Co-writer of 'Friday'

DJ Pooh | Biography 2021

Actor, Film Director, Voice Actor, Host

• By Reena Chikanbanjar
• Original : June 28, 2021

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Mark Jordan, known as DJ Pooh, is an American record producer and actor best known for acting and co-writing the 1995 comedy-drama film Friday.

Who is DJ Pooh?

DJ Pooh is an American record producer, screenwriter, actor, film director, and voice actor. He began his musical career in the mid-1980s as a DJ for the West Coast hip-hop DJ crew called Uncle Jamm's Army. Pooh then produced albums for many hip-hop artists, including LL Cool J, King Tee, Ice Cube, the Dogg Pound, and 2Pac. He also transitioned his career to filmmaking, screenwriting, and acting, along with Ice Cube. The duo co-wrote the 1995 comedy film Friday. Pooh wrote and directed the films such as 3 Strikes (2000), The Wash (2001), and Grow House (2017). In addition to music and movies, he made a foray into the video game. He co-wrote the 2004 action-adventure video game titled Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Early Life

Mark Jordan, stage name, DJ Pooh, was born on 29 June 1969 in Los Angeles, California, the United States. He was a chubby kid in his childhood, due to which his family members used to call him Pooh. Pooh grew up listening to rap music. When he developed his passion for DJ'ing, he carried on with the same name, Pooh, without thinking that he would be known by the same name even after he grows old. "I guess I wasn't thinking about one day being a grown man named Pooh," he said.

Musical Career

DJ Pooh kicked off his musical career in the mid-1980s doing gigs with the hip-hop DJ crew called Uncle Jamm's Army, which was regarded as the first source for most urban music on the West Coast. Pooh became part of Uncle Jamm's Army after he auditioned in front of Rodger Clayton, a.k.a. Uncle Jamm, a co-founder of Uncle Jamm's Army. It got him the opportunity to perform on stage in front of 10,000 people. Performing in front of such a vast audience inspired Pooh to delve into the music business more seriously.

While doing gigs with Uncle Jamm's Army, Pooh transitioned from DJ to music producer. He credited Andre Romelle Young, a.k.a. Dr. Dre, for his transition. According to Pooh, Dr. Dre showed him the ropes on making mixtapes, drum machines, and other equipment outside the record players. After learning the ropes, Pooh and DJ Bobcat co-produced LL Cool J's album titled Bigger and Differ, which was released in 1987. He then produced records for hip-hop rapper King Tee's song titled 'Paybacks A M####.' In 1988, Pooh co-produced the debut studio album Eazy Duz It alongside Dr. Dre for a hip-hop group called Niggaz Wit Attitudes (NWA). The group consisted of hip-hop artists Ice Cube who became Pooh's longtime friend and collaborator throughout his career. 

In 1991, Pooh, DJ Bobcat, and Rashad Coes produced Ice Cube's album Death Certificate. The subsequent year, Pooh founded the Da Bomb record label. In the next three years, he became an in-demand producer after producing records for Tha Dogg Pound's debut studio album Dogg Food and 2Pac's second album, All Eyez on Me. He also produced Snoop Dogg's second album titled Tha Doggfather. After producing records and albums for many other artists, Pooh came out with his album titled Bad News Travels Fast, released on Atlantic Records in 1997. 

Later Pooh stepped back from the music industry after realizing that the industry runs on the hype rather than the artist's creativity. "I have a love for music that will never die but from a business standpoint there have been things that have made me step back from the music industry," Pooh shared in an interview with a news website, All Hip Hop, in November 2009.

Movie Works

While he was still a record producer, DJ Pooh stepped into film production by producing the drive-by sequence and beats in the 1991 film Boyz n the Hood. Then Pooh and Ice Cube co-wrote the 1995 buddy stoner comedy film Friday. About how he landed in screenwriting, Pooh said, "I learned a lot of the script writing process from Ice Cube and John Singleton. He had sat us down and showed us the ropes and the basic structure of screenplay writing. At the time I had an idea to do a movie that was based around Weed. I felt that Weed could be as big a star in a movie as any of the actors in it. I came to Cube with the idea and we ended up co-writing it together."

Pooh also starred in the role of Red in the movie Friday. Though it was a minor role, it was a memorable character in the film, and it also earned him wide popularity. Before landing a role in the movie, he had appeared in several videos, including Ice Cube's 1990 music video titled 'Who's The Mack.' The excitement they felt during the making of the music video led them to make films together. Directed by F. Gary Gray, Friday was a cult-smash hit as it grossed approximately $27.47 million at the box office, while it took $3.5 million to prepare it.

After Friday, Pooh wrote, directed, and acted in the 2000 comedy film 3 Strikes. In 2001, he reunited with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg for the comedy film The Wash, which was written, directed, and produced by Pooh. 

In 2011, Pooh wrote six episodes for the comedy TV series In the Flow with Affion Crockett. He then wrote and directed the 2017 stoner comedy film Grow House. Furthermore, Pooh will be co-writing with Ice Cube for the upcoming comedy film Last Friday, which is expected to release in 2022.

Grand Theft Auto (GTA)

An ardent fan of Rockstar Games and the Grand Theft Auto series, Pooh approached people who were working at Rockstar. Soon he collaborated with the Rockstar Games team and co-wrote the 2004 action-adventure video game titled Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. 

Explaining how he got the opportunity to work in making video games, Pooh said, "I'm a gamer and I've been one since back in the day. I'm not just someone that was offered a chance to work on a video game. That opportunity came because I am a gamer and had interest in it. I was a fan of Rockstar Games and the Grand Theft Auto series. I spoke to some people at Rockstar and they told me that they were thinking about bringing the series out West. They wanted to deal with people that knew and understood the Los Angeles scene and that also had script writing ability. So I got involved and worked on the script for the game and also suggested people as characters for the game."

Pooh brought the rapper Christopher Bellard, a.k.a. Young Maylay, to voice the lead character, Carl Johnson. He said, "I brought in a rap artist that I was working with named Young Maylay and he became the CJ character. I was blessed to get an opportunity to see all of the processes of video game making."

Later, Pooh served as a creative consultant for the game Grand Theft Auto V. He was also the co-writer of the online version of the game Grand Theft Auto Online. In addition, Pooh served as a host of the West Coast Classics, a radio station featured in Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online that plays West Coast rap and hip hop songs.

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