By Aaron MatthewsJ-Live is a living legend in the New York underground rap scene, a self-made rapper/producer/DJ who debuted with 1995's "Braggin' Writes" single, where he spit his intricate rhymes while simultaneously scratching the beat in time. The Spanish Harlem-raised former English teacher has developed his styles over the course of four full-lengths and four EPs and made a name for himself in the crowded underground as a purveyor of thoughtful, articulate lyricism. Leading up to the release of his fifth album, S.P.T.A. (Said Person Of That Ability), I sat down with J to talk about his earliest rap memories, teaching versus rapping and being a triple threat.
Do you recall the first time you heard rap? No! [laughs] Probably one of my earliest experiences where I took to it, ironically, growing up in New York... it would have been in Indiana with my older cousins. I used to spend my summers [there] and they were engrossed in Run-DMC's Raising Hell. That was probably the first album I experienced on a road trip with them. The albums I call my own, we're talking Raising Hell, Tougher Than Leather, LL Cool J's Bigger and Deffer, Kool Moe Dee's How Ya Like Me Now, De La Soul's 3 Feet High & Rising, EPMD's Strictly Business, Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation of Millions... So you can see my age. And I went to get their previous works. Those records right there were my humble beginnings. And growing up, I definitely credit Video Music Box, Ralph McDaniels, [DJ] Red Alert on KISS FM and Marley Marl on BLS, and their rivalry between the Juice Crew and [Boogie Down Productions], and that's the era I really took to as far as wanting to be a part of that, wanting to do that myself.
Was there one moment where you thought "Rap is something I can do"? I guess I'm getting too old to remember that far back, but I can tell you, [I remember] going to project center parties from Metro North Houses, Cargo Houses...$11.99 mixtapes with Ron G, and Double R, Chill Will and Showtime. I remember thinking, this is dope as far as DJing. This is what I want to do, I want to learn how to scratch. Just going to the parties and watching the girls dance, but really watching the DJ more than anything. I was always a poet as far back as elementary school, so it was a natural progression from there.
What did you first sound like when you started recording? My first recordings were in the makeshift studio in my crib. We played basketball at 1st Ave and 96th Street and some of the heads I played ball with, we would go upstairs and I would do pause-mixing on a double-deck cassette. I would basically take the radio, take four bars of an open beat, pause mix that and have that playing in the little triangle Walkman speaker. I had my mom's beltdrive turntable with the big speakers from the turntable so you can hear the scratches. Then we had a boombox recording that, one speaker playing the beat, one speaker playing the scratches and everybody huddled around the boombox to make it a complete song. So it was a makeshift four-track, all kinds of air and hiss and street traffic from outside. Those are our first recordings, and they were fun. We were just doing it to mess around.
Do you recall any of the verses from that period? The one that stands out to me is from The Best Part, from 1999 when it was originally thought up and recorded. That verse I had the little kid kicking, he was one of my 7th grade 12-year-old students and the verse he's kicking is a verse I wrote when I was 12. I had him memorize it off the Walkman so he could kick it like he was me. So that [starts rapping] "East to West I'm a contender with the best"... that verse is actually one of those verses [I wrote back then].
You were an English teacher, kind of an interesting job for a rapper. Teaching was my fallback originally, as an English major. I think the underlying theme of both is you have to be prepared, and with that preparation, comes confidence and mastery in what you're doing to the point where you can present it to people in a way that connects. And if that doesn't happen, you lose the crowd or the classroom, and it's catastrophic.
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