Chillin’ and listening to beats blasting from producer T.A.S.K’s computer, I sat across from my old friend days before his amazing performance last week with J. Cole at University of Maryland’s First Come, First Heard. As we caught up and reminisced, I realized it had been awhile since we had last really spoken. To me, this old friend was still Jamal Ferby, the ambitious and talented kid from Memphis with a slight southern drawl. The Ferby who once dominated UMD’s college radio and had a way with words. To me, he was still the young man who opened my eyes to some of the wonderful, orgasmic music that now filled my ipod. The kid who thankfully put me on to Lauryn Hill’s Unplugged and Amy Winehouse, but now? To the world, he is J. Ferb: the future of hip hop, the lyrically inclined artist hungrily in pursuit of his dreams. And it’s all happening so fast.
With his recent release of his mixtape, Chase the Dreams, Not the Competition, which dropped April 20th (4/20 for all you tokers) with over 3000 downloads within it’s first week, I took the time to sit down and get to know J. Ferb as an artist, and to discuss his new breakthrough project and recent success.
You came to Maryland in 2007. What were you’re original ambitions? Did you see yourself being a rapper? I came here to UMD, 800 miles away from home [in Memphis]. I told my momma and them I wanted to be an investment banker. That was a lie. I only said that because I wanted to be closer and eventually get to New York and be in the entertainment industry, and D.C. was closer. I knew that being in the DC metropolitan scene, I’d get into the form of entertainment and culture that I wanted to be apart of. I had a radio show when I came to Maryland, it became popular and then I just knew that [being apart of the entertainment industry] was what the fuck I was supposed to be doing.
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So for all the people who don’t know or haven’t listened just yet, what’s your rap style? It’s a mix of everything, a big melting pot. I call it eclectic poetry, combined with a natural southern influence with that being in my diction and natural delivery. My rap style? I would call it pure lyricism over what you would consider jazzy type beats. That “boom, bap” sound. Nas, on the hip hop front would probably be my biggest influence, but I pay attention more so to song writers. People who can convey emotions through a story. Some of my favorites are Andre 3000, Lauryn Hill, Amy Winehouse, etc.
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What’s the goal of your mixtape, Chase the Dreams, Not the Competition?: First and foremost, I make my music for me. To calm me down and remind me of times in my life that I went through. But I really want to reach our generation. This is hip hop. People don’t really have a definition of what hip hop is anymore. People just come out with music to sell. I’m trying to reach out to my peers. And what I mean by peers is people like me, who didn’t necessarily didn’t come from the slums of America, but we had it hard coming up, even though we in college. I want to reach out to people just trying to find themselves in life. We’re rushed at a young age to find our
