The Interview: Jaheim

It was a late Friday night, about a year ago, when I first heard Jaheim’s music. I was riding in my car and the radio was on; this was before HOT97 was getting any kind of serious competition so Funkmaster Flex was on the dial. After some of the usual boom-bap-party-mix-stuff, he dropped in this slow Isaac Hayes sounding beat. Then a male vocalist started doing his thing, giving the whole thing a thugged out gangsta vibe. Remember the scene in Dead Presidents&nbsp when Larenz Tate and the bald headed kat with the artificial leg were riding down the highway in the black caddy? It was gangsta in that way. Slide down in the seat, lean back on seventeens - cause we baby ballin - and cruise. Hah! *BOOM* That’s the bomb, it’s what Flex does when he’s feeling a new song, and it ends this paragraph just right.

Jaheim Hoagland popped on the scene with a unique look and style, not in the sense of wearing pink fur coats and house slippers, he took a decidedly more traditional approach: jeans and Tims, wife beaters and wristbands. If you watched the “Could it Be” video with the sound turned down you might have mistaked him for a West Coast rapper. But this 23-year old, New Jersey bred, brother is a singer whose voice has been likened to the great Teddy Pendergrass. They both have that mellow rumble that sounds like it could erupt into something you ain’t ready for.

Instead of anything threatening you get a warm embrace, targeted specifically at the ladies. Keeping the denigration of women to a minimum, Jaheim throws them his own special brand of love; what he called on his first album, that Ghetto Love.

That album was extremely successful for a debut artist - 1.5 million and counting - and next month he hopes to continue the winning streak with Still Ghetto. Does the word “ghetto” rub you the wrong way? We had a little conversation about it last week.. it’s a good thing, trust me.

How did you get your start in the business?
I went out and I recorded a song in the studio, some Isley Brothers songs, recorded all their hit sides. I recorded a Luther Vandross cut messing with this group called YBG, and we went out, we recorded it. From there I just started shopping that, started getting a lot of breaks: Showtime at the Apollo, a lot of talent shows, opening up for a lot of groups out there, you know, and here I am now.

So that’s how you went about doing your demo, decided your gonna sing the hits?
I made a resume a out of all of that stuff. I just went out and kept trying and trying, no matter what nobody said. I just kept trying hard and it worked.

I was reading your bio and it said that you were on Showtime at the Apollo&nbsp not once, but for a couple of weeks.
Yeah, I won on The Apollo three times, and the third time I won I met Kaygee [former member of Naughty by Nature,] and he said I didn’t have to go back no more. So I never went back.

What year was that, people might have seen you on the show before?
In 1994.

Some of your influences are Biggie and Tupac. What made you want to sing instead of rap?
When you are told shut up from time to time.. that just pushes you to work harder and not to be shut up, because you know when somebody says shut up it just irks you. And that’s what I grew up hearing all the time, ‘Jah sing this song’ then the next minute ‘shut up.’ It just made me work harder.

You never thought about rapping instead of singing?
Yeah, I used to rap when I was younger. But I said man everybody’s doing that so I’m gonna stick with this singing right here - stay over there with the ladies.

In any genre of music it’s hard to break out, but it seems like you’ve carved out your little niche. What do you&nbsp think makes you stand out from the crowd?
That’s a question you gotta ask the fans. I feel like.. I feel different than everybody, because I’m happy within. I mean, I know what I want. I can’t really say that.. I don’t know if anybody else is happy with what they have, but I’m content with myself, whether I sell a record or not. I know that this is what it is, and you know I just got to make the best of it. And it’s about pleasing too, so you just gotta cater to the people around you.

You have kind of a rapper’s image but your singing.. was that something you crafted yourself?
Yeah, because it’s natural. It’s like I used to rap when I was younger. I didn’t just like rap. I used to rap, I made songs and the whole nine. My brothers and them rap, my cousins in Harlem. They’re real good at it. You’ll hear about them a little later though.

I saw you on Spring Bling&nbsp and the ladies were all over you, jumping on stage, you know, doing that grind thing..
That was crazy. That was a crazy experience for me.

Do you have anybody, one special chick that your involved with right now?
Right now.. No. I think I met one though the other night.

Just the other night, that’s it?
Yeah, it was something special about her.. two days ago. I ain’t call her yet because you don’t call no girl on the first day. You know, that’s the rule. So you know.. I’ll give her two days off. When I hit her back.. Jah gonna be in the building.

Is that a scoop, you found wifey two days ago?
Can’t say wifey, we can settle in between somewhere though.

This girl right here, or whatever, anybody that you consider special. Say it’s not her but coming down the line. Could she look for the same kind of treatment that you gave the chick in the “Anything” video. With the house and all that.
Your dealing with love. When you love somebody you do anything for them. When I thought of that video and the song.. when I make my records I gotta think of people. Especially the sad songs, the happy songs too. Like when you hear this new album you’ll hear “Long As I Live.” It’s like a wedding song, but it’s like a word called “cartel.” It’s like family. And when you tell your family “as long I live.” You know, I might not be home now, I might be building all these videos and these houses for other people around me, but for as long as I live this is what it is.

Besides all the money and all the fame and all this and that.. this is what it is right here, for as long as I live. So it’s like forever again.

Is that the inspiration behind your songs, just like.. real life?
Yeah, cause when your not in a relationship it’s hard to write around a relationship, but you can look inside out of somebody else’s details.. from this and that, A-Z, to get what you can get out of it. That’s how you write your songs.

Also in the bio it talks a lot about the love that have for your mother. Does she influence your music too?
A lot of it. When I can’t get a song, I can’t remember or whatever, I just think of her. And I start feeling it.. and it just comes out. That’s called soul music right there.

What was the thinking behind the first album?
That first album was more of a cry, because I didn’t get that much time to record. Every chance I got I just went in the booth and I cried, That’s how it came out, the whole album.

Has that changed with Still Ghetto, it’s named “still ghetto” does that mean that your not changing the formula?
Not really. It’s a groove thing, you never want to stay in the same stance or try to mock the same thing you did. You keep it the same, but you have to adjust cause you grow with time. And you let it happen naturally, you don’t try to make yourself evolve.. that’s something that’s gonna naturally happen. When you try that’s when you start reaching.

Like reaching in the cookie jar. You know your not supposed to be in there, you might get popped. Waking up late going in the cookie jar and stuff, *pop* “get out that cookie jar.”

The new single is called “Fabulous”?
Yeah, the new single is “Fabulous” and it’s doing real good. I gotta thank radio so much, all black radio, all all you black writers, my peoples.

I heard it today.. and I was feeling it. Honestly, I don’t play that much R&B. I’m more of a rap head, but your first cd I did have that in the car for a minute, and like I said, the “Fabulous” song, heard it today and it sounds good. There is someone.. a group.. on the song called The Rane. Who are they?
That’s a group that Kaygee has on Divine Mill records. They should be coming out this year. They were on the last album too, on “Finders Keepers.” I wanted to do something youthful. Something with the kids on it.. with the young girls and all that. Not that I’m catering to the young girls. It’s just as a label itself that’s how you network through the younger generation. At the same time those little girls can sing too man.

Yeah they blended in real smooth.
Yeah.. so I was bigging that up right there.

MTV quoted you as saying that your gonna sell ten million on the first day. You sticking with that?
That’s how I feel personally, inside. They might not give it to me, it ain’t really about the ten million. But if I work hard within I know I’m gonna get something out of it. I might not sell ten million, but if I can touch ten million people that’s what my job is. Then I can get them ready for the third album..

When you go to the top, your gonna have to go over some bumps and some potholes, all that crazy stuff.

I always heard that you should shoot for a higher level than you really want in order to compensate for the things you can’t control. That way your still able to reach a high mark.
You always have to think for the worst as well. When you shoot for the best in successful things, you’ve gotta always remember that everything is like a battery: it’s balanced off, so you gotta stick right in the middle. You want to be fine tuned. That’s how everybody wants you, they don’t want you to be to sharp, they don’t want you to be under the key, they want someone right in the middle. You gotta study at whatever your doing, whether it’s basketball, football, rapping, being a host for a radio show or a magazine, whatever it is that you love to do. You ask god for that anointance and you work hard and I’m sure that you’ll see the outcome.

Let’s talk about some of the songs on the album.
This album right here Still Ghetto.. I was reading something in a magazine and they was saying that they don’t like the word ghetto because when you first look at ghetto it’s like something that you walk on.. I want to clean this up. What was they saying about this ghetto thing.. it wasn’t good.

It was an editorial in Vibe and the writer was saying that it’s a word that’s being used in a negative way, because people are using it to put down people in their own community. Using it as a form of self-hatred. That’s just one person’s opinion though..
That’s one person’s opinion, but I want to clean that up.

You want to clean up the opinion or you want to change the name of your album?
The opinion is crazy. Ghetto is a beautiful thing. If you look at “Fabulous” the video, that’s everything that’s in the ghetto. A lot of those people didn’t have homes, or didn’t have none of the beautiful things that a lot of the people on tv have or that you see in those videos. But some people are content within and are willing to live within their means. I grew up on welfare and stuff like that, so I mean.. cause somebody might eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.. and then you talking, got a little milk in your hand or whatever.. then to say “that’s ghetto.” (laughs) But there is certain things that you love about that stuff.

What do you think about that?

I think people in the so-called ghetto, that’s where they happen to live and they’re making the best of the situation.
That’s crazy though.. it says nowadays their usually referring to something, or someone ignorant, ridiculous or disgusting or poor quality and bad taste.. because it’s ghetto. That’s not true though. There’s a lot of good things in the ghetto man. A lot of good sources.

You know, all those memories.. the barbecues, block parties, Kool-Aid (hah).. that person would have to consider that to be ghetto, but at the same time those same things are what gives it a unique flavor.

*edit - At the time I only remembered vaguely what the editorial said, but I looked at it later and the writer wasn’t condemning the word, but the way people use it to put down other people and when describing things that they consider to be cheap or of low quality. This when the person doing the criticizing comes from the same circumstances.

Quote: “It’s not just the jokes recycling endlessly online that are bothersome (you know your ghetto when..you wear your shower cap everywhere but in the shower). It’s the underlying messages. An example: Let’s say Allen lives in the projects and can’t afford new sneakers, so he wears his old ones until the soles split. His friends shame him and tell him how ‘ghetto’ he is (despite the fact that they live down the hall). Even though they’re all&nbsp poor, the other kids aren’t quite as badly off as Allen. And he’s made to associate his humility with the term ‘ghetto.’

So an unhappy condition can exist in&nbsp the ghetto, then become of&nbsp the ghetto, and then just become&nbsp ‘ghetto.’”

The writer would probably agree with Jaheim in saying that the ghetto isn’t bad in itself, but some people use it as a bad thing.

*end edit*

did you hear the album yet, or did you hear the snippets?

I heard the snippets.

I wish you could have heard the whole album man. It’s a nice album. Real, real soul touching. It brings back a lot of memories.

Are there any kind of dance tracks on it, like “Just in case”?
“Just in Case,” that was magic right there. It was done like at the last minute. I don’t think we have another “Just in Case” on this album like the way “Just in Case” was, but I think you can relate to some other songs like “Diamond in the Rough.” We’ve got another song for everything that we had on the last album, but its like a whole different perspective. So if “Just in Case” brought your spirits up as far as “just in case I make it home tonight.” If that’s what you felt about the record, not even because of the tempo of the song, if it was the “just in case I make it home tonight” the words, then we’ve got another one of those.

I see you have a song with Mary J Blige too, how did that come about?
I was in NY one day and my peoples in LA called me and told me Mary’s on the radio right now saying that she would love to do a song with Jaheim. I heard about that and we reached out immediately. I really want to big her up and say congratulations for winning a MTV Video Award for “No More Drama.” So I want to send her big love on that and just congratulating her on everything she does and thanking her for coming down and doing “Fabulous” with us, and doing a record called “Beauty and a Thug.” She’s a beautiful icon to the world, man.

She inspired a lot of singers.
No doubt. She really did inspire me too cause when I was down and hurting from a lot of my downfalls, I would listen to her music to bring me up. So that’s a blessing for her to be on my album… with Mary J Blige.. you just don’t understand brother.

You have three brothers.. and mentioned that some of them are into rapping. Are they coming out soon?
We working on that right now, right as we speak. My little brother he’s on my album here and I’m trying to work him out for his own thing now - get him prepared for the game here. He’s soaking it in real good.

Cool. I think we covered just about everything..
No doubt. Oh yeah, I have a website for the ladies www.juliesdream.com The reason for it is that I lost my mom a few years ago to stress, and I wanted to cater to the women and let them know that all of this&nbsp was Julies dream. And whenever ya’ll get stressed out from the kids and your men and the job, just log onto the website Juliesdream.com. Ladies take care of yourself, and I will be there waiting for you. Fellas, for you to man.. whenever you and wifey get into an argument, just log on to that website. Trust me dog, you ain’t gonna hear her mouth all week. No back talking or none of that..

Yo Jah.. so what’s on the site there?
We have bath salts and a few other things that are gonna launch off. Cause it’s good, it’s stress relief, it stimulates your muscles, and you know relaxes you. We have all sorts of different flavors: sandalwood, Heaven in Your Eyes, Baby Blue Mist, all types of crazy stuff on there, man. Ladies you could jump in the shower with your newborn, with your husband if you want, or you could just wait for Jahiem I’ll be there for you. (laughs)

Alright.. good talking to you man.
One love, big dog.

————————

Whudat.com - October 2002