Interview with Jersey's THA ADVOCATE

[The-Leak (aka) kingwell (bka) JULES]

Tha Advocate was born and raised in New Jersey, but spent his short but meaningful teenage years in Newburgh, New York, later moving back to New Jersey.  He falls under the most common back story for how rappers choose their career. A love for the music, and the inspiration to become involved has chose this man’s path.


JULES:  Hey Advocate, thanks for doing this again. Let’s start with your upbringing.  What kind of music did you grow up around?


THA ADVOCATE:  I listened to everything from HipHop, to R n b, to Rock, and others.  I still do listen to other genres also.


JULES:  Which artists did you model yourself after when you first began rapping?


ADVOCATE:  No one, really.  I always felt I had my own identity and originality.  I will say my main musical inspiration was 2pac.  That’s probobally why I still make alot of real pain music.


JULES:  Throughout your first mixtape ‘Point A’, and your underground album ‘Against The Wall’, I noticed
you had a habit of keeping your lyrics intact.  Do you feel a Hip-Hop song should start with lyrics, above
anything else?


ADVOCATE:  In my opinion if you are going to put your stamp on it, it should be 100 percent all of the time. From lyrics to production.  Now, me personally I can say that I always go in lyrically.  In the same sense you can say something very deep without using wordplay like Big Pun.  For example, if I am doing a club joint or something for the ladies: I make sure my lyrics are on point, but I make it understandable to the general public also.


JULES:  You also released your third mixtape ‘Point of No Return’ (Hosted by Remy Ma and DJ Bedtyme) last year. It stuck to the theme of original beats,which you produced some yourself.  It’s obviously an asset to have both instrumental and vocal abilities.  If you had to choose between the production side or emceeing, which would you choose?


ADVOCATE:  Probobally emceeing.  ’Cause when I make my own music I make I know exactly how I like it and want it.  When I am producing someone else sometimes they may have a different vision and it takes a while to break ground.


JULES:  You have recently linked up with Jeff Burna to form Ruff Houze Productions.  Can you tell us a bit about how that situation came to be?


ADVOCATE:  Yea..  Jeff is my dude.  I met him at the studio I record at. He is an engineer and plays guitar. We started out producing some of my songs together and the outcome was great. Right now we have produced a few joints like “THE N.E.W. PT1 AND THE N.E.W. PT2″ featuring several artists from all over the globe.  We are producing an r n b record for J.D. Artist and an underground hiphop album for Sketch Architec among others.  We are still making beats and putting together a nice beat reel for artists to choose from.  Once that’s complete we are gonna grind like crazy.


JULES:  And if that wasn’t enough to keep you busy, you have also been helping other rappers get exposure through your Mic Check Mixtape series with fellow rapper Underground. I heard you just started a new one with BallerStatus.  What is that series called, and how many volumes can we expect?


ADVOCATE:  Ok the one with Mic Check I got involved in in 06 with Underground.  I had Sly Boogy, Domination, Stat Quo, and Killah Priest host our mixtapes.  The outcome crazy and the reviews were almost perfect.  After the success of that I linked a deal for us to do a joint mixtape with Ballerstatus.com (Mic Check 9.5).  The downloads on that were around 40 thousand.  With the success of the joint venture I chopped it up with Jay from Ballerstatus.com and we created the “Digital Dynasty Mixtape Series”.  Our first volume had G Unit’s HOT ROD host and the numbers were unexpected.  Close to 60 thousand downloads on that. So we are starting to take slots for our next few volumes as we speak.  The hosting will be announced shortly.  Any artists interested in purchasing a slot for some crazy exposure get at me. (E-Mail)  Also, all these mixtapes are free downloads now too. So fans can download the mic check mixtapes on the main page at ThaAdvocate.Com and they can get the Hot Rod one (Here).


JULES:  Aside from you beats sounding very clean and balanced, your vocal style is very sharp too.
You remind me of an Eminem flow, with a Joe Budden subject content.  Should you and Joe link up for a Jersey meltdown? How about Redman, Serius Jones, or the Outlawz?


ADVOCATE:  I’d love to. We were supposed to do a project with Serius Jones a year ago and things fell through.  I guess he had better things to do (LAUGHS).  As for Buddens..  Who know’s what the future holds. I am putting together a crazy joint with Jersey’s Big Lou as we speak.


JULES:  I was youtubing you awhile ago, I noticed you have done some interviews with fellow rappers.  How important is it to remain a fan, when it is your job to be an artist?


ADVOCATE:  It’s very important. There is nothing wrong with showing admiration for a fellow artist’s craft.  I do have to say that, doing interviews with alot of those artists I wasn’t a huge fan of.  It was something to do, and I do dabble with journalism on the side. If you go to RapCapital I did every single interview on there.


JULES:  On your website, you posted about Nas’ latest album. It has been out for almost 2 months now.  Do you feel that album made the impact it should have on the fans?


ADVOCATE:  Nope.  It was like preaching to the choir.  Nas fans bought that album.  The newer generation isn’t that interested in real life changing substance music.  That album is one of the best he ever put together.  It was inspirational and moving.  Nas tackled subjects that most artists would consider “career suicide”. He did it for the love of HipHop not the love of money.  That is why he is one of the greatest of all time and cut from the cloth of 2pac and Big.  It was sad you barely heard his records on New York radio or on video countdowns. If this is what mainstream hiphop is now then consider me an outsider.


JULES:  Speaking of impact, I heard you have an album in the works.  Tell me the juicy details please?


ADVOCATE:  Yea I actually have a mixtape first to warm yall up.  Its called “Barmaggedon” .  It is going to be something incredible. And as for the album I have been working on it for 3 years. I am making sure every detail on this project is perfect.  This album is called “Designed To Be Signed”.  If that record doesn’t catapult me to where I need to be then nothing will.  I am urging people to download my last mixtape free (Click here) and add me on MySpace.


JULES:  Alright well there you have it. Any last words before we end this thing?


ADVOCATE:  I just wanted to say it was good chopping it up with you again.  Letting you and everyone else know I am still going hard and making substance music.  My backs still “Against the wall” and we went from “Point a” to the “point of no return”.  Now its time for “Barmaggedon”!

I hope you enjoyed the first installment!  Next issue: Gage!

-Jules

http://swagspot.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/first-interview-tha-advocate/