"H.I.M." is an historic contemporary radio memoir of my career as an on-air personality ("Disc Jockey" or "DJ") with stories of the mentors I was blessed with and some of the fun and not-so-fun adventures I experienced. Additionally, I share short stories and lessons learned in and outside of broadcasting, inspired by my journey through life to that point, and some of the other people I met along the way in-pursuit of growth and recognition on and off of the airwaves. I chronicle some of the games that people in power play, to make success difficult for some talents in this part of show business, as well as how I tried to overcome obstacles thrown in my path.
About the Author: Mr. Naphtali Jimi Bruce, a metro NYC club DJ, radio personality, writer, emcee, voice-over artist, actor/model and sometime stand-up comic during the last five decades and raised in New York City. He learned to play trumpet and drums in his adolescent years. In his senior year in high school, in a gymnasium party, he discovered that people liked his selections as a disc jockey on primitive BSR and Garrard turntables, using just a microphone mixer between them. He took that energy and became a reliable DJ during his ensuing college years, graduating from Adelphi University, Long Island with an English/ Communications Bachelor of Arts degree. He views his four years of college as "the best four years of my life." For his senior project at Adelphi, he created a mock radio station in which he assembled some of his classmates to play key roles from management to talent. The station was WABA (Adelphi Black Announcers), and the slug line was "WABA THIS...WABA THAT" with appropriate reverb audio. Jimi's "On-location" interviews include recording artists like Chaka Khan, Shannon, Unique Monique, Jade Starling, Chris Cox, Cuba Gooding, Sr., Information Society, and jazz giants Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Nancy Wilson and many more. He has emceed shows introducing the likes of Kurtis Blow at the legendary Roseland with Chuck Leonard, The Isley Brothers, Joceylyn Brown and recently introduced the Wailers at an outdoor concert featuring George Clinton. His DJ gigs include Studio 54, Leviticus, Down Under, Limelight, the Tunnel, NV, Decades and others. Jimi recalls, "I used to love to hang in the booth with Larry Levan as he worked his magic at the [Paradise] Garage, overnight into the middle of the next day..." [Greenwich Village] I always felt so honored that he let me hang out in the DJ booth! An avid cyclist, Jimi says he often finds the answers to pressing personal problems and even things to write while out on a ten-speed bike ride. Favorite authors are E.A. Poe, Chaucer, Shakespeare and more recently, McInerney, Poitier and Easton Ellis. Always one to have an independent mind and vision for himself, he plans to continue to combine his voice-over, modeling, DJ business and writing into a successful and comfortable future. "It is hard to be me", he says "I have been thrown so many curves by people that I wanted to trust, that now I have to just look within, and be thankful for my Mum, Pop and those who believe in me."