Midufinga Interviews: Jus Daze
Lets Begin....
M: What are your music influences?
JD: My music influences are based off of personal events that happen in my life. I know that's not what you mean lol. But I'd say I've been influenced by everything from that 90's boom bap and classic hip hop, to rock, ska, classical, opera and even more. It's crazy. I listen to what's good. My playlist might go from Nas to System of A Down to Andrea Bocelli and I wouldn't skip a beat. Good music is good music PERIOD. Why limit yourself to one sound when there's SO MUCH GREAT music to be influenced by? Sometimes music isn't even the source of the inspiration. You can hear a story your boy is telling you or an emotion your girl feels and be inspired to write a symphony. It all depends.
M: Where do you see yourself in 5 years as an artist?
JD: I see myself touching even more aspects of the industry than I do now. I've traveled many different roads since I started and now that my eyes have opened to the vast possibilities of what's out there, it's hard for me to say where I'll be. I'll definitely still be pursuing my own music as Jus Daze, but I feel as though that would be limiting my creative abilities. I've touched the aspects of commercial writing, voice-overs, multimedia production, event planning, editing and directing....it's kind of crazy. I never thought just spitting bars would lead me into writing albums about books, helping co-publish written works, and ending up the creative mind behind television commercials and products.
JD: As cliche as this sounds, it reminds me of a quote from Bubba Sparxx "I ain't choose to rhyme, rhyming chose me". Being an artist isn't something you choose, it's just something within you. You see colors differently, you hear sounds differently, you feel emotions differently and when you're able to express them, THAT'S what makes you an artist. I couldn't picture myself being anything other than an artist. I can work a 9 to 5 and I'm still going to be an artist. I can pump gas for a living, that doesn't mean I wouldn't be an artist. I don't think someone "becomes" an artist, it's just something you are naturally.
M: Would you rather be indie or mainstream and why?
JD: To be honest, there's a thin-line between the two. I think it comes down to where you see yourself more. If you're comfortable being behind the scenes, you can dip your hands in the mainstream pot. It might be harder to be a front-man on the mainstream stage, due to politics, finances, industry ins & outs, but it's still possible. Obviously there's a certain amount of regulation and requirement that comes along with it too. Think about it like a job that has a set standard of goals or expectations. Behind each artist's budget, there is a certain amount of things expected to get done, chart, cover for lawyers, appearances, etc. and it's all got to be met so rather than explore creatively, they want artists to go with what works. Indie, you have more control of that since things are more organic for the most part. Even behind the Indie scene there's a bunch of politics and and the "in" crowd that roll with the movers & shakers of the underground, but it's all about how you align yourself within those steps. When you give a person a chance to shine, they're going to do one or two things, they'll either elevate themselves or expose their flaws and eliminate themselves from further opportunity. I like double-dutching in and out of both.
M: If you could collaborate with one dead artist who would it be mad why?JD: Biggie. ALL DAY, EVERY DAY BIGGIE! His sound, message, cadence, delivery, words...they're what had the most influence on me. Growing up his words had an impact on me and even now that I'm older, when I listen it's like I find a second or third meaning behind what he said. An artist like that only comes along every so often and growing up, I had a wall of Biggie pictures/cassette covers/CD covers all taped up with a bunch of graffiti behind it. I might even still have a picture of it! As lame as that might sound, his influence on hip hop and the East Coast had a huge impact on me. A second runner-up or maybe even tie would be Pun. I did a song with Chris Rivers, which is as close to Pun as we're going to get and Chris has a HUGE possibility of creating his own legacy. Unfortunately it's not going to be easy because everyone expects him to live up to his father's legacy, which isn't fair.
M: Why did you become a battle rapper?
JD: Again, I don't think that's something I can answer as straight forward as you might like. Growing up in NYC, you HAD to battle if you rapped. You HAD to freestyle too. No written shit. You HAD to do it. If you couldn't, you wasn't about that life! Simple and plain! I decided to jump into the written leagues just by default I guess. I saw it as an opportunity to promote my music (which was and has always been my main goal) and from there I guess a few knuckle-heads fucked with me so I kept going. I got quite a number of opportunities as a result, both inside the ring and outside the ring which I'll never discredit being a result of battle rap.
JD: I dislike how saturated it's become. How everyone sounds the same. How opportunists rape the culture. It's like a bitter-sweet thing because yeah, you're happy it's "blowing up like I thought it would" but in the same breathe, it's become more susceptible to infestation and that's what begins to destroy the culture. There's a lot of things I love about it, such as the unity battle rappers that really fuck with each other, the family-like relationships that you can build, but in the same breathe, there's also the leaches and maggots that make themselves apparent. Like I said earlier, anything that creates opportunity creates the opportunity for one to elevate or expose themselves. Unfortunately, people step on people for 15 minutes of fame. "That's how the game go"
M: Toughest opponent? Dream matchup?
LINKS:
https://about.me/jusdaze
https://twitter.com/JusDaze
https://www.facebook.com/jusdaze
https://www.youtube.com/user/jusdaze
https://soundcloud.com/jusdaze
http://thebowleggedbandit.blogspot.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/walk-twice-as-hard/id751793198
https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=B5iabcojnf6ialnxasel2pbj5uu