When he was a 7-year-old kid growing up in the rough streets of the South Bronx, John Benitez`s sister used to tease her brother with the line, ”Know what I mean, Jellybean?”
”And the nickname just stuck,” explains Benitez. ”Everyone started calling me `Jellybean,` though I`m not complaining. It`s been very useful and people always remember it.”
In fact today, some 22 years later, the nickname has done far more than just stick. ”Jellybean” has become something of a trademark in the music business since the early `80s, a trademark guaranteeing an explosive sound, a blistering beat–and usually resulting in a hit.
To insiders, the legend ”Mixed by Jellybean” meant a record specially remixed and sonically supercharged for demanding dance club DJ`s and their equally demanding audiences.
For the rest of us, and the artists themselves, it meant a whole new take on songs by Madonna, Sting, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Huey Lewis and the News–the list goes on and on.
Since working his remix magic on such superstars, Jellybean has also branched out into production and films (his first producer credit was
”Holiday” for Madonna), and in 1985 he also signed a production deal with Warner Brothers to develop both new talent and his own burgeoning career as an artist.
To no one`s surprise, he quickly became the first club DJ to hit the pop Top 20 as a performer when his first album, ”Wotupski,” spawned two hits,
”Sidewalk Talk” and ”Mexican.”
Now, two years later, he has just released his second album, ”Just Visiting This Planet,” this time on Chrysalis Records. A year in the making, the sessions were squeezed in around Jellybean`s hectic, bi-coastal schedule, which has included projects for Whitney Houston, Stacy Lattisaw, The Spinners, a couple of films, and his own Jellybean/Warners acts.
As if that`s not enough, he`s also busy putting the final touches on a Greatest Hits package for former girlfriend Madonna. With such a workload, it`s not easy pinning Jellybean down. ”Jumping Bean” might be a more accurate nickname these days.
But, despite all the pressure, in person the short and soft-spoken Jellybean exudes a relaxed, easygoing charm that belies his steely
determination to get to the top. Casually but expensively dressed, and with a brand new car parked outside his publicist`s plush Los Angeles offices, he has certainly come a long way from ”the good old neighborhood,” as he refers to the tough slums of his South Bronx childhood.
”Music is probably the last thing I ever expected to become involved in as a kid,” he recalls. ”I`m a New York Rican, born and bred in the South Bronx, and although I came from a very loving and tight-knit family, the options open to any kid growing up in that environment aren`t many.
”Put it this way–most of my childhood friends are just now getting out of jail,” he continues. ”All the kids I hung out with aspired to be pimps, drug dealers or bouncers. No one was exposed to anything like art or literature, ever. Yeah, it was a real tough neighborhood,” he laughs, without much real humor.
Being small ”and somewhat sensitive,” the young Jellybean quickly learned to take the initiative, especially with his fists. ”I got into a lot of fights `cause of my size–the other kids would pick on me. So I had to hit first, or I`d get beaten up badly. The trouble is, it makes you very aggressive, and eventually I got expelled from school for being a
troublemaker.
”I don`t know if I`d have become a hardened criminal or a drug dealer,” he adds, ”but it was definitely a jungle out there. On the other hand, though I went through some heavy stuff as a kid, it also gave me an edge, a street sense, and enough common sense to help me cut through all the other —- since then.”
The young feisty Jellybean quickly parlayed his natural energy and street smarts into a budding musical career when, ”almost by mistake, I started listening to records and then choosing them for friends` parties. It just kind of grew from there, and I`d spend hours in my bedroom practicing being a DJ. It was an escape I guess.”
His first break came at 16, when he was hired by a hot local club called Charlie`s. His stack of records was so heavy that the fledgling DJ needed a friend`s help just to carry them. But once behind the turntable, Jellybean was in his element, and within a year, he`d become the darling of the New York club circuit, and the DJ of choice at such hip establishments as The Fun House, Xenon and Studio 54.
”Most people don`t realize it, but it takes a really creative person to DJ a club and keep that dance floor packed all night,” comments Jellybean today. ”Club audiences are the most demanding in the business, and one false move, one wrong record, and you`ve totally blown the evening`s mood. Do that a few times and no one wants you back.”
Apparently Jellybean never suffered such humiliation, and while steadily building his following and live reputation as the hottest club DJ in town, he also began to branch out by making his own special dance-mix versions of the records he played nightly.
”It was a logical next step for me,” he comments. ”Often I`d put on some single, and the end of the song would be so exciting, while the beginning would almost clear the dance floor. That`s when I began to experiment, and change things around and mix it up a little by adding more percussion or drums. It`s my Latin blood, I guess. I just love to hear lots of percussion.” One of Jellybean`s first experiments was a stripped-down, pumped-up remix of Irene Cara`s pop hit ”Flashdance (What A Feeling).”
The reult? Another hit, this time topping both pop and dance charts. Jellybean had ar-rived.
The young DJ quickly turned his sights on other pop targets: ”Tell Her About It,” by Billy Joel; ”Say, Say, Say,” by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney; ”Automatic” by the Pointer Sisters, to name a few, and the hits kept coming.
”I started spending more and more time in the studio, but I still loved to work live in clubs like the Fun House,” he recalls. ”That`s where you really can tell what`s happening, and where you can recharge your batteries. The club-street scene is way ahead of radio or the charts.”
At the Fun House, Jellybean made another important connection when he met Madonna. ”She was on one of my shows that also featured RUN–D.M.C. doing their first-ever performance, and they were all totally unknown then,” he reports. ”But it was already obvious to me that she had something special. People have asked me if I encouraged he. Believe me, she didn`t need any encouragement. She knew exactly what she was doing.”
Jellybean`s next big break came when Madonna hired him to produce her first big dance hit, the infectious ”Holiday.” Their working partnership soon flourished, with Jellybean later producing ”Borderline,” ”The Gambler” and ”Crazy For You,” Madonna`s No. 1 hit from the film ”Vision Quest.”
Their private relationship also flourished, generating a lot more headlines than their recording track record. ”Although it was just a relationship to me, unfortunately it coincided with her suddenly becoming this superstar. Of course it was very exciting to see it all happen for her, but it also made it difficult. The media blew everything we did way out of proporition.”
After 1 1/2 years, and just following the release of Madonna`s multiplatinum ”Like A Virgin” album, the pair decided to go their separate ways, romantically at least. ”The intense media scrutiny didn`t help,”
admits Jellybean, although he`s quick to add that ”it didn`t cause the breakup. It was like any relationship in that respect–it just didn`t work out.” The two are still great friends, he points out. ”I wouldn`t be working on this Greatest Hits package for her if we weren`t.”
A self-confessed workaholic, Jellybean admits that his current romantic attachment takes, ”a bit of back seat to my music. Since I semiretired from DJ`ing in the club scene and got more into production, my happiest moments are spent in the studio, creating.”
When he does take time out to relax, predictably Jellybean prefers to remain competitive and stretch himself mentally and physically rather than flat out on a sofa for a snooze. ”I`m an avid sports fan and I love to play basketball, especially pickup games where I can work up a sweat,” he says.
”The other thing I love to play is chess. I go to the park on a Sunday afternoon and play those old boys. They always win, but I`m improving.”
These days, however, Jellybean doesn`t have much time for either pursuit. He may have retired from the nightly grind of pleasing dance club patrons, but having successfully set his sights higher, he`s busier than ever with his own solo career, custom record label and various film projects.
In addition to recent hits for such artists as Jocelyn Brown, Jermaine Stewart and Stacy Lattisaw, Jellybean also produced the title track for Mel Brooks` ”Spaceballs,” featuring The Spinners, and is currently acting as music supervisor for another upcoming feature, ”The Principal.”
Is he afraid that he might be spreading his talents too thin? ”No way,” he states confidently, ”When I started as a DJ in the South Bronx, that was all I could see. I never dreamed I`d become a producer, an artist, have my own record label and publishing company. And I only got where I am today by taking my opportunities as they came. I`m certainly not going to stop now.”
