Baton Rougeans might know him as James Merritt, but around the country he’s making a name for himself as “DJ Deaf.” After DJing smaller shows around Baton Rouge for a few years, Merritt eventually received a phone call gauging his interest in turning his hobby into a profession. Just days later, he was signed on as the official DJ of the Harlem Globetrotters. That means a new city every night, playing in front of full arenas for one of the most popular and longest running shows in the country. As if that weren’t enough, this budding entrepreneur is also a DJ for Max 94.1, a licensed realtor, the founder behind Don’t Ever Accept Failure Clothing and is working to start a nonprofit, Deaf Foundation, to help Baton Rouge area children develop leadership and communication skills. But the journey getting here wasn’t always easy. Merritt opens up below.
225: Are you from Baton Rouge originally?
James Merritt: I’m from Los Angeles, California. After my parents retired, we moved to a small town called Dry Prong, Louisiana. From there, after high school, is when I made my way down to Baton Rouge.
225: What’s the meaning behind your name, DJ DEAF?
JM: DEAF is an acronym. The name came from someone I was involved with. She was actually deaf. She was a dancer, and we got on a conversation about how are you able to keep up with everybody else. Music is really about more than just hearing it; it’s a feeling. So I came up with the acronym after we went our separate ways, Don’t Ever Accept Failure. Later on down the road, I kind of hit a rock and a hard place, where I was living out of a Motel 6. I really didn’t know what was going to happen or what I was supposed to do, but DJing kept calling my name and that’s whenever I just kind of sat down and came up with the acronym.
225: How much of that story would you be willing to share?
JM: All of it. I want to say it was 2008 or 2009. I had a fallout with a friend of mine, and I really didn’t know where I was going to go. I had options of where I wanted to go and where I could go. I remember I packed all of my stuff up, I put it in my truck and I checked into a Motel 6 on Siegen Lane. I went to school that night and DJ’d later on that night. That’s whenever I was telling a friend of mine what happened, and he said that I could go stay with them as long as I need. And I said no, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to figure this out. About six days later I was able to get a turnaround where I was finally able to get a place. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was somewhere that I needed to go. I got my place and I was living with my friend Antonio, and I stayed there for about seven months. That’s when I blocked myself off from the entire world. I didn’t really talk to anyone except for my family. Whenever I slowly came back around, that’s whenever I was thinking, I’m here, I’m ready to DJ and I’m going to figure this out. Then things started to slowly fall in place. I got a contract while I was working with two friends of mine. We pulled this contract with LSU where I was doing the music for LSU Athletics for men’s and women’s basketball and football. This was also around the same time where I was starting to get a lot of attention from sororities and fraternities and some local bars around. Then I started getting calls about doing concerts here or there.
225: When did you first start DJing and when did you realize it was something you wanted to pursue as a profession and not just a hobby
JM: In 2007 is when I really started to do it, and 2008 I’d say is when I got really serious about it. It was a fraternity show actually. They had the Ying Yang Twins come out and I think about three or four days later, a record label in Baton Rouge called Bayou Boy Entertainment wanted to pick me up. I met with them and they signed me onto their record label. Then things just slowly started to gradually progress. I would say that was the first thing that told me, maybe I’m actually good at this instead of just doing this for fun. As soon as that happened, it was more of like, this is what I’m going to do. I always used to tell myself that I’m going to make this happen, and it finally did. I would write it down, I’d envision it and I would manifest it until it finally came.
225:How would you describe your DJing style?
JM: I would say that it’s an open-format style. I don’t like to sit and stay with one genre of music because that’s not what I grew up on. I grew up around a whole bunch of different genres. Whether its hip hop or jazz or I even grew up around a lot friends that listen to country, so I try to take a lot of that and formulate my own style. I don’t like to stick to just one.
225:Who are some DJs or artists who are influential to you?
JM: There’s a ton. Locally, I used to ride around Baton Rouge and I would always listen to Kool DJ Supamike on the radio. I remember telling myself at one point, one day I’m going to be able to DJ with him or beside him in some kind of way. Now, I work with him at the radio station, so that’s kind of cool. Other influences would be DJ AM, who passed away a few years ago. Jazzy Jeff is another one. The list goes on. Another local DJ out in Lafayette is Digital. It’s crazy some of the things he puts together. The list of people who have influenced me over the years is endless.
225: How did the opportunity with the Globe Trotters come about?
JM: It was just a phone call. I had a friend of mine on Facebook who made a post and said if you want to travel and DJ, send me your press kit and we’ll see what can happen. I was in Dallas and I sent him what I had and didn’t think too much of it. That following Monday, I got a phone call and was actually just finishing up with a client selling a house. I almost didn’t answer it, but whenever I did, he said it was the Globe Trotter Organization and he broke down the details to me. They asked me if I was interested and I told them yeah I was.
225:So how long have you been with the Globe Trotters? What’s a day in the life like as the Globe Trotter’s DJ?
JM: I started that back in February. I think it’s more mental than physical being that you are traveling a lot. You have to kind of be in that mindset that you’re doing the same thing over and over again, but there’s so many different people that you come across that have never seen the show, so you always have to be on you’re A-game. It’s like anything that you do, you’ve got to be appreciative of it. From top to bottom, you have a call time, you go to the venue then go to the arena to get prepared. You get set up and you have your meeting with the team and the staff and then it’s go time. You’ve got to be on top of your game. Even though trial and error happens, you’ve got to be creative. It’s never about me. It’s a team effort and you’ve got to make sure everyone out there is having a good time.
225: What are your responsibilities like in-game?
JM: It depends on certain parts of the show. It’s like one of the coaches told me, before anybody else comes out there, you have to get the energy level up for the crowd. It makes it a lot easier when (the team) comes out and do their thing if (the crowd) is already excited and already into it. You have to set that tone. As far as during the game, there may be times where I’m interacting with the players. There may be a couple times where during a time out, I have to go out there and interact with the fan. But most of the time, I’m running the soundtrack and the music throughout the whole entire game.
225: You mentioned your real estate ventures, what other businesses do you work with?
JM: I’m in real estate in Texas and Louisiana. I’m licensed to both sell and buy and I’m also getting in on the investment side too. Then the clothing line that I started is called Don’t Ever Accept Failure Clothing. It’s based off the name DEAF. It’s more of a motivational shirt, which is for anyone and everyone. DEAF is not just me, everybody goes through problems and everybody has a failure. Even though you fail, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to accept that failure as your last. That’s really kind of the meaning behind it, because everything I’ve gone through, if I would have just said screw it and walked away, I don’t know where I would be right now. Thankfully prayers were answered and I’m still going. Then something that I’m working on now is the DEAF Foundation. The main focus for that is for kids that don’t necessarily have the tools as far as leadership, communication skills, work ethic and stuff like that. Letting them know that even though you don’t learn a lot of that stuff in school, this is going to be a place you can come and learn these tools that you’re going to have in every day life. In college, they don’t really teach you a lot of the stuff you’re going to have to learn. You get the paper and you go out there and it’s like, now what? It’s going to be a non-profit, and I’m going to try to focus on Baton Rouge and my hometown in Dry Prong, Louisiana. I want the primary focus with that to be helping kids and high school students prepare for every day life.
This article was originally published in the November 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.
