It’s going to take a lot more than Jazzy Joyce (and hype from out of touch writers) to convince the greater rap community that Diggy Simmons isn’t a joke.
Little did I know that I would be called to task for my opinion by DJ Jazzy Joyce, who happened to be sitting behind Esquire preparing for her appearance as the day’s guest lecturer. For those who don’t know, Jazzy is a deejay who came up in the Bronx’s Forest Hills Projects with Fat Joe and the rest of the D.I.T.C. crew. She spent almost a decade working as one of the deejays on Hot 97’s “Ladies Night,” though as far as I’m concerned her greatest contribution to hip hop thus far has been her work with Sweet Tee on the classic 80’s cut It’s My Beat
In any event, as you might guess with a dj who’s been around since the 80’s and who’s spent a large part of her career at Hot 97, Jazzy is a friend of the entire Simmons family and, not surprisingly, was obligated to defend the young Simmons’ honor. After a quick back-and-forth, I was forced to concede that Diggy is certainly a better emcee than his older brother Jojo, occasionally even showcasing a surprisingly nuanced flow on the mixtape. If Diggy was an unknown, unsigned, young emcee I would have been a lot more forgiving of his efforts here. With an official record deal, though, expectations for any artist become considerably higher and I just don’t think he’s quite ready for prime time yet. The biggest problem is that, at such a young age and having grown up in such a privileged environment, Diggy just doesn’t have a whole lot to say yet. Certainly he’ll have experiences further on in life to share with his listeners, but at this point his lyrics consist of little more than talk about his family’s wealth and celebrity, talk that’s only interrupted by the repeated, and hard to believe, protests that the success he’s had as an emcee has not been aided by either his father or Uncle Russ.
