Thee Vikter Duplaix! You may have heard the name before or seen it in the liner notes to some of your favorite music. He is a talented force who happens to be a Philadelphia native singer, songwriter, musician, producer and DJ. Born into a family of musicians, his parents bolstered his natural born affection for the art form. When asked what were his early inspirations, he says, “I’ve always had music, I have never really been without it… I’ve always been a free-spirited person and I’ve been willing to go where life took me.” When he speaks of his early years, he remembers when music was everywhere in the city and live music was being played and performed in the streets. “The Doo-Wop guys were on the corners and the ‘killers’ from the neighborhoods were even romantic.”, he reflects. Taking trips to record stores like The Sound of Market (now closed) also helped him feed his voracious consumption of art. There, the local DJs would let customers hear the latest music that dropped or soon to be dropped. The new music would always hit the DJs’ hands first. This was his portal for exploration. This was his window to other things happening outside of Philadelphia.
Duplaix started his DJing when he was eleven years old. He did not have equipment at that age but his circle of friends did. Everyone knew at that young age, his DJ skillset was paramount to their own. So, they would let him use their equipment. He explains, “Everyone was striving to be DJ Cosmic Kev and/or Grandmaster Nell, they were the blueprints.” Pretty soon, word got around that if you wanted a great party… call Vikter! Although the natural progression in a DJ’s career is to go into radio, Duplaix says that he never progressed into doing radio. Instead, he started working with the legendary DJ Jazzy Jeff and that work took him in a different direction. DJ Jazzy Jeff was working with Jive Records, at the time, and the two agreed that there might be conflict of interests as it pertained to working ‘ON AIR’ with radio stations. Working for a major label and working for a radio station, being in control of what went on the airwaves, was a possible ‘bad look’. So, the two decided not to do radio in that capacity. DJ Jazzy Jeff was also in the beginning stages of starting A Touch Of Jazz Records, in which Vikter Duplaix was a huge component in the building of that empire.
Vikter Duplaix played a major role in the surge of music hitting the nation known as ‘Neo Soul Music’. He stated, “We all hated that term! That was something created by Kedar Massenberg in his working with Erykah Badu as a marketing strategy… The world just ate it up and put all soul music released, at that time, under that umbrella.” Duplaix knew he wanted to work with local artists in helping them build their sound to be showcased to the world. Through this work is where we started to see the emergence of the new wave of Philadelphia artists. Artists such as MusiqSoulchild, Carvin Haggins, Jill Scott, The Roots, Kindred The Family Soul, Bilal, Floetry, and Aaries, to name a few. He cites the fathers of the Philadelphia Sound as his role models and spent a lot of time with Gamble and Huff of Philadelphia International Records. They were basically his Godfathers when it came to mentorship. “We were inspired to be like Teddy Riley, LA Reid and Babyface. Gamble and Huff inspired us to own a label and not just simply be producers.” Vikter was only 19 years old at this time and things began to happen pretty quickly. He was running A Touch Of Jazz Records at that young age. He admits that there was a lot of money, prestige and notoriety coming at both himself and DJ Jazzy Jeff at a fast pace. With all of this, popular artists started to gravitate toward Philadelphia seeking to receive the production from their camp. This put Philly on the map, once again, as the center of where to find ‘good music’.
Duplaix explained how he had desires to create music outside the genre of RnB/Soul music. “I have creative ADD! My interests are vast and I need to explore other interests.” He also began to gain frustration for the industry and its cut throat behavior. He began to DJ more and landed significant gigs overseas. There was an audience and they were incredibly hungry for what he had to offer their party scenes. South Africa, London, Germany, the Orient and many more were totally ready to receive his artistry. Duplaix also became a ‘gun for hire’ by lending his talents to musical artists, as requested, when it came to his musical production. This allowed him to work with various artists of various genres. Relocating his home to the west coast, he has brought his “Philly-ness” to the Los Angeles club scene. He saw that the club scenes were missing an edge and he decided to give them exactly what they were missing. “On the weekends, you would not hear any popular black music in LA.” He explained that a lot of Black Hollywood of today were up and coming actors during this time period. A lot of them were just moving to the city and they felt the lack of blackness in the LA clubs. He started to fill that void in a huge way with his Kiss and Grind events.
Kiss and Grind created a cultural shift with a set of people who would be the future movers and shakers of Hollywood. He defines the Kiss and Grind parties as… “a hybrid of a Philly house party and an LA industry event.” He recalls that in its early inception, they did not include Hip Hop at all. It was a great place to hear a DJ spin lesser known album cuts from some of your favorite artists. The event grew to be so large that it was featured on the very popular HBO Max series Insecure. Duplaix explains, “Once the masses caught on to Kiss and Grind, the vibe wasn’t the same. It was more underground when it started. That is what made it a cool and hot event.” Since then, he has moved on to host other events in Los Angeles such as Velvet Nights LA but promises to bring that vibe back to Philadelphia at some point. Keep your eyes and ears open for a Vikter Duplaix hosted event. Trust me… you will thank me later.