After the jump, see the transcript of the Crossfade interview.
Above is the JK Citizen video for his song "Rock The Vote" produced by Raymond St. Claire. Below is the video for "Roc Me," a Hip-Roc Frankenstein styled short.
I spoke to JK Citizen over the phone and here's what he had to say:
"I was born in Miami. I spent half my life in Liberty City and half in Norwood, around 27th Avenue and 183rd Street. I met Ray St. Claire through Craigslist. He was advertising for video production for music videos, commercials and short movies, and we met up... he decided to sponsor me. We came up with HipRoc where we put hip-hop and rock together and made a new sound for the Southern area. I was already listening to Linkin Park, Flyleaf and Paramore, and then Ray started showing me a lot of the old rock bands like Led Zeppelin, and I got into all that. For hip-hop I like Kanye, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Jay-Z, all the raps that have storylines not just club stuff.
"It's not about the money, it's about being heard. I'm not looking for the big million-dollar contract, I just wanna record, make some real good music, and put the CD out, I'm not too much worried bout the money. Right now I'm working for the U.S. Postal Service and then my own brand of writing for rock, pop, hip hop, alternative and trance.
"We done shows at Revolution, Voodoo Lounge, Christian's up in Ft. Lauderdale, Mansion, Club Deep, Sobe Live, we tryina do more on South Beach, Downtown Ft. Lauderdale, New York, Atlanta, then the whole U.S. from the east coast to the west coast.
"The next video we workin on is called Don't Judge Me, we make movie-music-videos, goin for that bad boy look, real edgy, without goin' too far, tryin' to reach everybody from the 16-year-olds to the 50-year-olds, white, black, different color, different races, we might do an album in Spanish. My songs tell you you could be a doctor, be an architect, be a police man, but I choose to be an entertainer.
"My album comin' out in February, we takin pre-order for it, but if you can't afford it, we givin it to you for free."
Check out http://www.jkcitizen.com for more info.
-- Jacob Katel
