Rap’s prodigal son makes a return

By Munyaradzi Vomo

The big man sat quietly in the room, waiting for me to join him for the interview. If you didn’t know better you would think he was here for a job interview as he sat there looking quite nervous. Being a rapper, you’d think Jay Stash would come across as arrogant and an over-the-top guy, but he is the teddy-bear type, as is his high school buddy and fellow rapper, Tumi, from The Volume attests. We were scheduled to talk about the man’s return to the rap scene after a few years’ hiatus.
Not that he had released anything mainstream, but with his mixtapes and performances, Jay Stash had managed to make a name for him a few years ago.

A couple of wrong moves, that included a few diss tracks, the rap empire threw him out like Uncle Phil does to Jazz on Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

“I got frustrated that while I was working hard to get music out there, it seemed the only music that was being played on air was that by artists who had friends in radio,” he says reluctantly. “I was arrogant at the time and I made a diss track of all the cats who were hot at the time. But that was a bad idea because I got sidelined and no one wanted to touch me,” he recalls. From then on the dream that could have been was tumbling down fast. Jay Stash knocked on many locked doors – to no avail.

“I had to make a comeback,” he says. “Through some connections I got in a studio with Arno Carstens and we did a track called This Pain where I just poured out all my feelings about what was going on in my life.

“I leaked it on to the radio because I was too excited about how well it had come out. DJ Fresh played it and it was a hit. “Unfortunately the move backfired because the guys from Arno’s label called to ask for the song to be pulled off as it was not cleared. I was crushed,” he explains trying not to show too much emotion. The following year, 2006, the rapper’s first child, a son, was born and although that is good news to any man, the timing was not that great.

“My son was born during a tough time for me. I was almost hitting rock bottom, man. In fact, that period inspired me to do a song called Dreams where I spoke about my struggles. The song was featured on Hype magazine’s mixtape and I got positive responses from people all over the continent. “It was really humbling to hear someone say the song prevented them for going through with their suicidal plans,” he said. This success got the industry taking a second look at rap’s prodigal son and seemed to be willing to give him another chance.

“I started working on my current album We Keep Marching because I wanted to say that despite the things I did wrong I was willing to keep on moving, focused on my own goals,” he said. The title track features Kabomo and is a hit to look out for. Other people who shared their creative talents on the project include KG from Morafe, crooner TeePee, rappers Tuks and Morale and poet Ntsiki Mazwai. It certainly seems like a summer album to look out for.

“I tried to get as much talent as I could. I even drove to Limpopo to do a track Mchangane and we got a killer track out of that meeting,” he said. For him doing this album felt like a journey and he is now anxious how it will be received by the hip hop heads, especially because he made headlines for the wrong reasons before.

 

We Keep Marching is due to drop at the end of the month.

Article originally bublished here: http://www.iol.co.za/tonight/music/rap-s-prodigal-son-makes-a-return-1.1386203