With the likes of Mark Ronson, Lupe Fiasco, Trevor Nelson and Chris Moyles unable to get enough of the original ninja - Mr Jaguar Skills - the rise (and rise) of this ground-breaking artist has been well documented.
Honing his craft and love of music for the last 15 years Jag has remained true to his school and kept a mysterious edge to his character; with details of his real name, age and home town etc left largely unconfirmed
The first documented reports of the whereabouts of Jaguar Skills come from the rarely released scriptures of a secret mountain based Ninja camp in Japan. It is here that Jaguar Skills completed many years of intense training in the art of Ninja DJing.
Supposedly training on the turntables for up to 25 hours a day (that’s right - Ninja DJ’s can mould the space-time continuum to suit their needs) Jaguar Skills built up an extraordinary capacity for aural memory which meant that he was building a monumental back catalogue of music that he could draw on whilst behind the wheels of steel.
This ability to out-train his peers and mentally retain every record he heard meant he eventually developed his skills to such levels that he himself attained the rank and status of his mystical teachers. It was at this point that Jaguar Skills decided to further his understanding for his craft through bidding farewell to Japan taking his skills on road.
It has been muted that this will one day serve Jaguar Skills when he returns to Japan to pass on his mystical arts to future Ninja DJs. Luckily for us, he chose the UK his place of residence due to the rare musical pastiche on offer, and it is here that we currently find him demonstrating his mash up skills.
Using his Japanese contacts, Jaguar Skills first gained recognition by producing a mixtape CD for fashion label Maharishi. The 60 minute CD was created, looped, produced and cut entirely on 2 mini walkmen. It was the first of its kind and received top reviews in key publications.
The next few years saw Jag build his DJ profile, playing at various places across London including ‘Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes’ in an arty east London bar; an uber-cool soiree that played everything from Hip-Hop, to Rock, Ragga to Disco. Here he pushed his signature sound of lightning speed mixing to fans on a regular basis.
Things moved up a notch in 2004 when Jaguar Skills caught the eyes (and ears) of fashionista and renowned music lover Jade Jagger. He was invited to move to Ibiza and become resident at her world famous Jezebel parties. As ever, Ibiza turned into the world as Jag started to play globally with the Jezebel parties including Russia, Hong Kong and across Europe. The following year he produced the tune "We Love You" for US mega rapper Lupe Fiasco which featured UK Emcee Sway and was subsequently released on the net.
2006 was one of Jaguar Skills finest moments yet - he created the mixtape "1979-2006: A Hip-Hop Odyssey - 800 Tracks In 45 Minutes". A never been done before project, he mixed every Hip-Hop hit from 1979 to 2006, and played them in order of their release, from the first ever Hip-Hop record to the latest one to date. A simple task for Ninja with a now infamous mental catalogue of every track ever produced. It naturally caused an internet storm and through its original idea and skillful mixing it really put Jag on the map.
After one month on the net this monstrous mix had been downloaded over a MILLION times. It was also played twice in a row on Mistajam's BBC 1xtra show and Radio 1 star Colin Murray split the mix up, and played a part of it every week on his show for a staggering 10 weeks.
The summers of 2006 and 2007 saw a continuation of the Jezebel residency and more productions in the form of "We On", again for Grammy-winning friend Lupe Fiasco and it was first signing to his label Gemstones. A video was subsequently made and created a healthy buzz on the Hip-Hop scene.
Fast forward to 2009 and Jaguar Skills profile has gone from strength to strength. The end last year saw Jag complete his sell out ‘Vodka Ninja Tour’ at a series of Revolution bars across the UK. This followed a jam packed year of shows at the likes of Bestival, V Festival, Snowbombing, T in the Park and clubs such as Pacha London and Fabric!
On top of the weekly 10 Minute Mash Up Mix for the Trevor Nelson Show the original ninja also has a quarterly ‘In New DJs we Trust’ slot on BBC Radio 1! Jag’s ’30 years of Hip Hop’ mix proved its already timeless quality as it formed an integral part of Radio 1's Hip-Hop celebrations.
The love from the Radio 1 camp continued as Jag completed his ‘Gaming Mix’ which saw him mix retro game tunes with works of some of the biggest recording artists in the world to create a unique musical experience. Jag also launched his merchandise store via his website where fans of the original ninja can pick up the latest T-Shirts emblazoned with the Ninja DJ catchphrase ‘HoooooooooooOOOOOOO’
And the start of 2010 has been just as impressive. Jaguar Skills has already been invited back to Bestival as one of their resident’s for 2010, he has become a resident at Gatecrasher Birmingham, and of course there is the release of his first major label compilation release set for 26th April!
With a tour planned for April and plenty of festival requests it seems 2010 is going to be another hectic chapter in the chronicles of Jaguar Skills!
To see Jaguar Skills – date changes (shows moved to June):
Friday 4th June Leeds Faversham
Saturday 5th June Liverpool Korova
Sunday 6th June Manchester Deaf Institute
Wednesday 9th June London O2 Academy Islington
With the likes of Mark Ronson, Lupe Fiasco, Trevor Nelson and Chris Moyles unable to get enough of the original ninja - Mr Jaguar Skills - the rise (and rise) of this ground-breaking artist has been well documented.
Honing his craft and love of music for the last 15 years Jag has remained true to his school and kept a mysterious edge to his character; with details of his real name, age and home town etc left largely unconfirmed
The first documented reports of the whereabouts of Jaguar Skills come from the rarely released scriptures of a secret mountain based Ninja camp in Japan. It is here that Jaguar Skills completed many years of intense training in the art of Ninja DJing.
Supposedly training on the turntables for up to 25 hours a day (that’s right - Ninja DJ’s can mould the space-time continuum to suit their needs) Jaguar Skills built up an extraordinary capacity for aural memory which meant that he was building a monumental back catalogue of music that he could draw on whilst behind the wheels of steel.
This ability to out-train his peers and mentally retain every record he heard meant he eventually developed his skills to such levels that he himself attained the rank and status of his mystical teachers. It was at this point that Jaguar Skills decided to further his understanding for his craft through bidding farewell to Japan taking his skills on road.
It has been muted that this will one day serve Jaguar Skills when he returns to Japan to pass on his mystical arts to future Ninja DJs. Luckily for us, he chose the UK his place of residence due to the rare musical pastiche on offer, and it is here that we currently find him demonstrating his mash up skills.
Using his Japanese contacts, Jaguar Skills first gained recognition by producing a mixtape CD for fashion label Maharishi. The 60 minute CD was created, looped, produced and cut entirely on 2 mini walkmen. It was the first of its kind and received top reviews in key publications.
The next few years saw Jag build his DJ profile, playing at various places across London including ‘Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes’ in an arty east London bar; an uber-cool soiree that played everything from Hip-Hop, to Rock, Ragga to Disco. Here he pushed his signature sound of lightning speed mixing to fans on a regular basis.
Things moved up a notch in 2004 when Jaguar Skills caught the eyes (and ears) of fashionista and renowned music lover Jade Jagger. He was invited to move to Ibiza and become resident at her world famous Jezebel parties. As ever, Ibiza turned into the world as Jag started to play globally with the Jezebel parties including Russia, Hong Kong and across Europe. The following year he produced the tune "We Love You" for US mega rapper Lupe Fiasco which featured UK Emcee Sway and was subsequently released on the net.
2006 was one of Jaguar Skills finest moments yet - he created the mixtape "1979-2006: A Hip-Hop Odyssey - 800 Tracks In 45 Minutes". A never been done before project, he mixed every Hip-Hop hit from 1979 to 2006, and played them in order of their release, from the first ever Hip-Hop record to the latest one to date. A simple task for Ninja with a now infamous mental catalogue of every track ever produced. It naturally caused an internet storm and through its original idea and skillful mixing it really put Jag on the map.
After one month on the net this monstrous mix had been downloaded over a MILLION times. It was also played twice in a row on Mistajam's BBC 1xtra show and Radio 1 star Colin Murray split the mix up, and played a part of it every week on his show for a staggering 10 weeks.
The summers of 2006 and 2007 saw a continuation of the Jezebel residency and more productions in the form of "We On", again for Grammy-winning friend Lupe Fiasco and it was first signing to his label Gemstones. A video was subsequently made and created a healthy buzz on the Hip-Hop scene.
Fast forward to 2009 and Jaguar Skills profile has gone from strength to strength. The end last year saw Jag complete his sell out ‘Vodka Ninja Tour’ at a series of Revolution bars across the UK. This followed a jam packed year of shows at the likes of Bestival, V Festival, Snowbombing, T in the Park and clubs such as Pacha London and Fabric!