We recently connected with Javon Stephenson and have shared our conversation below.
Javon, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
In October 2021, I released a 3-part short film/visual EP called ‘The Diagnosis’. To this day, ‘The Diagnosis’ holds a special place in my heart. It was technically my 4th EP (5th if you count a collaboration project, ‘Sober Octaves’, and my second visual album including Sober). Getting to that point required some serious soul searching. When I put it out, I was a year removed from being diagnosed with ADHD, Generalized Anxiety, and Major Depressive Disorder. I think not only about how I’m much better off for making the project, but also about the community of people that have connected with my art while on their own journeys of exploring their mental health. So many people have since spoken with me about taking steps towards caring for their mental health, working on their spiritual healing, questioning the world around us, and everything in between.
When I’m talking to, and communing with, young Black and Brown people about everything we’ve been taught to keep tucked – it’s hard to quantify how important of a step ‘The Diagnosis’ was for me. I’m thankful for the care, creativity, and intention that my collaborators brought to the table, as we were able to create a world that for people like us to immerse themselves into and relate with.
On November 22nd, 2023, I released a mixtape called ‘mentally, (i’m) here’. It was the second volume of a series I started in 2022 called SUDs – aka ‘some unfinished demos’, aka ‘some unreleased dreams’.
‘mentally, (i’m) here’ is a collection of thoughts that floated across my mind at different points between 2019 and 2022. These are songs that spent time queued on other projects of mine, but ultimately didn’t exactly fit what I was trying to say with the other pieces. Releasing them was a breath of fresh air for me. Not only did I get to release some of my inner thoughts from their imprisonment, but I got to witness that my older music has proven itself to still be relevant to the circus of a society we live in today. I’m excited and honored for these songs to find ears and souls that will resonate with them.
Javon, 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 stage name is SO4P (pronounced ‘soap’), and I identify as a ridiculously clean MC. Way too many bars.
Like many of the artists I’ve met over the years, I’m someone who tends to confuse ‘fear’ and ‘procrastination’, with ‘perfectionism’. It’s easy to let worry distract us from freedom.
I’ve spent the past 10 years growing into the version of the recording artist that I currently am, and the entirety of my 27 years growing into the songwriter, performer, actor, and filmmaker I’m constantly becoming. Most of those years have been full of me undoing limitations I subconsciously set while growing up. Like many of us, I was afraid of exerting too much energy on things that I wasn’t immediately good at, altering the routes I’d eventually to take in order to reach my destination…my calling.
Even as a child, I was always confident in my writing abilities. I knew that I loved writing poetry and fiction – and that I could even find joy in writing essays. Unfortunately, this confidence as a writer wasn’t enough to stop my shying away from countless other steps towards strengthening my artistry. I’ve quit guitar lessons, voice training, music production courses, play auditions, and so many more – giving into the fear that I wouldn’t be capable of matching my reality with how I looked in my dreams.
After experiencing a bit more of the world, I’ve gotten significantly more comfortable with the ebbs and flows of my artistic journey. I’ve spent the last 10 years independently recording, performing, and distributing my own music. If I were to connect with myself in the past, I would urge him to dive deeply, and without reservation, into the scary parts of artistic growth and development. The extra reps are what allow us to shine brightly with a stronger sense of security in ourselves and what we share with the world. That feeling of “wow, I do this thing in ways that no one else can,” is a feeling that we as individuals should always cherish.
Success, and what it takes to get there, is scary. To me, allowing ourselves to take that chance is true freedom.
I try to make music that is sonically diverse, in terms of the production and the ways I use my voice. That said, there’s a consistent thread that shows up not only when I listen to the projects I’ve published, but also when I loop the demos that I store in my phones and hard drives. I almost always find myself sharing introspective lyrics, with references to spiritual growth and a quest for a greater hidden knowledge.
For almost five years, I’ve been blessed to also work full-time in the film/tv industry, as a producer for TIME Studios – the production arm of TIME magazine. I’ve played crucial roles in the development and production of documentary and unscripted projects – ranging from the political history of Black comedy, to inspiring Nickelodeon specials, to explorations of the legacies of some of today’s most influential musicians. Starting my professional filmmaking career at a new studio, housed in a 100 year old institution, has been extremely informative for me with regards to building a longstanding career as an artist. Everyday, I see firsthand how business and art can be married in order to create larger impact for greater audiences – I was even blessed to work on two Emm-nominated specials early into my tenure at TIME. I see what it’s like to work with the biggest names in entertainment, and what it’s like to maintain creative integrity while also meeting the needs of countless stakeholders.
The job of a film/tv producer, to me, is to be the world’s greatest problem solver at any given moment. Luckily, that mindset works well with how I naturally try to operate…but it certainly helps that both of my careers are in industries that NEED each other to exist.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
‘Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life’ by Gary John Bishop, was a crucial audiobook for me this past year. I recommend it to EVERYONE in my life, whether they opt to listen or to physically flip the pages.
This book is important whether or not you’re aiming to have a huge business or long career – because it focuses on improving the ways that we operate in the world by altering the ways we approach ourselves internally. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we’ll never be able to take care of the huge ideas, and places, and people, and things, that we care about. A man unafraid to cuss – Bishop spares no feelings, while urging readers and listeners alike to ask themselves the difficult questions that are likely blocking them from unlocking their true potential.
I’ll drop a few gems that I’ve held onto from the book, but urge readers to spend some time with it themselves:
“My future is not the answer to my present.”
“I am not my thoughts, I am what I do.”
“Any time you’re working to achieve something, you’re going against the current.”
“The only question is whether you agree with what you can and cannot do. An opinion only becomes true when you accept it and stop acting on your potential.”
“There’s aren’t any road signs when you’re tracking through uncharted territory, it’s all discovery and exploration. You are blazing a trail, not following one.”
“No one deserves it. You have to make it happen.”
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Creating music is extremely cathartic for me. It’s daily therapy. I make things for myself firstly, and receive all support/encouragement as a bonus and reminder that we are universally battling the same core issues. That said, I also LOVE being able to work with other artists. Translating the ideas from my own head into music is one thing – but working with others to exponentially translate that many more ideas into art that incites emotions in people around the world is a crazy feeling. The best studio sessions are not only fun, but they feel truly limitless.
Another one of my favorite phenomena is when I’m listening to my own music, and I realize that I’ve literally spoken my current reality into existence by recording a particular lyric. I think about it as almost an accidental manifestation – where I’ve had to repeat a line or phrase hundreds of times to record/perform it, and may or may not have been aware of how I subconsciously planted seeds that I would reap after a few years of living with my work.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/so4p
- Instagram: so4pbars
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/so4pbars
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javonstephenson4/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOsaIa-MA3Mx6M0Sw3l_Gjg
Image Credits
Farouk Oni, Ronald Tricoche, Danny Young, Dolapo Akinkugbe, Rich Bryan, Ray Pelka.