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

Javen, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I think about this often. My days as a kid & teenager was spent mainly on a basketball court. I was very into basketball growing up and athletics as a whole. Exercise & Health was and is still a very fascinating thing to me. But I’d be lying if I said that I don’t think to myself sometimes, where would I be if I took music as serious as I did athletics when I was younger. Up until I turned 17, I had little intention to actually record myself and ‘make a song’. At the time, it seemed more like a lofty dream than an attainable goal, even though I had notebooks full of raps, poems, etc.

As many kids did, I used to envision myself as a superstar artist, but I never really had the chance or the courage to share my literature. Couple that with being indoctrinated in a culture where sports is at the forefront for a black boy, that eventually became my life, and I enjoyed it.

At the time I wasn’t as confident when it came to my writing. Also, a lot of what I wrote about was personal, so that made me reluctant to share anyway. But even throughout my days as a full fledge athlete, the idea was always in the back of my head. I can’t really describe that feeling. But a certain chord has always struck inside of me when it came to my creative side. It just came natural to me. I laugh in irony at the fact that I went to an arts school for high school and was known mainly for my athletics, up until I was about to leave the joint.

Even in retrospect, I wouldn’t change my past at all. Being who I was at the time allowed me to meet people & eventually bring me to the point that I’m at now. Every experience serves meaning and I don’t take that for granted.

Javen, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Javen Oliver an artist from Baltimore, Maryland that grew up with music as a big part of my childhood. While I didn’t actually begin making music until my late teens, I was always a writer and enjoyed crafting raps & poems in my free time. Music was always being played in my household & over time in led me more and more to where I am now with my music journey.

I’m known mostly as a rapper and I enjoy every aspect of the art of rapping and Hip Hop. Lately I’ve been tapping more into my creative side and learning more about production, singing, instrumentation, & creating short films. I believe these interests of mine developed during my days as kid, being infatuated with music videos and live performances.

The main objective that I want to get across in my work is that every piece is always derived from personal experience or my vicarious observation of someone’s experience. Through those experiences, I want to hopefully spark a new way of thinking for people who take in my work. There are many stories I plan to tell. The black perspective can be very uncanny at times. For me personally, it has been a very unique position to be in considering the many different types of people from all backgrounds I’ve encountered with so far in my life.

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

A very big goal of mine is to merge my love for music with my love for civil rights and equality. Politics can be a very strict and uniform entity, but I personally believe it doesn’t have to be that way forever. While I don’t like to preach in my music, I do enjoy sharing my own experience. To me that holds more weight than just spamming mad facts to someones eyes or ears. Erykah Badu said that Hip-Hop is “bigger than the government” and I agree. Culture can be so empowering and it can start movements that eventually lead us to a better place as a people. So my goal is to add to the movement and do my part in helping propel the state of the human race through the power of art. This will take a lot of revolution and deconstruction of what’s already implemented, but, one day I would love to see the president of this country that looks like me, talks like me, dresses like me etc.

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

This is important. I’m sure I speak on behalf of all artists on this, especially those with the goals to make a change with their work. If you see an artist devoting their time and energy into their craft, any form of support goes a long way. Monetary support aside, social media support aside, if you happen to be talking to someone who may be interested in an artist you know of, it doesn’t take much to share their work with them. Word of mouth goes a very long way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.javenoliver.com
• Instagram: https://linktr.ee/javenolivermusic
• Facebook: https://linktr.ee/javenolivermusic
• Linkedin: https://linktr.ee/javenolivermusic
• Twitter: https://linktr.ee/javenolivermusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@javenoliver7874
• Other: https://linktr.ee/javenolivermusic

Image Credits
Madi.Low