Earlier this week we had the chance to sit down and interview the Delaware native & upcoming artist JustApollo about his musical journey and upcoming projects.
Our first question was :
When and why did you decide to start making music ?
In 2006 i was serving a customer that had a studio set up at his spot ,
Watching him and his boys record caught my attention immediately. The competitive nature in me came out and I just thought to myself, “I can beat that”.
From that point on, my mind was consumed by quietly becoming the best rapper to ever do it.
When did you record your first track and how did you feel with the end result?
Later that year in 2006. It was disappointing because I’m a perfectionist and I couldn’t get it to sound as good as it sounded in my head. I mean, in my head I’m comparing the production to that of the greats at that time so I guess disappointment was all I was ever gonna end up with.
When did you start to feel like your music was heading in the right direction and why ?
So I’ve taken two breaks from music between two time periods in I guess what you could call my music career. The first break came after my legal trouble in 2007. Picking back up in 2010, I would come into the music this time with a few years worth of content and context. I made a bunch of half-decent tracks but was falling deeper and deeper into my drug addiction. In 2014, when my addiction was at its worst, I came to believe that the drugs enhanced my lyrical abilities, which meant that music and drugs couldn’t coexist in my world. In my mind, the only way to keep from dying was to walk away from the music altogether and really change my life. Finally after a six year break, my wife urged me to give it another shot. All it took was runnin down on the first beat I liked and it was over from that point on.
When you started out who were your biggest inspirations and have they changed over the years with the evolution in sound of the hip hop and rap industry worldwide ?
Starting out, it was DMX, Lloyd Banks, Lil Wayne, The LOX, Jay Z and AZ for me. Their lyrical ability, flow versatility and ability to evolve over time was unparalleled in my opinion. As the industry changed, I definitely gained a new understanding and respect for those changes. Artists like Drake, Joyner Lucas, Meek Mill, Lil Baby and J Cole provide some of my most significant inspirations for me today.
Who have you enjoyed working with the most from a production standpoint as well as engineering standpoint and why ?
King Wizard out of London, Uk is the first major producer that I’ve worked with on a more “custom” production level. He’s been nothing short of an incredible teacher, guide and friend throughout our entire project together.
Tez Lamont out of Houston, TX is hands down my favorite engineer. His ability to hear me, I mean really hear me is second to nobody in the game. I literally won’t let anyone else touch my mixes at this point. Aside from that he’s one of the most solid dudes that I know.
Finally, it all starts with Shawn Michael of Circle Music Group out of Spring TX. This man has an ear unlike any engineer I’ve ever worked with. He challenged me to take my game from “rapper” to “artist”, bound by no genre. There’s no other way to put it other than I don’t create what I create today without the role he played throughout our time together.
What is the next step for you in your musical journey and where do you see yourself in 5 years ?
Well the first step is to get all of the tracks that I’ve worked on with King Wizard heard by as many pairs of ears as possible. Alongside the digital part of this campaign, I really just want to deliver the JustApollo brand to the world in the most genuine and authentic way possible. I want to give back to my community and really stand for something good in a time that is consumed by so much negativity. In 5 years, I want to have made at least one timeless record, sang on-stage word for word with over 50,000 people and I want to have genuinely stood for something good on the platform I was given.
In closing out this interview what would you like to say to our readers and your fans following you along this journey ?
I’ve always maintained a decent living, so this has never been about money for me. I’ve loved, lost and gained enough good friends over the years to be content with the small size of my circle, so this has never been about fame for me either. I just want the people who choose to listen to me to know that they’re getting vocal illustrations of the very best to the very worst of all that I have become over my time in this world. You’re getting a clear view of what life looks and sounds like through my eyes and ears. All I really want is for y’all to vibe with me.
Contact details & links :
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JUSTAPOLLO – RAPPER
Instagram : @i_amjustapollo https://instagram.com/i_amjustapollo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/justapollo/1517916306?ls
