We recently connected with Jamahl Thomas and have shared our conversation below.

Jamahl, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I was about 15 when I first realized I wanted to do music. I spent that summer going into my junior year of high school writing a lot and it just became an escape for me. I had a friend named Kevin in high school who’s brother (Brent) made beats. One day Kevin told me his brother was looking for people to rap on his beats for a project and I gladly accepted that offer. The project never seen the light of day, but they decided to do a project for me and from there things became more real. Since his brother was in college at the time he didn’t have a lot of time to record me so I had to be patient. Being young, I didn’t have a lot of patience so I taught myself how to produce and would pay attention and ask questions whenever we did record. Seeing how tedious the process of everything was made me wanna keep sharpening my skills and try to get better.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Jamahl Thomas and I am a rapper/producer/painter. For me at first it was art that became a love of mine. My brother showed me something as simple as drawing a stick figure and from there I became fascinated with creating. I think one of major interest of mine when it came to drawing was animals and people. Something about what has already been created (ie; humans and animals) was always fascinating to me. A lot of children liked drawing cartoons and such, but I leaned more on the realistic side. Of course I still drew my favorite cartoons from time to time, but portraits were always special to me. Music entered my life around the time I was 9. I started writing my own raps at that time and stopped for a while because my mom wasn’t too keen on the content I wrote about. I want to say around the time I was in middle school I started to excel in writing raps that had a message in it which was due to what and who I started to listen to at that time (Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli, etc.) I didn’t really take things serious with rap or at least decide I wanted to be a rapper until I was 15 going on 16. I was able to write for my first mixtape and release it by the time I was 18. Around that same time I started to produce my own music. All in all, I’d have to say the driving force or motivation behind my creativity is curiosity and excitement. Since then, I’ve released or been a part of 10+ projects and have sold a good amount of paintings.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think simply just enjoying what I do most. People love work from a creative who enjoys their work. Your mood reflects on your work and everything that comes with that falls in place. When people come to shows and see me perform theyll love the music because they can see that I love my music.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think people underestimate the amount of work that goes into creating. It’s not just setting aside an hour or so, but in my honest opinion its a 24 hour job. Inspiration may hit you at 5am or 8pm and its vital that you get that idea down before you lose the fire behind it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blkk.j
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blkk.j/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/blkk_j
• Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@blkk.j

Image Credits
most of the photos taken by davi jones