Music
Press
XM Radio show's 2007 Interview of Jay Rags during the 07 Virgin Festival weekend...on Baltimore's local House scene and upcoming happenings.
www.redbullonthemove.com - Red Bull On THE MOVE
Discography
I am a dj of soulful House/Dance music that incorporates several accomplished musicians. Most of which have played on recorded songs, but I seek the most talented and unique musicians when playing. DJ set will often break down into a slower pace with vocals and dancers or even a mini fashion show.
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Bio
Jay Rags(John Johnson Personal bio: Spoken-Word/Poet/DJ/Promoter)
John “Jay Rags” Johnson was born in Baltimore and was a part of the generation in the USA that created House Music, Hip-Hop, and breakdancing. He grew up listening to some of the records that my mother had laying around after her house parties of the 1970’s. Which was the ignition for his love for music. He loves House music and created and designed the Baltimore based House music website Blackbookscafe.com in 2002. It was put together so lovers of either the soulful House music scene or the local Poetry/Open-mic scenes could go and get info on upcoming events around town. The site had pictures from events, flyers, comments, and even streaming music mixes. It was a strong spoke in the wheel to revive the local House music scene in the Baltimore area. Each year he would to a big review for folks that couldn’t make the Winter Music Conference in Miami. The site even had interviews from producers, singers, dj’s, musicians, etc. Blackbookscafe.com had over 50,000 hits in 3 years without message board traffic. He am also the co-founder of Collectiveminds.org; a collective of dj’s, promoters, singers, dancers, etc from the Baltimore/DC area. It now has quite a few members and is now a non-profit organization.
He has promoted and managed music, dance, and poetry events in the Balto/DC area for years. He is the creator of the Soul Fiesta party that ran for nearly 4yrs ending 12/2006, creator of the Soul Imani open-mic poetry/performance night @ Urban Blends Coffee house in Randallstown(2004-05), co-founder of Collective Minds(2004-present), and creator of Studio Sessions Live!.
Soul Fiesta was an underground dance party that targeted people that really liked to dance to soulful House music. There were many live performances that kept the party really artistic. He managed everything about the party including designed the flyers, picking them up, distributing the flyers, purchased the sound system, setup the sound system most times, took pictures, video taped the party, designed the webpage, recorded the dj sets, paid/negotiated the space rental, helped manage the door, cleaned up after the party, gathered new emails, sent out the emails, booked talent for live entertainment, and whatever was required to turn a space into a dance place. Soul Imani was an open-mic poetry and performance night that featured poets, singers, musicians, and book signings for authors. Collective Minds is now a collection of approximately 25+ local(Balto/DC) producers, promoters, dj’s, singers, dancers, and music lovers that get together each year to have a huge family music showcase and picnic in Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park. Studio Sessions Live is a live studio/performance concept that featured live acts performing at Baltimore’s Artscape Festival in a booth/tent designed to look like a recording studio. My first Studio Sessions Live event featured over 50 artists(musicians, singers, poets, and mc’s). Baltimore’s Artscape Festival (www.blackbookscafe.com/ssliveatArtscape.htm) has a few hundred thousand visitors over the 3 day festival.
He is an audiophile that loves live music and now uses dj’ing for his musical release. He’s been featured on XM satellite radio Channel 80 “The Move”(interview & mix set), Handzonradio.com and pressureradio.com(internet radio). A nice interview and mix of me can be found at the redbullonthemove.com website under the Virgin Music Festival. He’s had a weekly residency in the VIP room of Baltimore’s Latin Palace as well as private parties. Promoting and producing so many events means accumulating quite a bit of sound equipment saving money when putting on future events. Over time he has also learned how to setup the whole sound system from start to finish and really love all the nuances that go into putting on a nice live show. He is a Computer Network Specialist by profession and a Microsoft Certified Professional. His personal hobbies include web design, promoting, graphic/flyer design, photography, dj’ing, writing, and Poetry/Spoken Word. One of his spoken-word pieces(“Tribe Called Soul Fiesta”) was featured on the 2006 “Spiritual Journey” dance album by producer/DJ Oji on the POJI record label. In 2008 a new event was created that was an all day fashion & live music show called Rags-N-Rhythms at the very touristy Baltimore Inner harbor. It was the 2008 version of Studio Sessions Live! Currently Jay Rags is working on a new monthly underground party in downtown Baltimore where he can bring live music and dancing to the soulful dance community.
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