We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jhiakhana a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jhiakhana thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I actually began by crafting short stories and poems. I took what I learned as far as the story structure and elements of poetry then applied it to my music. I took to music immediately, my passion was instant from as long as I can remember. Michael Jackson kicked it off for me. I was watching VH1 and “Billie Jean” came on I was like “what is going on here, I need more of this”. My father bought me “Thriller’, “Bad”, “Off the Wall” as well as New Kids On The Block’s self titled album &”Hanging Tough”. Now I was listening to rap but I became engulfed and completely consumed into HipHop after hearing “Follow The Leader” by Eric B & Rakim”. I began to consume all of this music and I began intentionally studying Nas, AZ, Big Pun, Jay-Z, Eminem, Fabolous and LL Cool J amongst others. When I first began recording on a karaoke setup I was doing my best Ma$e impersonation, slow flow, syllables and one liners. I would take notebooks with me everywhere literally everywhere I was writing all day everyday. If I thought of a line, or some words that rhyme , a concept or whatever I was able to capture it. I kept my tools with me, I would be on the block and people around me making transactions that are not very legal but I was determined to perfect my craft. I was pushing my self at like 13 to write better then AZ, and Pun perfect crafting syllables. Nothing ever got in my way, I never cared what people said or if they laughed at me, this is what I love and what I’m most passionate about. I wish I was as confident as I am now during those early stages and not so much in my own head.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I began trying to pursue a career in music at the age of 12. I formed a group with my bestfriends called Triple Threat. The group consisted of me, Controversy who currently is one of my business partners and he also handles music production for me. The other member was my brother Zerrick who passed away a few years later. There was an upstart independent label in Saginaw, MI called “Ghetto Records” mind you this is when No Limit and Cash Money were dominating the industry. It wasn’t really any record labels in the area really so we figured that was the destination for us. A gentleman by the name of Dee Green who worked at the label came to check out what we had and invited us to the office. Nothing came of that situation and I ended up moving to New York on a permanent basis. I had all the hopes to get a record deal when I moved to Queens. I wanted to sign with Murder Inc because they were based in Queens and I was gonna be the next Nas and then they ended up getting in business with Nas but that is another story. I was on the same flight as Royce Da 5’9 when I traveled there, this a week after the “Boom” video premiered on MTV. I took that as a sign that I was about to come conquer the industry lol.
Through high school I battle rapped and I was writing all day everyday. I ended up running away and I came back to Saginaw. I then began recording on home set ups, this was the beginning of the fruity loops explosion. It took some time for me to get comfortable recording, I really did not like my voice at the time. It’s an artist named Getti who took me to my first real studio session with Kwame of Moneytree entertainment. Around 2006 I purchased my own equipment and I called my workspace “The Oval Office” and up n coming talent like OneDeepOutlaw came through frequently and we really developed our artistry. I released my first project in 2010 called ‘Never Die Alone hosted by Dj White Owl who passed away unfortunately. I was living in Grand Rapids at the time after moving back from Dallas. I did everything myself and I was not too keen on engineering and mixing and all that jazz so I don’t really go back to that project much, even though it garnered somewhat of a cult following especially overseas. Whiteowl wanted to submit it to Justo’s Mixtape Awards but I felt that would be a little premature.
I moved back to Saginaw and I linked up with Astray, who is a legend within the scene of Michigan. He took me under his wing and I was his hype man, we toured around the state then I became apart of MAG 7. Mag 7 is a collective of mc’s the members include Dose, Stylee, Ske3m, Tornatik, Caine, Astray, & Msee. I learned about booking gigs, selling merch and per diem. Now before meeting Stray I was oblivious to all this, Iit never really was a factor I was so focused on the creative portion and being able to one day have an elevator in my home. While i was in the recording process of my sophomore project ‘Surgical Gloves” I met Sneakerhead Dee who now goes by Sneak Beatz. Sneak is the Dr. Dre to my Snoop Dogg, the Hit-boy to my Nas. Sneak and Stray were the elements needed along my journey they are super creative and forward thinking. Sneak is always onto the upcoming trends, she actually introduced me to The Weekend’s music early like as far as I know just me and her knew about him. I had better quality in my music so now I was flooding the internet with songs and freestyles. A particular freestyle I did over Pusha T’s “My God” instrumental caught the attention of “DJ Hood” and the Cinematics / Trap Monopoly. He linked me with an artist from Cleveland “BDOTLEE’ and I appeared on two records on her project, then we began an all out onslaught on the mixtape scene. This is during the Datpiff era, we appeared on countless mixtapes that were on Livemixtapes and Datpiff on the main page as featured releases. It was another collective formed from this as well which consist of myself, Bdot, Breezy Metayo, DYP & D.U.N. This was spearheaded by Dj Hood & Dj Grady who now is apart of QC which is the home of Migos, Lil Baby and Yachty. So I had a crazy buzz for the project and we delivered “Surgical Gloves” hosted by Hood & Grady. The numbers blew me away and it’s my most critically acclaimed success to this date, considered classic work. I thought I was about to shoot over the stratosphere, numbers, critical acclaim and we had a monster record titled ‘Lotta Loot” . But it did not propel me into fame and stardom.
That’s not my ultimate goal but I’ll take it along with whatever accolades. I just want to make classic records, masterpiece bodies of work and have moments that disrupts and shakes up the culture.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I had aspirations from youth to get five mics, have a sure shot single,have the hip hop quotable in “The Source”. I wanted to have a XXL rating and have verses that were highlighted in the train of thought section. I wanted to go tear down Funk Flex Show, Clue Show, Stretch Armstrong, Kay Slay, and Tim Westwood. I specialize in lyrical, competitive , technical hiphop. I’m diverse I can make a song with anyone in any genre but that’s the pocket I love to dive into when I’m in the lab. With that being said I went 8 years without releasing a project but I released a ton of music on soundcloud and audiomack, youtube etc. I released enough material that people could have created their own playlist or bootleg album. I was trying to figure it out the soundscape of music that was dominant I did not really care to indulge in so to speak. Then I really found new life in the underground scene and I discovered a new hope. Guys like Westside Gunn, Conway, Roc Marciano, Dave East, Rome Streetz, Willie The Kid, Ransom, etc. I actually have a record with Ransom and Eto but it was never released due to “politics”. That discouraged me as well that was my first music industry disappointment story I guess. So I went back to the drawing board and decided to reinvent myself starting with going by “JhiaKhana”. My stage name prior was ‘Ramesses D.B.I.”. I began to get alot of resistance and I still do but that’s another story. I wanted to push the restart button and then I started “7th Heaven Recording Corp” , thats when I released the first project from the label “Nitreaux”. During the pandemic I released my first official release on streaming “Nitreaux Dark” which was executive produced by Sneak Beatz and she handled all the production duties. Then I began working on an EP I released ‘Sun Tzu” feat. BDOTLEE and it is my most successful record. It was a financially high point, critical , so many platforms covered it it was on so many playlist but I still had to go back to the drawing board. So two years later I’m on my next music life but my focus and intent is clear as well as my target.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I recently had to pivot to enter a new chapter. There is a gritty underground wave that I fall right into. The core of my music has always been that but I always tried to cater to everyone and It has not yielded the desired results. So I’m sticking to my guns and making what fulfills my appetite as an artist. My new project is currently in the works titled “Execution Te Excellence” and it’s going to be heavy. The bulk of the production is covered by producers from other countries or up n comers. It will be special guest as well in addition to some innovative content attached. I’m looking to expand the roster and form my own collective and release projects more frequently. I have another album with Sneak in the works, an EP with a fellow Saginaw artist by the name of Ray P. I will also be curating OneDeepOutlaw’s next project. I will have a new single release available within the next few weeks I just got the cover art back for it so be on the look out.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jhiakhana.bandcamp.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jhiakhana
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ramgiancana?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Twitter: @giancanaram
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ramjhiakhana8255?si=CBKHwq5dE4YxKJwQ
Image Credits
Kno1films Dj Snakes M. L. Jimenez