Unfiltered: Full Interview with J.Lately

Unfiltered is back with a brand new episode featuring Northern California hip hop artist J.Lately! 🎤🔥 With this video series, we connect with some of the incredible Symphonic artists among us to dig deeper into their creative process, personal journeys, and everything in between. From growing up in a small town with limited hip hop influences to carving out his own voice in the music scene, J.Lately opens up about finding his identity as an artist, navigating the ups and downs of pursuing music full-time, and staying dedicated to his craft every step of the way. Check out the full interview below…

Unfiltered: Full Interview with J.Lately

J.Lately:

“Hey, what’s up, Sym Fam? This is J.Lately! I’m a hip hop artist from Northern California.”

Laura Catana:

“Welcome! How has your upbringing shaped who you are as an artist today?”

JL:

“I think my upbringing has caused me to really find my own voice and my own identity as an artist. I grew up in a small town called Sebastopol, California. I was born in Oakland, but moved there when I was at a young age. And there wasn’t really a hip hop scene or anything around that I could really latch onto or identify with. I was just kind of out there by myself and taking a bunch of influence from all over, but I didn’t really have anything that I felt like I could identify with and really replicate in any way, in an authentic way.

It really made me look inside myself and find my own voice and find my own identity as an artist. At the beginning, I think that was really hard for me because I was kind of looking for something else that could give me an example of what I should be doing. But in the long run, I think it really was an asset for me because I really had to look inside myself and find that voice for myself and find exactly who I really was as an artist, and I think that’s really paid off for me in the long term.”

LC:

“Are there any musicians in your family or anyone in the family who kind of influenced your music?”

JL:

“There are no actual musicians who are pursuing it seriously. I think my dad likes to think of himself as a musician. He used to play the guitar and get together with his friends for jam sessions, which he would often bring me to. But never really pursued it or kept it up. But I always grew up with tons of music in my household. My dad was always playing music, like tons of memories of us driving around in the car singing oldie songs together and things like that. And my mom was always really into dance. So she was always playing music and used to dance with me in the living room and take me to her dance classes or studio sessions. And I’d get to run around while they were doing their thing. And so there was always this music around.”

“I have an older brother who was the one who really introduced me to rap music. I used to hear him playing it all the time, and then I’d sneak into his room and go steal his CDs without him knowing and go listen to them. Probably listening to a bunch of stuff that my parents didn’t want me listening to at that age. There was all this musical influence in my family, even though there wasn’t really anyone who was actively pursuing it.”

LC:

“So, something that you said makes me touch on my next question. I’m sure you’ve met a lot of artists who are super talented, but they’re not necessarily serious or making a career… What do you think it is that determines an artist who’s just pursuing a hobby versus someone who’s taking it as their actual career?”

JL:

“Yeah, I have a ton of friends who are extremely talented, who I see all the time, who are not really willing to take the steps that it takes to really pursue it as a career, even though they love music and have so much talent. And I think for us as artists, oftentimes we gravitate towards artistic paths because we think that it’s going to mean we don’t have to do all those things that we would have to do if we were to go down another career path. But I always tell people like, you’re gonna have to do those things two or three times as much if you’re trying to pursue a career in music or in art than you would in other lanes because there’s so much uncertainty in the music business and there’s so much less of a clear path that’s been set out for you to follow in order to advance like in some of these other careers.”

“You might go to college and then you get this degree and then you get an internship here and then you get this entry-level job and then you get a promotion and there’s this clearly set out path for you to work your way up whereas in the music business it’s so random and kind of all over the place and there aren’t these clear paths for you. So like, you’re really going to have to dedicate yourself to that pursuit on a level that you wouldn’t have to in one of these other careers. And you’re really going to have to approach it in a professional and career-based manner to see those results from your art.”

LC:

“Has there been a situation that kind of rocked you as an artist where you thought maybe you were going to reevaluate whether this is the path for you?”

JL:

“Yeah, earlier on in my career, I came to a point where I finally really started to see things take off, and I was making money off features and I was making money off shows and making money off merch sales and stuff. At that time, I was working a day job, and I thought to myself, like, all right, I’ve reached that point where I get to dive in fully and be a professional musician full-time. I’m going to quit my day job. I’m going to fully focus on music. It’s going to give me so much more time to actively approach this and take my career to the next level.”

“And after doing that for a little while, I realized how detrimental to my music career that actually was to be so dependent on selling a feature or doing a show that I was having to take opportunities that weren’t actually beneficial to my career in the long term. I was having to do things just to get a check through my music that were not actually in my best interest as an artist.”

“I had to take a step back and go back to working a day job, and it really kind of rocked me because it felt like such a huge step backwards at first, and like, okay, I was going to become a full-time musician, and now I’m having to go back to work a day job. But in the long term, I realized what a good decision that was to go back to a situation where I had financial stability coming from an outside source.” 

LC:

“One, what age were you or how long ago was it that you started rapping? And two, what advice would you give your younger self at that age, just getting into the industry?”

JL:

“I would say I started rapping when I was in high school, and at first, it was a lot just playing around with it and doing it in my room or with my friends. But soon after, when I really started to take it more seriously, the advice I would give myself is just to go hard and go all in and don’t get so hung up thinking that everything has to be perfect and that this next thing you’re doing is going to be the most important thing you ever do in your life. I think we have to just try and be willing to fail, and those failures are what’s going to build you to the point where you’re actually going to be able to be successful down the road…”

“…in the long run, from my experience, what’s going to get you to that next level is the accumulation of all these small life-changing moments that are steps forward. It’s not one thing that’s going to make or break your music career. It’s being willing to take multiple shots and multiple chances, and those small steps forward that are, in turn, going to turn into bigger steps when you put them all together.”

LC:

“How would you describe your work ethic as an artist?”

JL:

“I think my work ethic is what I use to really keep me grounded as an artist and to keep me focused. I think there are so many things in the music industry that are unpredictable and outside of your control. Like you might think you made the best song and the best video, and you put it out there, and it might not be received that way by others. Art and music are completely subjective, and the way others receive them is completely outside of your control. But I think of it as the only thing that’s really inside my control, which is how hard I work at this and what I dedicate to this. And so I use that to keep me grounded and keep me on a path forward when things might start to feel a little daunting or I might start to get down about certain things.

I just make sure that every single day of my life, I’m putting in that time to advance my music career in the same way I would have to put that time in for another type of job. You’re not going to get that promotion by skipping three days in a row. It’s just not going to happen. So if you want to receive that musical promotion, you need to put those hours in, and they need to be focused and dedicated hours.”

LC:

“Awesome. Thank you for chatting with me! Let us know where we can find your music and your socials.”

JL:

“Yeah, you can find all my stuff on my website. It’s justlatelymusic.com. You can follow me on Instagram @jlately. Or if you just search J. Lately on any platform, any DSP, you’ll find me right there. Give me a follow!”

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