Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Wiley Nelson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

David Wiley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I have worked on so far, hands-down, would be the formation of the Record Label (IRJU) “It’s Really Just Us” – The name was decided on by the four founding members as we were talking about how we make all of our music in-house. Everything from the instrumental, to the writing, recording, and final master, is all done by us. So then, “its really just us” – and here we are.
It all started by going to my first “Underground Music Retreat” ran by Patrick Stafford. It was that week in 2022 when I met Kay9, King, and Nate. I noticed immediately that THESE guys – have what it takes. Over the next year we continued to collaborate on projects, when one day I called the three of them separately – to tell them about my idea to bring us all together, officially. King immediately (within 10 days) moved from Missouri with all his studio equipment, into my house to chase the dream in closer proximity. Kay9 just so happened to live 40 minutes down the road from me (maybe never would have met without the retreat) – and Nate is currently arranging plans to move to Nashville. We’ve also teamed up with an incredible Videographer, we have bi-monthly song releases scheduled out halfway through 2025.
We’re sitting on enough video content to post every day for a year. That’s not including the songs we’re constantly making. We love what we do, and we care about the MUSIC. The main thing I always stress to my team – is our goal is to make TIMELESS music – music that matters – music that will still be a great song 50 years from now. We just need people to HEAR US. Once enough people hear, or the RIGHT people hear, that will be it. There is no possible way we don’t belong in this industry.
The listeners are tired of the same sounding music, especially in hiphop. Most of them don’t even know it, but they are ready for a new sound. Unfortunately, most popular music is just a remake, or a style that’s a fad that will be here and gone. Our music will last. That i am certain of.
Our momentum is strong. We are certainly confident in our quality of music. We are driven. We are ambitious. We are one. We are HERE. We are [Just Us].

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve known from a very young age that I wanted to be an entertainer. My first performance ever was in the fifth grade, I wrote a rap and performed it for an anti-drug program in my elementary school.
My mom bought me 10 hours of studio time as a birthday present when I was 15 years old. I released my first song demo at age 15. I got signed onto a record label at age 18 and had a manager until about 20 years old.
Since I was doing a lot of shows, I started writing music that I thought other people would like. Instead of writing real topics, I was writing for the crowd. I quickly got burnt out on it. The music was no longer the same, and found out booking your own shows is a lot more difficult than I thought. I also had a friend that rapped on a couple songs, and then he wanted to be on every song, a girlfriend who sang and then she wanted to be on every song… It was affecting my relationships. so instead of struggling and hurting my relationships, I basically quit making music for about seven years.

My comeback into music happened after a devastating heartbreak with my ex fiancé. My best friend (also artist/producer) Eddie built me a computer and got my studio set back up. I started writing music again, and I started writing for ME, from the heart. My love for creating music was quickly rekindled. Shortly after that, I went to my first “underground music retreat” ran by Patrick Stafford. That changed everything.

For the first time in my music career, I had legitimate validation that my music was far good enough to do well in the industry, it changed. I viewed music and how it relates to me as a person.

The four of Us in IRJU records:
My Friend Wiley(myself- Writer/Rapper/Singer)
King(artist/singer/producer),
Nate Mac(Singer/writer/rapper)
Kay9 (Main Producer)
Well, we just work RIGHT together. We communicate effectively in songwriting and recording; we communicate efficiently through multiple chat channels to keep us all accountable for all things [Just Us] related. And the best part is, all of our vocals just seem to complement each other so well.
One complement that we get regularly is that “ there are a lot of groups out there, but what y’all are doing just makes sense”
Yes, we are a “group”, but we are also our own individual artist. If we forced our creativity together into a box that was a specific “sound” or “type” of music- well then, we wouldn’t be US.
What separates [Just Us] from the rest, is the care behind the MUSIC. We care about the writing. We care about the delivery. We care about the process. We care about being individuals. And we care deeply about invoking emotion into our listeners. We aim to make timeless music and create feelings – and those feelings typically tend to lean towards positivity, confidence, and love –
That is the one thing we think the industry (and the world) is CRAVING, but they just don’t know it yet. Labels nowadays just want to push out anything that’ll make them some cash quick, yet a large majority of those songs are forgotten about in a couple of years. In hopes of bringing a little groove back into the world while we do it, IRJU produces music that will stick around, and THAT, we are extremely certain of.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

This is a touchy subject, because I believe the ecosystem isn’t quite thriving. We have more mental health and drug issues than we’ve ever had in history. I think a large part of that is being driven by music and popular culture. The main subject of most songs are about doing drugs, violence, and extremely provocative s*x lyrics. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time at a place for that kind of music, and we make some of that kind of music too, but it shouldn’t be getting pushed by major labels out to radio stations. There’s even a few of my songs that really wouldnt want to push to radio or mainstream play in an “edited” version….. simply because, there’s a time and a place, and mainstream ain’t the place to influence youth with bad adult mannerisms.

So what can society do? We’ll stop endorsing it I guess……. But that’s quite a feat. When you have major labels pushing out garbage, the world eats garbage. The same overly-autotuned cadences about the same subjects are getting played out. We hope we can change that. We’re damn sure going to try. There is a slight trend of new audiences leaning towards independent artists for this reason. So as a society, I would just recommend searching for smaller artists. There’s WAY better music than out there than what most of the world hears. Stop endorsing big labels pushing hardcore s*x, drugs and violence. We as a society are better than that. We have to come together. A thriving ecosystem means ALL THE LIVING THINGS are thriving. Without the proper nutrients, we’ve got a poorly maintained backyard garden. The music Industry ecosystem is being poisoned, and we gotta stop that. We have to get back to loving each other and dancing together. They want us divided. In our ideal world, [Just Us] will bring back that energy this ecosystem needs.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Our goal is to invoke emotion in a person’s soul. Our goal is to bring people together. Our goal is to bring love back to the industry by working with independent artist who make GOOD MUSIC. It’s gotten to the point where if we don’t think a particular song that we made is good enough, or missing something to be perfect, we trash them. hundreds of “imperfect” songs that’ll probably never get heard.
Everyone has just gotten used to repetitive, over-autotuned, garbage material. If a dog eats dog food its whole life, it would be fine eating dog food until it dies, because that’s all it knows. If that dog knew what steak tasted like, I promise you, he would prefer the steak. Our goal is to give as many dogs as possible a prime cut, juicy porterhouse t-bone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://itsreallyjustus.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsreallyjust.us/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ItsReallyJustUs
• Other: My Friend Wiley IG – https://www.instagram.com/myfriendwiley/
  My Friend Wiley TT – https://www.tiktok.com/@myfriendwiley?lang=en

Image Credits

Stafford Visuals
Jessica Loyd Photography
Layman’s Lens Photography