[Tracklist And Interview Inside]
Okay so look for this to be officially dropped right here next Tuesday. Until then, I will quench your thirst with all the artwork that will be going down with this project, and a dope convo with Jelani via the big homie 6th Sense. So check it out, and come back next Tuesday. You better get that free propane for your iPods. Also be sure to check out WaitYouCanRap.com. Enter Jelani..
PREVIOUSLY: Wait You Can Rap!? [Intro]
Jelani: Hallway, whats good?
illRoots.com: Your album.
Jelani: Thank you, I definitely appreciate that.
illRoots.com: How would you define yourself?
Jelani: I would say I'm a person who is very intune with my self. I'm a realist and very much a people person. At the same time, I have alot of balance in what I do and I am able to take a bunch of things that go through my life and roll it all into what I call myself.
illRoots.com: Word, so what was the first album you bought?
Jelani: Wow, I know this sounds rather cliche' but "Ready To Die" by Notorious B.I.G. I was nine years old when that came out. I gave my sister my birthday money so she could buy it for me. That was my first purchase.
illRoots.com: Okay so, why Rap and why now? What are your motives?
Jelani: I mean its something I have been doing since 10th grade. Due to who I was raised by father, which is Dapper Dan, and being so close to the culture, I always looked up to him and always wanted to do it. You know how some kids look up to basketball players and are all "I wanna be like Mike when I get older", I was looking up to Rakim and seeing him interact with my dad and LL and so forth. Its just something I naturally gravitated towards over time.
illRoots.com: Explain your relationship with your father for those that don't know.
Jelani: Well to give you some background, my father is Dapper Dan, who is a legendary stylist in hip-hop. He has done a host of album covers dating back to Eric B. & Rakim. He's done countless photo shoots from Jay-Z to Biggie to Pun. With me and him, he is always very supportive of the music and for a long time he didn't know I was rhyming. It was something I had picked up while I was away at prep school. That kind of goes hand in hand with the title of the project, Wait You Can Rap?!?!, because the message behind the project is bigger than rapping, but the way I applied it to my life is proving that I can rap. He is definitely one person I wanted to prove it to.
illRoots.com: One cut that you feel will make the biggest impact?
J: Wow, thats like choosing a favorite child. I'm very optimistic about the song that 6th Sense did the hook for and produced called "Like Movers And Shakers", because that showcases what we at Notherground do. First of all, its a beat that sounds more West Coast, and two New York Kids are hopping on it and making it sound so easy. To me, just that versatility and for people to hear what we in New York are doing, I think that its going to really impact and open some eyes.
illRoots.com: Give me your thoughts on 2008 hip-hop?
J: Naturally I'm a music industry major at Northeastern and I'm thinking the business side first, I'll touch on the music side in a minute. The business side, what we are seeing is that people are moving toward new formats of getting music out there. That is something that will become more prevalent as time goes on. You have people like Jay-Z whom signed that deal with LiveNation, that is going to be a predominantly touring opportunity and touring venture. Then you have free music coming out such as my album. I definately think what your seeing is that the business side is listening to what the fans want instead of dictating what they want the fans to do. In terms of the music, and people want to bash whats going on. I have to say that those cries for balance about two years ago that we thought weren't being heard are now getting heard. I think there is alot more balance in the game so I guess I can say that now 08' there is a heightened sense of balance in this.
illRoots.com: For the most part too much of one thing is always bad.
J: Yea definately.
illRoots.com: In the 80s we had so much art and now we have alot marketing. As far as newer projects what are you looking forward to getting?
J: I'm a huge Common fan so I am looking forward to that. I haven't had time to go purchase the N.E.R.D. album but I want to get that. The Lil Wayne album is very creative, I like what he did with it. I thought it was going to be more like "Lollipop" but it was more creative so its great. Right now mainly just the Common album, he keeps me focused as an emcee. As well as Nas.
illRoots.com: Whats your thoughts on Sean Bell being from the Northeast part of the United States?
J: I mean I thought the Sean Bell thing was very unfortunate. At first I thought it had to be white cops but then to see who the people were behind the trigger it was really eye opening. To see how the cops were acquitted just didn't make sense. Its definately a racial thing and many people said things about the cops getting a trial with no jury and what not. To have 50 shots fired, there was no misconduct charges, everything got thrown out. How do you fire 50 shots unarmed and nothing happened. It opened my eyes to the ,sadly, to the "justice system".
illRoots.com: Who you voting for?
J: Definately voting for Obama, the people, 6th Sense Whadddduppp.
illRoots.com: What's your reasoning for voting for Obama?
J: Mainly because I do support his views and I do think strongly that we should get the Republicans out of office. Obama as a black man, I thought I would never see this happen, with him having a viable shot for the presidency. You can ask anyone in my circle, 6 months they were talking and I wasn't sure. As much as the peoples vote matters we all know how much that electoral college stands for and how easy they can take it away. I knew he would get the vote, but behind the scenes could he do so, and I think he did with flying colors
illRoots.com I think as well we have to take a look at privatized jails and how this has become legal slavery with inmates working for minimal.
[6th Sense with the side bar comment: The United States is 5% of the World's Population and we have 25% of the World's Prison population.]
illRoots.com: Thats crazy, 6th sense on the encyclopedia over here. I think alot of his views are really good. As far as marketing whats some measures that you've taken to make sure that your album gets the push.
J: Well using my degree in this I was able to look at different avenues and figure out how bring awareness to a free digital product. This is 2008 if people will go online and download a Jay-Z or a Nas album, who am I to charge them for mine. My whole mantra about print music is about circulation, my zshare link can say one thing but you can't count for that kid that downloaded it and played it in his car for his five friends. Just looking at blog, I tried to make my presence known on Myspace and Imeem. Personally on a smaller scale, for artists under 20,000 fans, having a Facebook account is sort of a better tool as far as keeping people in the loop. I can set up an event page and always constantly raise awareness about what I'm doing. Its about raising awareness and really getting out there, just hitting up different blogs such as illRoots.com and so forth.
illRoots.com: Shameless plug number one. Okay so one of the things that I like to ask people is One good book?
J: I would have to say the 48 laws of power is good, I'd say as well "Everything You Wanted to Know about the music business".
illRoots:Lastly Word Association. So Notherground
J:Eclectic
illRoots.com: Hip-Hop.
J: Universal.
illRoots.com: Lil Wayne.
J: Persistant.
illRoots.com: Success.
J: Hard Work.
illRoots.com: Jelani.
J: Future
illRoots.com: Family
J:First
illRoots.com: illRoots.com
J: Dopest
illRoots.com: That was shameless plug number two. I appreciate you big homie and lets get it. Coming Next Tuesday we are dropping that "Wait You Can Rap!?" Exclusively at illRoots.com....See you then.
