Here at WJ, many students have talents that go unrecognized. Sophomore Jacob Daley has gathered a following of fans at WJ with his rapping and music production. I got a chance to sit down with him and ask him about his music.
Q: Why did you start rapping? How did it all start?
A: I don’t remember one day being like, ‘Oh I want to rap, I want to do rap music.’ I don’t remember that, I remember it slowly coming to fruition. My dad played a lot of old school hip hop in the car and stuff so that could have contributed. I know that I wrote my first rap in 5th grade for my friend Xan Korman, and I was his ghostwriter essentially. It never like became anything. I just wrote it on a scrap piece of paper and he just rapped it. That’s how it started. I never even tried to rap anything myself, I just wrote raps. I only started to rap in 7th grade with one of my friends. We would write raps for each other over text, and that was pretty much it. Then I met Ethan Andrade, who does some of the production for my music. He invited me over one day because he knew that I liked to rap. My first project is called ‘Forever Blue,’ it’s on Soundcloud. I actually produced those songs myself, but Ethan is very talented. He is much more consistent than I am at making a good beat. Something that would take me an hour to make, he has done in fifteen minutes, or he has something already prepared for me when we record together. We’re working on a new album, hopefully it’ll be ready by the end of the school year.
Q: Who would you say inspires you and your music?
A: I’d like to compare myself to musicians like Chance The Rapper, and I know that’s like a huge comparison and he is really talented, but some of my music has been kind of inspired by his. I also listen to Kid Cudi and I love his music. These are people that I aspire to be like. They influence my style and how I write.
Q: So you write your own lyrics then?
A: I do, and that’s a big part of music to me. Most of what I write is just whatever is on my mind at the time. I think a big part of music is how you touch people with your lyrics, and how you make songs that people can relate to; so they can say, ‘Oh I’m not the only one who feels that way.’ That being said, I don’t want to be pandering to a certain audience. I want to be writing lyrics and ideas that I would think, not just what everyone else is thinking. Originality is important to me when I record.
Q: What’s a recording session like?
A: It depends. If i’m at my house, I just use a laptop and a USB microphone that I borrow from my friend. That’s how I made my whole first project, ‘Forever Blue.’ I have to hope that no one is in my house so that I can really yell. It would be weird to record and have my parents next door. If it’s at Ethan’s house, he will take the instrumental direction and I kinda feel out what I think would sound good over whatever beat he makes. The process is a lot quicker and there’s a lot more collaboration at his house.
Q: Your music has gained quite a following at WJ. What do you think about that?
A: I think it’s wild. That was never, like, the goal. The goal was just to make a project for me and my friends. I thought only the people I knew who knew I made music would listen to it, but it’s gotten so much bigger than I expected.
Q: What is your plan moving forward, in terms of your musical interests?
A: As much as I love it, it’s not something that I rely on. I am very fortunate to live in such a good school district. But if I ever really did become big off of it? That’s the dream. Right now it something I do whenever I have free time. If you haven’t listened to my music yet, go on the Soundcloud app or visit Soundcloud.com and search “Jacob Daley” to find my music. If you want to learn more about Jacob feel free to email me at [email protected].
