York
by way of my old earth.
My father came over here from Haiti
about 40 years ago.
My father did not teach me his language.
I barely knew him as my father.
He is like the devil
in that he gave me nothing.
Why is he like the devil?
Because he avoided me
since I was a little boy.
Why do you not seek him out now,
but to a grown man?
Because my mother gave me
food for thought and belly.
Does this have anything to do
with the above question?
I didn't need him to acquire
the knowledge of myself.
What is the knowledge of yourself?
My own self is a righteous God
Are there any gods other than righteous?
I beg your pardon,
I've never heard of one
Now drawing up that de gree ain't hard
Cause if you ain't righteous,
how you supposed to be God?
Another question you might have,
no doubt
How does God on his album cover
lookin' knocked out?
For me it's simple and plain,
let me ex plain
It's symbolic to the fact
that I've been through some things
I wasn't trippin' or takin'
no ass whippin' literally
I'm just tryin' to show you my pain
Cause life imitates art
like before I even had kids
Naming my first album the best part
The life of this artist is drawn kinda dark
The darkness accentuates the light spark
To reveal this room full of powder cans
That explodes into all of these sands
So visually, that was me
knocked out
Musically,
this is me getting up off the ground
I used this assaultin' battery to energize
And set sail on a whole
nother enterprise
Boldly go where MCs are scared to
Man up in ways boys ain't prepared to
Take life's hardest hits on the chin
Wipe the blood off my cheek
and begin again
So why these rappers
fantasize and pretend
This is show you art
imitates life now and then
How many records have
you released as JY?
A little over 5
How many records have you sold
combined since your first
album?
Approximately 100 ,000
Do you mean to say that the millions
of people who love hip -hop
aren't aware of your music?
Yes, sir.
I can hardly believe that unless they were blind,
deaf, and dumb.
Well, they were made blind, deaf, and dumb
by popular culture
since they were babies.
And a label fooled Jay Live?
No, not nowadays.
Do you mean to say the labels were
fooling Jay Live for 10 years?
Yes. The labels made an
interpretation
that I received gold for my labor,
more than I could earn
in my own company.
Then, did you receive gold?
No, no, no, no, no.
The labels disappeared.
And there was no one there
to speak my language.
Then, then, then, then what happened?
You
