There are some exceptionally talented guys in the battle scene, and we caught up with Jaze Juce to chat about freestyling, battling, recording and whether lyrics are important in hip hop today!
Jaze Juce, you’re from the home of hip hop, New York. Is it coming back to the lyrics in rap right now?
Honestly, I don’t feel lyrics were ever out of the picture in NY, maybe just out of the spotlight. NY has a deep tradition of hip-hop and that includes raw lyricism. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s Raw MC’s became household names, and that is in recent memory for a lot of NY hip-hop heads.
However, when the mainstream rap game shifted away from the potent lyrics and moved more in the direction of commercialized products, dances etc, NY seemed a bit assed out. After all, what were the Nas’ of the game supposed to do in such a climate? MC’s like Jay-Z and 50 cent obviously changed with the times and made a huge mark for NY, but the market changed so MC’s dedicated to writing sharp rhymes had to find a different table to eat at so to speak.
You’ve got people like Slaughterhouse blowing up, real lyrical cats! What’s it like on the underground though? Who’s really killing it out there?
NY has really so many people in general it is actually overcrowded with talent. That is hardly the perception of NY in the global hip-hop community, but NY has such variety that almost entirely different worlds all intertwine in one mega-hip-hop community. Nowhere else can you find someone like Arsenol or Head Ice pushing thousands of mixtapes in the streets only 105 miles away from a buzzing movement like The Brown Bag Allstars, something altogether different yet very dope. As far as moving units, being from Yonkers it is glaringly apparent to me that D Block is a force to be reckoned with in the underground. Slaughterhouse as you mentioned is powerful. The list is to long to even address really. Nobody is really dominating all across the board. Underground fans have favourites, mixtape fans have favourites and mainstream fans have favourites. Certain cats have pockets of heavy movement, I don’t think any individual artist or group is what really needs to kill the scene right now, unity is the next big step for NY, not artists. We have a lot of artists here, now let’s work together and co-exist.
You’re heavy on the battles. What’s your technique when it comes to freestyling?
Free-styling is like debating. You make observations, you listen you look you feel the situation out and just never stop responding. Sometimes ignoring things that are irrelevant is important. Offence can be more important than defence. It really depends on the situation.
Think of words in your head you want to say, think of general ideas and approaches to situations and keep that approach in your mind and allow the words to formulate and just
follow the sounds.
You also host the things, what’s the importance of a host in a battle in your opinion?
A host hypes the live crowd up for the battle. If a host is putting people to sleep, the audience is not going to really pay attention to the battle. Further, a good host can attract people who are not interested in battling into the battle scene because the entertainment value is the hook that baits em in.
There was the legendary moment back in 07 with the Arkaic/Eurgh battle. After that, have you checked any UK rappers out, and if so what do you think to the scene out here?
Truthfully, I am not very educated on the scene out in U.K. At the end of the day a battle is a battle and I have the utmost respect for the U.K. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter where you’re from, it’s what you bring to the table. Going into the 07 battles I had a great deal of respect for Possessed from Rhyme Asylum. Without knowing too many artists off hand who are wrecking shit out there, I would not be surprised at all to discover a multitude of hardcore rappers from U.K. who deserve spotlight.
Battle rappers seldom make a successful transition to recording artists, have you had any projects out in the past?
I am a recording machine. I have countless tracks/songs and am always open for collaborating with all different creeds colours and nationalities. The most recent work I released was a collaboration mixtape with World Rap Championship partner Frankie Wapps called “This is Only the Beginning.” This mixtape is available for free download online at
Are you working on any records currently?
I am currently working on a number of projects including a fusion hip-hop project, a collaboration mixtape with Complex, another collaboration mixtape with Abstract Vision, and also work regularly with Ova Ya Head Productions, Shake Em Down Music, DJ Dea Arthur and a whole list of others.
Where do you want to be this time next year?
I would like to be in California smoking some Purple Kush.
Where can we check you out online?
To follow my music keep in tune with my myspace, my soundclick, my twitter, and my
youtube
www.myspace.com/jazejuce
www.soundclick.com/jazejuce
www.twitter.com/jazejuce
www.youtube.com/jazejuce
Do you have any shout outs or last words?
Yeah shout outs to the U.K. shout outs to Yonkers, Complex, Abstract Vision, Roosevelt, imaredo, Friday Da 13th, Chuck Black, Uncle Nephew Films. Cortez, Murda Ave Gang. Hollow da Don L.O.M. Frankie Wapps, my man Nick in jail right now. My family my friends my girl. The Whole Beast Coast movement. The Fresh Coast, Lush One. Dizaster, all the hungry artists out there, the established artists who still keep the artform first and foremost. Shout outs to everybody working hard in this economy. Get it how you live it. Shout outs to Theheaviestinterviews. Shout outs to Smoove1 productions. Shake Em Down, Highlight beats. Dj Dea Arthur. Mic Fiend, Omen, Scoop Jackson, Noncentz, shoutouts to the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Staten, Mt Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains, upstate, Amazin Crack, Philly, Jersey, Delaware, Detroit, Florida, Chicago, PA, Canada, Australia, shout outs to jumpoff.tv, Sub-Zero, grindtimenow, everybody. It’s everything! If I forgot you, you know you deserve a shout out and i’ll catch you on the flipside. PEACE!
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