oscar winning film “Crash”, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (International), “Haven” and more… I also featured with the group on Aaron Hall’s “Adults Only” album and K-Ci Hailey’s “My Book.” Most recent I have hade a single “Tonight” ft. Suhana Machete land in the Top 15 of Billboard Hot Single Sales Chart and stayed there for 13 weeks from November 2014 to February 2015. I’ve just dropped my album “However U Want It” so cop that! Hahaha! But I also dropped a new book entitled 50 Shades of L.O.V.E.: Learning Our Various Emotions, which is also available as an e-book, audiobook and soundtrack. All have been submitted to the Grammys so we’ll see how it plays out.
D.B.I.: And me I spent the past 15 years as a performer and songwriter, working the likes of Nickelodeon Actor and Rapper Lil JJ, Legendary music producer GI (Tonie, Tonie, Tone, R. Kelly, DJ Quick and more) R & B icons Al B Sure, Ginuwine, Mario and female rap legend MC Lyte. I am also featured on Emcee N.I.C.E.’s 2015 debut album, “However U Want It” the song “My Cali Lean.” I’ve studied animation under the great Dave Masters at Rowland Animation Founder and Creator of ACME. I am currently preparing to drop my debut single in September. I am a Certified Professional Fitness Trainer, Life Style Coach, and own a fitness brand called “Focusfit”.
DJ Hustle: Well there it is there! I appreciate you guys stopping through. We at allhiphop.com will be pulling for your show and will push people to watch the show so that more doors can be opened for shows like yours.
Emcee N.I.C.E. and D.B.I.: Thanks!