In the Mix with Jump Smokers

Hiptronik artists and producers Jump Smokers took a break from creating, producing and remixing to answer a few of our questions.  Read on to find out about their viral hit "My Flow So Tight (Anti-Breezy)," their remix of Mariah Carey's album, and what the future holds for the Jump Smokers.

Jump Smokers: What's up everybody!  We're the Jump Smokers, coming straight outta the CHI. And in particular, this is Roman.  Reydon, V-Skratch and I are on a break from a studio session.

How did Jump Smokers get started?  You guys are from Chicago; how do your roots affect your music?

JS: We were all doing our own “thang” musically, but thought it'd be best to form one killer electro-pop group and combine all of our talents.  From there we brought in our boy Johnny Digital, the fourth member of Jump Smokers, so he could handle the web and all things visual.  The first song we came with was "My Flow So Tight (Anti-Breezy)" aka the "Chris Brown should get his a** kicked" song, which totally blew up bigger than any of us ever thought it would!  We take a lot of pride in being from Chicago – house music was born here so it's basically in our blood.

How did you guys get the name “Jump Smokers”?

JS: The name "Jump Smokers" actually happened by accident.  When we were thinking of group names, and since we're all such big fans of the show Entourage, we decided on calling ourselves "Smoke Jumpers" (after lead character Vinny Chase's firefighter movie).

But once the initial radio success of "My Flow So Tight" kicked in, our lawyers strongly suggested we change our name because "Smoke Jumpers" was trademarked by some dude in St. Louis back in 1987.  We wanted to keep it similar to capitalize on the buzz we already created, so "Jump Smokers" was born that very moment.

Jump Smokers made a big splash with “My Flow So Tight.”  Why did you guys write it and what impact did the song’s success have?

JS: That song NEEDED to be made.  We were so tired of everybody being all "politically correct" when they were talking about that incident.  We were hearing a lot of "let's just pray for both of them" kind of answers.  In our minds, there was only ONE victim in the situation and that was Rihanna.

The hook might make you chuckle at first, but when you listen to the verse, it's pretty deep.  "Boy hits girl, boy should be taken down..." The reason we think it was so big was because we finally said what many people were thinking in their heads.  But whatever the reason, obviously that song changed our career.

One of the coolest things that has happened to us so far is being hired to remix Rihanna's first two singles off her latest album ("Russian Roulette" and "Hard").  So, it's kind of like we came full circle.

Please describe your sound.  What makes a song a Jump Smokers’ track?

JS: That Jump Smokers sound is 100% Electro-Pop!  We're making songs that have both KILLER electro beats and mainstream commercial appeal.  We're trying to take dance music to the next level!

Congratulations on “Now You See It” going to #1 on the UK club charts.  You’ve also done remixes for artists like Beyonce, Three 6 Mafia, Mariah Carey, and New Boyz—what is it like working with such big artists as Mariah, Rihanna and Pitbull?

JS: It's crazy!  I guess we have the hot hand right now when it comes to these remixes and tracks.  Our only mission is to try our best to always stay on top of our game and not just admire what we've done thus far.

That being said, we still can't believe we have a video with Pitbull on MTV!

Speaking of collaborations, tell us about your remix of Mariah Carey’s album “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel”—how did it come about?  What will it sound like?

JS: We are beyond thrilled about this Mariah Carey vs. Jump Smokers Remix Album!  We first got the chance to remix her single "Obsessed," which was featured on "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel."  That led to our getting hired to remix "H.A.T.E. U" and THAT caused her label (Island Def Jam) to officially offer us this remix album.

Not going to lie, it was very challenging because of the tempos that the original songs are in – some of them were almost impossible to stretch into "dance tempos," but we still made it work.  We're really excited for it to be heard, and [we] think that her core fans and fans of dance music alike are going to be really stoked about it.

Being able to work with a LEGEND like Mariah Carey is amazing enough, but hearing directly from her that she actually loves what we did will long be a highlight of our career.

And along the same train of thought, who would be your dream collaboration?

JS: It would have been unreal to work with Michael Jackson and we almost had the chance to remix "This Is It," but unfortunately that didn't materialize.  Oh well, I guess you can't get everything you want in life.

What do you think about the growing ‘hiptronik’ genre?  Where do you think it’s headed, and what part do you think Jump Smokers will play?

JS: We like to call it Electro-Pop, which we may very well be calling our debut album this summer.  Seeing what LMFAO, David Guetta, and a few others are doing is very exciting. We feel like we're definitely doing our part by putting artists like Pitbull, Trina and Honorebel on our beats.  When it comes to good music, there really are no genres or borders.

On the Jump Smokers shop, it seems like Johnny Digital design all the t-shirts himself.  How did you guys get involved in designing your own merchandise?  Are there any plans for Jump Smokers to dive into fashion?

JS: What makes us different than many artists is that we have a silent member (Johnny Digital) who designs all our logos, artwork, websites, t-shirts, etc. We thought in this day and age the visuals are as important as the music!  Check out all of our merch at www.jumpsmokersgear.com.

What can we expect from Jump Smokers in 2010 (i.e. a new singles/album, concerts, etc)?  What would you guys like to accomplish in the future?

JS: 2009 was just the appetizer; 2010 is shaping up to be a MONSTER year for us!  We're gonna drop our official first single very soon,then our Mariah Carey Vs. Jump Smokers remix album, and then our debut Jump Smokers album.  Looks like we potentially have a pretty big summer tour to hop on but we can't announce that just yet..soon though!

Finally, do you guys have a message for your fans?

JS: We have some of the most devoted fans.  All we can say is thanks for all the love and support!  We promise the best is still to come.

Official Site: www.jumpsmokers.com

Merch: www.jumpsmokersgear.com

Twitter: @JumpSmokers

Facebook: Jump Smokers

MySpace: Jump Smokers