Welcome to BuzzMusic Aiden Jay! As a hip-hop artist, who would you consider to be some of your main influences for your special sound? Who were you listening to growing up?
As an artist, I feel like my sound is not just hip-hop it’s a lot of pain it so I can grow up listening to a lot of blues and gospel. The artist I feel like influences me most for what I’m trying to do and what I’m trying to accomplish are artists like André 3000, and Kanye West and this is going to sound ridiculous even but one of the most influential artists for me is Jamie Foxx. I think they make my sound to be more well-rounded and also given me an outlook on how I want to use and incorporate blues and soul into my music.
Ever since the release of your debut mixtape “Suicide Letter”, how has your sound evolved?
Suicide Letter is where I think I learned to be honest in my music. Prior to suicide letter; I think music for me was fun, it was edgy it was something that I enjoyed and liked to do but suicide letter is when I started opening up and putting emotion into the songs that I record.I’ve always been very story-oriented. I like to let people in on the story, so a lot of the bars that I have are story related. You can listen to a song from the verse to verse to the end and you can grasp an idea of what I’m trying to say and what is important to me. I guess my music has evolved since suicide letter in the sense that I’m no longer focusing on all the negative that was surrounding suicide letter but I guess moving forward. I want to let the people know that there was positivity in the struggle.
“Black Fila” had a strong lyrical message behind the song. Can you expand on the theme of this single and what initially inspired you to write this?
Black Fila is a song that is strongly worded for some of the things in my life from middle school to college that really affected me. I wanted it to be in the viewpoint of something that’s always there and what’s more common than you have shoes on. Black Fila for me is to come up story, it’s “Yeah I went through some shit and here’s how I’m handling it.”It’s also a redemption story because I’m not the only person who goes to shit so there’s a lot of people in my life who made mistakes and have done things alongside me that they can’t go back and fix so it’s basically saying let’s continue let’s push forward. This is the past and what we have seen but how about we move forward and do something different. What inspired me to write Black Fila is when I was in middle school if you don’t have Jay’s or Nike's on, you were bum. Growing up the way I did, my mom could only afford the fila’s and I learned to appreciate that I was doing something different from everybody else and I pulled it off.
We’re excited to hear your debut album “Rest In Peace”. What can we expect from this project?
Rest in Peace to me is a story about a guy who understands that in everything that he’s seen, he puts the blame on all the things around him. To me, the project is based on a life that I’ve lived, and that I’ve seen; the two are very much hand-in-hand. It’s essential for me to bring out the dark and the light in my music at the same time. “falling in love is in bad until you get hurt” and that’s what this album is. It’s you fall in love with things and people and hope that they have or it has your best interest. The project is all my challenges, fears, and expectations. As well as My pain, goals, and darkest thoughts.
What can we expect to see from you throughout the rest of 2020?
Other than Rest In Peace, I and my team are working on a collaboration album. I’ll end up doing a mixtape before the end of the year and once the travel is no longer restricted I should be dropping my tour schedule for the Rest In Peace tour. Beyond music, I’m looking into doing some fashion stuff, And hopefully, I do a better job of philanthropy this year, especially since I’ve already started!