JPEGMAFIA Quotes

JPEGMAFIA

Profession : Musician

Birth : October 22, 1989

Originally my entire goal with music was for it to be my job. When I sit down to make a beat, I wanna know that I'm gonna get paid from it, and that I can pay my bills and still have money left over to be a person.

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America to me is where I grew up: in Brooklyn, around other black and Latino people who helped and loved each other. I just want to show people that America doesn't have to be this 'I'm in the NRA, blah blah blah' type of place.

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Black people are not a monolith. Black people have different thoughts. And sometimes people just need to hear the harsh truth - even myself. But you can't manufacture a hard truth and place it on somebody. When Kanye says slavery was a choice, that's not a harsh truth.

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Punk is all about doing what you want and being yourself. And that's what rap is too.

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I just wanted to write about music if I wasn't going to make it.

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When I released 'Veteran' and the reception was good, it was the first time I ever worked really hard on something and had that hard work reciprocated back to me.

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Veteran' is an exercise in editing because there is a lot of moments I took out and some that almost didn't make it.

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I'd never been to a festival till I played one.

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There are so many odd things that happened that are centered around Britney Spears it's kind of amazing. There's just so many cultural moments centered around her existence and nothing else.

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If you listen to my music, you know who I'm talking to, what I'm talking about, and exactly what my message is.

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I'm not some patriot. I didn't have some yearning to defend my country or anything. I was poor.

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I don't have a manager who's secretly on Interscope. I'm the complete opposite of an industry plant.

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A lot of these dudes in metal, they're just mad at the world because, like... who even knows?

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The first time I ever went to Texas was on a bus with curtains draped over the windows. I just joined the military and got shipped off to basic training in San Antonio.

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I think it's important for black people in general to be aware of what's going on and do what you got to work around it. Not bow down to it publicly.

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If Kanye was not in the equation, I literally wouldn't even be here. His music pushed hip-hop - the man is a master at taking a complex idea and presenting it in a way that is accessible for everyone.

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Rules limit you, and once you start thinking about what the audience wants or expects, it becomes a trap that a lot of artists fall into.

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Now that I have a little platform, and there are more eyes on me to release something, all that does is challenge me and put me under pressure, and I love being under pressure, especially musically. I might fail, but I'm excited about the possibilities.

JPEGMAFIA

I'm going to shock you with the truth. I'm just going to give it to you raw, and however you take it, I'm just going to watch your reaction.

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It just seems like Baltimore, talent-wise, nothing can touch it.

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