Interviews/Features


Lets meet the man behind the talent, 20 year old, David Jones.  Before the rapping and the singing Jones was a poet all throughout high school soon graduating at Columbia University for Radiology.  This guy does it all and that’s what drew me to him, he reminded me of myself.  He has a passion for music as a whole, as an art form rather than just a lifestyle.  All honesty, Jones is a clown who enjoys making people laugh who loves to praise women for what they’ve done (ladies get at that fast…there’s not that many out there)

I wanted to start off with your name; you went through a lot of name changes… Yea my rapper name used to be Johnny…that didn’t quiet work out, I wasn’t feeling the name and before that it used to be John Doe and now its Jones

So you’ve had a previous mix tape out, how did that go?  It was called “The Sign Me EP”, that came out July 4th, 2009.  It didn’t go anywhere because of my networking game.  I put it out there more for my friends.

..And now your working on a new mix tape: Yes it’s going to be called “G.I. Jones” hopefully having 14 songs.  With this mix tape I want to be the rebel for the rap industry because people just make songs and make songs with no meaning behind it.  A lot of people want to do it for the fame.

So how is that mix tape different from the one your working on now? I think it’s go to be “way different” the quality of the music is going to be much better, lyrically and as far as what your hearing.  I mix my own songs, there will be original beats like the last one but this mix tape will be a lot more “radio ready”.

So now that everyone wants to become a rapper, what is it that makes you different from all the upcoming artists? Well…I sing! *Laughs* on this mix tape you’ll hear a lot of that.  I make my own beats so even though there will be industry beats on the mix tape you’ll hear my original beats as well.  Besides that, I feel lyrically I keep the poetry essence of rap.  Most of these rappers rap to rhyme and I don’t need to.  I have the ability to make words mean more than what they do.  I love to use homonyms when I rap; I believe that’s my specialty.

What I love about you is that you’re such a versatile artist.  When I first came across your music you reminded me of the Roots a little bit and old Jada.  Your song “30 Something” sounded like it had Common on it, which was pretty dope, but talking about other artists what other artists are you currently working with? Right now, the way I’m thinking right now I’m just trying to get everyone in the same scene to work together to create music on a non-negative level.  I have ‘Mark My Word’ ‘Tony Polo’ and ‘Nico’ on the mix tape & producers like Jason Teen, Lemy collaborating.

What is your biggest challenge? Probably having to make music for EVERYONE.  Like I’ll write a verse and I’ll know that the guys in the hood would like it but then what about the white people? *Laughs* or what about the women? Music is not supposed to appeal to one type of people. Not everyone thinks about that.  That’s a great trait to have because your thinking ahead to branch out your music.  A lot of people will just rap about the same thing and not worry about who’s listening to them.

What is your best advice to give other upcoming artists such as yourself?  The best advice I ever got was “God gave you the talent.  You can’t just sit on that talent.  You have to keep pushing it to do what you want to do. He gave you a “stand out talent” to stand out.”  That’s the motto that I rap by.  The motto that I live by is “believe on yourself.  Don’t depend on anyone; worry about yourself, work and help yourself and when you work hard treat yourself.”

What can your fans look forward too this year? Besides the positive energy from this mix tape there will be skits on there just to make my fans laugh; it’s all about positive energy.  After the mix tape I just want to get on collabs with all my friends that also create music.  We’re all on the same boat and I just want to get the music out there.

What is one thing you can’t live without? *laughs* The one thing I cant live without is old school T.V. shows, everything from the 90’s the culture as a whole.  I love the Wonder Years…the stuff back then was so real compared to today’s stuff on T.V.



-Follow Jones on twitter @monsieurJones to get the links for his recently put out songs and listen to his new song "Woman ft Lemy":


-Check out Davy Jones with his mix tape coming out March 28th


xoxo,
Butta Love


Feature: Abs, Owner of Clothing Line "Erare"


So I met the owner of ERARE finally LOL; me and this guy have been arguing over twitter probably for the last week until he told me i needed some ERARE on my page.  Even though I knew of his line from before I didn't know he was the owner of this ERARE...call me mean but I was gonna meet up with this guy to tell him that the name of his clothing line was already well known and that he should maybe change it...yea i put my foot in my mouth when Abs gave me my own ERARE snapback(a way to Butta's Heart...crewneck sweatshirts and snapbacks) so he won cool points with me.  Now as most of you already know I never wear any brand without knowing the meaning behind the brand because that's when I'll know if I should wear it.  Your brand should always define your audience not the other way around.  I don't follow the brand for the hype, I follow the brand because it defines me.

Abs and I wandered through Strands on my "art errands" while he listened to me ramble on about nothing until we finally sat down at Au Bon Pain and he explained the concept behind ERARE and how he came about it....and boy did he give me an answer totally different from most designers...his name came about from doodling, almost like an accident..NOW THAT TO ME IS IMPRESSIVE.  The greatest thing about this artist also is that he is fond of the idea of making his brand solely his own and putting out what he feels is important in the world and is not getting the attention that it needs.  You have a brand that has both the words "ERA" and "RARE"..seems like Abs is trying to make his own stand in this new generation, making the true meaning of RARE stand out again instead of becoming part of the norm.

Much Respect to this upcoming artists..check out his stuff at: 

ERARENYC

Abs also has a new ladies line coming out called StraeHearts that you should be on the lookout for:

Always Yours,

Butta


Interview with Rapper J.Aire


Keith Nelson, Jr. also known as Justin Aire, ‘J.Aire’ for short has caught my ear.  This artist began with a mic and a mouth full of poetry flowing through it - this is where Keith got his stage name. In 2001, he was dealt the card of hip-hop and ran with it.  After listening to his mixtape and interviewing him there is no doubt that J.Aire reminds me of a black Eminem with a Lupe sound.  After releasing his first mixtape, “PenMe”, on National Smoke Day, 4/20 of this year I was able to catch up with J. Aire who is now working on his second album “Aire is Everywhere.” As an artist to watch he markets himself with “Aire is everywhere. I want to be everywhere…like Aire.”











So Keith tell me, why did you stay with the poet name J. Aire and where did it come from?
The name came from me trying to think of a poet name for myself and it was just a nice play on words.  I stayed with my poet name J. Aire because I began to realize that my old rap name, Karnage, no longer reflected the type of music I was making. J. Aire sounds more light, intellectual.  The name is also more marketable and doesn’t leave bad connotations from it.
What made you go towards the musical route?
Honestly, my friend Craze is the initial reason I began to pursue music because he and I have a great vision for what we wanted to do in the game. As time grew on I realized that I'm really good. Like REALLY REALLY good and that’s not on some cocky shit. It's simply that these rhymes just kept coming to me but then it stopped just being rhymes and evolved into whole songs…then that turned into album concepts…then turned into marketing schemes and before I knew it, I was starting PenMe and performing.

Tell me about your latest and first mixtape, PenMe.  It was dope; favorite song off the album was “And So The Green Light Fades”.
Well the mixtape has three meanings.  It’s a combination of the personal introduction of who I am, the influence other artists had on me, and then there’s ‘him’ J. Aire himself. The ‘P’ and the ‘M’ are both capitalized for a reason.  ‘Pen’ is the lyrical aspect and ‘Me’ is the personal…and as a complete song, “Plainly Me” has to be my favourite.
What’s the mixtape going to be called? Where do you want to go with it?
The next mixtape is going to be called “Aire is Everywhere” I want to be able to cover the whole world and write about everything people can relate to.
So having just graduated, you’re a SyracuseUniversity Alum now,  what does this mean for your music?
It honestly just took a weight off my shoulders; I wrote half of what I think will be the best verse ever.
So who’s your biggest supporter through all of this?
I would have to say my ex girlfriend, Tiffany…she’s been there through it all.
What has been your biggest challenge as a rapper?
My biggest challenge would have to be getting music out there to the people the right way because now you have blogs, internet and the radio…you’ve got to be on it.
What advice would you give for any upcoming artist right now?
There's so much advice but the main one is find your own identity. Rapping over an entire mixtape of other people's beats will not help you establish your own identity. Find out what you're rapping for and try to be original at it. If you want to be a gangster rapper and that is actually your life then go ahead but just know that you can’t fake the truth.
You can find J. Aire and download his music at www.justaire.com
Always Yours,
Butta Love