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Jaz-O - Once Bitten Twice Shy? Prt.1
Interview By: Melanie J Cornish
 Apparently not in the case of Jaz-O. The Hip-Hop world has in some cases doubted, ridiculed and sympathized with the MC/Producer who directed the career of one of raps most prestigious figures, Jay-Z. Having guided and developed Young Hov into the mainstream back in the day, the Brownsville native was left to fend for himself. While others went on to gain lucratively from the Roc, Jaz opted to stay true to himself. As his protégé’s career reached unprecedented heights, Jaz continued to grind it out as an MC and a producer, working on both projects here and overseas. But surprisingly enough he opted to take another aspiring rapper under his wing and hopes to work the same magic he did with Jay-Z on him.
 With his own company Kings County to build on, a book deal on the table and his involvement with Sonnie Carson keeping him busy, Jaz-O talked to Nobodysmiling.com about his past, his present and his future. He talks about the pressures on his new charge, he talks about the lessons learned from his industry experience and he gives us something to think about when it comes to the age-old (no pun intended) question about rap’s cut off age.
Nobodysmiling.com : What have you been up to in the last couple of years; you know what’s been going on with you?
Jaz-O : In the past couple of years I’ve been doing a lot of production for a lot of street cats you know just trying to get on and a lot of talented people and I’ve been reaching out in that aspect and I’ve done a couple of projects overseas. There’s this artist called Zebra out of Japan and I was a part of his last album released and that went gold, I produced a song on his album. I also produced a song for this group called Affrob out of Germany and their previous CD was the top selling rap CD in Germany.
Besides that I’ve been concentrating on my stuff; I’m doing an anthology that I’ve been working on piecing together. A lot of my stuff is out of print so it’s hard for me to get it ‘cause some of the masters I lost track of and you know that’s basically been it. Just a lot of soul searching a lot of getting over things and doing business and setting up other aspects in the entertainment field ‘cause I’m working on a DVD that I should be finishing up in the middle of March which is called ‘Jaz-O Be There’. You know I’ve got a book deal on the table that I can’t speak too much about.
Nobodysmiling.com : You’re saying you’ve done a lot of work oversees and stuff, how hard is it to stay relevant in America nowadays?
Jaz-O : It depends on which venue you speak of, like when you talk about mainstream its’ very difficult ‘cause if you’re not in the major record company system, meaning like if you’re not signed to a major record label and they’re not paying attention to you you’re going to get lost. My advantage is the fact that people knew who I was and they know my affiliations before it really got that way with Hip-Hop music; so for the most part I’m very relevant in being that my protégé is so relevant you know what I’m saying. That kind of helps me a lot and so and as far as what we call “the street” as far as hip hop is concerned I’m very relevant and that’s what keeps me going and you know crossed with the cyber age with MySpace and Wave form music and everything else that’s keeping me very relevant and keeping me alive too…
Nobodysmiling.com : You have your own company right? Which is Kings County I believe, what does that entail, does that represent you as the artist and producer?
Jaz-O : Yeah it represents me as an artist and as a producer and is also as a record label. I have an artist called Sonnie Carson and you know I apply most all of my production and you know company focuses on himself and me.
Nobodysmiling.com : Now I mean in terms of that, that’s like someone else you’re schooling and mentoring I mean obviously you’re not concerned with what happened with Jay? You know history repeating itself.
Jaz-O : Yeah it’s a concern but at the same time you can’t let your heart be whacked cold, you can’t stop doing things that you would do that is a part of your nature, just because of some outside entity, because of somebody else, because of what somebody else did that’s what they did. I gotta do what I do and if I believe it being the proper and best thing to do then I’m going to do it.
At the same time you know you get a broader perspective on how to handle it, so it’s just like with relationships in general; you become more groomed in it and you basically learn your way you become more worldly and you understand when people do this when people do that and then you learn how to protect yourself. So I mean but at the same time as far as that situation; the previous situation, if I wasn’t angry there would be something wrong with me.
Nobodysmiling.com : How old is Sonnie Carson?
Jaz-O : He’s 23
Nobodysmiling.com : Being that your mentoring him does he feel any pressure, I know you can’t speak for him, but do you get the indication that he might feel a little bit of pressure to do well, and not to do what previous people have done….
Jaz-O : Yeah, he feels that pressure but it’s not a negative pressure. It’s a positive pressure because he’s up to the task he feels, so you know he’s confident in himself and confident in our friendship and everything is smooth.
Nobodysmiling.com : How long have you been working with him?
Jaz-O : I’ve been working with him for about 2 years
Nobodysmiling.com : Was it something you were actively looking for or was it just a situation that arose that you took advantage of?
Jaz-O : It just happened and you know it was something that I saw and you know I have a way of recognizing the raw talent and I heard it in him and he’s a natural and I said ‘yeah let me work with this cat.’ I didn’t really approach him you know and say ‘let me work with you,’ it was more like ‘yo I wanna work with you’ and we were introduced by A&R at Universal K.K Rosemore. So you know that’s really what set it off and you know when we started kicking it and you know I was like I’m from Browns and he was like I’m from Marcy so the whole Brooklyn thing came up.
Nobodysmiling.com : Rewind the clock, after the shit went down with Jay, would you have put yourself out there to do what you’re doing now, you know back then if someone had turned round and said you should work with this dude, you would have done it, being the person that you are, or would you have just laid low for a while?
Jaz-O : It would have been, if it was someone like, that I wasn’t in any way affiliated with or somebody that I developed a relationship with, then I would said like ‘look so how much money are you paying me,’ you know it would have been more of a business thing you know.
Nobodysmiling.com : Well you say that in your joint ‘Deadly’; “reality is make money, the mentality is staying hungry”
Jaz-O : Exactly it’s good that you listen
Nobodysmiling.com : So taking it back to the Jay thing, was it external factors that played a major role in the demise of your relationship with Jay forces such as people, media whatever?
Jaz-O : I think it was a lot of things like he says in his songs. You know he chose money over his friends and I mean it wasn’t just me he’s done it to a lot of people. The reason why it’s looked at so crazily with me is the fact that because of our friendship, because we were so tight and people who go back with us they were like in shock and like how did that happen?
Some type of discrepancy or anything I mean this is something that it’s gotta be something that you could just sit down and slap back or resolve it. It was so crazy because of his nature and his ego and a little bit of my ego and just how I am, I am like an elephant I don’t forget shit I won’t let it hang over a relationship but at the same time I’m not going to insult my intelligence you know if like someone spits on you you’re like why’d you do that… not a matter of why they did it… they disrespecting you; you know so it was a situation like that.
Nobodysmiling.com : Is there any way of resolving it in your estimation?
Jaz-O : I mean to me to be honest to an extent it has been resolved, but over the few years, not necessarily like were friends again it’s been resolved in a sense that we basically both have the idea that it’s not a violent thing you know ‘I’m looking for you I’m trying to find out where you live and I’m gonna put some C4 in your house.’ You know there’s not a situation like that so I think as far as resolution is concerned I think we’re doing good with that.
Nobodysmiling.com : Right and you’re happy with that?
Jaz-O : I’m not happy with it but I’m content with it you know, because I don’t really want to approach that again, and even if we did approach anything and we resolved anything to a greater extent it’ll never be the same again.
Nobodysmiling.com : Too much water’s gone under the bridge?
Jaz-O : Right and not even words to me it’s more action you know, as what was done and what was said is one thing and all this back and forth on records you know what all of that is’. You know how in WWE you know the actions; you know what really happened a lot of things that I talk about in interviews that people find out about some people believe but some people don’t.
Nobodysmiling.com : So is this where the book comes in, I know you can’t really talk too much about it.
Jaz-O : Partially yeah, and it has to because he was around for most of my professional career you know what I’m saying, he has to be. The book wouldn’t be valid, the information wouldn’t be valid, but it’s not to smear him, I don’t do that, I don’t work like that.
I speak the truth and if something goes down a certain way and people get whatever they get out of it that’s them, I tell the truth and I’ll be as objective as possible because I think that’s fair. I don’t want anybody to, like he’s done it to me he’s said things about me where people will automatically put me in a derogatory place.
Nobodysmiling.com : Do you feel the media handled this issue accordingly?
Jaz-O : To me I think that they actually snubbed it out a lot because…
Nobodysmiling.com : Because of Jay-Z’s status?
Jaz-O : Right, really because if he was the good guy in this situation then it would have been much bigger and they would have smeared me in every way that they possibly could. But because he is really guilty of all these things that he said on a personal level, they snubbed it on a business level. Because if you notice when I put out ‘Over’ and then when Nas put out ‘Ether’, a couple of months before that, the big thing was Nas and Jay-Z. What the public doesn’t know is that this has been going on for years, Jay always looked up to Nas and always wanted to do a song with him.
Jay had a plan and Jay’s perspective was the top dudes at the time on a lyrical level and through their fan base at the time in hip-Hop was Nas and Big. So his goal was that he had to do songs with them and take their audience. He achieved this with Big, but Nas didn’t allow him to do it and he took that the wrong way, well he took it the way he took it and then he started saying all kinds of shit about Nas and Nas would say stuff back and yet it was so indirect that if you didn’t know these cats, you wouldn’t know it was going on at all.
Nobodysmiling.com : When you look at what escalated after the whole Nas and ‘Ether’ thing and ‘Takeover’ how does that make you feel?
Jaz-O : It makes me know things; it makes me know on a character level how superficial these cats are.
Nobodysmiling.com : Do you think this is what mainstream Hip-Hop does to a person?
Jaz-O : Yeah because it’s money. Like my perspective on it is that Jay needed Nas to submit in some type of way and Nas needed the money, that’s my perspective simple as that. They can sit and of course they can smoke screen it by doing interviews like they did on MTV and stuff like that, but bottom line is that’s the situation, Nas needed the money, Jay needed Nas to submit in some type of way and to me also which a lot of people don’t realize that was one of Jay-Z’s ways of getting back at me, to watch him squash a beef with somebody else and we worked together and this that and the other.
See how that affects Jaz because his whole thing is like he said in one of his songs “I’m gonna let karma catch up to Jaz-0” and it’s like karma is catching up to me because I’m still here, I’m still nice and in my perspective and my fan bases perspective and even the people who hate me I’m still nice. I still got my hair long, I still run up and down a basketball court, I don’t lie about my age, I’m 42. I had an interview recently about how they talked about the perspective on everything like how’s the young man Jay-Z now.
Jaz-O - Once Bitten Twice Shy? Prt.2>>
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