Yung Joc
Interview by Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol 14 #
Atlanta has been the home of a lot of different Rap styles—from the early party stuff to the Crunk to Trap music and Dungeon Family—where do you fit in all of this?
Everybody has a position to play. What I do is I listen, I watch, I analyze everybody’s style and their movement. I watch what makes them who they are. Them bein pa
ssionate
about what they do is all that matter. So that’s what I did. I took that same
train of thought and applied it to what I do. I just do Joc, baby. It ain’t no
name for the music I do. I just do me, plain and simple. Cause at the end of
the day can’t nobody do me better than me.
Right. You don’t want a hundred Jeezy’s or TI’s. You just want one.
All those cats get my respect, but I’m not neither.
You had a big debut album with “New Joc City”. What can we expect from your second album? Is it the same Yung Joc?
I’m just gonna be real with you. I’m not tryin to change anything. I just wanna improve, and improving is not taking nothing away, it’s just adding sometimes. It’s about just understanding it more. You could drink water all day and it’s just water, but you could break it down and it’s H20. You can go even further with it. Water can be in three different physical states: it can be a gas as it evaporates, a solid as it freezes or a liquid. My music, I look at it the same way. You could look at it as Rap or you could look at it as good party music, inspirational music, and just flat out street music. That’s how I live and that’s how I feel about it. I’m not tryin to change nothing. I just want people to see my growth and understand the growth. Sometimes people relate too much growth with sophomore jinx. They feel like you done something but you didn’t quite understand. You was trying but you didn’t help us see the same picture you saw. That’s the whole key to this. If I tell you, like you tell a child something’s hot, but they don’t see your picture cause they ain’t never been burnt. Till they touch that shit they can’t understand what “hot” means. What life means to me, when I explain it to somebody if they understand life the same way I understand it and I can paint that picture for ‘em—now the relationship happens. You build a rapport with your fans through the music.
How are you going to do that with people, because people come from all different walks of life?
You have an accent. Where are you from?
I’m from Sri Lanka.
Check this out: I may have never been in a village before. I may have never lived amongst livestock. Maybe, no, I’ve never planted seeds and cultivated the fruits. But I do know some good food’s gonna put a smile on your face. I do know it’s good to have somebody that loves you. I do know if you put your hands on me it’s gonna be a muthafuckin problem. See that, there’s things that anywhere you go people gonna be able to relate to it.
Universal themes that can reach people anywhere.
That’s right. Just like that child, if you touch fire it’s gonna burn.
How would you describe yourself as a lyricist? Do you fit in with the club music or conscious or reality?
I give you a little bit of all that. If you listen to “New Joc City”, the first album, the first record on there opens it up with me expressing the typa shit that goin through in the hood. But the last record is called “Picture Perfect”, that’s a very important record. If you listen to the album, even if you don’t listen to shit on my album listen to that last track. It’s sayin the everything ain’t picture perfect. It just ain’t a picture. It’s tellin how we get so caught up and engulfed in status and monetary possessions that we don’t even see the big picture. It’s people to this day that still don’t understand that power is in numbers. They’re still selfish. A lot of people miss the boat every day. This record is one of those typa records that’ll make you think. I got another record on the new album that’s called “Circles”. I’m singin on it and it’s a very prolific record.
I like what you said, that a lot of people don’t see the big picture. They have tunnel vision. How did you come to understand these things? Did you parents guide you?
Just growing up. Check this out: why is it when I walk through my neighborhood there are liquor stores right next to the church? Fried chicken and fast food places everywhere? There are more check cashing places in the hood than banks. That lets you know something about how my people are living. Then when I go to suburbia, when I go to Green Acres, I don’t see no check cashing places. I barely see liquor stores. Even the liquor stores don’t say “liquor”. It might have somebody’s name like “Shemrock’s” or “Kenny’s Place”. It won’t be as many fastfood restaurants. It might be more sit-down nice restaurants. You have to sit down and say: Damn! In my hood niggaz is runnin to your car to make a sale, trappin. Niggaz is runnin up and down the street goin crazy like that. But then in the White people’s neighborhood you see people jogging, people out riding their bikes. They ain’t runnin from the cops, they’re running for exercise. It’s a difference. Sometimes people, we’re not seeing outside of our environment. Because it’s cold, you’re not wanted anywhere else but inside your environment. If this is what you’re familiar with and you’re not accepted nowhere else, then where the fuck I’m gonna go? I stay right here in my environment. And I’m gonna be a P.O.E., a product of my environment. I’m probably gonna end up bein a statistic—on drugs, dead or in jail. If my race of people could see things like then we’d be able to decipher it. Not to take this conversation out, but it is what it is. That’s why I’m able to see a different picture and understand that I want more than what I was told I deserved. Or what I’m confined to. I don’t want to be confined. I wanna be able to go anywhere. I might enjoy goin outa the country. I like going to other countries, see how other people live, how people interact with each other.
Do you feel that Black people in America live in fear?
Hell yeah! Come to the hood. Before you get out your car you’re lookin around, you gonna make sure your door’s locked. You gonna make sure you don’t leave shit visible. Among your own people! You come right here to Bankhead. You gonna watch your back and all sides when you get out the car.
We live in fear among our own people, but when we go into the bank or a big store we trust them with our money. When we go into a hospital we trust them with our lives. How did you come to see these things?
I’m very comprehensive. I analyze a lot of things and my community is one of them things. It ain’t hard to see that like if we standing out here arguing and we both high that we gonna get violent. For real, you dig? It’s stuff we do on the regular. We get violent. The more people that get violent your numbers are gonna go up on more assaults, more attempted murders, more murders, more robberies. In the hood it’s a cycle. A nigga robs me, if I see him he gonna get it, I’m gonna fuck him up! Same thing, if you fuck with somebody that I love and care about—a nigga’s gonna wanna get back. It’s sad, but it is what it is.
As an artist with a deep understanding you could do any type of music and that message will come through. You don’t have to preach. You could do a club song and your consciousness will come through.
Right. I don’t have to do a political preachy record. I can slip it in and out in my music where if you listen to it you get a little bit on this record and a small percentage on the next record and the next record. After awhile you’re gonna get somewhat of a message.
What type of upbringing did you have at home? Did you parents guide you a lot?
They tried, but they had ups and downs too. Every day trying to survive makes it hard. Be real, not to go off but my folks ain’t angels. Ain’t no angels. I got a lotta misconceptions from my folks, but I got a lot of my upbringing, the positive side of it from my parents as well. That’s where I get that balance from. I think that’s how life is, it’s a balance. You got night, you got day. You got sleep, you got awake. You got on, you got off. You got boy, you got girl. Live, die. Laugh, cry. It’s all a balance. No matter what you do it’s a balance. I feel like I’m a balanced person.
When you go into your album do you look at it like that?
Yeah, your album’s got to be balanced. I can’t just get on an album—if I were to give the world an album full of “It’s Goin Down” records it would be like there’s no depth to this artist.
That record opened the door for you, but you’re not getting stuck with just that. Would you say you’re showing a whole different side of Yung Joc on this new album?
I just wanna show the world who I am. Check out this next album, “Hustlenomics”, you’re gonna get something more than the last time. You got bigger production. I even put some bigger features on this album. I picked some other topics. I’m expressing myself a little more. I’ve seen some things that I’m sure people wanna know about. The hood’s the hood. I don’t care from what perspective, if you in the hood it’s certain topics. Maybe I can paint the picture more differently or more vividly, but it’s not different from what the last dude talk about: drugs, money, sex, power, defeat, cars, clothes, hoe’s, gold, shining. It’s there. It’s nothing you gonna say that’s different. But it’s all in how you deliver it. Help people understand what you see.
When I hear your music I feel like you might continue to grow and take it in new directions. Is that right?
I’m still learning different techniques. I’m still learning different ways to express myself vocally and over beats. You don’t just wake up one day and you this person and this is your sound. It grows with time. You grow into that. I’m still growing. I am who I am regardless, I’m a man. But the older you get you’re gonna pick up some things along the way. Growth. Growth is what it’s about.
How old are you?
I’m 24.
I thought you were a lot younger. You’ve been doing this for a minute! How did you get with Block Entertainment?
Just hustling in the streets, man. Put my music out there, handin it out to everybody. One night I was doin a show and Block came through. I’m performing and he says, “Let’s do a deal.” That’s how it happened. At the Royal Peacock, I was doin an open mike night. That was 2 years ago, 2005.
Did you believe Block was for real and was going to come through for you?
I already knew. I knew who he was. I understood what was goin on. He had a movement with a group, Boyz N Da Hood. Maybe they didn’t reach the level of success that as a label they wanted, but from a personal standpoint it was successful. And I know there ain’t nothing like the feelin of success and bein happy. Bein something you always dreamed about. After he launched their career, knowin that he wanted that same feeling of success…and I know that he already knew the formula of success if I came with the right record, which I did, you would have a catalyst for success. I would be a part of that catalyst.
When I first heard about Yung Joc I thought you were just a young artist who got lucky when Block backed you up. But I see you go a lot deeper than that.
Once Block got to know me he understood I was really dedicated too. Just like with people at the label and people in the media, people who interview me, they felt that I’m passionate about this, man. I’m serious. I really want this and I love it.
I can see that you have been through a lot and really lived it.
I worked through a lotta people. I’m not sayin “with” a lotta people. I worked through a lotta people. Being around and seein the right from wrong. One thing my father always told me, “Don’t make the same mistakes.”
It’s OK to make mistakes, but not the same ones.
Right! And not only that: don’t make them same mistakes others make. If I seen you walk into a bank and you drew a gun and said, “Gimme the money.” And you walk outa there with $300,000 dollars you may get away. But the odds are up against you. You may not get away. You may die, you may be detained and spend a long time in jail. Knowin that, I’m not gonna do the same dumb-ass shit.
Someone can explain this, but most people seem to have to live it to know, spending your life in prison is not worth a few thousand dollars.
I seen all that growing up. It’s hard. I made mistakes too along the way, but I know better.
If your music career hadn’t taken off what would you be doing now?
I’d still be tryin to become who I am today. That’s what I would be doing. I set my goals. Wholeheartedly.
Were you always focused on the rapping side of this or have you also gotten into producing?
I do it all. That’s what I do. I’m goin in the studio right now, soon as I get off the phone, when I’m done with these interviews I’m about to turn on this Phantom X6, wake up this MPC 4000, I’m gonna put me a disc in there, and I’m gonna crank out some music. I do that. I’m in this. I love it to death, man. I like hands-on. If you’re mixing my record I’m gonna be right there with you. I wanna breath that. I wanna live every moment of it. I’m gonna enjoy. All that is what’s more fulfilling than the accolades and everything that come with it. I just like bein a part of making music. The creative process.
I feel like a lot of rappers right now are just playing it safe. They’re not experimenting and pushing the music into new territory.
I’m lettin it flow, my shit. I got a rhythm called “BYOB (Bring Yo Own Beer)” and don’t know what the hell the public’s gonna think about it, but they gonna know it was way out there.
When you listen to Rap I’m sure you hear that a lot of people are just doing the same old shit. Even the big rappers who could take a little risk are just scared. Do you feel artists should push the boundaries?
That’s what I’m on, some new ways to have fun, whatever may come up out it. I’m tryin some new shit, but I can’t just jump way out there. I don’t wanna lose people. I don’t wanna lose my core audience. I want my core audience to grow with me and I pick up and touch a new audience. I don’t wanna leave my core audience in the dark tryin to figure out, “What the hell?” just to pick up some new fans. I want them to grow with me and go with me.
Somehow you came to see things more clearly than a lot of people. You probably grew up fast?
I grew up real fast. I was hustling as a kid. I saw a lotta ins and outs fast.
Did you leave school early?
I was actually a good student. I just fought a lot so I got suspended. I didn’t wanna listen to the teacher sometimes. Wanted to do what I wanted to do and that caused problems for me in school. I ended up going to all typa different schools. That’s why you get a good kid who goes to three schools in life: an elementary school, a middle school and a high school. On the other end, I went to three elementary schools, three middle schools and three high schools. Cause I was that bad. I was always getting kicked out and having to go to another school.
What part of Atlanta are you from?
The Southside and the Westside. Or the Westside and the Southside. When did you decide you wanted to start doing music?
I’ve been doin it since I was ten. I love this. I been doin this, man. I got stoked way back when I was a little kid.
What motivated you to start doing music?
Just the music itself. Lovin it. Bein able to express myself and havin people enjoy it and understand.
Something must have got you going in the first place?
It was cats like Slick Rick, Doug E Fresh, NWA. Run DMC, LL Cool J. I go way back with this shit. I was ten! I was young!
How were you hearing those records at that early age?
I’m from the hood. If it’s out and it’s hot, you’re gonna hear it in the hood there. You had cats like Outkast and the Goodie Mob in Atlanta. You had the West Coast movement with Snoop, Dre, Cube. All that really stemmed up outa NWA. Then you had your New York cats of course doin they thing. Everybody from Puff’s movement to the Ruff Ryder movement. I got a lotta different influences that made me wanna do what I do.
Was there one artist that really inspired you?
Outkast.
When I hear your music I don’t hear anything like Outkast.
That don’t mean much. I understand ‘em though. Believe it or not, we talk about a lotta the same things. Some of the records where I express myself more, to me it felt like some Outkast shit. But because I’m Joc I can’t do nothing that sound like nobody else.
Did you also feel like you were an outsider?
In society, yes. I still do.
Outkast has been through some changes during their career. Which side of Outkast inspired you?
All of it. I love all of it. I love all that shit them boys been doing. When them boys was doin their thing, when they first hit it was just like so phenomenal cause they was able to express themselves how they want to express. They didn’t follow a formula or an industry standard. They came and did what they felt like doin, what was in their hearts, and that’s what made them memorable. That’s why they were so greatly appreciated worldwide.
Do you see yourself as an artist like that? Are you doing what you really want to do?
Yeah!! I do what I wanna do. I don’t just conform. I have fun with my music. You could go from a record like, “It’s Goin Down” to a record like “I Know You See It”, all that is experimental. That’s just sayin I’m doin what I wanna do. I’m havin fun.
How did you get the name Yung Joc?
My momma named me Joc and I look young. It was not a name I took. My momma named me Joc.
To you what does it mean? Sometimes a jock is a sports guy…
Naw, man. Joc ain’t none of that. It’s just there was a show on TV called “Dallas” and there was a White guy on there who had a lotta swagger and a lotta money. My momma said, “That right there is the typa man I want my son to be.” She named me Joc after him. That just stayed with me. That’s what people called me and I started introducing myself as that person.
Are you the only one in your family doing music?
No, I’m not the only one doing music in my family. I am the first one out of my family to be mainstream with it. In my family we got people rapping, singing, all that.
Can you name a couple of good records that impressed you lately?
TI’s record “Big Shit Poppin”. I love that record. I like Gorilla Zoe’s album, “Hood Nigga”. I like T-Pain’s record “Buy U A Drank”. Lloyd’s record “Get It Shawty”. I love the new record I got, “Coffee Shop” and another record I got called “Block Boy”. And I like Rick Ross.
Do you see that there are still a lot of exciting things going on with Atlanta Rap?
Definitely. That’s why I be tryin to stay ahead of the curve and continue to give more innovative music to the public. I’m tryin to play it my way.
Interview by Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol 14 #
Atlanta has been the home of a lot of different Rap styles—from the early party stuff to the Crunk to Trap music and Dungeon Family—where do you fit in all of this?
Everybody has a position to play. What I do is I listen, I watch, I analyze everybody’s style and their movement. I watch what makes them who they are. Them bein pa
ssionate
about what they do is all that matter. So that’s what I did. I took that same
train of thought and applied it to what I do. I just do Joc, baby. It ain’t no
name for the music I do. I just do me, plain and simple. Cause at the end of
the day can’t nobody do me better than me. Right. You don’t want a hundred Jeezy’s or TI’s. You just want one.
All those cats get my respect, but I’m not neither.
You had a big debut album with “New Joc City”. What can we expect from your second album? Is it the same Yung Joc?
I’m just gonna be real with you. I’m not tryin to change anything. I just wanna improve, and improving is not taking nothing away, it’s just adding sometimes. It’s about just understanding it more. You could drink water all day and it’s just water, but you could break it down and it’s H20. You can go even further with it. Water can be in three different physical states: it can be a gas as it evaporates, a solid as it freezes or a liquid. My music, I look at it the same way. You could look at it as Rap or you could look at it as good party music, inspirational music, and just flat out street music. That’s how I live and that’s how I feel about it. I’m not tryin to change nothing. I just want people to see my growth and understand the growth. Sometimes people relate too much growth with sophomore jinx. They feel like you done something but you didn’t quite understand. You was trying but you didn’t help us see the same picture you saw. That’s the whole key to this. If I tell you, like you tell a child something’s hot, but they don’t see your picture cause they ain’t never been burnt. Till they touch that shit they can’t understand what “hot” means. What life means to me, when I explain it to somebody if they understand life the same way I understand it and I can paint that picture for ‘em—now the relationship happens. You build a rapport with your fans through the music.
How are you going to do that with people, because people come from all different walks of life?
You have an accent. Where are you from?
I’m from Sri Lanka.
Check this out: I may have never been in a village before. I may have never lived amongst livestock. Maybe, no, I’ve never planted seeds and cultivated the fruits. But I do know some good food’s gonna put a smile on your face. I do know it’s good to have somebody that loves you. I do know if you put your hands on me it’s gonna be a muthafuckin problem. See that, there’s things that anywhere you go people gonna be able to relate to it.
Universal themes that can reach people anywhere.
That’s right. Just like that child, if you touch fire it’s gonna burn.
How would you describe yourself as a lyricist? Do you fit in with the club music or conscious or reality?
I give you a little bit of all that. If you listen to “New Joc City”, the first album, the first record on there opens it up with me expressing the typa shit that goin through in the hood. But the last record is called “Picture Perfect”, that’s a very important record. If you listen to the album, even if you don’t listen to shit on my album listen to that last track. It’s sayin the everything ain’t picture perfect. It just ain’t a picture. It’s tellin how we get so caught up and engulfed in status and monetary possessions that we don’t even see the big picture. It’s people to this day that still don’t understand that power is in numbers. They’re still selfish. A lot of people miss the boat every day. This record is one of those typa records that’ll make you think. I got another record on the new album that’s called “Circles”. I’m singin on it and it’s a very prolific record.
I like what you said, that a lot of people don’t see the big picture. They have tunnel vision. How did you come to understand these things? Did you parents guide you?
Just growing up. Check this out: why is it when I walk through my neighborhood there are liquor stores right next to the church? Fried chicken and fast food places everywhere? There are more check cashing places in the hood than banks. That lets you know something about how my people are living. Then when I go to suburbia, when I go to Green Acres, I don’t see no check cashing places. I barely see liquor stores. Even the liquor stores don’t say “liquor”. It might have somebody’s name like “Shemrock’s” or “Kenny’s Place”. It won’t be as many fastfood restaurants. It might be more sit-down nice restaurants. You have to sit down and say: Damn! In my hood niggaz is runnin to your car to make a sale, trappin. Niggaz is runnin up and down the street goin crazy like that. But then in the White people’s neighborhood you see people jogging, people out riding their bikes. They ain’t runnin from the cops, they’re running for exercise. It’s a difference. Sometimes people, we’re not seeing outside of our environment. Because it’s cold, you’re not wanted anywhere else but inside your environment. If this is what you’re familiar with and you’re not accepted nowhere else, then where the fuck I’m gonna go? I stay right here in my environment. And I’m gonna be a P.O.E., a product of my environment. I’m probably gonna end up bein a statistic—on drugs, dead or in jail. If my race of people could see things like then we’d be able to decipher it. Not to take this conversation out, but it is what it is. That’s why I’m able to see a different picture and understand that I want more than what I was told I deserved. Or what I’m confined to. I don’t want to be confined. I wanna be able to go anywhere. I might enjoy goin outa the country. I like going to other countries, see how other people live, how people interact with each other.
Do you feel that Black people in America live in fear?
Hell yeah! Come to the hood. Before you get out your car you’re lookin around, you gonna make sure your door’s locked. You gonna make sure you don’t leave shit visible. Among your own people! You come right here to Bankhead. You gonna watch your back and all sides when you get out the car.
We live in fear among our own people, but when we go into the bank or a big store we trust them with our money. When we go into a hospital we trust them with our lives. How did you come to see these things?
I’m very comprehensive. I analyze a lot of things and my community is one of them things. It ain’t hard to see that like if we standing out here arguing and we both high that we gonna get violent. For real, you dig? It’s stuff we do on the regular. We get violent. The more people that get violent your numbers are gonna go up on more assaults, more attempted murders, more murders, more robberies. In the hood it’s a cycle. A nigga robs me, if I see him he gonna get it, I’m gonna fuck him up! Same thing, if you fuck with somebody that I love and care about—a nigga’s gonna wanna get back. It’s sad, but it is what it is.
As an artist with a deep understanding you could do any type of music and that message will come through. You don’t have to preach. You could do a club song and your consciousness will come through.
Right. I don’t have to do a political preachy record. I can slip it in and out in my music where if you listen to it you get a little bit on this record and a small percentage on the next record and the next record. After awhile you’re gonna get somewhat of a message.
What type of upbringing did you have at home? Did you parents guide you a lot?
They tried, but they had ups and downs too. Every day trying to survive makes it hard. Be real, not to go off but my folks ain’t angels. Ain’t no angels. I got a lotta misconceptions from my folks, but I got a lot of my upbringing, the positive side of it from my parents as well. That’s where I get that balance from. I think that’s how life is, it’s a balance. You got night, you got day. You got sleep, you got awake. You got on, you got off. You got boy, you got girl. Live, die. Laugh, cry. It’s all a balance. No matter what you do it’s a balance. I feel like I’m a balanced person.
When you go into your album do you look at it like that?
Yeah, your album’s got to be balanced. I can’t just get on an album—if I were to give the world an album full of “It’s Goin Down” records it would be like there’s no depth to this artist.
That record opened the door for you, but you’re not getting stuck with just that. Would you say you’re showing a whole different side of Yung Joc on this new album?
I just wanna show the world who I am. Check out this next album, “Hustlenomics”, you’re gonna get something more than the last time. You got bigger production. I even put some bigger features on this album. I picked some other topics. I’m expressing myself a little more. I’ve seen some things that I’m sure people wanna know about. The hood’s the hood. I don’t care from what perspective, if you in the hood it’s certain topics. Maybe I can paint the picture more differently or more vividly, but it’s not different from what the last dude talk about: drugs, money, sex, power, defeat, cars, clothes, hoe’s, gold, shining. It’s there. It’s nothing you gonna say that’s different. But it’s all in how you deliver it. Help people understand what you see.
When I hear your music I feel like you might continue to grow and take it in new directions. Is that right?
I’m still learning different techniques. I’m still learning different ways to express myself vocally and over beats. You don’t just wake up one day and you this person and this is your sound. It grows with time. You grow into that. I’m still growing. I am who I am regardless, I’m a man. But the older you get you’re gonna pick up some things along the way. Growth. Growth is what it’s about.
How old are you?
I’m 24.
I thought you were a lot younger. You’ve been doing this for a minute! How did you get with Block Entertainment?
Just hustling in the streets, man. Put my music out there, handin it out to everybody. One night I was doin a show and Block came through. I’m performing and he says, “Let’s do a deal.” That’s how it happened. At the Royal Peacock, I was doin an open mike night. That was 2 years ago, 2005.
Did you believe Block was for real and was going to come through for you?
I already knew. I knew who he was. I understood what was goin on. He had a movement with a group, Boyz N Da Hood. Maybe they didn’t reach the level of success that as a label they wanted, but from a personal standpoint it was successful. And I know there ain’t nothing like the feelin of success and bein happy. Bein something you always dreamed about. After he launched their career, knowin that he wanted that same feeling of success…and I know that he already knew the formula of success if I came with the right record, which I did, you would have a catalyst for success. I would be a part of that catalyst.
When I first heard about Yung Joc I thought you were just a young artist who got lucky when Block backed you up. But I see you go a lot deeper than that.
Once Block got to know me he understood I was really dedicated too. Just like with people at the label and people in the media, people who interview me, they felt that I’m passionate about this, man. I’m serious. I really want this and I love it.
I can see that you have been through a lot and really lived it.
I worked through a lotta people. I’m not sayin “with” a lotta people. I worked through a lotta people. Being around and seein the right from wrong. One thing my father always told me, “Don’t make the same mistakes.”
It’s OK to make mistakes, but not the same ones.
Right! And not only that: don’t make them same mistakes others make. If I seen you walk into a bank and you drew a gun and said, “Gimme the money.” And you walk outa there with $300,000 dollars you may get away. But the odds are up against you. You may not get away. You may die, you may be detained and spend a long time in jail. Knowin that, I’m not gonna do the same dumb-ass shit.
Someone can explain this, but most people seem to have to live it to know, spending your life in prison is not worth a few thousand dollars.
I seen all that growing up. It’s hard. I made mistakes too along the way, but I know better.
If your music career hadn’t taken off what would you be doing now?
I’d still be tryin to become who I am today. That’s what I would be doing. I set my goals. Wholeheartedly.
Were you always focused on the rapping side of this or have you also gotten into producing?
I do it all. That’s what I do. I’m goin in the studio right now, soon as I get off the phone, when I’m done with these interviews I’m about to turn on this Phantom X6, wake up this MPC 4000, I’m gonna put me a disc in there, and I’m gonna crank out some music. I do that. I’m in this. I love it to death, man. I like hands-on. If you’re mixing my record I’m gonna be right there with you. I wanna breath that. I wanna live every moment of it. I’m gonna enjoy. All that is what’s more fulfilling than the accolades and everything that come with it. I just like bein a part of making music. The creative process.
I feel like a lot of rappers right now are just playing it safe. They’re not experimenting and pushing the music into new territory.
I’m lettin it flow, my shit. I got a rhythm called “BYOB (Bring Yo Own Beer)” and don’t know what the hell the public’s gonna think about it, but they gonna know it was way out there.
When you listen to Rap I’m sure you hear that a lot of people are just doing the same old shit. Even the big rappers who could take a little risk are just scared. Do you feel artists should push the boundaries?
That’s what I’m on, some new ways to have fun, whatever may come up out it. I’m tryin some new shit, but I can’t just jump way out there. I don’t wanna lose people. I don’t wanna lose my core audience. I want my core audience to grow with me and I pick up and touch a new audience. I don’t wanna leave my core audience in the dark tryin to figure out, “What the hell?” just to pick up some new fans. I want them to grow with me and go with me.
Somehow you came to see things more clearly than a lot of people. You probably grew up fast?
I grew up real fast. I was hustling as a kid. I saw a lotta ins and outs fast.
Did you leave school early?
I was actually a good student. I just fought a lot so I got suspended. I didn’t wanna listen to the teacher sometimes. Wanted to do what I wanted to do and that caused problems for me in school. I ended up going to all typa different schools. That’s why you get a good kid who goes to three schools in life: an elementary school, a middle school and a high school. On the other end, I went to three elementary schools, three middle schools and three high schools. Cause I was that bad. I was always getting kicked out and having to go to another school.
What part of Atlanta are you from?
The Southside and the Westside. Or the Westside and the Southside. When did you decide you wanted to start doing music?
I’ve been doin it since I was ten. I love this. I been doin this, man. I got stoked way back when I was a little kid.
What motivated you to start doing music?
Just the music itself. Lovin it. Bein able to express myself and havin people enjoy it and understand.
Something must have got you going in the first place?
It was cats like Slick Rick, Doug E Fresh, NWA. Run DMC, LL Cool J. I go way back with this shit. I was ten! I was young!
How were you hearing those records at that early age?
I’m from the hood. If it’s out and it’s hot, you’re gonna hear it in the hood there. You had cats like Outkast and the Goodie Mob in Atlanta. You had the West Coast movement with Snoop, Dre, Cube. All that really stemmed up outa NWA. Then you had your New York cats of course doin they thing. Everybody from Puff’s movement to the Ruff Ryder movement. I got a lotta different influences that made me wanna do what I do.
Was there one artist that really inspired you?
Outkast.
When I hear your music I don’t hear anything like Outkast.
That don’t mean much. I understand ‘em though. Believe it or not, we talk about a lotta the same things. Some of the records where I express myself more, to me it felt like some Outkast shit. But because I’m Joc I can’t do nothing that sound like nobody else.
Did you also feel like you were an outsider?
In society, yes. I still do.
Outkast has been through some changes during their career. Which side of Outkast inspired you?
All of it. I love all of it. I love all that shit them boys been doing. When them boys was doin their thing, when they first hit it was just like so phenomenal cause they was able to express themselves how they want to express. They didn’t follow a formula or an industry standard. They came and did what they felt like doin, what was in their hearts, and that’s what made them memorable. That’s why they were so greatly appreciated worldwide.
Do you see yourself as an artist like that? Are you doing what you really want to do?
Yeah!! I do what I wanna do. I don’t just conform. I have fun with my music. You could go from a record like, “It’s Goin Down” to a record like “I Know You See It”, all that is experimental. That’s just sayin I’m doin what I wanna do. I’m havin fun.
How did you get the name Yung Joc?
My momma named me Joc and I look young. It was not a name I took. My momma named me Joc.
To you what does it mean? Sometimes a jock is a sports guy…
Naw, man. Joc ain’t none of that. It’s just there was a show on TV called “Dallas” and there was a White guy on there who had a lotta swagger and a lotta money. My momma said, “That right there is the typa man I want my son to be.” She named me Joc after him. That just stayed with me. That’s what people called me and I started introducing myself as that person.
Are you the only one in your family doing music?
No, I’m not the only one doing music in my family. I am the first one out of my family to be mainstream with it. In my family we got people rapping, singing, all that.
Can you name a couple of good records that impressed you lately?
TI’s record “Big Shit Poppin”. I love that record. I like Gorilla Zoe’s album, “Hood Nigga”. I like T-Pain’s record “Buy U A Drank”. Lloyd’s record “Get It Shawty”. I love the new record I got, “Coffee Shop” and another record I got called “Block Boy”. And I like Rick Ross.
Do you see that there are still a lot of exciting things going on with Atlanta Rap?
Definitely. That’s why I be tryin to stay ahead of the curve and continue to give more innovative music to the public. I’m tryin to play it my way.
