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After making it through to the regional finals of ‘The Live & Unsigned Competition’, MJay was also a runner-up in ‘Sheffield’s Got Talent’ as well as being top ten in several underground charts.
When did you start making music and realise that you wanted to be a rapper?
Music has always been apart of my life, the 1st time I Knew I wanted to become an artist was in 2005 when I Heard “Candy Shop” By 50 cent After watching the video and listening to the song I knew from that very moment that rapping was something I wanted to do, and so a couple of months later I called up a local studio and went in there with nothing but a beat and freestyled the whole song, but obviously as I was only starting out it was nothing Big however my family and school classmates thought different they loved it and from then I been making music.
Was there a person or record that inspired you to pick up the pen and start writing songs and hit the studio?
Yes at first it was 50 Cent and so I Got to thank him for inspiring me Ha. Since then I Have Just been working on music and have achieved great things, it’s been amazing a true blessing shout out my peoples.
So how did you get your name? What’s the story behind it?
You know what like every Artist I Started out experimenting with different names but then something amazing happened to me as a child I Was always into Michael Jackson’s Music, he was such an amazing performer and great artist and so 1 day I Decided to Call Myself “MJay” and the reason behind it was because it was Magic how After 1 freestyle my career started, I Had a performance at a Football Stadium 2 months after starting out and so I Thought to myself 1 day I Am going to be great just like Michael Jackson is and I Still Stand By that saying.
Where exactly are you from and what’s the Hip-Hop scene like there?
I Have Been All Over the UK, I was in London at first and then now I Am In Sheffield, and to be honest the urban scene hasn’t been that strong down here for a while but Sheffield is the home to great artist’s like Noxcuse, Remz and Coco and Now Myself and so we are beginning to open up the scene down here again but most of the time you can catch me in London, Shouts out to Noxcuse, Remz and Coco though great artists and more importantly Great Guys look out for a feature in the future We Putting On For The City right now.
What projects have you released so far and what feedback from the media have you had?
You know what the funny thing is I have been in the game for a while now but only last year was when I Started really taking my career seriously and putting in the work and to be honest with you I Have loved every single minute of it, I Have achieved great things, a nice fan base and the buzz around me right now is nuts I Am doing things in every direction got singles with Top UK Artist’s coming soon, Had International and National radio Play On stations like the BBC, DJ’s are spinning my records and magazines are loving me right now and so its been an amazing year and a half just look out for my album it will explain all and be a massive threat as an independent artist to the industry.
Let’s talk about your latest project. Where can people get it, who features on it and who dealt with the production?
My Latest Production is A Track Called “Angel” its fresh out the studio and is already getting mad love, shouts out to my producer RC Aka Ryan Cropper for producing and featuring on the single, also a great female vocalist called Shavana her voice is nuts!!! The Project is not released yet and so the only place people can listen to it right now is from DJ’s And Radio Play so make sure you listen out for me I Am Taking Over!!!
How are you getting your project out there? Do you have a distributor involved?
I Am Actually in Talks with A Label about a distribution deal for the album, all will be revealed real soon, Watch this Space!!!
Is there a shop or website stocking and supporting your music?
My Mixtape Is Up On A Few Websites Including DatPiff.com and So Just Get It From There. Album Coming Soon!!!
Getting radio play is real gripe for a lot of Hip-Hop artists, but have you had any radio play? If so what DJ’s and stations are supporting you?
I Am Getting Mad Love right now, Shouts out to Iain Hodgson at BBC Radio for Holding Me Down, Ollie Hayes From Hallam FM is also a great Fan of my music and is loving everything I Am doing so shouts out to him, got all Scarlett on Gypsy FM Holding me down, to be honest with you I Have had such a great response from Radio Plays people tell me all the time they hearing my music on the radio so its truly a blessing.
Do you think that radio is still as important as it was in the digital age?
Radio is powerful right now as well as DJ’s they should definitely be an Artist’s best friend because they can take you from the bottom to the top, they have a lot of power and so support your DJ’s and they support you.
Dance/Electro/Club styled Hip-Hop seems to be the only Hip-Hop getting airplay on radio and TV. Do you think that to survive you have to change your music to fit in or do you think its more a case of moving with the times?
Its never been a case of changing your music to survive and I Hate it when people say “Artist’s are selling out” because its just an artist moving with the times and doing his thing, at the end of the day you got to follow trends before you can set your own and the industry is very hard to break into so doing your own thing is going to leave you out its simple any artist should be able to adapt to new things/sounds.
Do you think the internet helps or hinders independent artists?
Definitely Helps, Look at What “Skepta” Did he scored a number 1 hit with Bad Boy independently and so it just proves that the internet still is a powerful resource for any artist because all artist’s need to network with fans, also the internet now offers more services for artists to exploit and put out there music you got services like Tune Core where artist’s can sell Albums/Singles even ringtones and then music sites like Soud Cloud now offer artists.
When it comes to making music what would you credit as your main motivation?
I Motivate Myself because over the past years I Realised that depending on people only leaves you depressed and so I Motivate myself anytime I Am in the studio I Want to be the best and do better than the last time I Was in, its hard work but its grown on me now.
Let’s talk image and branding for a minute. Some artists spend lots of money on artwork and other acts aren’t that interested. How important is image, artwork and branding to you?
Image is everything in this industry if you can’t sell your project and image then no 1 is interested and so its very important to keep your image professional because if you give out rubbish it becomes rubbish.
I think that any artist coming into the game these days needs a music video. I mean You Tube is one the most visited website in the world and its still a great way of promoting a track. Have you got any videos on there and have any of them actually got played on any TV Stations?
I Am Actually Shooting My Video For my new single in the next 2 months time, its Got 2 Amazing UK Artist’s look out for the single hitting the radio soon!!!
What was the last album you brought and where do you buy your music? Is there a good record shop in your area or do you buy on-line?
It was Ludacris’s “Battle of the sexes” I bought it from HMV Its a Great Album Make sure if you haven’t already got it you go out and support him, I also just got The Chipmunk “iAM Chipmunk Platinum Edition” Album shouts out to Mr Munk his music is nuts!!!
www.myspace.com/MJayArtist
www.twitter.com/MJayMusic
www.youtube.com/MJayzMusic
www.facebook.com/MJayMusic
Interview by Tricksta
www.myspace.com/trickstawolftown
www.myspace.com/ragomagazine
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