As a producer and one of the founding members of the seminal rap group Public Enemy, Keith Shocklee has been defining and defying musical genres for over 30 years. Cited as one of the top ten hip hop producers for his past work with Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Paula Abdul, Sinead O’Conner and Janet Jackson among others, Keith was involved at the inception of not just a new musical art form, but a culture whose language, fashion and perspective have permeated everyday life for billions of people worldwide. Over the years Shocklee has lent his talents to more than 20 platinum albums and he still continues to break new ground as a principal and artistic leader of Power5, a global talent management and marketing/branding company. A longtime fan of HARMAN JBL loudspeakers, Shocklee and the Power5 DJ’s have recently been using JBL PRX600 Series powered portable loudspeakers for live DJ gigs while using LSR4300 Series studio monitors for writing and producing new music.
“I do a lot of DJ work and recently needed to make some changes to my live DJ system, so who do I go to? Where else… JBL,” said Shocklee. “JBL has been a staple of every club in Manhattan—it was the sound of dance music! I came up in the music industry mostly on the mobile DJ side, and we always tried to use JBL. I used a lot of different brands of speakers, but JBL was always at the heart of everything, and they were the speakers I kept coming back to.”
Shocklee points out the many advantages of the JBL PRX600 Series loudspeakers, which feature built-in Crown® class-D amplifiers in light, compact, road-tough enclosures. “Any DJ who knows what they’re doing wants to have JBL loudspeakers and Crown amplifiers, and with the PRX Series you have Crown amps built right into the speakers,” Shocklee said. “That is a tremendous advantage and the sound quality is beyond comparison.”
In addition to the sound quality, Shocklee noted the importance of light weight for a mobile rig. “I see friends of mine using subwoofers that need to be carried by three people,” he said. “I can carry a PRX618S sub by myself with no problem. And it’s amazing that you’re getting just as much impact from this lightweight box as you were with the old school speakers. I can take a couple of PRX618S subs and a few PRX615M main speakers to a gig and I don’t even need any help.”
This portability has become even more important as the opportunities for mobile DJ’s have grown in recent years. “Mobile DJ’s are really making a comeback,” Shocklee noted, “for parties in the parks, basketball tournaments in the summer, loft parties and other events, and the PRX speakers are perfect for DJ’s to take with them to any gig.”
In addition to his DJ work, Shocklee creates movie scores and does music production in his Power5 studios, relying on JBL LSR4300 Series studio monitors in a 5.1 surround sound configuration. “I built a surround sound system for my film scoring setup, and I like to know that when I perform that music live it will sound the same,” Shocklee added. “The LSR studio monitors give me that accuracy and I know I can trust my mixes to sound the way I intended when I’m listening to them on another system.”
“I take my technology very seriously, and I compare a lot of products to get things right,” Shocklee concluded. “JBL delivers the clarity I need when I go from a studio environment to a live environment.”
