jev. Talks on “the color grey.”, Being a Full-Time Creative, & More in Exclusive Interview

modrNation: Where are you from?

jev.: I was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and lived there for about 5 years. Then I moved over to South Africa which is where I grew up until I graduated high school and then I moved over to Ottawa, Canada in late 2019 and that’s kind of where I’ve been since. I am based in Canada right now, back and forth between Ottawa and Toronto.  

modrNation: What got you into making music?

jev.: I started having an interest in music back in 2009 when I was super infatuated with the Soulja Boy and Bow Wow eras, that time with flip phones and heavy white tees and Lil Wayne and all those types of things which kind of piqued my interest in starting to write music. When I got into high school was when I started taking it more seriously and started doing my research on hip-hop and rap to perfect my craft even more and I’ve been building on that ever since.

modrNation: You released your first track, “Diamond Rose”, back in 2019. How do you think you’ve grown as an artist since that first release?

jev.: In terms of my artistry, I feel like I am still perfecting my craft every day, but I am way more confident right now compared to when I released “Diamond Rose.” That track was one of the songs I wrote back in high school, and I was a completely different person back then. I pay more attention to detail right now. With some of the things I used to write, I used to say random stuff, but now I am paying a lot of attention to what I say and what I do and I’m noticing that it’s more than just music.

modrNation: In your social media bios, you have the phrase “part time rapper. full time creative”. Can you talk us through what that phrase means for you as a creator and where it came from?

jev.: I like to say I’m an artist before I’m a rapper; with everything I do I love to be creative. I’ve always been a creative person, so rapping has just been one of the types of creative things I do. I do a lot of my own marketing, content, promotion, and especially my own videos. I’m just playing around with it. I also do my own photoshoots, so rapping has really just been like the main thing. I have this company called LONER inc. which serves as an umbrella for everything I want to do creatively in the future. So, once I feel like I’ve done everything I want to do in music, I want to transition over into film, TV, fashion, and different industries where I feel I can expand my creativity.

modrNation: Can you talk us through the creative process behind your debut album, the color grey.?

jev.: I started creating the color grey. back in high school and the first song I did for it was “aitd – demo” which I recorded on my phone. That was more like just an idea that I had, I was experimenting and trying to figure out what I could come up with. That song kicked things off for the color grey. but first, I had a bunch of demos like “Diamond Rose”, which I actually scrapped because the color grey. came from me trying to figure out what I wanted to say and what I want my legacy to be in music. I was very in love with hip-hop and r&b, and me just being in the in between was what I think inspired the album.

I was in the grey area in terms of transitioning from teenager to adult, of having money in your 20s, and just trying to navigate all that which is how I came up with the concept for the album. I started recording the album in 2021 and that’s when “where’s the confetti?” and “the black samurai” came about and I started connecting with artists like Willyynova and Joshua Raw, and from there the concept was born.

modrNation: There’s some amazing diversity and sophistication to the flow on the color grey.. Do you have a track on the album that you resonate with the most or that you feel best captures your style as an artist?

jev.: I want to say the song that I resonated with the most was “breathe” because it was challenging to write. I had never stepped into that space before where I was just rapping and being as vulnerable as I possibly could in terms of song writing; it captures my inner child the most. But, the song I feel captures my diversity and flow as an artist is probably “black benz.” which is one of my favorite songs on the album.

modrNation: There are quite a few amazing samples on your tracks. Can you talk a little bit about your production process and give us some insight to what a Jev. studio session looks like.

jev.: I’ve always been a big fan of old school r&b and old school soul music. J brav, the producer of “where’s the confetti?”, kind of set the sound for the entire project when he used an Al Green “Call Me” sample which is one of my favorite songs and helped me start writing “where’s the confetti?”.  I like to describe myself as a modern take on old school hip-hop, and back then there was a lot of sampling which kind of tied into the concept of the color grey. where there is this grey area between old and new school hip-hop. I was looking for things that had an old school feel but that also feel new which was how I chose beats and producers to work with. J brev was one of the main guys on the project, doing “where’s the confetti?” and “black samurai.”

modrNation: Transferring back to the album itself, were there any specific artists or projects that inspired the color grey.?

jev.: Yeah, the album I keep thinking about that stands out is The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. I kind of wanted to create this world around the color grey. where every song is very different and can live on its own. “where’s the confetti?” is about a person looking for celebratory moments and who is looking to be congratulated, but where he or she is not getting the congratulations that they really need. But “then I got revenge.” is a whole different concept from something like “black samurai.” and I wanted that feel where every song was just a different concept touching on different things. That’s where the inspiration from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill came from.

modrNation: Are there any artists you hope to collaborate with on future projects?

jev.: Yeah, Andre 3000 is one of the artists I definitely want to collaborate with. Busta Rhymes is also person I want to work with. You know like the JIDs’ and the Joey Badass’ and the Kendricks’ and the J. Coles’ too. But, I also want to collaborate with artists outside of hip-hop; I want to collaborate with photographers. There’s one photographer that I really like who did Kendrick Lamar’s photoshoot for the DAMN. album cover. I want to work with artists who paint, who do poetry; I just want to work with as many creators as possible which is what I am planning to do on future projects.

modrNation: What is the intersection between other forms of art such as poetry and music for you as a creator?

jev.: I have always loved poetry and spoken word; I started off just writing poetry and then it got tied into hip-hop during the whole Souja Boy phase. With poetry I definitely took a lot from my English class in high school where we used to do a lot with poems, and it definitely stuck with me. In terms of painting and drawing and stuff, me, my mom, and my sister are all artistic personalities. My sister, she draws and paints and it’s like our hobby. We are a creative family; there is always music playing and there was always some sort of art going around which all inspired what I want to do with creativity and artistry in the future.

modrNation: Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now and what do you want people to think of when they hear the name Jev.?

jev.: When people hear the name Jev. I want them to think that that’s a great artist, not just relating to music, but also with everything else. I want my name to be synonymous with a creative genius. I really want people to respect the art and respect the craft. In the next 5 years I want to accomplish a lot of the stuff I want to do outside of music, but also do a tour one day even though I know that’s maybe a year or two in the future, but in 5 years I want to have built a foundation in the music and be prepared to take it to newer heights inside and outside the industry. I want to say that you to everybody who checked out the color grey. and to all the new listeners who are going to discover me through modrNation. I really appreciate it beyond words to anybody who has pressed play and really resonated with the music.