Rich Medina and Djinji Brown crossed paths in 1997 while attending a hip-hop + poetry conference somewhere in the North East. Their mutual love for wit and words and music became a friendship that started growing tight when Rich brought his ‘Jump N Funk’ (Fela Kuti tribute party) to club Shine in NYC in 2001, where Djinji worked as a sound engineer. In 2004, coincidentally, both Djinji and Jump N Funk moved to Miami.
Rich and Djinji haven’t played together since 2019, when they shared decks with Ron Trent and Kenny Dope in Miami. We chatted with them in anticipation of their next long-awaited reunion at ATV Records on Sunday, May 23rd.
Electronic Groove: Hi guys! It’s a true pleasure to have you down with us for a chat. How have you been doing? How have you been holding up with the pandemic?
Rich Medina: I feel blessed. Thankful to have gotten past the quarantine.
Djinji Brown: Hello! I’ve been good, thank you. You know, like most of us trying to adapt to this new normal per se. Overall though, I’m still standing strong and very grateful for that.
Electronic Groove: You’ve got quite a rich history as artists. How did you get started in the music industry?
Djinji Brown: Well, honestly, I was born into a musical world because my late father Marion Brown was a jazz musician. As for my path, it started around 1986, at 16, in a punk rock band, then in late ’87 by joining an NYC Hardcore band named Absolution. I was the frontman for the group. In 1990 I went to audio engineering school and throughout the ’90s worked in a few recording studios in NYC, specializing mainly in Hip Hop. During this time I learned the art of sampling production which soon became the most important thing in my artistic pursuit of self-expression.
In 2000 I got introduced first hand to House Music while being a live sound engineer, and from that experience, I decided I wanted to learn how to DJ and play that form of music. Although I knew about House Music, it didn’t hit me until then. In 2004 I moved to Miami and the rest is history but with a lot of different chapters.
Rich Medina: I grew up in a musically oriented household. Everything in my family happens in rhythm since long before I was even born. So my ‘start’ was in my grandfather’s churches.
Electronic Groove: Rich, what is a bit of a curiosity, is the fact that you have an Ivy League degree…right? How important has that kind of education been in your artistic career?
Rich Medina: I went to Cornell University, and yes my education has benefitted everything in my life. But my career in music was born long before I had even graduated high school. The life experience of college just structurally reinforced the idea I can create my own pathway as long as I do the required coursework. I have been doing that diligence with regard to my relationship with music since grammar school.
Electronic Groove: The spoken word…where did that come from? Do you work it down on paper, recite it as you go? What’s the process like?
Rich Medina: Most of the men in my family above my generation are men of the cloth. Preachers, pastors, clergymen, and all other manners of church-based oratory expertise and discipline. I learned how to finish a point at a very young age through apprenticeship and guidance from tough, smart God-fearing men. With regard to process, everything starts when you put your feet on the floor in the morning. Writing out your feelings is the doorway to dealing with them if you’re being honest with yourself.
“Writing out your feelings is the doorway to dealing with them if you’re being honest with yourself.”
– Rich Medina
Electronic Groove: What’s NYC to you both? What does it mean, inspiration-wise?
Rich Medina: NYC is the root of my aspirations as a club DJ. David Mancuso, Larry Levan, and the ecosystem of amazing club-life experiences that they gifted to the world is the thing that helped me decide what I wanted to do with my life.
Djinji Brown: NYC is where all of the elements of my musical and present fitness career have their roots, but honestly it was moving to Miami where I began to branch out into my own kind of fruit if you get what I mean. Growing up in the ’80s and being in my 20’s during the ’90s in NYC provided enough experiences to write a short book about. But like I said, Miami has really given me the blank canvas to paint my own unique pictures on. The best of both worlds has made me the man I am today.
Electronic Groove: You’re going to be playing in Miami for ATV & Djembe this May 23rd. What are your expectations? Have you been playing regularly these past few months? Is there a different kind of energy on the dancefloor given that some people haven’t been clubbing in a long time?
Rich Medina: I’m expecting a high-energy room and a night full of nice connective moments like we all recall from life before the pandemic. I’ve been creeping back out in the world as things have begun to open up. I think the difference is that all of us have been deprived of something we value for a calendar year, so every feeling under the sun is present about that.
Djinji Brown: I’m excited to be playing with Rich who I’ve known for over 20 years now. We have a really strong history and friendship that always translates well in the DJ booth. I also look forward to meeting Nii Tei and playing with Eve Ava who has become a dear friend as well. I just want to connect with people and see bodies dancing again. We all need that and I sure do. It’s literally soul food that we all need to eat!
Electronic Groove: And what about what WE can expect from your set?
Rich Medina: You can expect me to let things be loose until the room tells me that they are smelling what I’m cookin’ lol.
Djinji Brown: You can expect me to have a lot of fun, but other than that I can’t predict what people will feel. But I do hope they feel the joy, happiness, and love of the music I’ll be playing. All I know is I’m going to play my ‘Afro Bionic’ sound which is a term I coined for my style back in 2008 which was also the title of my album that was released on Yoruba Records in the same year.
Electronic Groove: Recently, we’ve seen some social issues being discussed and tacked that concern our industry, specifically regarding gender, equality, social responsibility, and the power balance. What’s your stance on these important subjects? Do you think these changes will be there once we get everything back up in full swing?
Rich Medina: I believe in equal rights, social justice, and accountability from our leadership just like everyone else. I also have a PhD in being Black and always under white pressure, so there’s that. I absolutely do not believe that just because the world is opening back up that things are going to magically get better, beyond people being able to earn again. Change begins at the top, and our political and financial top is overrun with institutional racists defined as conservatives who are twisting the knife on the change that every day people need regardless of race, color, creed, gender orientation, religious orientation, or cultural background.
Djinji Brown: That’s a question that needs an entire interview in itself. One thing I know is that social issues usually produce many forms of resistance, protest, and organization. Social issues can also produce art that will stand the test of time. We can only see what the future will bring. There will always be societal challenges for us to face, how we face them is another story.
“Social issues can also produce art that will stand the test of time. We can only see what the future will bring. There will always be societal challenges for us to face, how we face them is another story.”
– Djinji Brown
Electronic Groove: What’s in store for both of you for the rest of 2021? Any particular milestones you are looking forward to?
Rich Medina: I’m looking forward to watching my kid finish 8th grade and move on to high school like a regular kid, free of all this worry. Still, feels like he was just born yesterday, you know? Beyond that, more broadcasting growth, publishing my first book, new voiceover opportunities, some new Miami opportunities on the horizon…it’s gonna be a busy year.
Djinji Brown: I plan to keep growing my gym business but I also plan on balancing that with my artistic side as well. I have to be involved with music in some shape or form. No more 8-year production layoffs either. The Afro Bionic still has many sounds to explore and share with the people.
Electronic Groove: Thank you for sitting down with us! We wish you all the best for the future!
Rich Medina: One love. Thanks for getting at me. See y’all Sunday!
Djinji Brown: Thank you as well and it was a real pleasure.
Follow Rich Medina: Facebook | Instagram | Soundcloud | Spotify
Follow Djinji Brown: Instagram | Soundcloud | Spotify
