For any young artists wanting respect, they’d best be prepared to play a waiting game. Their time will come. When the ageing process kicks in.

So where there was a lot to like about DJ Jazzy Jeff back in the day when he was recording with the Fresh Prince, there wasn’t a lot to look up to. But now the arch turntablist born Jeffrey Townes finds himself a middle-aged role model. The Return of The Magnificent is the follow-up to 2002’s The Magnificent which saw him cherry-pick the finest artists from his native Philadelphia to collaborate with.

The cast list for that album read like a Who’s Who of the Pennsylvanian music scene, featuring, as it did, Shawn Stockman (from Boyz II Men), Jill Scott, Pauly Yamz and Baby Blak. For The Return of The Magnificent, Townes looked further afield to recruit even bigger names, including Big Daddy Kane, De La Soul, and Method Man. As Jeff reveals: “When creating this project I picked up the phone and called all the people I have ever wanted to work with.”

None of these guest artists overshadow the artist orginally known as Mixmaster Jeff, though. The sound sounds so accomplished, but Townes has never taken music lessons. As he explains, there’s never been a need: “I play a thousand instruments in my mind and that’s where I compose the music. I can create the beats that will make you cry or dance or want to celebrate, the turntable is the instrument I play.”

So no-one’s bum rushing the show. Even Will Smith who makes a non-rapping cameo. Who’d have thought this is only the second solo album Jeff’s recorded?

(4½/5)