This past weekend, Jay IDK was among an extensive lineup of artists for Rolling Loud’s third installment.
“This is my first big festival,” the young emcee reminded fans as he took to the stage on Day 2 of the festival. Had he never said anything, you wouldn’t know the difference. While his debut project only surfaced three years ago, Jay has been navigating the industry like a pro.
Three projects deep, he’s already secured exclusive partnerships with the like of Adult Swim and is currently working on the creation of his fourth project.
We had the chance to catch up with Jay for a brief conversation during Rolling Loud weekend.
Read up on what he had to say below.
The Source: You were talking about your new album most recently with Billboard and mentioned that you had 40 songs so far. How far along are you in the process of deciding what will make the cut?
Jay IDK: We’re actually going to start picking records like around the end of May going into June. We’ll have a better idea of what we want to do.
How different do you feel that it will be from everything you’ve done in the past?
I’m basically doing what I did on Subtrap, but I’m taking it a little bit further; taking it to the next level. Of course, I’ve grown since then. I’m going to talk more about me, my life and what made me who I am today.
Right. So what sort of things are those, if you can get into specifics?
Can’t really get too crazy. Just more so literally about what made me who I am today. Just a little more about my past, and a little bit about my present.
And as far as that growth goes, how much of the industry has contributed to the way in which you see things now?
50/50. Me growing in my life and just seeing certain things in the industry as well. Whether it’s an artist that I consider better than me that I’m trying to be better than, or just other people in the industry that are giving me game and letting me know stuff, and then just certain life experiences.
At a festival like this, straight Hip-Hop, what’s the significance that you think it has for the culture? How big is it to have a space like this?
I think it’s amazing this is my biggest festival ever. This is definitely important. It’s where you can mesh a bunch of different fanbases, and gain new fans from that. It’s a lot that comes with this and I think it’s going to be amazing when you’re able to do multiple shows like this.
