A Conversation With Jireh
modrNation: Where are you originally from?
Jireh: Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
modrNation: How did growing up there influence you to start making music?
Jireh: Most people down here have a very regional sound. New Orleans for example has the dance and mainstream sound, but Baton Rouge has jigg music, it’s a real unique sound to Baton Rouge specifically. Most people that get into music here get into that sound because that’s what they play in the clubs, so some people make music just for that. My brother was the first person I ever heard rap, so I knew that was something I could get down with. I’d really just say it was my family cultivating my taste based on different corners of where I’m from.
modrNation: How would you say growing up in a smaller town lead to you being more creative and open-minded?
Jireh: You have to fight for your individuality here, there’s no way around it. You have to fight against everything you’re taught as a kid, when you move on a different type of time than the people around you life is immediately going to het a little more difficult, especially down here when everyone’s just gonna write you off as “trying to be different”. It’s a weird attack on individuality sometimes when you’re from a smaller town that doesn’t get to witness as many different cultures.
modrNation: You recently dropped your single Bad Grass, what was the inspiration behind that track?
Jireh: My grandmother passed December 2nd of 2020, and she used to have a lot of old southern sayings, but my favorite one was “you can’t heal bad grass”. She would say a lot of different things, but that one stuck out. When I was down or in a bad position, she would say that to me just as a way to remind me that have to embrace the fact of life and death, and people going against you, but you just have to move with life and you can’t stress too much when people are trying to stomp you out. You won’t always fit in, there'll be a lot of people trying to cancel you out, write you off, or anything they can do to stop you from doing what you’re supposed to do. You really have to fight for your life and the life you want in a literal sense, you owe it to yourself to stay living as long as you can.
modrNation: How would you compare some of the newer music to the stuff you’d dropped earlier?
Jireh: I’m in a different spot in life, that’d be the main thing. WHen I write, the main thing I try to do is communicate where I am mentally, emotionally, physically, or in any other sense. I try to give people a point of view of where I am, and that’s constantly changing. In my past music I was more confident in myself, but after going through a lot in the past couple years I hear myself regaining that confidence in my more recent songs. You’ll hear the tones and inflection sin my deliveries change, there'll be a lot going on in the new stuff but it's better that’s all I’ll say.
modrNation: Take me through your creative process.
Jireh: It’s really just about being honest with myself. I try not to put myself on this pedestal, but I also try to notice the reality of this situation I’m in where I have a certain set of morals that may not mix with the people I’m around. I know how to navigate life not feeling like there’s space for you, so my process revolves around trying to communicate to people that feel they’re in similar positions.
modrNation: What’s the intention behind your music?
Jireh: To offer a new perspective to people like me, everyone has a little bit of that spark I mentioned in the last answer in them, so I just want to cultivate that and speak to the part of an individual that I identify with the most. There’s somebody out there I know for a fact, that no matter how complicated or simple my verse, it’ll hit them at the moment it needs to and they’ll feel it.
modrNation: What would you say is the importance of finding your own identity and individuality as an artist in a time where making music is so popular?
Jireh: It’s the first step. If you go through my past social media you’ll see me talking about that so much. You need to get to know yourself, I feel like I used to struggle with it at a really young age. I remember being able to look around and notice I’m living in a different state of mind than everybody else. I learned a lot about myself at a young age that I can now use to navigate this shit. I know what I want to do and more importantly, what I don’t want to do. When you know yourself outside of music, and really take the proper time in that process to tap in with yourself, it’ll come across in everything you do.