We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jayden Blair. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jayden below.

Jayden, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

I just want to be remembered for being a good person. Not perfect, but flawed. Not a hero, but a human. Not powerful, but meaningful. I just want to be there for those who I was able to reach during my lifetime. When I’m reviewing a piece of art like music or film, I’m thinking of an emotional connection it can create. I know how much lyrics and characters meant to me growing up, and how much they kept me from going off the deep end. With that being said, I want to help give the lyrics and characters that I think are meaningful more recognition.

I want to be remembered for showing love towards those pieces of art through my opinion and the words I write. Music and film are my passion, and I want to express it.

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

My name is Jayden Blair. I am a Music and Film Journalist. I focus mainly on writing reviews on music focused around black culture, and any films that I find interesting. I’m currently attempting to start up my social media pages, but for the time being I still write reviews. Rap/Hip-Hop has always been my favorite genre of music, so that is what I focus on most with some of my favorite artists being J. Cole, Nas, H.E.R., Alicia Keys, and Kendrick Lamar.

Music has always been my first love, and it has been a voice circulating in my head for as long as I remember. Film has always been like a silent partner for me as well, always influencing me in ways I never knew until I looked back all the things I’ve loved in my life. Anime as well has become a huge part of my life, as I love the different art styles and themes portrayed that I don’t think live action can always do. Movies, TV shows, and anime, have all played a big part in my desire to tell stories through my words, and have even made me appreciate that factor in the music I listen to. Roll Bounce, Snowfall, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood would be the most prominent ones.

I’ve recently dabbled into interviewing actors and music artists to broaden my horizons. I would love to continue doing that as much as possible, especially if it means shining the light on the underrated and unseen.

My writing has been consistently growing ever since I was younger, and they’re still growing as I learn new writing styles as a journalist and story teller. They are apart of my everyday life.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Writing as a career did not start out as the goal. When I first went to college I went in the Audio Production as my major because I wanted to make music, and although I knew I enjoyed writing words of a conscious meaning, I knew I couldn’t rap or sing, so I wanted to produce the beats behind the music. Music helped me through a lot of dark times, and I wanted to give back to it in some way.

I soon realized that the classes at MT were a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. At the same time, I was going through a tough breakup and didn’t know how to cope. A close friend of mine suggested I write out my feelings, put them somewhere and lock them away. So I started journaling and it became very therapeutic for me in the long run.

As the end of my sophomore year was approaching, I realized I was not going to make it through my major if I was struggling as much as I was, so I decided to switch majors. Then it became a matter of switching majors and figuring out what I wanted to do. I knew I loved writing, and I loved telling stories, so after some soul searching I picked Journalism as my major with a concentration of Media Studies

After a little time passed, I eventually figured out what I wanted to do. I would read them all the time, I talked about it all the time, so I figured why not? Writing about music and movies became my joy. I love doing it so much it’s just part of my pass time now. I’ve since started doing it more frequently and have tried to start promoting it more and more.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

As a man, especially as a black man, I was taught to hold in my emotions. The world is a rough and cruel place, and due to that I need to be as tough and sturdy as the buildings I walk by. I can’t let everyone, or anyone for that matter, see my emotions or else I will not make it in this world. Not professionally or socially. It’s funny sitting here thinking about how much that was ingrained in my head.

There are a lot of different stories I could tell that would show me unlearning this lesson, and some stories that are proof that not everyone is capable of holding in their emotions.

The most prominent story is still fairly new, and although by this point I had unlearned my aforementioned lesson, I hadn’t put it into actual effect.

For the longest I’ve had this deeply rooted feeling that I’m not good enough. A real overshadowing insecurity that has plagued me for so much of my life. Everything I would do was to prove to myself that I am enough. As I realized what I thought was reality was nothing more than an insecurity, I eventually discovered the source of my insecurity. I realized who was the source of the trauma.

I’m not going to say who that person is out of respect for them, but once I realized who I blamed for it I grew so much more resentment towards them. Even knowing all the good they had done for me, it hurt knowing that I’m not good enough for them. But I held on to that resentment, and I let all the negative emotions and automatic thoughts pile up like garbage.

It had grown until one night that person called me talking about all the things I didn’t want to talk about, all the things that triggered me, all the things that would trigger my insecurity. And it created this rage in me, even in the moment I knew the level of anger I had was irrational. Once I had gotten off the phone with them, I paced around my house as my resent just seeped out of me. I paced until those balled up fists turned into watery eyes pouring tears. I went to my grandmother who could see the conflict in me, and she held me in her arms as I drenched her sleeve with a river of emotion. It was that night that I knew I had to do something different. I knew at that point that not only was this idea of masculinity a myth, but above all else it wasn’t for me. It’s not something anybody should feel like they have to do.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: kxng_jay_blair
• Other: Soon to be creating a less personal Instagram account.