Rapper Jay Way Talks About New Ventures

Rapper Jay Way joins Mogul whilst on his tour of the UK and just after releasing his latest single, ‘Love Me, Love Me Not’ and his collaboration with label-mate Ty Brasel on ‘Mad 2 The Max’. Jay Way talks about his background and influences, his love for music production and the origins of his name.

Is this your first time in the U.K., or have you been a few times before?

This might be my fifth time now, but it’s my first actual time on a tour, which is pretty fire. We also have a few interviews lined up, and then we’re off to Paris. I feel like I’ve been all over the world but have never been to Paris, so I’m looking forward to that.

And you’re from the Netherlands originally?

I was born there and moved to New York around 2005? And then moved back to the Netherlands.

Deep down inside, then, do you feel Dutch or American?

Dutch, defiantly Dutch. But I feel international, though. My parents are from Ghana. I was born and raised in Amsterdam and moved around in the States, so I feel international.

So I wanted to start by asking about the name you go by, and your username on Instagram is @jaywaythealien. Where’d the alien come from?

Alien, well, I’ve always had a deep infatuation with Sci-fi. I’m heavily into Star Wars. I love Dragon Ball Z. People don’t know that Dragon Ball Z characters are also aliens. And one time, I read this Bible verse that says, ‘you’re in this world, but not of this world’, and I just ran with it. I was like, yo, that’s me. I’m an alien; I’m Jay Way, The Alien.

And so I was going through your old stuff. Does ‘Clownin For Christ’ mean anything to you?

Wow, how the heck did you find that? That’s crazy. You did your research, man. Wow. Yeah, the story behind that song is that some of my closest friends live in St. Louis. I met them online through myspace and Facebook back in the day, and they invited me to come to the States. I saved up all my money to visit them in the summer of 2011. But building up to that visit, they wanted to help me put together a mixtape, so they would produce beats and send them to me. I would record in St. Louis, and then they were like, let’s shoot your first video. So we had one song called ‘Clownin For Chirst’ which is kind of where it all began, man. Shout out to my St. Louis boys.

So when did you start getting into creating your own music?

My dad’s a DJ, so there was always a lot of music in the house growing up. I made a conscious decision for myself to really pursue music when I was about 14 years old when a classmate in high school kind of introduced me to freestyle. So from there on, I kind of just picked it up and developed a craft and love for rap music. 

What advice do you wish you could go back and tell yourself then?

I gave up on producing at an early age; when I started out, I did the thing of rapping and making beats. But when I met other people that produced, I thought, okay, I could focus on my rap and just work with other people that are really professional in their craft. At the time, I only did beat-making for myself because I couldn’t get beats. As I progressed as an artist, more people reached out to me. So I thought, okay, then I don’t need to produce my own songs. But if I went back, I would probably encourage myself to own that more because I would have benefited more. Just working with producers now, kind of translating ideas and that type of thing, sometimes you don’t know what producers be doing. You don’t know how to communicate properly sometimes.

Is that something you’re trying to get back to now?

Yes, but I need to get out of my own way. I overthink stuff; I should have been doing this. So I kind of stalled it for a few months, and I never picked it up, but I think I’m really going to invest time in it over the next couple of months.

If you could work with and producer on a track, who would it be?

Man, you see the hat. N.E.R.D is my favourite band. You know, Pharrell Williams is one of my biggest inspirations. He was the guy I looked up to when it came to beat-making. I used to look up Pharrell and Neptune videos; his catalogue is just amazing. And if there’s one producer, I would really want to work with, it’s Pharrell. I’ve always been a huge Star Trak fan. One of my boys flew from Amsterdam to London to come to check out the show, and he just texted me while he was roaming through the city, and he went to a Billionaire Boys Club, and they’re currently doing a N.E.R.D collab, so I’m gonna have to head over there later today. Yeah, I’m a Pharrell head. I’m a stan, for sure.

Some of your stuff, or maybe some of your old stuff has quite rocky elements and influences in it. Is N.E.R.D where you got it from, or have you always kind of been inspired by rock music?

Yeah, always. N.E.R.D is one of the bands that really kicked the doors in with their sound. You got to imagine a black guy coming from hip hop and showing kids that it’s okay to love rock music even though you fall into a different culture. So them and Lil Wayne definitely inspired me. Gym Class Heroes. They definitely inspired me, but also a lot of Linkin Park and Red Hot Chili Peppers; later on started diving into Nirvana. I’ve always loved Avril Lavigne but grew a bigger love throughout the years. So yeah, I just love music, man, pop music, rap music, hip hop. And N.E.R.D. just really taught me that it’s okay to blend genres.

Do you feel like there’s much Dutch influence in your music as well?

Dutch artists, not really. I love Dutch music. I really grew up listening to Dutch music, but I don’t think I necessarily drew inspiration from it. I just always love for American hip-hop music, and later on, the U.K. too but that was my number one. So I wasn’t really looking at Dutch hip-hop for inspiration. I was always a 50 Cent head and Snoop Dogg, those kinds of artists.

You did a track with Snoop Dogg and Steven Malcolm, right?

It’s crazy, right? Yeah, it was like a full circle moment working with Snoop on Steven Malcolm’s single ‘Summertime’.

Was that the best collab you’ve ever done?

My best collab is with my friends. I have a song called ‘Hideout’ that I made with friends years ago, and I think that’s my best collab. Just all of us in the studio for the first time and creating something from scratch. 

Did you ever want to do something like Brockhampton and be in a massive boy band?

I have dreams of that. I always wanted to be in a group, man, so I always wanted to be in a boy band type of group. Maybe in the future, maybe as a side project, a little passion project in the future.

What can you tell me about your latest single?

My latest single, ‘Love Me, Love Me Not’. Yeah, it was a real full circle moment because the last project that I dropped was ‘No, I’m Not Okay’, which was mainly produced by one guy named Damien, which is an amazing producer back home in the Netherlands. And this was the first time in about 10 years reconnecting with the boys from St. Louis. The producer is called D-Hood, and he’s the one that produced the ‘Clownin for Christ’ record. So, 10 years later, I’m in St. Louis, we’re back in the studio, and he started playing some stuff, and I was just trying out some flows. And the next session that we did, I recorded vocals on it and we all just freaked out. So that’s how it came about. 

Is this going to be part of a bigger project that you’re looking towards? 

Yeah, there’s an album coming, my debut, actually. Man, I feel excited. It’s going to be some of the songs that I have already released, ‘Shawty Goodnight’. Yeah, there will definitely be a lot of new stuff too. Yeah, the album is done, and then right before it drops, you always have to push it back. I feel like it’s done, but I might feel different a month from now. Yeah, but it’s dropping this year. It is an amazing project so far. The best thing I’ve heard in a minute, and I’m not even capping it’s for real.

You’ve done a lot of work with Stephen Malcolm and Ty Brasel, and so they both fall into the category of Christian rappers. So do you consider yourself under that genre as well?

Yeah, the boys! Not personally, but I definitely love the art. Obviously, I just featured on Ty’s latest album, ‘TRANSCENDENT’, on a track we did together ‘MAD 2 THE MAX’. The music video for that has just dropped too. There are a lot of people in that scene that I really listen to, that I really like. But I guess my music is more so like a broader audience. Yes, but these guys are amazing. I feel like their music has that kind of appeal as well, and I look forward to the rest of what they’ve got coming. 

And do you feel like faith has a role in your music as well?

Yeah, absolutely. It definitely sharpens my worldview and my approach to things. The hopeful message that I have comes from that faith. Rather than staying in that mindset of, “I hate my life, I’m depressed, I’m running to drugs…” I offer hope and show people my scars and show people that there’s hope and light at the end of the tunnel; that’s what I draw from my faith.