Interview With Rising Hip-Hop Artist Jayoolian

Tell us about your background getting to where you are today?

This all started back at the beginning of 2017 when I was at a breaking point in life where I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue making videos and pursuing film production or stay in school and keep working at apple retail until I figure out how to make real money. During this time, I was at a point in life where I really had no idea what I was doing, I was also extremely depressed and not happy with myself so I figured I’d try something new to help keep my mind off of life’s challenges. I have always been into hip-hop-rap since senior year of high school, but after I graduated and started college that summer I had met one of my closest friends to date, who at the time, introduced me into A$ap Rocky, Juicy J, Schoolboy Q, Dom Kennedy, and Curren$y. From there, this is what got my foot through the door of new style rap music. I managed to push through all the negatives happening to me in life, and eventually met someone who I consider like a brother to me and we just were on the same wavelength about everything in life and we began to make music together, travel, formed a music duo, got our first paid gigs together, and I eventually considered signing him to the record label I created “Oceanside Records”.

Where are you from?

I’m from South San Francisco, California.

When did you start music?

Beginning of 2017

How did you get into music?

One day I had a thought that seemed crazy to me at the time but so crazy that I had to give it a shot, and that just happened to lead me to learn how to use the DAW that I had bought from my job at the time, called “Logic Pro X”. From there I decided to just take the time every day after coming home from work to just learn how to use the program and eventually began to start making beats. I had given up making beats from being so frustrated with how bad they sounded to me at first so I decided to take a month break from it and come back to it during a later time. I had begun talking to my coworker (Who now goes by Maanzglobal) about wanting to possibly start rapping and messing around with Logic and maybe freestyle on some beats that I had made at the time, with him at his dad’s work office down the street from our houses. Every Wednesday we would practice and try to get comfortable rapping or singing out loud in person as this became more and more of a hobby to me as it became less nerve-racking overtime. But, for me, it didn’t become a newfound lifestyle until later that year.

Later that year I had met a girl, who would later become my girlfriend the following year, and we became best friends. And after hanging out so much, I had found myself to be in such a comfortable state with myself and around her that one day the life-changing question popped into my head “What if, I, made a song?”. I had so many people hate on me and put me down since high school and constantly accuse me of things I never did or claim that I was a person that I wasn’t and I also had a huge crush on her as well as so many untold feelings about her that I needed to let out somehow, so I figured, what not a better way to let this out, than in the form of music. So she and I had written some songs together but none of them quite worked but one day I was so annoyed with how she kept ghosting me or playing games with me that I decided to write a song about her and the people who kept doubting me or hating on me and next thing you know, that lead to it becoming my first ever track (No Friends) and official foot through the door of the music world.

What is the most challenging thing you have overcome in your life?

Having to overcome clinical depression, PTSD, my toxic relationship, and constant judgment by everyone around me.

Who inspires you the most musically?

Lil Uzi Vert, Pierrebourne, XXXTENTACION, and myself.

What is your greatest achievement as a musician?

Being on stage performing with my boy Lemuelw15 at a packed/near sold-out venue hearing everyone sing along/scream to my music while my ex-girlfriend stood front row seeing me live life to the fullest.

Who is one artist you wish you could work with?

Lil Uzi Vert

Tell us about any new music you have coming out? When is it coming out? What is it about?

Right now I’m mainly working on singles with Lemuelw15, Sarah Marx, Crybabiilee, and Moneyhillcasino. I do plan on releasing an album that represents the next chapter following my first album from 2019. It’s mainly going to be about my life and current day to day events I’m going through.

What does a day inside your shoes look like?

Waking up early, having a phone call with my manager, shower/get ready to get my day started, breakfast, more phone calls, music production, reaching out on social media looking for connections, or making new relationships with people. If I’m lucky and am able to have a little bit of time to catch a break I hop on this game called Oldschool Runescape then get straight back to networking. For the most part, I find my day to day life to be pretty straight forward for the most part, unless my manager has meetings or things for me to work on I’m constantly working on my craft.

You can find Jayoolian on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/jayoolian/

You can listen to Jayoolian’s music here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5cutoIuaRzT6jvnpJL1URw?si=slSuaYNKTaCAr83Zo3b6kQ