Interview with J.Lately

Q1. What made you title your album "Lets Just Be Friends?"

A: The title "Let's Just Be Friends" came to me after most of the album had already been written. I went into this album trying to write songs that were less about being a rapper or a dreamer and more about just being a human. I found myself writing a lot of songs about relationships I had been in, relationships I saw my friends in, and basically how we treat each other in our society in general. I noticed that a lot of times we get ourselves into these negative co-dependent relationships where we allow ourselves to hurt each other, whereas if we could just learn to love ourselves a little more and treat each other better we could all just be friends.

Q2. Was there a recent break up or incident that created the theme of your album?

A: Not necessarily. Although the album might sound like I'm talking about one specific person the whole time, it's actually about a number of different people and situations. But, there were definitely some difficult situations that took place more recently and lead to the creation of this album, and there's definitely a specific person who is the driving inspiration behind a lot of the album. It's kind of difficult to talk about it because even though I'm obviously speaking very freely in my music, I also want to do my best to not put these people on blast personally. Certain people are still very much a part of my life, and this album was really a process of me figuring out those relationships.

Q3. Which track was the most fun to create; did you help create any of the instrumentals from your album?

A: I don't know if I would say that this track was the most fun to create, but it was a really cool experience making "All About You". I had gotten that beat from Oops a couple days before and had been listening to it and feeling it out but didn't have a concept yet. Then late one night we were at my house drinking and working on music. I think a couple of my friends were using my equipment to record, and a few other people were just hanging out and stuff. I was pretty drunk and I think I saw something a specific person had said online and it just hit me hella hard right then. So I just immediately put on my headphones and rudely stopped paying attention to any of my friends and went and sat in the corner and that song just flowed out so quickly. It was crazy. In terms of production, I didn't help produce any of the tracks on the album. But, it was a really collaborative process and I worked closely with everyone who produced on the album. The reason that you see Oops producing on it so much is because those beats were made specifically with this album in mind. We talked about a type of sound and feel that we wanted to go with, and then built from there. It was a really cool process.

Q4. What was the Bourne Madd Tour experience like?

A: It was hella fun. But, I think I'll always think every tour is hella fun as long as the people I'm with are cool. I love touring more than most other things in life. There's so many different aspects about it that really just fit me perfectly. It's definitely a grind though. You gotta be ready to run off very little sleep, drink more alcohol than usual, eat stuff you don't usually eat, spend hours and hours crammed in a van, perform when you're sick, all that stuff. I really love it though. The Bourne Madd Tour was cool because we got to go to a lot of places I had never been, but I also got to go back to some cities where I've been to once or twice now and I was able to see some folks coming back out from me being there before. All the people on the tour were hella cool too and we just had a lot of fun partying together.

Q5. I watched "Lets Just Be Friends" music video and I was wondering how long did it take to film and was it while you guys were on tour?

A: That video took the shortest amount of time to shoot out of probably anything we've ever shot. I was on tour opening up for Zion I on the Rapture Tour back in February earlier this year, and my friend Andrew who handles most of my visuals was also on the tour shooting for everyone. Me and him have a really cool working relationship because we're able to really be on the same page and just knock stuff out. I actually had the album all done back then, so we picked out a couple songs and decided we'd find some way to shoot music videos for them while we were on the road. One night after a show in Grand Junction, Colorado, we all went to a Denny's next to the hotel to eat. We had a really negative experience in the way we were treated there and ended up all getting up and walking out I think. Then we were just back in the hotel rooms drinking and everyone was kinda in a weird mood and stuff based on what had just happened. I saw it had started snowing outside so I just grabbed Andrew and DJ Ethos and was like yo let's go shoot this video in the parking lot, it looks hella cool out there right now. We really just ran outside to this empty parking lot and I rapped the song like 3 or 4 times straight through then we ran back inside. It was something like 10 or 15 degrees fahrenheit outside and we weren't even wearing anything that warm so we just tried to bust out some shots and it ended up working really well as the intro video for the album.

Q6. I ask every local artists I interview, but if I were to look through your iPhone or computer files- what kind of genres or songs would I find?

A: Hip-hop, hip hop, and more hip hop. I like to listen to R&B, reggae, a little rock, some oldies and soul, all that. But I don't really download much of that stuff, it's more just like streaming randomly when I want something different than hip hop. If you look through my actual musical library it's mainly the stuff that is really a part of my life. Like not music for special occasions, but really the music I can listen to all the time, while I'm driving, cleaning the house, riding my bike, that type of stuff. It's a lot of Little Brother, Common, De La Soul, Outkast, Murs, Evidence, Kanye, Devin The Dude, Jay Z, Blu, J. Cole, Kendrick, Chance, Dom Kennedy, that type of stuff.

Q7. I have been following you on Instagram ,but for those who haven't what are they missing?

A; All kinds of random worthless stuff, and a few gems here and there. But really you can just keep up with what I'm doing on a day to day basis, as well as stay up on whatever new material I'm putting out or events I have coming up. You'll probably find your new favorite rapper too because my friends you see on there are hella talented.

Q8. What is it like now that you have a good fan base, is it easier to step on stage and people recognize who you are?

A: It's getting there, but we still got a lot of work to do. There's still definitely a lot of situations where I'm stepping on a stage in front of a bunch of people who have no idea who I am, but that's a great opportunity to win them over. It has been crazy though to start to have those experiences more and more where you look out in the crowd and you got a bunch of people singing along to the lyrics or people showing up to the shows already wearing your shirt and stuff. It definitely makes it easier to step onto a stage when there's already a bunch of people in the crowd who came to enjoy your music. Especially in hip hop, if the crowd doesn't know you then you hella gotta prove yourself and earn their respect. If the crowd already came excited about your music then it's just like an alley-oop.

Q9. Where can people who don't already know you find your music or follow you?

A; My home base is justlatelymusic.com, from there you can connect to my music, videos, shows, store, email list, and all my social media. But, on Twitter I'm @justlately, on IG I'm @jlately, on Facebook it's /justlately, YouTube is /justlately, Soundcloud is /justlately, Bandcamp isjustlately.bandcamp.com, and Snapchat is @justlately. Pick your poison.