Jay Prophet can’t read your mind, but he knows what you’e going to do next. You’re going to read this interview and listen to his music. It has been written.
Bio: Jay Prophet is the only known masked Industrial Hip-hop artist from the New England region. He is an Earworm Entertainment artists from Cranston, RI. Jay is known for taking the underground Hip-hop scene to a new level with his creativity, originality, powerful vocal cords, screams, and emotional lucid truth told through his lyrics. He comes from a background of multiple genres of music including: Metal, Rock, and Hip-hop. Jay Prophet released his album, Jay Prophet, in 2019.
First off, what’s the story behind the name?
Back in the high school days, I use to hang out with this kid who kinda looked like me but his name was Jason. I’m Justin. The teachers and school principal would get us confused and I was always being called Jason. He would deal with no problem. People started calling me Jay by the 10th grade and it stuck. The name Jay stuck so long that most people I was meeting would take my nickname Jay as if it was my real name. The name Prophet started to stick with me in my teenage years. I was great at predicting, not the future, but sometimes I read people and I have been known to read how a situation will go. Almost as if I was psychic hahaha. I wouldn’t want to admit such a thing, but I was great at it. I was great at helping friends with tough times. Sometimes, I would take words out of people’s mouths. Predictions of how Global warming would take effect on the world, to countries at war. I would Study almost anything I ever had a question to. I was great at guessing games and I had one solid memory for a guy who smoked so much weed hahaha. Most of the time, me prophesizing on people sometimes freaked folks out. Jay Prophet was what I was known as when I had my very first show Right from there it stuck with me.
Tell us about your musical past, would you tell us about your early years?
In 2010, I was DJing for college ranch house parties. I was producing beats but I didn’t exactly know what I was doing or getting myself in to. I would spend days upon days making music and producing hip hop beats that were more of what I would describe as motivation hip hop. They has no lyrics at all. I would beatbox these beats in my head and get on my laptop at the time and go through various systems editing them in many ways. In the year 2014, after my second show, I only had six songs in total. Every night used to feel like practice, and I was spending so much time doing pay to play shows or selling tickets. It wasn’t something I ever had an interest in but I realized that I was good at selling tickets and almost every show I started, I’d always sell them all. Things came to a halt in late 2014. My mother was sick with stage 4 bone cancer. It didn’t go so well; I dropped everything and gave my mother the most attention with myself and my brother. She started going through chemo and I lost it. I stayed with her and visited her almost every night. She once asked me about how I was doing with the music; I told her that it was going alright and that I was gaining views from all sorts of people to promoters and meeting great people in the business. She said you have a video right? I told her I did. Pulled out my cell phone showed her a video of my first show. She was in tears. I told her that I couldn’t pull through with the music and that I was going to quit. She told me I was crazy if I did that. She passed away in November of 2014. She lasted only a month from the time she heard the news from the doctor about her illness. It hit me hard for almost a year. I came back around in 2016. I had my first show with my great friend, Lyn, who was also performing her set the same night. We both had openings to handle for Twiztid. The show went nuts. When I went up on stage, I saw familiar faces and at first, I felt I was gone and forgotten about. I came back fresh with new music ready to feed them with. The show was loud. The crowd was amazing.
How would you describe your sound?
Angry, Subliminal, Wreckless. Way different compared to any Hip Hop artists. This is the sound of true ugliness or as I could say the ugly truth. It sounds metal at times and lyrically graphic.
Which artists have the biggest influence on your sound?
I would say it’s such a mix between something like Twiztid meets Linkin Park and Slipknot put together. With my music, there’s so much to think and relate to. My music is diverse. Often dark and melodic.
What’s the last song you listened to?
I can’t remember, I listen to all kinds of music daily.
What’s your source for hearing new music?
Anything, to the venues, to online, I search in any way no matter what genre.
Who is your dream producer?
Me.
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
Kid Krusher.
What led you to music, and what motivates you to keep making it?
Family-based led me to music. I study so many instruments and done vocal lessons in my life; it hurts lol. The drive is the story that never ends. I love to do it. It’s my passion. I have people’s ears to please, and they need to hear my music. Some people have so much faith in what I do and believe in me and I’ve had countless strangers who have been at my shows that say they love it and never stop. I don’t plan on it.
Tell us about the songwriting process. How does it all come together?
I produce the beats that are in my head to feel the music so I could feel my emotion leading to my words as an expression on a note pad.
How do you connect with your audience? What is the easiest way for them to connect with you?
They listen, and I have stage presence. Not just on how I look wearing a mask but you gotta know how to speak a crowd of people. It’s not just the music that connects them with me but on how I speak to them and as an entertainer, you gotta know what you’re doing and how to communicate or else you’re gonna look like a choking goat on stage.
Connect with Jay Prophet via The Earworm Entertainment website, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Check out his music on Amazon, Napster, Spotify, and YouTube.
We hear word that you write your own Industrial beats. Want to tell us a bit about the process? What makes a beat Industrial as opposed to a typical Hip-hop beat?
Producing it as it’s style, of course. It’s Hip hop that sounds industrial. They’re not your average Hip hop beats. Most of the bass sounds different. The synthesizers I use are more for Industrial Metal music but I mix them with Hip hop. Again, I wouldn’t even know how to describe it still.
Your song “Elegant Nightmare” is your most popular track. Tell us a bit about what the song means. What is your favorite line from the song? What does it mean?
That song is about Sleep paralysis. Also, about nightmares repeating to wake up realized you’re still trapped inside the nightmare. The whole song is my favorite. I don’t favor anyone on Earworm’s lyrics. I feel they did their best and put their all into it.
You have a video production company. What’s it called? Tell us a bit about how you work with your clients. Do you come up with the concept for the video, or does your client come to you with the idea?
I now own 3rd Eye Rize Productions. It’s more a promotion company for myself and for clients that are musicians/artists that want photo editing done for their music projects or videos. I create music videos to trippy psychedelic videos. I work with my clients. I’m in most favor for their ideas because they pay for their project to be done by me, so I try to please them with my production and help as best as I can.
You throw garage parties. Tell us what someone could expect if they attend one? Do you have Earworm artists perform at these parties?
Yes, I pulled two of them during the summer of 2019. One was from our Earworm New England Tour. We were supposed to have a venue but at the last minute, it didn’t happen, so we all booked it up at my place outside the capital of Rhode Island. It was on a Monday, the beginning of summer. It went very well and was a success. The second one was late August. We put more money into the second one and it was bigger. I have a pretty small place, but my garage was big enough to make it happen. I wanted to pull off something old school and different. It was. It was very kickass. What to expect? Loud music. Live entertainment, food, beers, weed-smoking lol. Nice people and great artists to sit and chat with. We associate with other artists around New England that play with fire so sometimes we have fire breathing and swallowing and fire dancing entertainment. It’s quite amazing. Oh Yeah, everyone from Earworm was there, we all perform our sets individually. We also have our guest artists to open that we associate with.
You help hype shows. Who do you hype for, and why? How do you hype the crowd? What’s the response?
Yes! I’ve been hyping my good friend Melishouz Morbia for about five years now. She’s my great friend who I met about seven years ago. We were working as actors for Spooky World. She used to be in a band called Purgatory Bound. She was doing solo stuff and I once was asked if I could hype for her. So I took the offer right away since I was highly involved with listening to her music. She knew that. I studied her lyrics and knew them just as good as she knows them, and from how she trained me. My response not only goes from what I say to the crowd and how I speak with them as an artist, and would do after or the beginning of a song. But also my stage presence, and how I move around the stage. Sometimes. I’ll yell out, “Make some mothafuckin noise,” or from where ever the location of the venue is at I’ll call out by the state to make some noise. It could be a mixer depending on the vibe of her songs. Her music is great and she has a decent following. Her crowd is very respectful and they love her. For who she is and what she does, I’m proud of her, and she’s a great human being and musician, as well as a true artist.
You were on the Wormed Out Tour. How did that go? Do you have any memorable moments you want to share? How many cities did you get to perform at?
Wormed out tour was great. We visited the deep woods of Lebanon, Maine, which was on some weird, crazy spiritual shit that is truly a long story, oh my god, haha. We visited every state except Connecticut. Not for any personal reason but many venues out there wouldn’t respond to us, so we continued to do what we had to do. Hampton Beach was amazing. It felt like a family event more than anything because we showed up ready and hyped as fuck. Mass was my favorite. We had a decent crowd and everyone’s performance I felt was at its best. Hampton Beach has great, they had stage lights for our sets. It was amazing. The whole tour felt great to do it all and we did and we kicked ass.
You perform often. How often and where?
I perform a lot in the New England region, but mostly in Providence R.I and Mass.
Do you have a favorite venue you perform at?
No, they’re all stages that need me to my job, so it never truly matters, I love it all.
What’s next for you?
Old age, Possible memory loss too along with gray hairs, hahaha! I don’t know. Life and we living it baby no matter what!
Anything else you’d like to add or let us know about?
Ayo, I’m a Prophet! Stop It!
