 Photography By Patrick Jacobs |
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Amad Jamal interview… |
Amad Jamal
The Calm Before The Storm
Early this week a certain young man, namely Amad Jamal, slipped through immigration, with the intention of spending a few quite weeks plugging away his coming album. But little did they know that Amad Jamal was about to create a storm in the big city we know as London. He was spotted rocking small joints to big hip hop jams all over Europe, so as we do, Phatmag decided to step up to him to find out who he really is and where he was coming from....
Phatmag: What's Amad-Jamal all about? Who is Amad-Jamal? what makes Amad-Jamal tick?
Amad-Jamal: Amad-Jamal is a laid back cat from LA who enjoys music. Actually, world music, but I'm really in to hip hop and writing lyrics as well as being able to write songs you know what I'm saying. Bringing a message over the music 'cos I think it's really important to give a little something... give a little something when you have the music basically. I think that you should divulge a few things of what you're feeling you know... share a little bit of yourself - everything doesn't have to be so fantasy. Amad-Jamal is basically about the renaissance. It's about a movement.
There is a new... it's not really new but the renaissance is an accumulation of the old, the classic and also the golden which is the best thing. In time, you know we had the dark ages, we had BC and then we had the golden ages of every society and hip hop is no different. We had the Run DMC's and the Grand Master Theodores, before all that plugging in to get energy and going in the park stealing electricity just so fools could jam you know what I'm saying. And then we got into a age where people were actually getting paid on hip hop and then we transferred to what people are calling classic - the RUN DMC's, the Big Daddy Kanes's, Rhakim's to what we call new or if you want to call it mainstream, or you wanna call it the mixture of gangsta rap.... East Coast, West Coast, South - everybody got involved in the game. And now, you kind of have some cats who grew up in it.
Remembering what it was like before. They're young adults now or in their 25/30's and they're kind of blending both. Giving you the hotness of the new music and the new tracks without the static and the de de de de of the new equipment and new sounds and then people are actually writing songs, taking time and putting lyrics down and that's what Amad-Jamal is about. He's about reaching the people through phat beats and some lyrics with content.
Phatmag: What made you get into this whole game? What made you fall in love with this whole music thing and hip hop thing?
Amad-Jamal: All my favorite artists fell the hell off so you know, when they fell off, I decided to write a few songs you know what I'm saying....trying to do some things. First it was just scribble and dribble about what I was going through you know.. Girls in jeans at the club was what my first rhymes were about but it progressed as I grew into it. I just felt like there were more things I had to do, there were things I should say because that's what I was feeling at the time. That's what I do. I just write what I feel as well, it doesn't mean that everything is so serious....sometimes I'm feeling like shaking my ass in the club, sometimes I feel like dissing my ex, sometimes I feel like uplifting the nation you know. It's all about moods. We all go through it.
Phatmag: So for the album is there a theme?
Amad-Jamal: The theme is more along the movement of the renaissance you know what I'm saying and those would be the kind of people I have on the project you but not one particular one. I'm not staunch on one particular view and that's how it's going to be 'cos that's not how I am as a person. I don't live that way. I go to all events, all the nice things and check them out but still you get specifically what I like and what I like about it. I guess, what I can say is I'm no hater you know what I'm saying so it's not necessarily that I don't like what everybody else is doing. I just feel that I have something special to offer.
Phatmag: What would you say the vibe in LA is like in terms of the hip hop scene and you're involvement in the hip hop scene in LA 'cos it's totally different to what's going on in the East, the South and North etc.
Amad-Jamal: LA is hot right now. The energy for the kind of music that we're doing - for hip hop period - it's hot in LA right now. You know Snoop is big again and then all the way down the line, you've got Dilated Peoples and they're hot right now, worldwide, as well as Jurassic Five who are friends of mine from LA. There's a lot of people I know personally who have blown up - JaFarah HeRule who's on ABB records, Dilated Peoples on ABB Records oh and how could I forget my own brother - on Infinity Records, Combo MC is from the LA scene and he's been traveling all around the world as well you know.
My involvement in hip hop in LA... I mean I know everybody in LA as far as hip hop, from the underground to the majors, it doesn't really matter. I grew up in that city so I've just been involved in music and entertainment period all around LA. I think the energy is good, it's hot. The line between underground and I supposed mainstream or whatever, is disappearing. Look at Deaf Row, that was an independent label and nobody really trips off of that you what I'm saying. All the independents are leveling off the game. In fact, what ever's hot right now is the independent. When was the last time you saw a hip hop artist on a Sony, a Priority, a Jive... now everybody else has their own labels. Cube left Priority you what I'm saying. Everybody who's been in the business for a while wants on their own now... wants to do it for themselves and now there's people even building it from the ground up and just doing it that way.
