We recently connected with Javy XI and have shared our conversation below.

Javy, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

It’s funny as a creative and specifically as a recording artist I’ve gone through many periods of redefinition and reinvention which includes the name I use because there is power in a name. For most of my career I had gone by the name Anonymous XI which has a double-fold meaning the reason Anonymous because throughout history if you see a piece of art or a very powerful quote, and it’s attributed to “Anonymous” it forces us as the recipient to deal with the content of the piece as opposed to it’s creator.

The XI portion of my name came from the roman numeral eleven (XI) because 2011 was a very defining year in my life it was the year that my faith really became my own as a Christian, and I was stepping out to become my own person in adulthood. The XI reminds me of a crossroad that forever impacts my life and continually keeps me humble remembering where I started from as a first generation American from North Newark that fell in love with Hip-Hop and the arts.

Now a days I go by Javy XI and the reason was because I realized as I’ve matured as a creative that my voice matters and that the message I bring forth to the world should be held accountable by the man I am in and out of the creative arena hence Javy XI was born.

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?

It’s funny my introduction to the recording arts and specifically Hip-Hop started with my love of poetry. At 14 years old I joined the poetry club at my middle school and learned about the literary giants of Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Robert Frost, etc. which caused me to write day and night now marry that at the same time with me discovering the wonders of Nas, 2pac, A Tribe Called Quest, Big Pun, etc.

As time passed I realized I could combine my two passions of poetry and Hip-Hop since I knew that rhyming words in the same fashion as my favorite emcees was actually poetry in motion. Into my late teens and early 20’s I found myself fully invested into the recording arts doing a bunch of features and working on my first full-length project entitled “Seasons Vol. 1” released via an independent label called “Community Music”. My music has and will always be for the people my motto as a creative is Think, Speak Life, and Grow my aim is help people think through what’s in front of them, speak life over their situation truthfully, and ultimately grow when they sit with my music and I do that by authentically sharing my own journey in hopes to inspire others.

Today what I’m most proud of is being able to have created a brand of music which is relatable and palatable to my supporters without having to compromise my convictions, voice, and/or story. That’s really hard to do in the creative medium I find myself in, but it’s not impossible.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of the darkest periods of my life and creative was around 2018-2019 both my parents passed away a year apart starting with my mother. In a lot of ways my parents were pillars in my life that not only believed in me as a creative but also as a person overall so losing them really pushed me into a space of depression, anxiety, and an emotional abyss that felt insurmountable.

In the midst of navigating the loss of my parents I also ended up losing an entire project that never released entitled “Naïve” due to hard drive issues and sample clearances. Also, during that time I was planning a tour with a few regional acts including my late brother “Crescendo”.

After years of therapy and experiencing a few more traumatic losses I finally feel like I’m catching some traction again. Since that season I’ve been able to drop 2 projects, went on that tour, built a community of like minded creatives, and most importantly have been able to keep going and bless others in the process.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to learn real quick was the difference between the creative aspect of creating music and the music business there is a great book I suggest every aspiring read entitled “Everything you need to know about the music business” by Donald Passman which put a lot of things into perspective for me.

A lot if not all of the major artists we love and admire have teams behind them and they very much run an efficient business operations now whether if the funding is out of pocket or from a label that’s another conversation completely. I would say though that was a lesson that changed my creative journey especially when I wanted to start scaling and build my audience while expanding my reach.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://javyxi.com/
• Instagram: @Javy_XI
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IamJavyXI/