BJ the Chicago Kid: Painting Raw Canvass

Meaning of of Album title ‘Pineapple Now and Laters’… It came from being my favorite candy as a kid. My cousin that introduced me to it was a crazy music lover. Back in the day everything from VHS to tapes down to posters [he had.] He was the first real fan I knew. He was a fan of just real music not just dope artist but that helped me understand what a fan was and is. Taking that lesson and getting older helped me to understand who I was and that I didn’t necessary blend into what they considered R&B even though that is a part of my music. I choose to continue to push that [J] Dilla influence in my music. What I do is very different, I understand my uniqueness so therefore I continue to roll with it, I continue to push that and I continue to embrace that. ‘Pineapple Now and Laters’ came from that uniqueness. It comes from everybody that loves my music; they simply love my music from what I felt at the time. My work is the simplest but rawest form of art. It’s like somebody painting you a picture, they let it dry and bring it to you; they don’t even put it in a frame. It is just raw canvas, the paint just dried. That is what this [project] is celebrating.

Listening As a Fan… There is so much that makes a song dope. It starts with the melody. The key can change so much of the song. It can change how the writer is on the song. Lyrically of course and musically the artist delivers the song. A lot of times that is why people have to listen to a song two to three times in a row because the first time they listen to the overall ride of the beat. I heard people tell me they’re not listening to the lyrics, they’re listening to the melody and how the beat flows. Once that is on point then they move on. I kind of listen like that myself.

Lyrical Direction… They are not R&B; I’m just singing that is the only thing that makes those songs R&B. [On] “His Pain,” Kendrick has two verses then I come on. I don’t even try to keep the same format that everybody keeps in songs because I try to do something different every time. “His Pain” is my record but if somebody hears it they would think it is Kendrick’s record, which is cool because I bring it home.

If I am on the team, as a point guard, but instead you need me to play shooting guard that’s what I’m going to do. So when I get the rock I might shoot it or I might throw it up for the alley hoop slam dunk. We are going straight to the locker room. We don’t want no interviews. I’m just a different type of person that is why I feel like in this R&B world, I’m a really different artist. I’m not an R&B artist; I feel like I’m more of a rapper with the class of an R&B artist.

Not Classified R&B… I don’t mind being classified as R&B but I am going to tell you all the guys they classify as R&B ain’t f-cking R&B. Trey is not R&B anymore! Usher is not R&B anymore! They are pop artist now! I am going to tell you one thing that made Beyonce a beast and I hate to bring her up because she has nothing to do with it but now that I am thinking of this, she has everything to do with it. You can turn on the T.V. and catch Beyonce singing at the White House. You can turn on the television an see her at the Golden Globe Awards but then you mess around and go to the club that night and she got the ghetto girls doing her dances and this ain’t no classy song. She’s talking about hood stuff. Talking about how Jay [-Z] love how she walk and how she talk, how she sing and all this stuff. If Beyonce can have this classy side and still know how to talk to the ratchet, why can’t we know how to do it? So Usher gives us the ‘Confessions’ then he leaves us blank? Trey Songz give us “Say I” and next thing you know he’s doing pop records??? So where is R&B? R&B has turned pop. R&B has went to Beverly Hills [or] wherever these females go to get these tit jobs, face jobs and all this. R&B has went and got a whole new job too. There is no R&B…where is R&B? I feel like Beyonce is in tune with who she is. That is why she can go have a baby and do all the stuff she does because she keeps her left hand as strong as her right hand; her right hand as strong as her left hand. Usher ain’t doing that and other guys ain’t doing it either! I feel like that hurts the art but in the same sense it leaves a wide open market for me cause I’m not just a consumer I’m an artist myself.

Hip Hop’s Wordplay Impact… I listen to Hip Hop more than anything because of their wordplay. They are forced to make different turns that we don’t make as R&B singers. So when I hear an R&B beat, I am going to eat it up because of my Hip Hop influences. That is like chips to a hunger man, that ain’t even steak.

Different Vision… This is my example…I wrote a song called “Mommas Spaghetti” about my ex-girlfriend. There are two different hooks in the song and the song mentions nothing about spaghetti till the end of the song. The song is called “Mommas Spaghetti” because the moral of the story, you can tell I had to be Hip Hop inspired to come up with some sh-t like this: “when you were with me you use to call my mom for her spaghetti recipe now you mean to tell me you getting this recipe for your knowledge to cook for some other nigga” that is how the song end. Ain’t no R&B artist going to write like that?

Will Smith Inspiration Words… I used to wake up and listen to that every day. It is like ten minutes of audio with Will talking. It ain’t even like he’s trying to be spiritual or too much of this. It is just simple truth that you either believe and live upon or you don’t. He is telling you greatness is not some assertoric thing that only very few of us have. Nah, this is something inside all of us. All of us can be great; it is just fact of how we nurture it. Like half the people in L.A., I don’t understand how they go to the club every night. If you are really doing something incredible in your life, you have to be putting in some night hours in something. If you’re playing basketball, there are going to be nights you are in the gym by yourself. It takes day and night to survive at something.