JDVBBS : “Married to Hip-Hop but sleeping around with other genres”

JDVBBS (pronounced ‘jay-dubs) is one of my favourite artists from 2014. The man is super talented and I just think it’s important to share the music that artists like him put out. He’s definitely an artist to watch in 2015 so I’m glad that I got the opportunity to interview him. Check out what he had to say below.

1. JDVBBS – Tell me about the name, where did it originate and why the spelling

It’s a hybrid of when my friends in high school called me JKDub and in college when my friends called me Juicy J (yes, Juicy J). Using a V instead of a U stems from combining the idea of misspelling words in hip hop and early written language with U’s were written as V’s

2. How long have you been involved in music?

I majored in music in school and have been writing for as long as I can remember. Making original music more than a hobby came about around December 2013 and I’ve been rolling ever since.

3. What made you start?

I knew I wanted to be a performing/recording artist but in my perfectionist nature I was very meticulous with out I wanted to go about it. I kick myself for not starting out earlier but I wouldn’t trade being where I am in my VERY early music career for the world.

4. Who inspires you to continue your craft?

Making the people who have believed in me from the jump is a big inspiration for me. My mother has been my biggest fan. My older brother my biggest critic. My friends (and their couches) have been my anchors and the blogs my biggest supporters. I owe it to both that group of people and myself to keep doing what I do.

5. How has 2014 been for you?

Unpredictably dope. The amount of people (blogs especially, I love you guys) who like my music is still astonishing sometimes. I’ve moved around a lot. I’ve met and performed with awesome people and there are even more awesome people who have been introduced to me in some sort of capacity. I don’t have any complaints really.

6. Tell me what you’ve done this year?

I put out what I think I’m officially calling a mixtape in January 2014 called subURBAN. (It’s free, if you don’t have it, go get it NOW!). I’ve done some cool college and internet radio interviews, I’ve been featured on some cool blogs and played dope venues. I’ve worked with some cool artists either remixing some of their stuff or shooting some bars over to producers. All in all it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

7. What is one of your favourite things you’ve done this year?

My album… sorry, mixtape release show was CRAZY! It was so awesome to see people I had just met a week before it next to people I’ve known for 20+ years rocking to music that I wrote. I pulled out as many stops as possible having some of my closest friends perform with me either lending backup vocals, guitar solos, what have you. It was nuts.

8. What plans do you have for 2015?

I haven’t been in the studio as much in 2014 so I’ve got a million songs I wanna drop in 2015. In a perfect world I wanna do three totally different projects and have all of them as well as get off of the east coast and start doing shows across the US. 2014 was about letting people know that I rap. 2015 is about flexing my versatility so expect a lot of different stuff.

9. What do you hope to achieve in the new year?

Necessary tumult is a good way to put this past year. There’s a bunch of unforeseen obstacles when going about trying to make music. I’m still figuring out the most efficient way to get everything done in the midst of not going broke and shifting my life to do this full time. Still figuring out my sound, my live show configuration. I’m impatient so that doesn’t help either. Nailing all of that in 2015 is the goal.

10. How would you describe your style to someone who’s never heard your music before?

I played some of the instrumentals for the first project for a girl who was sitting on the Megabus next to me a few weeks before it dropped. She described the sound as “Married to hip hop but sleeping around with other genres.” That pins the tail on the donkey for me as far as describing my sound, I really like that analogy.

One of my favourite projects from JDVBBS is his rework of Schoolboy Q’s ‘Collard Greens’