Features

ThaFormula.com - Let's take it from the top Jeru, how did it all begin for Jeru The Damaja?

Jeru The Damaja - It started when I was a kid and I used to go to block parties and it sparked a love in me. It's just like I had to do it so it started from there. Then I did it all through high school and what happened is my homie he was from Boston who was going to my high school, he was like, "look my man is gonna come up here to New York and he's gonna make a record." He was talkin' about Guru and he said, "why don't we come and hang out and whatever whatever?" So we just started hangin' at first it was strictly just hangin' out. Guru came to Brooklyn, we took him in and basically showed him the ropes. It wasn't even me at first, it was my DJ, Tommy Hill 'cause this was before Premier had came along. He would DJ for Guru, Lil' Dap and others. They were the ones who really started showin' Guru around and hangin' with him. Then it just happened that we went to the "Manifest" video and from there we just got cool.

ThaFormula.com - Did you know anything about Gangstarr itself about that time?

Jeru The Damaja - It wasn't Gangstarr as you would think it is today. Premier wasn't even down with Gangstarr at first when Guru first came to New York. Premier came when "Manifest" came. The first record that Premier did was called "No More Mr. Nice Guy." that was the first joint and that's when I first met Premier and all those dudes together.

ThaFormula.com - So what were you doing leading up to that time?

Jeru The Damaja - I was just more into the street at that time. My thing was that I was on the gangsta vibe right there. I was runnin' the streets, I was trying to get paper, I was trying to do stick ups, I was being dumb. That was the time that was defining my life. Like either you gonna be Dead, a criminal or you gonna end up doing something great 'cause we gonna have those times in our life that tests you and that's what that was. That was a test right there.

ThaFormula.com - So you went to the "Manifest" video shoot and what went down from there?

Jeru The Damaja - I went to the "Manifest" video cause all the dudes from the hood they was like, "yo we goin' to my mans video come on!" So I was like aight whatever I'll come.

ThaFormula.com - Were you rhymin' at all though at that time?

Jeru The Damaja - Oh, no doubt but it just wasn't my main focus. Like rhymin' is something we did every single day like my man True Master from the Wu-Tang Clan, we used to rhyme together all the time cause he's from around my way. We grew up together so we would stand on the corners for hours just havin' rhymin' sessions from sun up to sun down. Rhymin' and rollin' dice.

ThaFormula.com - When you were comin' up back then was there a lot of MC's that you would see around that ended up becomin' known MC's?

Jeru The Damaja - Well, True Master we grew up together. Masta Killa, we grew up together we from the same neighborhood, The GZA and the RZA already had albums out but we knew them through True Master. ODB we knew him through GZA and there was more dudes around that did it big in the 90's. Like I used to run into brothers like Lakim Shabazz, and Treach before he really blew up, Masta Ace I knew him for years before I even had a record deal. Showbiz and AG, uh, I used to get my haircut at the same barber shop as Nice & Smooth before they really had their deal. I remember getting' my haircut and Greg Nice comin' in playin' joints from their album before they even had the record out so I used to see a lot of different things you know. I had a lot of different run-ins with a lot of different dudes. Fat Joe and all those dudes. My DJ he went to Fat Joe and Lord Finneses' first video before he was really blown up or anything.

ThaFormula.com - Do you look at those particular times comin' as the best times as far as the vibe and environment of hip hop?

Jeru The Damaja - Yeah, I think everything was less pretentious in those days. It was more true love I think. I mean we was just hangin' just coolin' to be with your boys and maybe lighting up a spliff. So it's definitely, uh times have changed. I'm not even gonna say it was better but it was definitely more fun and it that sense I think it's better. It was just that time when you felt good and you just wanted to have a good time. It was like oh you had your boys, you had your 40 ounce, no Cristal or none of that.

ThaFormula.com - Did you ever get a chance to see Biggie comin' up seeing that you guys came up around the same time in Brooklyn?

Jeru The Damaja - We used to hang together on the corner. That's my man. I mean Biggie, that's one of my favorite MC's and I think that I was one of his favorite MC's. He told me, "Yo, you need to do a video for Brooklyn Took It and I just wanna stand there." Like on MTV they were doing the Biggie story and he had on a Jeru the Damaja T-Shirt. Like I remember when he used to stand on the corner and just shoot dice. Nas and Premier used to come pick me up when Nas was recording his album "Illmatic." I was in the studio when all them dudes did they album. I was there for the whole Illmatic. I was there when Biggie did his whole first joint.

ThaFormula.com - So you and Biggie both kicked it growin' up?

Jeru The Damaja - Not really as growin' up but before we both really had our deals like that. I used to stay right up the block from him. We never really rhymed, it was more just hangin'. Like rhymin' wasn't the center of everything. But it was somethin' that brothers knew how to do.

ThaFormula.com - See that's some incredible experiences right there and that's why I feel that a lot of these new kids don't realize how deep this Hip-Hop thing really goes?

Jeru The Damaja - Right, and another thing is it was like that was the thing, it wasn't like oh brothers was cool 'cause brothers was rhymin'. Brothers was cool cause brothers was from the hood. 'Cause it was the hood first and rhymin' second. It's so funny man, we used to hang with Fat Joe all the time. He heard "Come Clean" and he said to Premier, "yo who's that kid who's got that record?" He didn't even know it was me and he's sayin' this right in my face cause it was never like, "yeah I could rhyme, I got skills" or none of that. It was always just on the QT, we just chillin' hangin' out. That's why I think a lot of kids today get a little too excited. They push too hard to do anything to get on where as we was just layin' and waitin' for our turn and when your turn came you did your thing.

ThaFormula.com - So when you went to the "Manifest" video shoot had you met Premier yet or was that the first time you met him?

Jeru The Damaja - That's the first time I met Premier.

ThaFormula.com - Did he know who you were at that time or heard you rhyme?

Jeru The Damaja - It wasn't about rhymin'. It was all about just hangin'. I was already doing my own demo. It wasn't nothin' about rhymin'. Brothers didn't hook up on the premise that you could rhyme. Everything came up after hangin'.

ThaFormula.com - So what happened from there?

Jeru The Damaja - We used to just hang everyday and they finished one album and then we just hung out and kicked it for a year or 2, then the next album brothers put me on it. It was like aight, boom, what's up? So we did the joint on "Hard to Earn," "I'm the Man," and we went on tour and that was it, we just took it from there. We got a huge response from the record. Then uh Premier when he would do soundcheck, he would always cut up Onyx. You know that "uh oh heads up cause we droppin' some shit?" So I was like, "yo we should do a record with that as the hook!" And he was like "yo word up, when we get back from the tour we gonna do that." That's it we got off of tour, we went to Premier's crib, we start listening to mad records. I heard a sound I liked, I was like, "oooh I like this." He was like "you want me to loop it like this or like that?" I said like that and the rest is history. 'Cause he had already had the drum pattern so we were just listening to a bunch of records and I don't even think we listened to that many records. That might have been like the third record we listened to.

ThaFormula.com - So how long did you and Primo spend recording that first album "The Sun Rises in the East?"

Jeru The Damaja - Maybe like 2 months.

ThaFormula.com - Did you already have the lyrics written for that album or was it something written on the spot?

Jeru The Damaja - I always write all my lyrics on the spot. No lyrics are ever ready 'cause if they are then they can't go with the beat. All my lyrics are inspired by whatever the track is cause any lyric you ever heard me rock was a direct result of what the beat inspired within me.

ThaFormula.com - So you dropped the single, you had your album ready and you did your video for "Come Clean," at this point how were you feelin'?

Jeru The Damaja - I mean it was one of the illest experiences of my life. I mean I was feelin' the hood. It was like I had no million dollars or nothin'. So it was crazy like a kid in a candy store or a person realizing their dreams. It was ridiculous and felt good. I was proud, I was excited.

ThaFormula.com - In your eyes Jeru how do you see that first album now?

Jeru The Damaja - I thought it was butta. That was a culmination of years of emotions and nothing will ever be like the first. That's all my life experiences that came out right there. Things that I wanted to say for years and I was finally able to say it.

ThaFormula.com - When you were comin' up rhymin' as a teen, did you always have it planned to make a conscious type of album like that?

Jeru The Damaja - Not at all. When I was first rhymin' my rhymes was more bustin' guns and whatever, whatever. I had changed with time that's why I never had an album before that or anything.

ThaFormula.com - So what basically made you change and come the way you did?

Jeru The Damaja - Well I was raised conscious and grew up making incense, bracelets, and I grew up knowin' who I was and where I came from and all of that, but to peer pressure sometimes you lose those things.

ThaFormula.com - So at what point did you decide that "Sun Rises in the East" was what you wanted to do?

Jeru The Damaja - It just came out, I don't even know. It's like I can't say, "well this was the defining moment." You know how things just happen in you. It was just one of those things that just happened in me. I think what it was really is that I got to see the world. Going on tour with Gangastarr I went to countries like Finland, Norway, Austria, and Sweden. So it opened my mind a lot to the world in general where before I knew a lot of different things and had knowledge but I got to see it and apply it. Not only that, but I had started sellin' books when I was about 18 with my man True Master from Wu-Tang. We was sellin' books together and I started reading the books and the books just solidified all the things that I knew before. When you're out sellin' books 12 hours a day there is nothin' to do but read the book. So I started reading the book and it just made me aware.

ThaFormula.com - Now Guru put out your first 12" single "Come Clean" himself right on Ill Kid?

Jeru The Damaja - Yeah, actually I didn't even have a record deal. We just put that out on our own.

ThaFormula.com - What was your relationship with Guru like?

Jeru The Damaja - Everything was just homies. It was real brotherly. Everything was on that level. Today everybody is all about makin' money, you can do this, or you can do that. Back then we was just kickin' it. It was just strictly brotherly love nothin' more, nothin' less and the reason that you did eveything you did was because of brotherly love. Whether a dude could rap or couldn't, whatever, it was everybody just played their position and that's how it was.

ThaFormula.com - I always wondered when the change came with you because "Come Clean" seemed more like a battle track where the LP was on a very conscious tip?

Jeru The Damaja - Right, and "Come Clean" was my introduction. It was like a battle but it was also lettin' them know that I'm comin' on the mental tip. I'm comin' on the righteousness tip but not on the wimpy tip. That's the thing I think where a lot of MC's fail who try to kick conscious lyrics. I wasn't trying to kick conscious lyrics, I was only being me.

ThaFormula.com - And you were kickin' the truth man cause everyone from the streets could relate to everything you were sayin' unlike a lot of these soft corny conscious MC's who the streets can't relate to?

Jeru The Damaja - And that's the balance. Where if you notice a lot of the dudes who try to do that so called "conscious lyrics" they like extra weird. With me, I'm just being me. I don't gotta wear a ten foot long dashiki (Laughs). I'm just a regular brother on the street just like any brother on the street so I think that that's the thing that people liked about my record. That's why it was liked by so many different people. The gangsta nigga like it, the intellectual liked it because it was comin' off all of those levels. It was like, "aight he's just a regular dude from the hood speakin' some shit." That's why I could go to Cali and they look at me just like a regular nigga cause they like, "oh aight he ain't on no super star trying to be fake righteous shit, he's just a brotha and he real with it and he's on some regular street shit too."

ThaFormula.com - What was the response to the first album from the industry 'cause that was an album that was definitely ahead of its time?

Jeru The Damaja - I think that was one of the most groundbreaking albums of it's time. To me I think it came on a lot of different levels like even the title. People misunderstood the title. Like when it says "The Sun Rises in the East," they was thinkin' "you know 'cause I'm comin' from the east coast" or whatever right? But the science was that the place in New York that I'm from is called East New York. It's in Brooklyn, that's my neighborhood. The name of it is actually East New York and I'm the sun. So I'm sayin' that the sun rises in the East now. Like I'm getting' my chance to shine. Keepin' it in harmony with the universe. That's what that was all about. I wasn't even talkin' about a coastal thing you know what I mean? It was strictly me talkin' about "I'm the Sun. I'm the sun of man and now I'm rising and now I got my turn to shine and then that was also on a esoteric level sayin' how that's the balance of nature that the Sun rises in the East.

ThaFormula.com - Did a lot of people start reachin' out t you from that point on?

Jeru The Damaja - Oh, I got mad love from everybody. I think I was one of the most well known MC's of my time. World Renown and it's still the same way you know what I mean. The game is a little different but its still the same way. There's nobody that can ever really deny.

ThaFormula.com - So the album came out and the response was great what happened from there 'cause it took a while before your second LP dropped?

Jeru The Damaja - Right, 'cause I was constantly touring'. It took like 2 years for me just to get off tour and find the time to record another album. Now the next album was a little different cause I had changed as a person in a lot of different ways. I was exposed to a lot more things than I was exposed to before.

ThaFormula.com - And normally like in the time we're in now when someone has a pretty popular debut the next step is either sellin' out or getting a little softer with their sound. But you seemed to have decided to come even more hardcore with "Wrath of the Math"...

Jeru The Damaja - Yeah, I got more hardcore. I think that was youth and ego. I felt like, "alright I'ma save the world now." I did get this acclaim and people do know now so fuck that "I'm superman" you know what I mean? When that wasn't actually the wisest thing to do as I look back but that's youth.

ThaFormula.com - So you went back 2 years later to record the second album right?

Jeru The Damaja - Right.

ThaFormula.com - Hip-Hop had changed in those 2 years…

Jeru The Damaja - Yeah it had. It changed tremendously.

ThaFormula.com - So knowin' that and seeing what you had seen what were your thought's and how did you approach the "Wrath of The Math" album?

ThaFormula.com - Up Next, Part 2!!

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