Published: Friday - October 24, 2003
Words by Alex Van Beek
Jae Millz (Photo: Wanna Blow)
Harlem, New York is a breeding ground for talented emcees. You got Dipset, Loon, and a few others. But now, there's another threat to worry about, and that's Jae Millz.
With the streets buzzing about his new single, "No, No, No," Jae Millz is poised to be a major threat in the near future. As the rapper gears up for his solo debut, entitled Back to the Future, BallerStatus caught upwith Jae to find out how the single has helped, what's in store for the future and how he came up. Be sure to watch out for this emcee.
BallerStatus.net: What have you been up to recently?
Jae Millz: Just promoting, you know, going to different cities, different states promoting the album. Promoting Wanna Blow Entertainment, letting everyone know it's about to go down beginning of the year. Back to the Future, that's the name of the debut album.
BallerStatus.net: You are out here promoting your track, "No, No, No." What's the story behind that?
Jae Millz: There's really no story, man. I just wanted to have a little bit of fun, you know what I'm saying? I wanted to bring a little fun back to the game, wanted to try something new. I've never tried flippin' a dancehall track, a jamacian track, so I figured it would challenge me to do it and it was just a hot track. When my man Scram [Jones] first let me hear the track, I was like, "That's Hot! I wanna rock with that," but I didn't really know how to do it. I went home and sat with it for a minute and it was like, "Dang, No, No, No." I need to work with that and really bring it out on the song a little bit more. After that, I did it and I just been getting a good response since then.
BallerStatus.net: Of course, you got a lot of big cats in the game backing you, like P. Diddy. What's your relationship with him now?
Jae Millz: Ah, there is no different relationship. We still all good, he is good peoples. [P. Diddy] is like extended family to Wanna Blow, just like Wanna Blow is an extended family to Bad Boy like Diddy, Tone and Naj. They run Wanna Blow. Tone, Naj and Diddy, they have been tight for years. When I first met him, when I was younger, I was probably like 15 years old and over the years, if I see him and I was with Tone or Naj, he would give me little advice like, "Jae, you are steppin' it up" or "Keep working, one day it's going to pay off," you know? So, when the "Making the Band" situation came, he gave me a shot. He put me in the spotlight for a quick second and that was a real good look right there too.
BallerStatus.net: In the beginning, you came in with DJ Kay Slay, so how did you run with him?
Jae Millz: I'm from Harlem, K is from Harlem, so once again, Tone and Naj and their relationship. They know a lot of people, so Kay Slay was doing mixtapes and he started getting me on his mixtapes. He started playing my songs on the radio, and sooner or later, he started letting me come up to the radio station, Hot 97, and he interviewed me. He was saying, "Millz is about to do his thing, He is doing it for Harlem."
I went up their a couple of times and this was before I had my deal, so you know, [Kay Slay] really looked out for me. Same with DJ Enuff, he looked out for me real heavy like a week before I got my deal, he (DJ Enuff) played "No, No, No" for like a week straight. He started his show off a week straight with "No, No, No." That got the city hype. The city was like, "Who is this?" When they found out I was from New York, I was young, I was the same kid Diddy was talking about from "Making the Band," I was on all these mixtapes, so it was too much to ignore me. After a while, everyone started paying attention. Kay Slay and DJ Enuff, they definitely helped me out.
BallerStatus.net: So, what happened with "Making the Band"? Did you win? I never saw it.
Jae Millz: Well, on the "Making the Band" the first season, I battled Ness. Diddy called it a tie. Everybody had to see it for theirselves, I don't tell anyone I won. I don't say I lost. It was a good look, it was a good battle, he called it a draw, so I called it a draw. [P. Diddy] was the judge and he called it a draw, so I called it a draw. I don't really have an opinion or a rating on that or a point of view because I'm an artist. I don't really wanna opinionate my own work, you understand?
I kinda wanna leave it up to the public to judge it. I respect the win or the loss, whichever they wanna say. It was a good look, it was hip-hop and it was good for the both of us. So around "Making of the Band," Diddy called Naj and wanted me to come down and battle because they were still auditioning. Diddy wanted to see me battle because he had never seen me battle face-to-face with somebody. After that, I kinda drifted away for a minute and went into the studio and recorded and when I came out with "No, No, No," people were like, "I remember this kid from 'Making the Band,' oh he got a hot song..." So, it comes together a little bit more now.
BallerStatus.net: Are you still back to freestyling?
Jae Millz: Aw, not that much [laughs]. I mean, I had a couple battles in the last year, but I'm kinda straying away from that. There is nothing wrong with doing it and having fun, but I think the battle thing is getting a little too personal. People don't know how to battle and keep it there. They wanna battle, then they wanna turn into gangstas, it's just a little too much. So me, I wanna just make my music. I'm trying to bring good music to the game and just trying to get people to get into my world and get people to understand Jae Millz' story. They can learn where I'm coming from and where I'm trying to take the game.
BallerStatus.net: Now your music is different from anything that is out there. Do you get any criticisms from the hip-hop world?
Jae Millz: No, not really. I think rap has strayed a little from hip-hop. It kinda went to like a personal sport. It turned into like, "Well, I got beef with this rapper, so every song I do, I'm gonna diss him. You know, my whole album is dissing this person or that person and all my songs on mixtapes are me getting at this person," you know what I'm saying? I think it kinda strayed away from people having hot songs, having hot concepts, having a hot song about their life where people can understand them other than just seeing them on TV with their jewels and their Benz' and their Bentleys'. They could have a song reminiscing, going back to the hood, going back to how they got to that level. I think people are missing that. People are missing hearing five different artists from five different labels on one track with no chorus, just spitting. That's hip-hop! They miss the symphonies and all that. They miss the collaborative efforts on tracks, so I'm just trying to bring that back to the game. If you look back three years ago... four years ago, everybody was cool with everybody. Now, you can't even get everybody in the same building. I'm not pin-pointing one artist, but I'm just saying, I think the game kinda strayed away from hip-hop. People right now have been in the game for a lil' while and the game isn't the same as when they came in when they had that hungry drive. Now they made their money, they sold their records, so they feel they made it and they don't have to be like that anymore. You have to learn how to make music for everybody.
BallerStatus.net: So what's after, "No, No, No?" I understand you are in Jamaica with Lil' X directing a video?
Jae Millz: Yea, Lil' X is directing the video. We out in Kingston, Jamaica. I got Kamani Marly and Spraga Benz in the video, shoutout to them.
After this, the next single is "What's Up, What's Up?" It's another banger. I don't really think of it as a single, nobody wanna hear my life story. They want banger after banger after banger, but my album is so all over the place. I got bangers on there, I got feel good music, I got music that is gonna make you sit down, I got music letting you know where I'm from, and I got music on there taking it back to hip-hop where you gotta analyze my lyrics to really know what I'm talking about. It's kinda crazy and hard to explain it, but if I could let you listen to four tracks on my album, you will understand everything.
BallerStatus.net: Do you think it's just the bangers getting the airplay these days?
Jae Millz: I don't know. Honestly, the game is twisted right now. One day you could be hot, the next day you could be disgusting. You could sell 500,000 one week and the next week you could sell 5. The general public is so switch-sided, they switch so fast. One minute they can accept you and then they can hear you on the radio at night and you could say a joke, like it's a JOKE, or it might not come out the right way and you could lose all your fans. You might not even know it.
As an artist, you gotta watch what you say, you gotta watch what you do, you gotta watch how you carry yourself because it all reflects on you. Sometimes DJs won't even play your record like... for certain things. Honestly, when DJs ask for drops and all that and if you don't get them their drop, some of them will think like "He didn't do this for me, so I won't play his record." It's like that. There is people that are really like that, so you gotta really watch how you carry yourself. Not that you gotta try to make everybody happy, but you gotta think as an artist. You are a regular person, everybody knows that you are a regular person, but at the end of the day and when you wake up in the morning, you gotta be an artist when you are around these people. They don't know you as a regular person, they just met you. They don't know Jae Millz and me growing up in Harlem, they don't know that. They know Jae Millz, they know "No, No, No," so you gotta keep your humbleness where people feel like they can reach you.
BallerStatus.net: Do you feel pressure?
Jae Millz: I don't feel pressure because I'm a humble person. I wanna see everyone succeed. I don't wish everyone bad luck, I wish everyone success. I just wanna rap and make good music. I wanna bring hip-hop back. I wanna bring fun back to the game. If I gotta be the person to bring fun to the game or bring all the rappers together. If they read my interviews or hear them and understand what I'm saying, I hope they try to do the same thing I'm trying to do right now.
BallerStatus.net: You come across as an educated person, how long have you been in the game?
Jae Millz: I had my first deal when I was 17. I was signed to MoTown. It didn't work out and the deal with Warner Bros. came along not too long ago. But, I've been in the game for about 5 to 6 years. Deal-wise, industry-wise, it's been about 4 years. But, I recorded my first song when I was like 15 years old. I was doing battling, mixtapes and all that. I didn't have no deal, but people still knew about me. So, you can say 5 years.
BallerStatus.net: Your album, titled Back to the Future, what do you hope to acheive with that?
Jae Millz: I wanna go Back to the Future [laughs]. I wanna take the game back to hip-hop. Back to where it was more about the love and there was more respect in the game. There was more lyrics and people were more serious in the booth and it wasn't so much of a joke. They were more about their business when it came to handling their lyrics.
And I wanna take it to the future, I wanna show yall what you got coming for the next few years. I wanna introduce y'all to Jae Millz, introduce y'all to Wanna Blow Entertainment, introduce yall to Most Hated, introduce yall to NISSS, introduce y'all to a new face, a new camp, and a new family. I'm trying to bring good music back to the game, good lyrics and humbleness. A lot people aren't too humble, a lot of people don't speak like me, a lot of people don't carry theirselves like me. I wish everyone success. I don't bad mouth anybody, I don't down-talk anybody, I don't down-play anybody's situation.
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