Armed with another brand new album and a consistency of style and substance that’s currently drawing in thousands of new fans – artist and producer JADE! kindly took part in an interview.
We talk about the journey to this point, the inspiration for OKI, performance plans and ambitions, and plenty more. Here’s the conversation in full.
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Hi JADE – excited to connect, thanks for your time! Huge congrats for the new project. To introduce things – where are you based, and how long have you been making music?
So, I’m currently based in St. Louis, Missouri. I’ve been here for about three years. I kind of lived all over. I lived in Georgia, Virginia, Maryland. So, yeah, I’ve been around.
I used to be in the military, so I was traveling for that, and then I got out, and I’ve been in college. Just kind of exploring life, making music.
You’ve got an immense repertoire of original tracks and albums – is work ethic a key part of building your ability and taking the scene by storm?
I wouldn’t say work ethic. I would say it’s more so trial and error for me. My work ethic is a bit spontaneous and all over the place when it comes to music. It’s kind of just whatever I feel at the moment.
I say trial and error because you create a lot of things as an artist, a lot of different songs, and you figure out really fast what people like and what they don’t like. What you should put out and what you shouldn’t put out. Things that you should say and that you shouldn’t say. I think that learning, as far as that goes, has been huge in my creative process. Especially when it comes to the niche that I’m in where I’m doing these video game concepts and anime concepts.
Your lyrics are impressively smart, longer-form framing of ideas and sharp rhymes – it’s refreshing to hear. How long have you been writing bars, and where do you draw inspiration or influence from?
I would say, I draw inspiration from obviously other music artists like Childish Gambino, Kyle as of late, A$AP Rocky, Kanye West, Andre 3000, Vince Staples, Denzel Curry obviously, so many artists that I’ve learned from when it comes to rapping ability, but when it comes to song structuring and just how I want my songs to feel, I would say artists like Sade, Johnny Rain, which I feel like a lot of people sleep on him, he’s an amazing artist, a lot of R&B influences, even on my rap songs, but especially on my R&B songs, huge influences.
I think also the content I watch, like the anime, the games that I play, they’re also influences on the music that I make. I don’t really go into songs with anime or video games in mind, because my songs are definitely personal experiences, but I can feel my writing sometimes can align with certain characters, and that also inspires me to go in certain routes with that song after it’s done, if that makes sense.
The colourful production runs throughout your albums, as well as your cleanly mixed voice – how important is it to stand out within the genre, and how does the gaming aesthetic play into your creative process?
I think if you’re creative, you should always be trying to stand out in everything that you do. It should just be second nature to try to stand out as best as you can. Obviously, I mean, this can apply to people that just have normal jobs. I mean, when I was in the military, I definitely had to stand out.
You know, going through life, you always have to try to stand out. Unless you’re just lucky, and everything is just handed to you, for sure. But for us normal, bad-on-luck folk, you always have to stand out.
The video game and anime aesthetic does definitely help me stand out for sure because I’ve figured out a way to just make it more natural I guess like it doesn’t really feel forced and I think in that itself makes me stand out in a niche where it can really be seen as corny like a lot of people don’t really like when these bridges collide in this way but I think I’m doing a pretty good job
You produce your own music – what are your software essentials?
FL Studios for sure is my go-to as far as production goes. I love FL. They do everything in FL. I will say, Ableton is really nice and I do want to do more with Ableton. That would be really cool.
Which track from the new project would you recommend to new listeners first?
Okay, so this is kind of a hard question because I make very, very different music. It is all over the place. So it’s kind of hard to say which song I should recommend because it really depends on the person. Like, I mean, if they like underground, like hard hidden shit, then it’s going to be Kano. You know, if they like alternative rap that is kind of like a feel-good song, then I would say Ryu. If they like that melancholy, you know, I wouldn’t say depressing, but you know, melodic feel, I would say Ken. If they like cool rap or like some shit like that, then I would say Johnny Cage.
It’s kind of all over the place. My music varies so much. Like I have Meryl Stryfe. I can go from my Meryl stryfe song to Kano. It’s kind of all over the place. It depends on a person, on, you know, what I’ll send them or what I recommend.
Who do the names that the titles refer to, and why this format or thread throughout the album – how does it connect with the main title?
So, this is kind of an interesting question. So, Oki is like a fighting game mechanic. And I’m just gonna leave it at that this would turn into an extensive answer more than I would like. But, the characters, they’re all from their respective video games.
At first, it was gonna be a Mortal Kombat EP, but then I was like, nah, I wanna do a Street Fighter one, I wanna do a Dead or Alive one. So, I just ended up putting them all together. And what all these games have universally is Oki. It is a universal fighting game mechanic. So, it just felt right. The first half of the project is Dead or Alive, the second half is Street Fighter, the third half is Mortal Kombat, and then the last half is Tekken. With a Darkstalkers cameo at the very end, /Marvel vs. Capcom. And, yeah, I think if I was doing Oki 2, I would have way more female characters there. Hopefully for next time.
I didn’t realize how male-heavy my tracklist was until I was done. And I was like, oh shit, well, I sent it already. But yeah, definitely. Yeah, this was such a fun project. Just all the different samples and stuff with the characters, they really bring some of their tracks more life than what they had before. For sure.
Which style is more consuming – the fun tracks or those that are more contemplative and emotional?
I would definitely say that the contemplative tracks and emotional tracks are more consuming, but they’re more fun. Don’t get me wrong, the hype tracks are really fun, but I have so much fun when I’m doing R&B tracks for some reason. Not necessarily the singing, I mean, I guess it is the singing aspect, but it’s more so because with R&B tracks, with more emotional tracks, I feel like I’m more flexible to be myself. Hype tracks are very fun, but, you know, they just… You can use them in any setting, but it’s… I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t know. That’s a good question, though. I would say my emotional tracks, for sure.
20 tracks is extensive – how do you decide when a project is complete, and were there any songs cut from the final release: if so, for what reason?
So this is an interesting question For me, I think it’s more of a feeling as an artist you can feel when your project is complete Even through all the second-guessing that I’ll do every once in a while You’ll know when it’s complete Oki probably had 30 different songs to it and and you know a lot the ones that didn’t make it didn’t make it for a reason it could it could extend from mixing and mastering issues. It just didn’t fit the vibe.
Because as a music artist – well, at least for me I listen to my albums over and over again, and I always try to keep a Fresh state of mind every re-listen and I always ask myself You know after after the song after one song passes. How do I feel about this next song coming in? How was this transition? How would this song make people feel when they listen to it? Is this a part of the album? These are all questions I ask myself over and over again and it’s very meticulous with you know creating albums, but it’s also fun, you know, the end product is always fun to see
Is live performance on the cards soon, and if so, how will that look?
My performance would be really cool, but unfortunately, the STL scene, I’m not really prominent in at all. It doesn’t really seem like there’s a space for me here, but I’m not sure. I’m really not sure. A lot of the things around here seem like they’re for jazz and EDM. Not really my crowd. I would like to perform, but my online presence is my biggest accomplishment, and it’s not much for right now. But it’ll get there. It’ll get there. I’d definitely like to perform again. I used to perform in Virginia, and that was super fun. So, that would be nice.
When you finish a great track in the studio, when passions and excitement run wild, where do you imagine yourself – what’s the big ambition?
That is an interesting question. I’m not really sure. When I’m listening to a song back, there are a couple feelings that I know I would feel. One, if it’s an R&B song, then I can imagine myself on stage singing it. If it’s a hype song, then my mind cuts to if a crowd would fuck with this. And third, if it’s a hip-hop, boom-bap type of song. Actually, I’m not too sure about that one. That one’s probably a mix of both. I’m not too sure. It depends on the song. Yeah, I don’t know. I’m very imaginary when it comes to things, especially music.
What’s something about you that would surprise your fans?
Something that would surprise my fans? I’m not really too sure, honestly. Maybe I’m way more outgoing than what I can perceive myself as on Instagram? I’m not really sure what they would think or be surprised about. I know I have a lot of hidden gems that will catch some of them by surprise. Like, I showed off a picture of me playing Vanquish, this old Platinum Games, I believe, game? I was revisiting that, and, you know, I showed that off, and a lot of people were like, holy shit, like, what is that game? Never seen it before, blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah, I know a lot of hidden gems that may surprise some of them. And I should probably get around to posting a lot more of my interests. Because I feel like a lot of people just fuck with me to fuck with me. In a good way, of course.
What’s your plan of action as an artist for the next two years?
I think for me, my plans of action, or my goals, are very small in nature, but would be a very big hurdle for me to get over, is to stop being scared of a camera. Literally, you know, I’m a rapper, it should just be, it should just be second nature, but no, like I, cameras, you know, recording myself talking to a screen is just very alien to me. That’s just not how I grew up, so it’s very hard for me to break out of this shell, but it’s something that me and my friends talk about, and other artists that I know, it’s just, I don’t really have a face behind this dope content. Um, yeah, that would probably be my goal.
Is there anything else we should know?
So something that kind of puts me apart from other rappers in my genre, and niche even, is the fact that these songs didn’t start as character songs. I didn’t make these songs for the character specifically when I first created the song.
Uh, it’s really based on vibes. I feel like when you make something so, if you make something so direct, it can be forced. These songs naturally felt like the characters. Like, I didn’t make the Johnny Cage song with the intent of it being Johnny Cage. It just came to be that way. The flow, the vibe of the song, it all felt like Johnny Cage. Um, and it’s more like is this song something that this character would possibly like? And in my headcanon, yes. I think Johnny Cage would like his Johnny Cage song, as redundant as that sounds. Uh, but yeah, it’s more so, uh, I put these songs together with the intent of, does this song feel like that character? When I listen to Kano, does it feel like Kano?
You know, I don’t really try to write lyrics about the characters, because it’s not corny, but I feel like a lot of people look down on bars and stuff that are very, like, video game anime, you know what I mean? Um, so I’m trying to avoid that stigma put on me. I don’t need that, honestly. But for the most part, I think I found a loophole to make these types of concepts feel natural. Um, it doesn’t feel like a forced Ryu song. It just feels like a song that has the same vibe as Ryu. Like, when you play Ryu, you feel this vibe, uh, that you would feel from the song. You know, when you listen to Kano, it feels dark and grungy. Um, when you listen to Johnny Cage, it feels, like, cool, you know? Uh, and that’s kind of what I was getting at with this album.
And even, like, my older concept albums with Trigun, my Trigun album, it… I didn’t really try to make the songs be, like, 100% accurate with the characters. I just wanted to encapsulate the vibe of the character. And that’s really all my concepts are, is just me trying to encapsulate the feeling, the essence of a character, not necessarily it being one-for-one about the character.
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