J River Interview

  J River Interview on learning the ropes of the Music Business, Emcee Advice, and More

J. RIVER
(July, 2007)

As an MC pruned on both coasts of the U.S., J. River is an artist with a style that's hard to pin down. His worldly roots might be traced back to the time he spent in and out of Mexico doing shows or even further back to his time spent in Haiti as a youth. I was fortunate enough to sit down with the man behind the buzz in Willimantic, CT, the town made nationally infamous by a 60 Minutes report on its heroin trafficking.

We met at his apartment overlooking what can be described as either the small city or large town of Willimantic, CT. Before I got to the interview questions, though, we spoke at length about the state of hip-hop and the music business. I heard stories and anectodes I'm unfortunately not able to discuss on here, but as you will see, the man has done a lot of maturing throughout his tumultous career as a musician.

While still a teenager he had already earned credits as a writer for a record used on the hit television show "Charmed". While to many this may seem like a direct ticket to fame J. River knew that things had a potential to go many ways. In order to remain true to his vision and to become the artist he desired to be, he would have to take time to hone his skills. For example, he put rapping on hold for years while he developed his abilities as a producer. In time, J. River took all the years of ups and downs the game brought him and simply added them to his arsenal of knowledge.

The result? A new breed of rapper. A sort of Rennaisance Man of hip-hop. Though J. River is not opposed to mainstream success he is an independent, financially literate, artistically pure yet business-minded hustler. If you sit down with J. River for five minutes you will see a man of ideals. If you sit down with him for ten you will get the feeling that anything is possible with a well organized plan and a solid team. Not coincedentally, that is the same message we would like to impart on our visitors.

Scattered throughout the interview are questions emailed to me from visitors of the site. These are indicated in parenthesis. Enjoy the interview.

"For five to seven thousand dollars you can have 5,000 units of your own CD with barcodes, Sound Scanned, in your living room."
-J River
(Below is a sample of J. River's music. Please allow a few seconds for the song to buffer)

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   J. River - Last Days

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TheStateofHipHop: You make music largely independentally. What do you think of the state of hip-hop as it is today? Is it progressing? Is it dying? Is it dead?
J River: The state of hip-hop today is exactly where it’s supposed to be. It’s progressing and it’s digressing. It’s another element of life that goes through the cycles of life on a daily basis. It’s exactly where it’s supposed to be…it’s not dying and it’s not dead. I just want to add that, there are still people who understand the fundamentals and the origins of hip-hop culture and hold that true to their heart, and I’m one of those individuals. So as long as me and those other individuals are still alive and breathing then hip-hop is alive, you know what I’m saying? It might just be hidden in parts of the world that people aren’t looking no more.

TSOHH: To let our visitors get a better feel for what has influenced you, in no specific order could you name a few of your favorite MC's of all time?
J River: Well Slick Rick, Special Ed, KRS-One, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Pharoah Monch, Red & Meth, you got your Biggie Smalls, your Jay-Z, really exceptional, phenomenal artists. But personally I like my Black Thought, Nas, Killah Priest, and dudes of this nature. Talib Kweli, Mos Def, you know what I’m saying, just so many phenomenal MC’s.

TSOHH: The television show "Charmed" has shown an interest in your work, how did that come about?
J River: There was a lady I met on the subway in New York, Janice Robinson who was the former lead singer of Livin’ Joy. I met her and she took a liking to me as an artist individually and started to more or less nurture me, introduce me to the right people, and show me the basics of the music industry, and the structure of it. I mean interior-wise, from the industry point of view. Not like from the streets as a rapper, but like what goes on with the business side. So she started to bring me up a little bit and she got a deal with Warner Brothers and asked me to be a co-writer for one of her songs. The song worked and she recorded it.

TSOHH: And what was the name of that song?
J River: “Nothing I Would Change”, it played on Episode #37.

TSOHH: (from visitors) What other milestones or events in your music career stand out to you? Which ones do you wish you could do over?
J River: I kind of wish I could write “Nothing I Would Change”, over. You know what I’m saying, I was young. There was alot of things I would’ve said differently. There were certain opportunities I think I could’ve taken more advantage of that probably would’ve put me into a different perspective compared to how I’m trying to do music now…independently.

Another milestone that was really important to me was when I performed at Coors Amphitheatre in San Diego in front of a couple thousand people. I would like to go back and do some different material for the people that were listening, you know what I’m saying, cuz there were some real hip-hop lovers there.

TSOHH: How'd you get to that point?
J River: I got started by my brother Helder. I met him in High school, and my man could beat box his ass off. So he would give me confidence and convince me to freestyle. Then came Shawn Chance the motivator, who was literally like 20 years ahead of his time. He was the one who compelled me to rap with style and on specific topics…. From that point on it was the birth of a monster.

TSOHH: (from visitors) Why do you rap? What's your motivation?
J River: Well I grew up on rap. So essentially, loving music as much as I did, it just came to a time where I started to express my own ideas and thoughts in a rhythmic rotation. Plus, rap is stress relieving. So I really got into freestyling. Then I realized you could get one message to a multitude of people through the vessel of Hip-Hop. That’s why I rap. I want to spread a message. As far as motivation is concerned, I need none. Hip-Hop is now simply a part of my everyday existence. It’s kind of like breathing and eating.

TSOHH: (from visitors) That's cool, it seems like you have a good understanding of yourself, we think that's really important for aspiring MC's. But one of our visitors wants to know, at what age did you record your first rap? How?
J River: I was 15 if you really want to get into it...if it counts. I did it from tape recorder to tape recorder and what I did is, I played the beat on one tape recorder and got it close to the microphone on the other tape recorder and I rapped next to the speaker. Then I had a really fuzzy and extra staticky tape of a rap; you know what I’m saying? Then after that, about six months later I got like 30 or 40 dollars, I was young and I went to the department store, Caldor, and I got a little karaoke machine and I recorded about a half hour tape of just beats and raps. With no real form or structure though, I wasn’t going, verse, hook, verse, hook, I was just rapping.

Then like a year or two later when I was 16 or 17 I met this kid at Eastern [Connecticut State University]. Los, Carlos, and he had a real Mic. Like a real professional Mic, like a Shure Beta 57a or something like that. A real stage Mic and shit. And he had an ASR10 workstation, keyboard/sampler/sequencer. We recorded a whole freestyle session like all night long at Los’ dorm. It sounded good. I really liked it. And then my dude Jay Henry, he was like a DJ around where I grew up, Willimantic, CT, but he was never really like just doing it for fun. My man had his own club. He was like a real serious DJ like doing real serious mixtapes like networking with all the major DJ’s like Kay Slay and all the DJ’s on the East coast that were making noise when we were younger...like Juice and all those dudes. He let me come over and record on an ADAT, a digital tape. I recorded my first song on a KRS-One beat, like an actual structured song, like three verses and hooks; you know what I’m saying? Like Sixteen’s and Eights. And that was around 18. So my first real, real, real recording was at J. Henry’s basement, on the ADAT…but the first time I wanted to get creative and hear my own voice I was like 15 years old.

TSOHH: (from visitors) What artist inspires you the most?
J River: Inspirational artists? See that’s not like favorite rappers. Inspirational artists…hmm…that’s deep. Like Metallica inspires me. These cats are like one of the greatest rock bands of my time. Then you have artist like Francois Dom Pierre. A classical artist whose musical compositions rise and fall like the sun itself. I’m inspired by Run DMC. Who in my opinion catapulted rap to a more defined fashion of marketing. I mean the list goes on…I can probably find an inspirational characteristic in every artist under the sun.

TSOHH: Who are the most important people that an aspiring musician should know essentially? (agent, publicist, lawyer, A&R man, investors, etc)
J River: All of them. A lawyer is definitely like…if you’re an aspiring artist and you really want to start doing business for yourself. Or getting involved in the business on an industry level then I think the lawyer is the most important piece. You need a good lawyer. A lawyer can get you business because they want your business. So the more business you have then the more business they have. So if you get a good lawyer in your corner. Like a good young hungry lawyer, they can really be effective as far as getting you other contacts and other relationships with people. But also, if you know an A&R at a record label, that’s awesome. Also read Donald Passman’s “All You Need To Know About The Music Business” and they’ll go over everything that, that question entails.

TSOHH: (from visitors) What kind of budget do you think it would take for someone to put together a near-professional-quality sounding album? or more precisely how much would it cost to set up a home studio that would achieve that quality? (not including wages/royalties)
J River: For five to seven thousand dollars you can have 5,000 units of your own CD with barcodes, Sound Scanned, in your living room. It will cost about $500 for the computer to operate the recording software. You can get a really good digital interface, Like a Box with Pro Tools, for $500. Which would come with multiple features of recording like sample tank and T-Racks and other compressors and sound modules, that’s like an additional $500, you’re looking at a $1000, you can get a good keyboard workstation that you can produce a whole entire album on, with your own creativity, That’s like $2500, mic and wires and speakers and stuff you can get away with at another $500. Then you’re looking at the manufacturing of your album at like 97 cents a copy, maybe 87 cents, depending on what you want to do with the interior work, the colors and stuff like that. So essentially know with between like five to seven thousand dollars in this day and age, 2007, anyone with a little bit of creativity can produce an entire album and have five thousand units in their home.

TSOHH: (from visitors) Wow...and once you have your record Sound Scanned, of course, it's much easier to shop around. Another visitor wants to know, though, did you produce "The Chronicle" yourself? Do you sell beats?
J River: Yeah I produced like 57% of “The Chronicle”…beats are for sale…yup

TSOHH: 57?
J River: Yeah, haha, a little more than half. And the reason I didn’t produce the entire album is that I like to beat swap with other producers. I think that it would be limiting to just use myself as a producer. I like the diversity of other producers. I like to try different styles from different parts of the world and sometimes other producers have that beat, you know, and can offer that specific sound to me. So I produced a little more than half as far as the beats go but I do have a lot of amazing producers on the album.

TSOHH: And you said you also sell beats?
J River: I do sell beats, I got about 500 for sale, I mean, you can get in touch with me through Myspace but my official website JRiverMusic.com will be up soon and that will have lots of MC resources I'm working on, on top of my beats and production services.

TSOHH: That sounds hot, speaking MC improvement a visitor wants to know, "From one emcee to another how do you think real hip-hop can make a comeback?"
J River: By being a real MC.

TSOHH: If you could get a message out loud and clear to the millions of cats that want to rap all over the world…what would it be?
J River: Rap.

TSOHH: Alright, haha sounds good. You just released "The Chronicle" and I know you're working on getting distribution through Newbury Comics (a media retail outlet in the northeast) what can fans from around the world expect from J. River and Fund-A-Mental Music in the future?
J River: You can expect more real hip-hop music. I’m working on another album right now, currently untitled. But you can expect another album from J River for the J River fans out there. This is something I love. It’s not that I do this for a job, It’s something I love so I’m gonna make hip-hop music regardless, ‘til I’m dead. Whether the listeners are listening to it or not, you know what I’m saying? So if you look for me you’ll always find good music because good music is something I do on a daily basis. So expect that from J River and Fund-a-Mental Music in the future. Just more music…it’s going to be an ongoing epic adventure. Stay Tuned!

TSOHH: How can fans learn more about J. River?
J River: Ask him. You know what I’m saying? Come to my Myspace or JRiverMusic.com and talk to your boy. Because I’m a human being that can talk to anybody. I don’t have anyone else answering my fan mail or maybe not even fan mail but if you want to know something about me. You can ask me anything and I’ll give you an honest answer. I’m just a real dude living a real life and I’ll answer any question.

>> Enjoy this J River Interview? Listen to The Chronicle, plus find out more about J. River here!