Interview with Jay Kush
To sum myself up, I’m a Navy veteran who happened to hate the music being promoted and decided to take it into my own hands to save the world of music and bring it back to the art form it used to be.
Where are you from?
I was born in Puerto Rico but I moved to York, PA when I was 7 because my parents wanted to chase the “American Dream” and give us a better life. I joined the Navy after high school and came back to York to be close to my family after several deployments.
How long have you been making music?
On and off since I was 18. I had a homie named Matt who used to freestyle with me when I worked at Burger King. Back then I was really trash and hopped on the dope boy bandwagon to sound cool.
Once I got out of the Navy, my ex wife and I separated and I worked on my first mixtape called “The Detox” as a way of purging all I felt. My mom let me move back in with her and I took the opportunity to go to school at Full Sail University through their online courses and ended up making more music.
It didn’t pan out how I wanted it so I gave up on it until my ex broke my heart and I was fired from this startup company called ThredUp. Before I knew it I had completed another mixtape and the rest is history.
How many songs /albums have you released to date?
Technically I made a lot of f****ing music. Officially I ended up releasing two mixtapes and an EP. The first is called “The Marijuana Gospel” and the second “Babylon: Winds of Winter” which are both on Datpiff. Right now as we speak I’m working on my third mixtape called “$old Out”. I plan on making it my greatest body of work to date.
Can you tell us about your latest release and the background and inspirations behind it?
That’s easy lol. Like I said I got dumped and was heartbroken so I started making Babylon: Winds of Winter. The only problem was that the mixtape was so focused on the narration of my relationship and how it ended that I ended up making a lot of dark, moody music.
That s*** isn’t cool. People don’t wanna hear depressing was music no matter how real it is. People want the opposite of real. Trolling gets views. Tekashi 69 is the “King of NY” lol. Being lyrical isn’t cool. I seen people say J Cole is trash and puts them to sleep but that man and Kendrick are the two greatest rappers our generation produced.
Knowing that I decided to make a mixtape that people could gravitate to. But to me it felt like I was selling out because of how authentic my music is and because of that it’s called “$old Out” because I had to transform myself from being this genuine artist into something that could pass off as mainstream.
There’s an A side and B side. The A side is my life prior to selling out and the B side is me rapping as if I made it in the industry. I’m cocky af. I talk s*** and diss other rappers and brag about how great I’m doing because in all actually I’m really not. Some stuff be too hard to heal from and I know that in some way, I already sold out and the old me is dead and gone.
How have you ended up in the music industry?
I haven’t. I’m still new to so many aspects of being a true artist in the industry. I’ve never been on tour so for the most part I’m invisible. Don’t have many views or fans but the fans I do have got nothing but love for me and it inspires me to keep pushing even if I feel like saying I give up.
Fortunately for me I’ve been studying social media and seeing how things trend and go viral and I’m hoping after I shoot the next music video, being invisible won’t be a problem.
What do you think of the music industry in 2018?
It’s wack af. Don’t get me wrong, not saying all music is trash. Everything has a time and a place. Like I love Migos when I’m in my car or in the club but if I’m on my woke ish I’m listening to Kendrick and Cole.
The KOD album was flame but for the most part nothing really stuck out as classic and timeless when it came to music. The Drake vs Pusha T beef was lit. Kinda disappointed in Drake for using his album release to kind of side step what could have been an epic rap beef. Pusha violated on him and he bowed out. I think the last real beef I seen was Rick Ross vs 50 Cent. I’m not with subliminals. I’m not with the fake s***.
Then you got Kanye’s slavery was a choice remark and a half assed album to go with it. You got 69 running from the ops but then bragging about he a blood and so gangsta. XXX just got killed. The youth don’t need that energy. The world’s already f***ed with Trump as President.
So yeah 2018 has been weird, entertaining, but mostly sad because this how low we’ve fallen.
Who do you think the most influential artist?
Probably Drake or Kanye West. They’re so big they’re beyond music.
Who have you collaborated with so far in your career?
A few unsigned artists to be honest. Favorite collab was probably this track I did called SPNxSMKN with HeIsSoKool, an artist from Oxford, Miss. He was my first fan and somebody I used to plot with all the time on how we’d make it one day. I hope he out there grinding still.
How do you think you differ from other artists?
Everything I spit I really lived. I’m not gonna pretend to be a gangbanger or drug dealer. I’m trying to attract positivity to my life so in order to manifest that I got to keep the music as pure as possible.
I don’t want to be super rich. Just comfortable enough that I can take care of my family and make sure I got something to give my future kids. I don’t like jewelry or lean. I don’t pop Xans like sweet tarts. I do like fast cars and exotic women.
I’m me. Raw and unfiltered. Sometimes romantic. Sometimes political. Sometimes spiritual. I want to make my own anime one day and create the soundtrack.
I want to be more than just a rapper, I want to be the resistance to the system.
Dead or alive, who would be your dream collaboration?
Wiz Khalifa. I almost forgot about him earlier but I love Wiz. I was a fan when I joined the Navy and I remember listening to Kush n OJ and wishing I wasn’t in the Navy so I could smoke weed and f*** bad b****es.
Jay Kush x Wiz Khalifa, you know you got to smoke to that s***.
What was the first album you bought?
T.I. Presents the P$C: 25 to Life. Lol I remember because my mom is Pentecostal so she wouldn’t let us listen to rap because it was the devil’s music. After boot camp I was at the O’Hare airport bored af waiting for my flight to Mississippi.
I went to one of the stores and bought a CD player and that album to listen. Bought almost every T.I. CD after that. Had me walking around talking about “I’m the King”.
What’s your favourite song at the moment?
Other than my own lol I would have to say Jay Rock’s OSOM with J Cole. I f***s with TDE heavy. Isaiah Rashad slept on too.
If you had to sell your music collection tomorrow, what album would you leave in your draw?
None. Ima be downloading until my phone gets a virus ?.
What is your favourite saying?
Flint, MI still ain’t got clean water. I would say grab them by the p***y but Flint really needs that water. Nestle done dried up Cali but kids in Flint got to drink toxic lead…foh.
What other hobbies or interests do you have?
I love basketball. Don’t nothing feel as good as balling in the springtime. Biggest hobby would be anime though. I’m a low key otaku. I don’t give a f***. You ain’t lived until you see Goku in Ultra Instinct smacking Jiren around.
Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
Yeah one. I got an ouroborus tattoo on my left arm when I was 22 because of an anime called Full Metal Alchemist. At 25 I realized it was an Illuminati symbol for rebirth and immortality and now I want a half sleeve to cover it up.
Tell us more about your upcoming project or this new project?
It got something for everybody. You might not like the whole mixtape but you’ll at least enjoy a good half of the tape, give or take. Right now I’m working on a treatment for a music video. When that drops, the world will know Jay Kush.
What’s in the pipeline after this project?
Depends on how the public reacts. I want to blow up and go on tour, get Rihanna to fall in love with me and make classics but I might just go back to work at my job because while it’s good to dream, it’s good to be realistic.
Thank you for your time and may you carry on making great, fresh music.
Thank you for having me. Thank you to everybody reading this.
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