Jeru The Damaja - Jeru'damus

In the early to mid ‘90’s hip-hop was getting bigger and bigger and this era definitely was the period when the motivational music genre was on its way to cultural, mainstream, and worldwide dominance. Just think about who was out then, especially when it came to dropping classic albums. During the 90's golden era of hip-hop everybody was dropping albums that were made to never be forgotten. You had Ice Cube with his rebellious “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted” the jazzy sound of Tribe Called Quest with classic releases “The Low End Theory” and “Midnight Marauders”, the grimey street album from Wu-Tang Clan’s The Chef Raekwon with “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx”, the birth of Nas with “Illmatic”, hustler music with Jay-Z’s “Reasonable Doubt” and many more. One man that many don’t seem to mention is that conscious creative rhyme-slayer Jeru the Damaja who made classic music with his album “The Sun Rises in The East”. Many of you remember Jeru the Damaja and probably thought he disappeared, but you can’t forget he definitely was an important figure in that time of hip-hop’s uprising.

Jeru the Damaja is no doubt one of the illest MC’s to come in this game, especially with albums like “Wrath of the Math” and the previously mentioned classic “The Sun Rises in The East”. When it came to raw bars Jeru is the man, especially when spitting on the conscious subjects current MC’s Common, Talib Kweli, and others are known for. Jeru the Damaja never left hip-hop, the man has been on the grind touring, touring crazy. While there is so much debate on whether hip-hop is dead, according to Jeru the Damaja it’s currently on a respirator and has to be smacked out its coma. Besides all the hip-hop is dead talk Jeru explains why it can come back as artists just need to be more creative.Every rapper loves to talk about the experience working with the legendary DJ Premier, but to Jeru it wasn’t a big deal, they remains friends before the music. Jeru also speaks on traveling the world and the new album coming soon.


What’s been good with Jeru the Damaja lately?

Jeru : I have my own label out I’m running and that’s been pretty good for me selling a lot of records worldwide. I’m also doing a lot of touring in which I almost do 200 shows a year.

You said 200 shows a year, I see you been traveling all crazy!

Jeru : Yeah, I’m all over the world, Russia, Colombia, Italy, Greece just wherever you can think of on the planet earth I’m there.

What you like most about traveling all over the world and what was your favorite country to visit?

Jeru : Oh man I really can’t say I have a favorite country too much. I like South Africa a lot, London is like my second home, but I just like to travel in general. I like to move and as long as I got some type of full movement I’m doing great.

: Now in the past you were known for working with DJ Premier who produced the classic album “The Sun Rises In The East”, so what was that experience like working with him?

Jeru : We was just boys so it wasn’t like how you might think of Premier is not how I think of Premier. We’ve been hanging out six or seven years before that so it was never a thing were as I was like “Aw I’m so excited”, because that was my boy. We was hanging out and we worked on the records together. Premier never gave me a beat and be like “Here’s a beat”, I wanted it as I was ...(continued below)

in the studio picking out certain sounds going over things together that was my boy.

Yeah, because when a lot of rappers tell me their experience of working with Premier they talk like it was one of their best experiences.

Jeru :Yeah, like I said it’s from a different perspective, Premier is definitely a legend, but he’s my boy first before anything. We was hanging out before we even did records together, we shared food. I was in the studio when Nas did “Illmatic”, him and Premier use to come to my crib in the projects and pick me up. It’s a different vibe, it’s like somebody who don’t know me. Someone might ask somebody “What it was like working with Jeru” and they will talk like it was the best thing, but if you ask one of my homeboys they’ll be like “Aw it ain’t nothing, that’s my man”. When your around somebody everyday it’s a little different, Premier is definitely a legend, he’s one of the greatest producers ever, but we was hanging out before that. That’s what created the vibe to create those records we did, that’s why the records me and Premier did nobody has really done those type of records. Yeah he can give them a beat and they can write some dope rhymes, but the vibe is gonna be different, because we knew each other. When you know somebody more or less, inside or out the way you are going to create is different.

: Why didn’t you work with Premier after the first two albums?

Jeru : It was just that time, sometimes you have to spread your wings and do other things.

: Now a lot of people would say you were doing music when hip-hop was “Real hip-hop”, so what was it like making music during that era when plenty of classics were coming out?

Jeru : You don’t know something is gonna be a classic until ten or fifteen years later, you know what I’m saying, all we was doing was trying to make dope records. Were from a time where it wasn’t about how much money you got or whatever. I mean that’s dope, but for us it was about burning everybody else. We was like “Alright this record is dope, but I want to make a record doper than that”, that’s what hip-hop is about, it’s kind of like battling.

: During that period were there any artist that you haven’t worked with that you would have liked to?

Jeru : I pretty much got to work with everybody that I wanted to work with, it wasn’t that type of thing you know, it’s was about who knew how to rap really good. Things are much different right now, like this person was an artist and that person was an artist. Back then I wanted to work with KRS-One, I wanted to work with whoever, the dudes who were way before my era. The Biggie’s, the Nas’s and all those type of guys we pretty much knew each other and we was just dudes who knew how to rap good. I don’t know if that’s how they felt, but that’s how I felt about it. Its people that will tell you they hung out with me for years and didn’t even know I could rhyme. The first time Fat Joe heard “Kid Come Clean”, he was like “Yo Premier who did that sh*t”, who wrote that record” and he was like Jeru. He was like “Get the fu*k outta here son, I never knew he could rhyme and I knew him for like five years”.

: A lot of people say hip-hop is not what it used to be, would you agree?

Jeru : Of course, it’s nothing like what it used to be, television ain’t what it used to be, nothing is what it used to be. It doesn’t mean that it’s worse, it’s going through stages of evolution, but the real deals are still gonna be here. Everything has to go through change in order for it to remain, most of the sh*t that stayed the same is not here anymore.

: What you think it was that made it change?

Jeru : It’s generational, it’s technology, it’s all types of different sh*t. First thing right now anybody can make hip-hop right in their house, before you had to go to the studio and it was a lot more you had to put in.

: Do you think it will ever come back to it’s original form?

Jeru : I don’t know about coming back to it’s original form, because I don’t know too many things that really do that. I think people will start emphasizing more on skill and more creativity, but right now it’s in the hands of corporate America.

: That’s the thing as a lot of people would say artist didn’t kill hip-hop, corporate America killed it.

Jeru : I predicted this whole sh*t on my second album years ago and people was saying I was hating. I already knew it was going to happen, because I seen it happen in everything, it’s not just rap, it’s everything. True Rock N’ Roll fans would say it happened to Rock N’ Roll right? Fans have to also remember is that if you can’t get the music if I can’t get it to you, so what you expect me to not eat. You are not going to quit your job, because their making changes in the administration. A true fan will grow with you, if it’s dope it’s dope, some will be like “If he didn’t do it this time maybe the next time”

What I’m saying is the people who say their fans just abandon the artist and expect him to hold it up himself. Things are gonna change, I can’t say nobody truly killed hip-hop. I know that sounds dope “Hip-Hop is Dead”, but hip-hop’s not dead it’s on a respirator. It’s on a respirator, it will come back, but it’s in a coma. It will wake up, you just have to get back to creativity. I think a lot of the creativity is gone and a lot of people talk about the dirty south, but that’s what they know.

Don’t get mad at them, get mad at you for listening to that sh*t, how about that? Don’t listen to it if you can’t relate to it, I don’t listen to stuff I can’t relate to. They talk about grillz and all that, this is where they really contradict themselves. They talk about they want things to come back the way it was, but that’s where it started, “Grillz” that is hip-hop. As I got older and started to travel the world I see everything is not that cut and dry, my best is that “You can do the best that you can”.