Meet Mack Jehu - hip-hop artist from London - People of London

 Meet Mack Jehu - hip-hop artist from London - People of London.Mack Jehu formerly known as Mack Jay is a HipHop Artist/Lyricist from South Ldn also part of Just terrific/PeoplesArmy. .

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Vlog in text:
all right folks we are here with hip-hop Legend from London mag jehu how are you I'm good my brother how are you not too bad man not too bad good to see you yeah we met in Matthews we're doing this out here you know we did that back home man respect my brother I like that

yeah so how was life I've seen you performing recently a lot so yeah mom and your new single is out also what are you saying goes this is like a single EP it's got about three tracks on there it's called um never saw it coming never saw it coming you can find their own old digital platform my Jay who never saw it coming yeah produced by um smooth flow and there's two remixes on there produced by Angela who's also part of a hip-hop Collective called People's Army which I'm a part of as well so make sure you go and check that out man if you love that real hip-hop yeah I mean can you tell us how did you get to into hip-hop because I know you've been in the industry for quite a long time I mean how I got it to hip-hop was really like my mom my mom used to play a lot of hip-hop Tunes in the house when I was little so she paid the party shoes like people like Naughty by Nature Heavy D and MC Hammer LL Cool J so a lot of the party choose from the 90s like the early 90s right so yeah as time went on as I as I was getting older getting into like 12 11 I started getting into people listening to people like Ice Cube two pack the list goes on there's so many different names that I can't really tell you there's a specific rapper or artist or sing by that so made me want to do it but I would say that it was around the time when Tupac was in his prime in 96 and I was about 11 years old and then you've been in London yeah that time and she told me that your your parents come from Ghana yes yeah my parents are from Ghana yeah and my mom was born here she um she went back to Ghana when she was two years old with my grandparents who had her over here and when she came out when she was 17 she had me you know I mean so yeah I mean actually I think she had me when she was 19 actually yeah but she still was didn't expose you to like afrobeats but there was a hip-hop that was served in your in your household you know what there was the afrobeats is now what you call afrobeats back then was was under a different name so because I'm going in we have a genre called highlights High Life music is basically on the music that was made in Ghana around the time when I believe um Mexicans were there Mexicans and other soldiers came to Ghana before the independence and they sort of brought a genre called High Life music Mexican soldiers I think they were Mexican or around that sort of okay that's what I found out recently all right and they brought

yeah sauce on it and made it their own so highlife music's basically the music that was played in my household my stepdad would play High Life music um my mom wasn't really the one that would play high life but hip-hop just wants the hip-hop the r b and my stepdad was into a lot of roots reggae so you know a lot of people like um Bob Marley Peter Tosh um Burning Spear um Dennis Brown so my householders was always um it's a lot of music in your life in general in a musical household where there was all types of jungles of music played in the household I see and you grew up in that environment and music was your thing music was my thing man and you know as time went on I found out that even my dad's side of the family my biological Dad decided the family did music as well my my uncle was a DJ and a promoter and he's been doing it for years I I have a cousin who also Once Upon a Time rapped she she she she used to rap as well she's done songs with quite a lot of um legendary people in Ghana all right the music runs in your blood he runs in my blood man I am music and I live music you know I feel like even like I'm a true representation of hip-hop because I was I was buffed into hip-hop at a young age eight years old I think one of the most prominent artists because you don't really hear about hip-hop I would surprise you like yeah I'm a Hip-Hop Hip-Hop Hip-Hop is a kind of the thing from the past at the moment in it yeah yeah yes it's true I don't know it's like the you don't hear I'm A hip-hop fan now anymore anything like that I think it was a My Generation My Generation that's this kind of genre of music and we're talking about what a night is really in the 90s I was born in the 80s but yeah the beginning of the 90s and carry on how how much is the USA in influencing your style because they they begin hip-hop aren't they a lot man but a lot of people don't actually know that there was a there was a there was a hip-hop force in the UK yeah I remember you telling me that in the past around the same time but it's just that it's more of an underground scene so because it's an underground scene and it's not mainstream a lot of people either don't realize it or know about it but it's not talked about a lot but that's what really talked about so can you mention some names the British hip-hop skinny man you got Rodney P you've got um who else have you got there's so many different names I'm trying to think of different names Swiss Smiler um Stylo black twang but they never really made it like on to the top did they no there was a point there was a point there was a point these guys were the guys in hip-hop Kalashnikov check them out man these are like dope dope dope dope dope dope right science that really dealt with them with with the lyrical skills that really pushed UK hip-hop at the full front and I feel like there's even people that logic and low-key who sort of like brought the Consciousness to to the to the to the um hip-hop scene in the UK well I think what it was is obviously um I think what I honestly think is that um hip-hop in the UK didn't get the push that it did like it did in America so you know it was because already that the UK's known before that genres like jungle and um reggae so jungle and reggae and garage and house music from what I can from what I can remember growing up because obviously there's always artists way before my generation and I'm sure they would probably tell you more than I can tell you I don't remember that hip-hop's been around for like over 50 years now yes it was the 50th birthday of hip-hop I believe early this month

would you say British hip-hop has its own sound 100 man and we have and we have our own twine money we we talk how we how we talk is how we spit meaning how we rap yeah so um I believe that you know what you can also talk about about about um UK hip-hop is that it's not even just there's so many there's so many subgenres within rap in the UK so we have grime and I will feel that right I feel like all these all these genres of rap are like um are like cousins and nephews of each other you have um we've got Grime you have garage we have jungle we had um what else do we have well there's so many different ones and even within the the Dark Soul culture the the UK Dark Soul culture um reggae the the the how the the the the garage garage as well um funky house all of these genres is what has made what the UK Urban scene is now I believe I believe all these genres that has been made over the years is what made the scene even even even in in the current times we're in right now the most commercial sound music right now the most mainstream sound music right now that a lot of the youngsters are gravitating to now is drill and UK rap right and um also um yeah afro swinging afrobeats in there so I think I think like you know I feel like we're all all these genres are all related to each other it's just like our human means yeah we mix and we take a bit of that mix it up we like that is like music to me music to me is like cooking if you want if you want the perfect suit you're going to add a bit of this a bit of that you might you might meet someone and then they might do something a lot different to you yeah you know what I like that taste of that soup I wanna I wanna add that soup to maybe what I do yeah that's what music is all about it's about sharing sharing your your Styles and and and and and and ways of doing music and collaborating and maybe um you might bring something to bring something to each other that might just change the whole world of culture yeah I believe this culture in music oh yeah music is part of culture it's part of culture and I believe that's the powerful thing so yeah man I mean for me music is everything to me man I live in breathe Music Man I mean so the reason why I do I chose hip-hop is because that's all I've known sit from it from a young age when I was eight years old that's a jolly music I went into so Mark you see what do you think I know the the Caribbean influence was historically very strong in England but now is is the African influence which is bigger now in London African above is it's both both Germans coming together really I think it's just I just think it's yes it's more like the African sound is more of the thing that's going on right now but I think it's something I think we're all one people man I think it's just it's always been there it's just that the African sound the afrobeats wasn't prominent within it was more Caribbean music

um Dark Souls are all part of the contribution to afrobeats now because you can hear even if you listen to some afrobeat tunes you can hear a little bit of Dark Soul in there yeah a little bit of Reggae in there so to me black music is black music man I mean it whether it's r b whether it's reggae whether it's afrobeats to me we're all one big family and I think that's the beautiful thing about music right now can you recognize very quickly like black music or white music what would be that song that is just being played I mean right now this song being played right now is probably um a soul song originally I can imagine

sounds like yeah yeah you can recognize this black music but some people sound you know some white people can sound black and some black and sounds more white but only to certain extent I would say oh that was cool because like we have a we have white artists that are that are off-white origin that do black music and that's cool man yeah it's cool what do you think about hip-hop because that's like pretty much 50 50 I would say it's not entirely black but not why the music hip-hop it's like originally I would say it's black music it was over the years you know a lot of people who love the music so much they've they've they've they've they have their own take on it right so there's a lot of different people it doesn't really matter what color you are to be honest hip-hop's not a thing where they say that yeah because it's black music you can't do it because you're not black I don't believe that I believe that um if you're adult for what you do yeah and you can spit some adult bars to make some great songs you represent that hip-hop stuff but yeah you can do it as well like you know what I'm saying like I mentioned skinny man there's a lot of adult rappers from over here in the UK all right he was British well he's yeah it's English yeah English guys so you've got a skinny man you've got Chester P um in the grime scene you've seen you've got Devlin and then there's this rapper called Potter paper I mean these guys you know I mean obviously you know what I mean obviously part of paper I think he's um it might be I think he's half algera and half Irish but it doesn't matter what it's not really about um the color I think it's about how dope is my hair a rapper if I hear a rapper and this guy is spitting some dope stuff and I like it I'm not thinking about I'm not thinking about the Conor yeah well it just was just a question because some music is like people think this is this is black music this is white music yeah but yeah I think music's music in the other day like I said all genres of music are all related to each other and even rock music what I mean you'd be surprised mom well there's not that many but fun enough there's not that many heavy metal or metal bands that are black in it it's just it's not there's no so why is new people music really like heavy metal and all that well originally it was black music it wasn't as well you give it up very quickly but yeah but you know it's just one of those things where obviously music is All About Love isn't it what it does for you what it does for your soul yeah as as somebody said live without a music would be a mistake 100 it doesn't matter it doesn't matter who you are short or Rich poor when that's when your favorite song comes on right now I'm glad that I have that interview you know in the music we're talking about music yeah when when you when that music you love comes on it doesn't matter what color you are man oh yeah no it doesn't matter what color you are it's it's the love you have for that song you like it and that's what this song does for you that's right it's a beautiful industry and everybody can make it that's what I'm trying to say that's what I love about music you know what I love about music there might be four or five people they might not even like each other when that song comes on can't help it yeah no I mean because I saw I saw some of your your Geeks online and you really bring the crowds and you can move the crowds I think you've got potential and uh you you like upcoming artists but you really like really making it you're an advantage there I've seen like well there was a couple hundred people there on that geek yeah that was um that was um the skinny man show what was it okay right look him up man he's a legend in this I've seen the pictures of the scary remember yeah the older guy white guy he's a legend in this thing or someone I really look up to I see yeah he's definitely like showed me a lot of love he brought me on tour with him last year he um he also co-signed me on stage at the Jazz Cafe and another hip-hop artist he passed away two years ago there's an article time check him out as well he died about two years ago and he has this show called um I think it's I'm trying to remember from the top of my head something about past the torch that's it that's the torch and he's at the Jazz Cafe so what they made sure the hip-hop Community made sure is that they would continue and represent what time was doing when he was alive and that torch was passed to me at that show all right so yeah so that means quite a lot to me and the fact that skinny man came out himself and said this is the future of UK hip-hop you know what I'm saying and um yeah Matt Jay obviously that was my artist name before like Jay I've had so basically let me break it down when I started rapping I was no I was known as Mac J it's time went on I changed it to Matt J Who there's a lot of reasons why I changed the name people still call me Matt J to this day but it's cool man yeah yeah but Matt J who's more like getting into my roots

because some names are like too long

what would you say to aspiring artists who wants to become a hip-hop artist what would you say to them I mean I'm so I'm still trying to do my thing man I mean all I can say to you is um just if you don't have love for it man you have love for it you're passionate about it um just keep at it man study man study study study the art from study the culture but more importantly study the business side as well I think when I was coming when I was coming up when I was younger that's one thing I didn't really focus on and I think it's important to study the business as much as you love the art form mostly remember it's also a business so study the business side of things and um this this is this this music thing is nothing overnight thing man you know I mean there's this because you've been how many years in the industry well you know I wouldn't even say the industry I would say more like the the music scene because the industry to me is more like the you know like more like you're out there out there I'm I'm I feel like I'm getting there I feel like in the underground scene right people sort of because you do a lot of like open mics don't you I don't even do open Match anymore that's how I met you know yeah yeah I mean yeah you met with open mind but I don't even do that thing anymore I feel more like shows yeah but yeah I mean for what I could say is that yeah my name is getting out there in the underground scene I'm grateful for it I've done a lot of um stuff that I didn't be able to do I performed at jazz cafe I've performed that scholar I've performed that places I've performed like big venues that people who've never heard of my name before sort of recited my songs back yeah I must be a feeling man it's a great feeling so to me I feel like I've been doing it for a long time I started rapping in 2004 so there's been ups and downs but you don't let those ups and downs stop you you keep going all right and how people can find you on the line well you can find my music on All Digital platforms if you type in m-a-c-k-j-e-h-e that's Mac JHU and you can follow me on all social media sites under the same name Matt J here so m-a-c-k j-e-h-e um there will be some new music coming from me very soon I just signed the media Services still with Federal media so um yeah so this is going to be a lot more stuff coming from Pharaoh media and my record label just terrific just terrific so look out for just terrific as well follow the just terrific um Instagram page as well if you can and yeah that's it for me man well thanks for the interview yeah man I wish you all the best yeah man and I see you soon again definitely my brother

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