INTERVIEW | RAPPER J GRANGE TALKS TO US ABOUT HIS NEW RELEASE ‘ROCKY LIKE A$AP’

By Rishma • On Interviews

J Grange is a Brit­ish Rap­per and Song­writer born in East Lon­don. After facing ongo­ing men­tal health chal­lenges J found his pas­sion for music. Through show­ing determ­in­a­tion and por­tray­ing a nev­er say die atti­tude he began his jour­ney into his music­al career in early 2019 and it has proven to be a suc­cess­ful first year in the industry. In Octo­ber his second release ‘Buena Vida’ of which he released on You­Tube via Link Up TV accu­mu­lated great trac­tion. Appear­ances on BBC Radio sta­tions , BBC National/Look East news and the BBC Nation­al web­site and addi­tion­al interest from loc­al news­pa­pers and pop­u­lar music magazines has helped estab­lish J as a ser­i­ous emer­ging and upcom­ing artist.

2019 you made your debut in the rap scene, how has it been for you?

So far it’s been great I can’t lie. I’ve had great suc­cess and sup­port for a new artist with some great oppor­tun­it­ies but I can still go much harder! I’m not where I want to be yet but I’m cer­tainly get­ting closer and closer. I will keep graft­ing and con­sequently all the hard work will pay off. Fin­gers crossed!

How did music help you over­come chal­lenges in your life?

Massively! In fact that’s an under­state­ment I can­not describe how much music helped me over­come chal­lenges. My men­tal health was lead­ing me down the wrong path in soci­ety. I was excluded from vari­ous schools and I had alter­ca­tions with the police and then the law. Things were escal­at­ing. I knew I needed to do some­thing pos­it­ive oth­er­wise I’d be looked upon as anoth­er ‘failed mem­ber of soci­ety’ and I could not let that hap­pen. For­tu­nately music was the answer.

Grow­ing up in East Lon­don, how did your sur­round­ings influ­ence the music you make?

100%. By grow­ing up in Lon­don it’s no secret that you are sur­roun­ded by crime and its so easy to be dragged down that path. There is also nowhere near as many oppor­tun­it­ies as there should be in a place like Lon­don espe­cially for people from dis­ad­vant­aged back­grounds etc.

How­ever per­son­ally I think the main influ­ence I take when mak­ing my music is my past exper­i­ences. My past exper­i­ences make me strive for suc­cess on a daily basis. I want to prove any­one who doesn’t or didn’t believe in me wrong.

How import­ant is it for you to use your music to inspire the next generation?

Very import­ant! This is one of the main reas­ons I’m an artist. Not only do I want to inspire my fans and people who admire my music but also I’ve also got a big­ger pur­pose. My mis­sion is to address the issues and stig­mas around men­tal health and change these for the bet­ter. I want to some who leaves a leg­acy for sure.

Your track ‘Buena Vida’ received a lot of love – tell us a bit about the response?

Haha! Yeah I dropped Buena Vida in Octo­ber last year via Link Up Tv and it has amassed over 100k views which is a great mile­stone for what was my second ever single. Ini­tially I received a fair bit of hate via the com­ments but of course this is has to be expec­ted as an artist. The love by far out­weighed the hate and shortly after my release I had an inter­view with BBC News and things star­ted to pick up from there.

Tell us a bit about your latest release ‘Rocky Like A$AP’?

Per­son­ally I think Rocky like A$AP is my best track to date. It’s a track I feel many will relate with. It fea­tures motiv­a­tion­al and inspir­ing lyr­ics which talk about ambi­tions for suc­cess, focus­ing solely on your­self and prov­ing wrong people who doubt you. All my tracks are based around grind­ing and over­com­ing obstacles, such as haters, put in front of you to achieve your goals.

Who pro­duced the track and how would you describe the sound?

The track was mixed and mastered by Plat­in­um selling pro­du­cer DUKUS, who has worked with labels and artists such as Since 93, Warner Music, Atlantic Records, Fredo and Yxng Bane to just name a few. The pro­duc­tion is upbeat, bouncy and over­all the track has got a real club vibe to it.

You speak a lot about the dif­fi­culties you have faced ‘start­ing from the bot­tom’, what has been the hard­est les­son you have learnt?

There is too many to name! Life is all about learn­ing les­sons. For me I per­son­ally think the hard­est les­son I learnt was the chal­lenges of men­tal health and how that can affect you in many ways. I didn’t really know my own iden­tity and that hits you hard. I also learnt that in real­ity nobody has got you like you’ve got your­self. It’s when you’re at the bot­tom you really see who’s real and who’s fake.

You have a video to accom­pany the track Tell us a bit about it?

Yeah, Big up Kelvin from Carter­filmss on the visu­als, We shot a movie! We filmed in a few dif­fer­ent loc­a­tions. One of the loc­a­tions is quite unique. I won’t say too much I will let people decide on the visu­als themselves!

What chal­lenges have you faced in the music industry so far?

I don’t feel I have faced too many chal­lenges yet as I am still quite new to the industry. Of course I have had some set­backs etc but it’s how you bounce back from this.  I am not from a fam­ily with a music­al back­ground so I came into the industry hardly know­ing a single per­son. I feel I have had to work doubly hard to net­work and get seen in the industry. A lot of the time It’s not what you know it’s who you know!

2020 has brought us many chal­lenges, what plans did you have to put on hold, and how have you man­aged to keep act­ive music­ally through it?

I’ve actu­ally been much more cre­at­ive dur­ing lock­down and it has giv­en me more time to plot my next moves. My mind nev­er stops tick­ing. I have still been act­ive music­ally which is great. I had my debut EP drop in May and have been con­sist­ently writ­ing and record­ing new tracks. I had a music video in Dubai planned for June but unfor­tu­nately that was put on hold due to the vir­us. How­ever I’ve been net­work­ing with industry pro­fes­sion­als in recent months and have been giv­en great support.

What else is in store for you as an artist?

I’m at an excit­ing stage of my career. I’m still young and still got time in abund­ance. More Music! More Visu­als! Hope­fully some excit­ing col­lab­or­a­tions in the near future with a pos­sib­il­ity of a new pro­ject. I’m also in the pro­cess of look­ing to start up my own ini­ti­at­ive and record label for people from dis­ad­vant­aged backgrounds.

Where can we fol­low you?

 You can fol­low me on Ins­tagram @JGrangeofficial , my music can be found on all digit­al plat­forms and also via my web­site which has all inform­a­tion and latest updates via https://jgrangeofficial.com

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Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.