JAY BEAN  (February 2011) | Interviewer Robert T Baker

..........................................................................................

Interview was done in January 2011

Questions Asked By: Robert T Baker

Dubcnn: Explain the name Jay Bean.

JB: Okay yeah, the name Jay Bean came from college. I was actually pledging to become a Sigma. When you join a fraternity, you know you got to go through the initiation and do certain things to get initiated and in those things that I’ve did they said I made a lot of funny facial expressions and I’m real skinny, so they decided to call me Bean. Which later transposed to Jay Bean. And everywhere I went after that the name Bean stuck with me. So they either call me Bean, Jay Bean, or Beezy.


Dubcnn: Who are your musical influences?

JB: My influences… First and foremost, it may sound like a cliché, but Michael Jackson of course. I want to add R. Kelly to my list. Just seeing’ R. Kelly work in the studio at Patchwork studios before, and seeing the recording process and just how hard he goes. I don’t think R. Kelly gets enough credit that he deserves as far as a song writer and an artist. And even though Chris Brown is new, I get a lot influence from Chris Brown. I think he’s bringing back that element of music that is a little more happy and exciting, but some serious stuff too. And last but not least, Babyface. I put him second. My momma raised me off of Babyface man. And just knowing all the hits that this man wrote. I just like the fact that he was a confidential writer too. The fact that he didn’t always want to be cameo’d in different things like that. He was just the ultimate song writer. Those are all my influences, and oh yeah John Mayor. I listen to a lot of John Mayer because I play the acoustic guitar heavily. So he had a lot influence on me as well.


Dubcnn: Are you currently unsigned or are you independent?

JB: Actually, I’m an independent artist. And I know this is going to be a bold statement man, but the way music has changed and jus the economy as a whole, and the whole thing about digital downloading and how it is to music, I really wouldn’t want to have it any other way. You know what I mean? At the end of the day, the whole thing with this whole project and with me is that I’ve been a song writer for years. But when you work in, I would call the establishment or the record industry, there are some dudes or females that you’ve get referred to write a song for them because they’ve already written a hit. Sometimes they don’t venture off into other writers, even though the person doesn’t know who wrote the song is because they don’t want to take that chance, so I really didn’t want to be an artist. But then I started going through out the streets and local areas around the area of Georgia. And people were liking my music on radio stations. I went statewide and in Ontario, Canada. In Indianapolis. They were playing my music and were letting me know it wasn’t a bad idea.


Dubcnn: What’s the name of the label you belong to?

JB: Right now it’s Ear4Musik/ Lavish Lab. It’s just me and my manager. I’m like Babyface right now, and my manager is like L.A. Reid. I don’t need the deal (laughs). Yeah I thought that was funny.


Dubcnn: (Laughs) What separates you from any artist that’s out right now?

JB: What makes me different is that I’m a concept writer. I’m not that type of nigga that’s not going to sit back and hear a song and be like I gotta make something like that right now. I’m a concept writer. I write off of different experiences in my life and different things that I’ve seen people experience. That’s pretty much what I am. I’m a concept writer. I’m just a work horse when it comes to writing. I try to write at least three songs a day, and I try to record at least three songs a week. I got songs for days. But now we just got to put them out there for the world. So the industry can see that the world likes it. Know what I mean? But like I said, that’s what separates me apart. I’m a concept writer. You’ll never hear me try to copy cat nobody.


Dubcnn: Why don’t you explain your mixtape.

JB: The mixtape is called Project Bean: Last Writer Standing. It’s going to be a series of mixtapes that we’re going to be releasing. It’s going to be free music, and that’s pretty much the whole some of it. Just free music. We’re just trying to get people used to my sound, to some of my producers that I work with, to their sound. Some of the producers I work with. Um, Cory Mo. You can youtube him. It’s Cory Mo. He’s an unofficial member of the UGK family. He’s been working with Bun B and Pimp C for years. Year. Years… He also engineered for a lot of Tip’s stuff. Kanye. So he’s been around for a minute. Zaythoven. I think you know who Zaytoven is. Zaytoven is the producer that did Usher’s “Papers.” Yeah. He did Gucci’s “Is He Rolling.” He did a lot tracks with Gucci. I had a chance to work with him on the mixtape. Of course, it’s business. West coast in the house man. I got to say they’re really talented man. So we have them on there. We have one of our producers. Tillie Beats. He works with Yo Gotti. He’s done a lot of tracks with Lil’ Scrappy. He’s done a lot of tracks with people on the Atl. side of things. So we got him on the cd too. We’re in the process of getting Fabo, and a lot of other people. So we’re just trying to keep it a little bit hush hush about some of the rappers that’s going to be on it as well that I also ghost write to. I just wanted to say be on the lookout man. We’re going to have some special appearances on there.


Dubcnn: What does the Last Writer Standing stand for?

JB: The Last Writer Standing stands for what I am. I write all different types of music. I play the guitar. I play the bass guitar, and I make my own music too. But the last writer standing just means that I’m really the last writer that really writes about meaningful topics. I don’t want to look back on the music thirty years from now and let my kids hear the music that we’re hearing and be like “Oh my god daddy. This doesn’t make sense. What are they talking about?” You know what I’m saying. I don’t want that. I feel as human beings and children of God we deserve a little more than that. We need some substance in our lives. And at a time like this it should be like how was back in the 60’s or even in the 80’s where people would just come together and make a song. “Look we got to make a song man. A lot of tragedy just happened.” You don’t hear none of that no more now. People still talking about money and nobody making money.


Dubcnn: That’s very true. Moving on. Tell the world when your mixtape is going to drop again.

JB: It will drop in mid March.


Dubcnn: What websites can they find your music?

JB: They’ll be able to find it on datpiff and we are currently working on livemixtapes and different areas that we’re going to work in. And we love to chill with dubcnn of course if there’s going to be a free download. But no, um, the DJ that I got for it is DJ Princess Cut. And that’s Dream’s road DJ. And she’s also on Goodie Mob’s DJ as well. She’s actually out on Rolling Magazine as a female DJ trying to show how it is to make it in the game and stuff like that. But yeah, it’s Princess Diamond Cut a.k.a. Sweet Box Jones. You can google her and see her. She’s doing her thing, and that’s what I like about her. I feel like as far as my music and the stuff that I have … It just feels right to release it with DJ Princess Cut, because she has a lot of good rapport. A lot of females respect her. A lot of niggas respect her too. A lot of niggas respect her in the game. Especially in the djing game. So like I said we’re bringing it out in Mid March. The Last Writer Standing man. I just want people to enjoy music man, and hopefully they remember these songs.


Dubcnn: Definitely. Before we close do you have any last comment you would like to make?

JB: I just want to share with the world that it’s a new world order. And things are changing man and we need to start respecting music. God gave us this gift to every single one of us. Every rapper. Every producer. Everybody. God gave us this gift and we got to start spreading this word. Not necessarily from a gospel stand point. But we got to start talking about what’s going on in this world, or nothing will change. And that’s really all I got to say man, because I’ll refuse to keep on making this music. And I’m not going to change my standpoint on this, but we got to let the people know what’s going on in the world. We got to let them know that change is needed. If we don’t speak up as artists… These kids… These kids look up to us. You know what I’m saying? It may be a little too deep for a lot of people to grasp, but that’s how I feel in a nutshell.

Advertisement/b>

.........................................................................................

.........................................................................................