mynameisntjmack Talks “THE LORDS OF SOUNDS AND LESSER THINGS”
Upcoming Virgina artist mynameisntjmack recently came out with his third album THE LORDS OF SOUNDS AND LESSER THINGS, and it’s been one of my favorite albums of the past year. Sonically mynameisntjmack comes in with soothing flows, but an eager and powerful delivery makes for a strong performance and really lets the listener feel what they’re hearing rather than just consuming. Conceptually, mynameisntjmack is telling a clear story, experiencing the transition in life of a man struggling with addiction, he’s able to perfectly portray these feelings and experiences in a way where everyone can feel these moments he’s sharing and makes for a powerful listen, comparable to only some of the greats like the Kendrick Lamars or Tyler, The Creators.
“The title is actually an excerpt of a quote from this book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, she’s an incredible writer. I was really inspired by the book, it started off with a quote contrasting the livelihoods of men versus women, and this quote really broke me down as I was coming out of a rough time. I’d just gotten out of rehab and when I read that I started to think from a musical perspective, how can I express the way I feel the way she expressed the nature of men, as they’re just passing time.
The book is basically about her returning home from this long journey she’d been on, and I was in a similar position coming back from Charlottesville, VA, coming back to Virginia from rehab. She talked about the lords of sounds and lesser things, and the people and vices around her, and how they affected her mentality. To me The lords of sounds and lesser things are the things that I’ve created as well as just the forces of nature surrounding me. It’s a deeply personal album.”
No track here stands alone, they truly all play into each other to conceptualize a bigger picture. There’s clear highlights throughout the project that serve as turning points in mynameisntjmack’s journey. Tracks like TUCKER, THEMOONLANDINGWASFAKE, and SELFAWARE/2020 are representing specific moments for mynameisntjmack, and they definitely provide standout performances for me.
“TUCKER to me is really about that false sense of confidence from being on drugs, and creating these enemies in your head. That’s why I start off the album with; ‘who wanna rock with a n*gga like jmack’, that’s more of a question because I go by mynameisntjmack, so I don’t really feel like that guy jmack. When it drops into THEMOONLANDINGWASFAKE, that’s kind of the come down. Throughout I’m really just questioning how time has passed, these enemies I’ve made up in my head and how I perceive them now through the music. Eventually the project ends with SELFAWARE/2020, which is really just saying where I’m at in the moment and being more self aware of my life and surroundings.”
It’s becoming less and less common to get such an honest piece of work now, so this project has really served as a breath of fresh air providing a nice blend of my favorite sounds, with influences from MF DOOM, Tyler, The Creator, and even Earl Sweatshirt or Isaiah Rashad. It’d been proven over and over that nothing is more powerful than speaking your truth, it’s what makes artists like Eminem and J. Cole so special, so with mynameisntjmack not only having a special talent sonically, his ability to connect with listeners is really what will push the bar forward and solidify him in this culture.
“I feel like hip hop as a whole and social media as a whole really is aimed and geared towards the best, and where people like to pretend that they’re doing better than they are. I think the aim of the music for me is to really describe those highs and lows, there will always be highs like a TUCKER, but also there’s gonna be manic lows like a DOVE$BLEED. I’m just trying to express the waves of emotions that I go through.”
Part of this holistic approach to putting together a project is timing, and this project was definitely in the making for a fair amount of time. Projects like this are what remind me that art is so much more than just the actual creation, it’s more about the experiences and moments that inspired the work itself. Having taken a two year break since his last full length album, mynameisnttjmack really took that time to develop his sound, and continue to seek out his identity, and I feel that really comes across when hearing this project.
“This project has been in the works for over a year, but the subject matter and experiences I’m speaking on have been going on for over two years I’d say, throughout the whole pandemic. I initially had eleven songs that were supposed to be on the project and they all got scrapped at one point and I reworked it to get this new body of work. TUCKER was originally gonna be something completely different but we had a problem with the recording cause the recording engineer's dog ws squeaking on a toy throughout the take, so we had to scrap the song and that led to me eventually making TUCKER which is named after the homies dog.
The entirety of my music is that search for identity and attempting to exist within the duality of a lack of identity. I feel like throughout this album I atleast found my identity as somebody who can really do this in terms of music, and that’s something I feel I had to prove to myself, that I belonged here and deserve the support. It’s been a lot of effort, the first time I went to New York to meet Gutty I took a $60 mega bus from DC to New York at 2am and I finally got there at 4am and Gutty was still up working, so we’ve been locked in and working since then.”
It’s definitely paid off and my favorite part of these interviews is seeing the artists who really put in the hours finally receiving their flowers and recognition. Make sure to check out THE LORDS OF SOUNDS AND LESSER THINGS below and support mynameisntjmack across all platforms.