Words by Alan Ng & Jenkin Au
Photography by Andy Fang
J.O. – Brighter Side ft. Vans and Tony
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J.O., also known as Joey Werapitiya, is a dope rapper coming out from Saskatchewan. Knowing that the scene in Saskatchewan wouldn’t be able to help him much with his passion and pursuit in hip hop, J.O. decided to move out to Vancouver to fully chase his career in music. With unwavering passion, J.O. pumped out “Today’s Special”, his first album, after years of preparation. Why did it take so long? J.O. explains that he wanted to hone in on his skill set first before showing the world what he was really made of. The justalilhype! Crew met J.O. at this years Livestock Block Party. The Crew saw a fresh kid handing out CD’s with a case that was literally stapled together. They took the CD home and liked what they heard and liked his hustle. Fresh from Saskatchewan, now Vancouver, J.O. sat down with us for an interview about himself, his music, and his life.
Can you tell us about yourself?
Myself – J.O. – I come from Regina, Saskatchewan, originally, and then I moved to Saskatoon for school. I didn’t really like school so I finished up as quickly as I could and moved out to Vancouver to pursue the music bit full time. I’ve been rapping for about seven years but actually letting people know about it for the last two years. I kind of gone down low until I got my skill set to a point where I was confident enough to go, “OK,” because I didn’t want to come off sounding all whack and stuff. I’m a Saskatchewan boy and I got big dreams.
Why did you come to Vancouver out of all places?
I heard through the grapevine that they had a decent hip hop scene brewing, but nothing had popped off yet. So I wanted to be part of the movement and if it so happens that I can help something pop off, then that would be a good thing. In Saskatchewan, we have a pretty dope hip hop scene but it’s really really underground. You kind of have to fit a certain mould to be part of that and I don’t see myself as a specific person; I don’t want to do just one type of thing. I went, “Let’s move to B.C. and let’s be part of that movement.” You know Toronto has their thing going and slowly, other places will pick up and Vancouver might be the next hip hop scene. We’ll see what happens.
Yeah, throughout central Canada, it’s still very underground.
Yeah, it’s not a bad sort of thing; it’s just a sign of Saskatchewan. I always felt that we were a step behind, and that’s no knock on Saskatchewan, it’s just the fact that all the fads and styles that hit the States, it would travel to Saskatchewan months later, you know what I mean? You would go, “Oh, this is dope,” but the other guy is already done with it, so we’re just moving slowly.
It’s not so much faster over here.
Well, yeah, I see that, too. I came out here expecting a completely different vibe. I see it as the West still trying to catch up to Toronto because it’s just so much closer to New York, where they have that ability to get that hip hop influence. It’s cool though – I like it out here. There’s totally a different type of culture. The one thing I noticed is that, you walk downtown and you can see 10 different types of people. You won’t see the same type of people over and over again so you can definitely find out who you are out here.
Can you describe to our readers about your music style?
I think, on the first album we did, “Today’s Special”, the biggest thing I was going for was versatility. Overall, I didn’t want a sound that just generic or whatever. Personally, I love RnB music and soul music and I want to incorporate that, but I can’t sing. So, let’s try to pull all aspects of that music and blend it together. I’ll do a track, like “Brighter Side” and that’s because I really like acoustic guitar. Then I would turn it around and do “That’s Dope” which is kind of like a throw-back hip hop song, kind of fused with new school.
I think the biggest part is being a rounded artist – that’s what I want to come off as. I don’t want to come off as fake by any means. I said before, hip hop is a thing where if you don’t come real, people will see that you’re insincere about it. It’s really easy to see what’s insincere in hip hop because it’s a very emotional kind of music – you get your soul into it. So yeah, I think my biggest thing is versatility, for me at least. I want to be an artist that can do anything.
Do you think this comes from your influences, both from the East Coast and the West Coast styles of music?
Well, I think that was the biggest thing growing up. I remember the first time I heard Tupac and my brother brought it home. I was just a kid because my brother is eight years older than me. He played it and I had no idea what he was saying but I was rapping it like I knew what he was talking about. Then I grew up and I go, “Oh, OK, I get it.” Back then, my brother wouldn’t listen to Nas and Jay-Z because Tupac dissed them. Then, it was all over and you listen to everything and then you’re just like, “Everyone’s dope.” The biggest thing I think is that you take a little bit from this person and a little bit from that person and I think if it was more united, then there would be a crazy huge sound. I saw Jay-Z the other night in Vancouver -
Yeah, we were there, too.
It was dope, eh? I think the biggest thing for that is he’s bridged so much together. Hip hop has never had an iconic figure. We’ve had Tupac and those guys but those are our icons, but I think Jay-Z has elevated himself to the stature of like Whitney Houston or like Frank Sinatra type of dude that, like, everyone knows who he is. I think that happened because he brought in not just hip hop, but like every kind of music and broadened it.
Do you play any of the instruments featured on your songs?
I don’t. I tried to play guitar, but that didn’t go over too well. Keyboards, I would just sit there and play until I get a melody, but I didn’t produce any of the albums. What I did was I sat there with the producer and I gave him melodies or my ideas and I would hear what he was playing. If I liked it, then we would put it in, but no, I don’t play any instruments. I want to learn piano because I know a lot of people play guitar, so that’s taken care of and I want to play piano.
No dude. Coming to Vancouver, it is majority Asian. Typically, the parents send them off to piano classes or violin classes.
Alright, then I’ll meet some piano players. That’s good!
What’s the one thing that inspired you to start rapping and recording? There are lots of people that are inspired and there are a lot of people that love hip hop and love to rap. What was the one thing that made you go up one level and actually make an album?
You know, the crazy thing is – and I don’t want to sound disrespectful or anything – is that I think I came in at the wrong time. I came in at the time where everyone is a rapper now. Everyone is a rapper and no knock on anyone because I think people should do what they love, but for myself, it took me a while – I was a basketball player my whole life. I realized that I didn’t want to be a basketball player anymore and I was writing and then one day, I realized that I really like this. I went out to meet my brother who lived in Ottawa at the time and his friend was doing music, just dabbling. He gave me beats and was like, “If you want to record while you’re here, let’s do it.”
I had never rapped before but I had poetry and rhymes, so I put it down and I liked it a lot. I went back home and knew one other guy that rapped and linked up with him. We were banging stuff out and I knew this was what I wanted to do. At that time, I didn’t know that many people rapped – I just thought I was the only one. In Saskatchewan, it just didn’t seem like there were a lot of rappers. Then I got into it and there were a lot. As soon as I got into it, I met a lot of people and made lots of contacts everywhere and it was awesome. I felt such a part of the music, and I always loved it so much, that I felt that I really needed to do this. At that time, I was in a frame of mind that I needed to help myself and help others so I was like Tupac saying, “I want to lift people up and encourage people.”
It’s cool because you see lots of people like you and they like the same thing, so it’s not like you’re ever alone. The one thing with music is that you think you’re always worried about no one liking your music. Then you think about it, there’s always at least one person that will be like, “I like this,” and that will be the person you work for.
Let’s talk about Today’s Special. What is your own impression on it? That was something you were really reluctant to say.
I really like the outcome of it and what happened. I’m a dude that constantly moves forward so I am always wanting to take the next step. Right now, I don’t listen to the album anymore, but I listened to it today because I was like, “If I’m going to play it for them, I better know it, and hopefully I still like it.”
But I love the album overall. I think, at that time, when I made it was how I wanted it. I tried record an album four years ago and it didn’t pan out just because things didn’t work out and the sound wasn’t right. [For this], we recorded over 50 tracks and we picked and narrowed down to what we thought made a complete album. At the end of the day, I’m very proud of this product. Even when we were recording it, if I wasn’t told that I could stop, the album would have never came out. Every day, I would go, “No, no, I have a new song idea. Let’s go do this!” But I think as a platform for my music, this is probably the best thing.
How many hours did you pop into this?
A lot. [My girlfriend] can attest to that and there were a lot of nights that I wasn’t at home. I worked and I went to school and when I wasn’t doing that, I was in the studio with my friend trying to get that out. There were nights where I didn’t going to sleep, trying to get verses together and putting it all together. The biggest thing with that was just getting it right – it didn’t matter how long it took, it was more that I just wanted it to sound good and people to know that we were trying to do something positive.
With the next album, do you think it will be an evolution of Today’s special or something totally different?
I was thinking about that today, and I was going to play you guys a new song that I was working on. It’s a completely different sound than what you hear on [Today's Special]. The way I flow is different and the topic is different and I don’t think I want to make another album like [Today's Special] again – I’m kind of done with that. You might hear some of the same elements and you will hear something else, but I for the next album, the first verse of the next song for my next album is, is – can I spit it?
Go for it.
10-29-86 eight pounds
Even during birth, my mom could see the ultra sound
That her son would create, for which he aspired
Came into the world with a heart of a lion
Mind of a young Einstein in his prime
But less with the numbers, more with the lyrics
Eye of a focused spirit that the warriors inherit
Greatness placed in a mind filled with anguish
Pain in his brain to change the musical arrangements
Deranged but his blue veins filled with amazement
The fallen angel came to fulfill his aspirations
To rise above the hatred and hesitation
Realize that destiny is his final destination
Sick!
So, it’s a little darker and it’s not like [Today's Special] – that was a little brighter and uplifting – but the next one might be a bit darker and more emotionally filled.
Is this because you matured a little more? Or is it because of the influences around you?
I think it’s a whole lot of things. My initial reaction to when we dropped [Today's Special] was like, you know how people drop something and you think people are going to pick up on it right away and blow up? Obviously that’s not what I assumed but in the back of my head, I kept thinking something’s going to happen and then it doesn’t happen. Then, you just got to work a little harder now. That made me realize that I needed to step it up a little bit more and little bit more and a little bit more. I felt that it was a great platform for other people to see that I grew from that.
With the next album, you know when you walk down Robson, you hear all these stores playing all these different sounds and dark tones and poppy all over the place sounds? I want to be able to hear my music in these stores. I want them to play these kinds sounds. The maturity level is a big thing – I don’t want to sound the same so I think I’ve grown as an artist in the sense that I want to try something new.
What are some of the artists that you admire?
Kanye is the probably, hands down, the guy for me. I didn’t know him as a rapper. I remember reading an article about him before when he produced The Blueprint. The funny thing is, I loved him because of “Song Cry”. I thought he produced that but Just Blaze produced it. I didn’t realize that until years after but I read up on him and I thought that this guy was unreal. In his article he talks about how he dropped out of college and you can’t tell him this or that and he was just going off on it. I didn’t even know he rapped and then I heard him rap. I just resonated with everything he was doing and he doesn’t care what anyone thinks, he just does what he feels is right. He takes so many risks and so many people hated on his “808s & Heartbreak” because of all the auto-tune and everything, but if you listened to the lyrics and the song, you could hear all the emotions. I didn’t think it was bad, I thought it was great and he brings greatness out of artists as well. Everyone he’s worked with is unreal and he’s my favourite.
Do you think that recently, his music has gone down a bit?
Recently, I think he’s gone a little crazy.
(Everyone laughs)
Not in a bad way though. I think every artist is crazy and I think there’s that saying where it goes, “There’s a fine line between insanity and brilliance” and it’s just his insanity that’s catching up to him. With everything going on in his life, with the fame added to it, and no disrespect to Amber Rose, but I think she might just add fuel to the fire. The fame for her is a good thing and she likes that, I think. But for him, he needs to cool. I think it’s good that he’s taking some time off. His music is weird. You see before, you hear “All Falls Down” and then you listen to his stuff now, it seems like it’s the stuff that he wouldn’t rap about. He was talking about coming out and talking about positive stuff and then you hear him talking about stuff that typical people talk about. I don’t know if he’s gone down, I just think that he’s changing his style. He’s stepping into a ring with people that have honed that style, like the Jay-Z’s and Lil Wayne’s that have done this for their entire career, to the point that he’ll come in and he’ll do a song like “Run This Town” and he’ll destroy it. But if he goes on a song with Lil Wayne, he might get shined out. I think he’s just stepping in a different lane and hopefully he’ll go back to his roots.
What’s the next move for you?
For me? I’m just trying to get the music out more. On the Facebook page, we have a daily verse, so we’re at 32 or 33. We started off with a weekly verse and we realized that it wasn’t hard enough so we decided to go every day. We’re trying to do a whole year and do 365 videos so we’re trying to catch attention. I think the biggest thing is to get people knowing that this dude is serious about it. I don’t tell a lot of people that we rap because I think there are enough people that say they are a rapper for the wrong reasons so I want my music to speak for itself. The next step is just getting more fans’ attention and I want to really drop the dopest album possible. I’m going to work my ass off and make it as dope as possible. Hopefully, from there, we’ll carry the flag through.
What is HYPE?
I knew that was coming! What is HYPE, oh man, it’s good. HYPE is a positive thing. It is everything that you ask for, but you have to follow through. It’s everything that builds you up to the point where you have to be a man and accept the HYPE and be a man and follow through with the HYPE. Drake’s got the HYPE right now and hopefully he follows through. Let’s hope that I get the HYPE and I will follow through. HYPE is everybody, HYPE is art, HYPE is music.