Meet Jacob Richards

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Sed ut perspiciatis unde.

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jacob Richards a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jacob, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

My first spark from music came when I was 9 years old and I was watching my brother create music. Watching him create with Reze and others became a pivotal part in my journey. I would sit and watch them record for hours and I would soak up things like rhythm, melodic pockets and how to create a unique rhyme scheme. After they would finish recording I would use my brothers laptop to listen to beats he made and I would start jotting the things I was thinking. A couple years passed of me doing this by myself and I finally decided to show my brother what I had been working on. We were in the home studio and he was playing an instrumental for an artist he was working with and while they were outside I decided to turn it on and show them what I had written to it. Everyone in the room was shocked and thought that I had copied the lyrics from someone else. From that day forward I knew that I had a calling in music, but it was up to me to figure out exactly what that calling was. It took me about 7 years of writing music and processing words to get to where I am today. I am able to create melodic pockets and strategic rhyme schemes to help further shape my music. I feel that I took the road less traveled when it came to my music and that’s why I feel as if Gods timing played a huge part in my growth. I am happy with the way my process of growth has went and I can not wait to see where it continues to go. I leaned that with patience I can be successful with anything I do in this world. Staying true to who I am and what my vision is has been the most essential skill I have learned. I realized that no matter the talent I have, nothing will be given to me. I have to realize that with no work, will be no reward. It is on my to surround myself with likewise individuals and for us to grow together. I learned throughout this process, that if someone has bad intentions, accept them and learn from them. Not everybody wants to see you win and succeed, so identify those who do and keep them close. Life is tough, but you are tougher.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

For those who do not know much about me, I am West Geezy Jay. I am a Artist/Writer who has spent the last few years creating music and content to help further my career. I started writing music at the age of 9 and started recording at the age of 15. My love for music started as just a hobby but as my career progressed I realized that it was a way for me to achieve piece of mind. I spent all of high school recording with my brother and my friends but never really released any of my music due to lack of confidence and fear of acceptance. I end up going to the university of West Georgia and that is where I got my name from. My roommates and I started throwing parties together and recording music together to get our names out there. After stepping away from school for a short period of time I decided to take music more seriously. I have spent the last 2 years working on my music consistently and have amassed over 500K streams on all platforms. I have grew from 8,000 to 31,000 followers on my Instagram and about 4K on tiktok. As the journey continues I seem to find new ways to be innovative with my music and my marketing. I think what makes me the proudest is the fact that I took the time to build this from the ground up. I grew closer with people I call brothers and we put this together from scratch. From my brother making the beats, to recording at Rezes studio, to having my friend Klutch master all my music and video content. We put this together with our minds and our willpower and that is something that you could never take from us. What makes me different is my drive and determination as well as my word play. I love to break down my music and build it by rhyme scheme while also delivering a powerful message from within.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My very first concert only sold 6 tickets, and not all 6 people even showed up. I remember prepping for the concert and watching others perform to help critique myself. I spent hours getting the setlist together and practicing how I was going to interact with the crowd. I showed up and realized that only 4 people were in attendance and I let it get to me. My brother sat me down and told me “Whether 1 person or 1,000 people show up, you rock the show the same exact way”. That resonated with me more than he could ever imagine. My past show had 60-70 people in attendance and we have grown each and every show. I could have easily given up when I saw nobody came to my show, but if I had given up then I would have never knew what my full potential was.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Support your local artists/creatives the same way you support celebrities who do not even know that you exist. I have had people spend hundreds to go see there favorite celebrity perform but would not spend five dollars to come see me perform. I have seen people mad they did not get a discount from a friends clothing brand, but pay 1200 for shows from StockX. I feel that we should pour our support and money into those who we have been apart of the journey and bring the creative power back to the creatives who would do the same for us.

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Image Credits
David Medina (@dmedinaphotography)

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Meet Jacob Richards

Meet Jacob Richards

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Jacob, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

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