You guys were recently in Ozone magazine’s Patiently Waiting.
How was it to be recognized in a large publication?
Jon Young: It feels really good to be acknowledged by a respected
publication like Ozone. I’ve watched them grow out of nothing back
when it was Orlando SOURCE and I always wanted to be featured in there.
I used to be bitter about never bein in Ozone but I realize now that you
gotta work hard for people to notice you.
J. Cash: Yeah it’s a lovely feeling to see ourselves in there. I remember
when it was just a lil brochure like thing they passed out, its good to see
it growing. When we were in Milwaukee and we were
able to pick up the lastest issue, I thought that was great to see it
up there. O-Zones says they’re “Your favorite rapper’s favorite
magazine” and I was reading it one day saying “I bet that’s right”
cause there some person reading this who is our fan and O-Zone is my
favorite music mag, haha
With people like Wes Fif blowing up, it seems Orlando is getting
a lot of attention, where do you guys fit in the picture?
Jon Young: That’s a good question but I’ma put it like this. We’re
from Orlando, been here all our lives so how could we not fit in.
J. Cash: Yep, this our city just as much as its someone elses city.
Jon Young: We represent a different demographic than Wes Fif and Dee
Boi and all the Orlando artists but that’s why we’re respected. We’re
not trying to come off like we’re dope boiz or anything but at the same
time we’ve grown up around all that so we can touch on that aspect of the
O. I grew up primarily on the eastside; Semoran area and J. Cash on the
westside; Lockhart, Pine Hills….so we can reflect on a lot of different things.
J. Cash: We definetly got our place in the Orlando scene, and a lot
of Central Florida artists are seeing that now. They know we just
about making good music and most the people who really wanna do
something in this town and industry are bout the same thing.
Jon Young: Orlando is kinda divided in half. The east has alotta
Hispanics and people from the northeast so you get a lot of that influence
and the west there’s a big influence from the black community. It’s a good
mixture throughout so we’re able to absorb all these elements and come out
with music that can appeal to alot of different people.
White rappers from the South are interesting, because cats in the
South have such a specific swag, is it hard being Whit and being in
the Southern rap scene?
J. Cash: The white thing something I tried to never look at. We knew
it was there, but we were like “Let’s just worry more bout makin hot
songs.” We did a CD signing in Orlando at the J-Mart and these kids
in front of the market saw our poster and that we were there and said
“Jon Young and J. Cash… I thought they was black..” cause all they
ever heard of us was from mix cds.
Jon Young: Yea, the south is all about ya swag. From everything to
how you talk to how you drive your car. It all really comes down to
confidence. I lacked a lot of that early on ’cause I started makin
music for fun and it kinda took off without meaning to so I was kinda
caught like a deer in headlights when fans would approach me around
town n shit. But gettin out there and doin these shows and connectin
with the fans has helped a lot with bein comfortable as an artist.
Lotta folks expect most rappers to be cocky n all that but I guess I’m
an exception…I still feel the same as before. But back to ya
question. Bein’ white I think used to be a big issue but from my
personal experience it hasn’t been a problem. I don’t even mention
race in my music so that makes it more universal. I get emails from
fans that have never seen me tellin me they thought I was asian, or
spanish, or black and that’s kinda my goal. I want my music to touch
as many people as possible.
Do you get the same love as everybody else?
Jon Young: I’d say so. The little bit of hate we get compared to how
much love we get is really incomparable. If you make jammin’ music
that’s real then people will see that and respect it. If you front
about somethin’ you’re gonna get found out sooner or later.
J. Cash: Exactly. When the music wasn’t that good we didn’t get
love.. and I can’t blame em for hatin, haha, but that made us work
harder to figure out what WOULD work. Now there’s one hate message
every couple weeks and its just “You’re wack”… but thats about all
the details I can get out of em, haha.
You recently recorded a track with Lil’ Boosie. What was that like
and how did it come about?
Jon Young: Yea, the track is called “Post Up.” Not to brag or nuttin
but the track is a banger. It’s gotten a lot of love on XM and Sirius
satellite radio and FM radio across the country. It’s slowly
spreadin around. We actually did the track several
months before we got Boosie on it.
J. Cash: Did it and redid it, then redid it again with Boosie. I had
even named dropped Boosie in my verse. The buzz is growing on the
track, its on a DJ Scream mix cd, a DJ Smallz mix cd, buncha Lil
Boosie mix cds, even on his new Touched Down and Caused Hell DVD which
I’m still trying to figure out what exactly is on it cause it says
theres a video.
Jon Young: Yeah, so when our label asked who we wanted to get as a
feature it was a no brainer. We had a connect with this dude A.B. The
White Boi and he made it happen. Boosie was comin in to Lauderdale
for a show so we got some studio time at Lil Waynes spot at the Hit
Factory in Miami and banged it out real quick.
J. Cash: Like 4 hours notice… for a 3 hour trip. They told us “Come
to Miami” and we stopped everything we were doing and made the trip.
Jon Young: We rerecorded our verses and Boosie wrote his on the way
to the studio and knocked it out. It was a cool experience comin from
doin songs in my bedroom to
being in a big studio with a major artist.
What plan did you guys use to gain such recognition, did you
have a specific marketing plan?
J. Cash: There wasn’t really a plan.
Jon Young: Like I said before, we really didn’t plan on gettin’ to
this point. I mean anyone who raps or does music would love to be on
the radio & tv n shit but we didnt really sit down and say “This is
what we wanna do for a living.” We jus did songs ’cause it was
somethin we liked doin.
J. Cash: We would make a song or two every couple weeks on a Friday
night as something fun.
Jon Young: Somebody had told me about MySpace back in
like 2004 or 2005 and I decided to make a page. I had this track
called “City I Luv” that people I knew were tellin me was tight so I
put that on there and maybe 1 or 2 others and it started spreadin like
crazy. There was also a confusion about the song bein by Yung Joc so
it was gettin downloaded nonstop on Limewire. So the marketing all
kinda developed as we went along. I do graphic design too so I’d make
the page as professional as I could so folks thought we were major
artists.
J. Cash: Jon Young’s page jumped off first and we had a Jon Young and
J. Cash page but MySpace deleted it last November thinking it was a
fake Jon Young page, so that’s why we have seperate pages in case
ya’ll were wondering.
Do you have specific producers you work with?
Jon Young: We’ve done a few things on other producers beats but I do
all our production. We do it like that not only for financial reasons
but for our style, I know what will work best. We might not
necessarily sound right on someone else’s producton.
J. Cash: I love working with Jon Young as the producer. I put my
input in on tracks at what can be where and stuff like that, but there
hasn’t been a beat Jon Young’s sent that I didn’t like.
You’ve had some releases. Are the sales successful?
Jon Young: Yea so far we’ve put out five releases. My “Take A Ride”
mixtape, my solo CD “City I Luv,” then me & J. Cash dropped “Slept
On,” and “Keep Movin,” and a compilation of up and coming artists
called “Track Breakers.” The sales have done really well considering
the only promotion we’ve really had is MySpace. We been moving units
all over the country and world as far as the Netherlands and China.
J. Cash: Even Japan, Australia, I gotta ship come cds out in the
morning to Germany even. We get a lot of orders from troops in Iraq
as well, and I think that’s just crazy, I love knowing our cds are
worldWIDE, I never thought that’d happen.
Have you ever left your region to do any shows?
Jon Young: We’ve done a couple shows outside of Florida. In
Milwaukee and Dallas. They were for the Core DJs retreat. We’re
really trying to focus on our area first to make sure we got Florida
ridin’ with us.
J. Cash: We got people from everywhere wanting us to come to their
city but we know that will come once the buzz is high enough for the
radio plays, and the radio will bring the bigger demand for shows
Have you been approached by any labels, do you have your own? What is
your distribution situation?
Jon Young: Currently our distribution has been purely online orders
and mail orders.
J. Cash: Lotsa trips to the post office so they know us by name now.
Jon Young: We’ve handled all our own packing and shipping and
we get our CDs pressed down in Miami. We’ve been approached by
several labels. We were workin’ out a deal with Warner/Chappel but
that was for publishing….song writing and production.
J. Cash: We ain’t against the writing and producing idea, it just
didn’t seem like that was the way for us to go as we enjoy doing shows
and doing what we like on a track.
Jon Young: We’ve been approached by Fontana for distribution and
MySpace Records. But we inked a deal with Defient Entertainment which
is an independent label.
We’re staying busy building the buzz and our label is shopping around
for a major distribution deal. They’re in talks with all the big
labels….Universal, Jive, etc.
The Southern fans are very loyal. More so than other regions, why is that?
J. Cash: The south always sticks with the south because we get enough
hate from other regions sometimes. And we wanna see us coming up and
doing good. The south always been tight knit, not just in music but
in life, it’s love down here.
Jon Young: I think it’s because southern artists create a whole
movement that surrounds them. You’re getting more than just an artist
when you listen to someone like T.I. or Chamillionaire. Even back in
the No Limit days, bein’ ‘Bout It’ was like a whole lifestyle. They
were droppin movies and everything so you could really get wrapped up
in the atmosphere they create. Southern artists will make you feel
like you ridin through their city when you listen to ‘em. We’ve got
people all over wearin 407 hats, people that never even been to
Orlando.
J. Cash: New Era… we want our cut ya’ll!
What are you working on right now?
J. Cash: We always working on something, even if it’s behind the
scenes. We just trying to get our name on everyone’s mind right now
by doing anything and everything.
Jon Young: Right now we’re finishing up a mixtape called “MOTIVTION”
to be featured as afree download on our MySpace pages and
www.jonyoungmusic.com and we’realso working on our major release
album. We’ve got a lot of new music in the can waitin’ to be dropped so
stay keep checkin the pages!
Can we expect any more big name collaborations?
Jon Young: Right now we’re just focused on gettin this music out to
the masses. Once we get more exposure it’ll make it easier to make
those collabs possible.
J. Cash: We’ve done real well being us and people like that.
Anything you’d like to tell the fans?
Jon Young: Just wanna thank everybody that’s been jammin our music
over the past couple years. Y’all have changed my life drastically
and I appreciate it so much. Things might get a lil rough over the
next year or so ’cause we’re making that move into the actual
industry. It might seem like we’ve disappeared for a lil while but we
just out here tryna make the best moves for us. So the music won’t
change or nuttin like that, we still goin be droppin those type of
tracks that made you feel us in the first place.
J. Cash: In one of my new songs I say “If it wasn’t for the fans.. I
woulda quit a long time ago” and that’s the God’s honest truth. When
the labels, lawyers, DJs, A&Rs, any music industry people get us down,
I know I can go on my MySpace and have pages of unread messages of
motivation. Ya’ll make all this possible so keep the messages coming
and just tell anybody and everybody bout Jon Young and J. Cash, the
more people just knowing of us will get this shit bigger and bigger.
It’s a crazy feeling to know how our music has influenced some of
ya’lls lives. We’ve had people get song titles of ours tattooed on
them because they were that powerful. Thank ya’ll for everything and
stay reppin for ya boys Jon Young and J. Cash!
Interview by Jonny Boy: JONMPNYC@aol.com
