They're Golden

There are just minutes to go before you're supposed to walk out onstage in front of a field full of Coachella revellers eagerly awaiting your first show in seven years. But then disaster strikes. A crew member drops a vital piece of your crewmate's gear. What do you do? Do you panic and lose your cool? Start yelling and throwing your weight around? Or refuse to go onstage until everything is fixed, turning an eager crowd impatient and frustrated.

If you're Mark Potsic, better known as Nu-Mark, the renowned DJ from hip hop collective Jurassic 5, you don't do any of those things. Instead, you pull out your smartphone and get your picture taken with one of the most famous musicians in the world.

“That was absolutely the craziest show I've experienced,” Potsic admits. “What people don't know about Coachella is that five minutes before myself and Cut Chemist were rolled out on stage we had a major equipment failure. Our engineer dropped Cut's portable turntable and the needle shattered, and as that happens Sir Paul McCartney walks up.

“This is about the time where a bubble appears over my head that says 'Nu-Mark, do you help Cut with his needle problem or take a picture with the best melody arranger in the world?' So, I took a few pics with Paul and I told him he's my Gemini twin. He winked at me and I handed Cut a spare needle.”

Luckily Jurassic 5 also have plenty of friends at events like this and fellow DJ, Z-Trip, was on hand to lend his expertise. “As they roll our risers full of DJ equipment on stage, Z-Trip is super-glueing a needle into a portable turntable and blowing on it so it dries. Yeah, first show in seven years and the group still crushed it. Proud of 'em!”

It was a triumphant return for a group known for the dynamism of their performances. With a return to the original line-up that includes Cut Chemist and Chali 2na, it wasn't long before offers to do international tours were flooding in, Australia top of the list. “The Aussies truly understand us and have been so supportive since day one. We had a great time playing with The Roots out there in 2003.”

Potsic says the break was needed to refresh everyone's batteries but it didn't take long to turn the clock back once everyone was back in the rehearsal room. “After going through some of the songs in rehearsals it was like getting back on a bike after an extended vacation. The MCs laughed about how intricate and detailed some of the verses were, while Cut and I were trying to figure out how to create an entirely new DJ experience. All in all I'd say we started to feel the chemistry in an hour or so especially with all the jokes.”

It's an intriguing prospect, fitting a primarily positive big name live hip hop group back into the modern musical landscape - especially now J5's most similar peers, The Roots are almost better known as a TV backing band. Potsic says the group are used to being out of step with the industry. “We've never fitted into anything. We are truly misfits when it comes to conventionalism in the music industry. That's part of the reason why people are still intrigued with our chemistry.”

The positivity that became the group's trademark wasn't always considered a good thing by the group itself. “Actually, that positivity created a challenge for us. The masses need to know where to categorise music. At that time the average consumer was used to jiggy, thugged-out hip hop to the point of not knowing if there was anything out there that differed in style. That mind-set made it tough for us to break into new markets. It was our stage presence that catapulted our name in front of new audiences who were eager to hear something other than Top 40 hip hop.”

Despite the challenges, J5 were able to make their difference work for them and their breakthrough album, Quality Control, recently ticked over Gold sales in the US, an achievement Potsic is very proud of.

“For me that's really a big deal because it's so tough to sell anything physical these days in the music industry. With all the piracy that has now become acceptable and almost expected, it really brings a smile to my face to hear that we sold Gold on an underground hip hop LP. At the time it was released Interscope was struggling to figure out how to sell Jurassic 5 albums because the other artists on the label, Dre, 50 and Eminem, were selling records left and right and almost made it look easy. For us, we really had to perform in every market and battle a ton opposition.”