You'd never know it to see him on stage, when he's rhyming with verbal dexterity and making lyrical connections between subjects as disparate as old TV shows, hip-hop culture and a sports jersey some dude in the crowd is wearing. But one of Wilmington's best-known, longest serving and most prolific rappers is a big introvert.
Super introverted," Fuzz Jackson, aka Fuzz Jaxx, said recently at the house and studio off Oleander Drive he shares with his friend and roommate, Wilmington sound engineer Owen Dollar. "But I get such a high from being on stage. I gotta have it. I gotta have that feeling."
For more than a quarter-century, Jackson's strong, confident voice, pop-culture-literate rhymes and trademark, rapid-fire delivery have been part of Wilmington's musical landscape, both as a solo artist and as a lyricist and rapper with one of Wilmington's most beloved (albeit disbanded) all-time groups, the jazz/hip-hop combo Organix, which drew crowds throughout the 2000s.
Jackson still performs with McClain Sullivan, who sang with Organix, as part of the Fuzz and Mac duo, a neo-soul outfit that pairs Sullivan's golden voice with Jackson's raps.
Commercial and financial success might have eluded him thus far, something Jackson was quick to talk about and brought up during a recent interview. But he achieved artistic success long ago — not to mention the respect of his peers on the Wilmington scene, who regard him as an elder statesman of rap, a rapper's rapper if you will.
Fuzz is cool, a huge inspiration. He's like a big brother, someone to look up to," said Wilmington rapper Sheme of Gold, who recently guested with Jackson on the song "Quadruple-Double" from Wilmington hip-hop group The Third Element. "He was telling us about, like, his record deal and just all these things that he's been through. … I hear all this stuff and I'm just like a kid at story time, I'm sitting crisscross applesauce."
Sheme then added what's probably the most common accolade Jackson gets: "He's a great freestyler." (Freestyling is hip-hop's version of improv, when a rapper takes the mic and delivers fresh material off the top of his head.)
James Tritten of Wilmington's Fort Lowell Records — which released music by Jackson and the hip-hop producer CoolOutSessions in 2024 as part of "This Water Is Life, Vol. IV," an environmentally conscious album series in which Wilmington hip-hop artists share space with indie rockers — took his praise of Jackson a step further.
"Fuzz is the greatest legend ever," Tritten said. "I just hope more people get to understand how amazing he is."
Jackson's story starts in Georgia, where he grew up watching old TV shows and movies with his father and listening to such hip-hop legends as Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, Run-DMC and Kurtis Blow.
Georgia is where Jackson started rapping with Shaft, the hip-hop group that brought him to Wilmington in the mid-1990s to play the old Mid-Atlantic Sound, Surf and Skate festival, aka MASSS.
"We were almost signed, then found out the label was broke," Jackson said.
By the late '90s Shaft was no more and Jackson was in Wilmington full-time.
He's seen Wilmington's hip-hop and music scenes go through multiple eras, from rap battles at the long-since-closed bars Bessie's and Oasis to hip-hop nights at 16 Taps (where Bourgie Nights is now) to dozens (if not hundreds) of shows with Organix to the days of camaraderie at the old Soapbox music venue, where hip-hop acts, indie rockers and metal bands would sometimes share the same bill.
Jackson is one of the few Wilmington musicians to have bridged all these eras, and he's opened up for hip-hop legends including Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco and Killer Mike.
Since the pandemic Jackson has rocked the mic at Luna Caffe's Tiny Caffe series on Castle Street and with Sullivan at The Sandspur in Carolina Beach. He's got a show booked Jan. 9 at Tavern Law downtown with his old friend and collaborator DJ Battle.
Jackson has recorded a voluminous amount of material over the years, and one could spend hours exploring his Bandcamp page.
On his latest single, "Champions," an old song off Jackson's "Dusty Rhodes" mixtape remixed by CoolOutSessions, sports references bump up against pop culture as Jackson compares himself to "Kobe in the booth/ Watch me close this out" or calls himself the "Talented Mr. Ripley/ Believe it or not … Bet on black?/ You better bet on Jaxx."
His 2025 single "The City Loves Me," with P-Grant, takes a less braggadocious tone, with Jackson rapping about having "$1.40 in my pocket … The city shows love but it can be heartless."
"Welcome to Hip Hop" from "This Water Is Life, Vol. IV" drops a reference to Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian because Jackson's "losing patience … You could live a nightmare/ Trying to chase your dreams."
Jackson said he sees Fuzz Jaxx as his "alter ego," an introvert who becomes an extrovert on stage. "That's Fuzz Jackson," he said. "That's who that guy is."
He said he almost quit music during the pandemic but hearing beats a friend cooked up brought him back.
"I can't see myself doing anything else," Jackson said. "It's like a marriage I got into, and even though sometimes she treats me bad, I stuck around. I'm like the male version of Peg Bundy. I just take it and stick with it because I love it so much."
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| Fuzz Jaxx |
