Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jesse Fairfax. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jesse, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
Creativity has always been genetic for me. My mom and dad are respectively a photographer and a musician who still practice their crafts past retiring from their day jobs. By the time I was a teenager, I was obsessive about the Hip-Hop culture my dad introduced me to in the early ’80s. On top of reading magazines like The Source and XXL, watching Yo! MTV Raps and BET’s Rap City, I spent practically every Friday and Saturday evening listening to New York radio at a time many still consider Hip-Hop’s pinnacle.
I thought it would be really cool to have a radio show and write about music so as to follow in the footsteps of those I looked up to, and while my writing gift was recognized by teachers in high school, I never really considered it professionally (I’ve always been an introvert, networking isn’t my strong suit to this day). Working with my first mentor publicist Dove Clark, she suggested I try it and helped me get started writing with AllHipHop.com towards the end of 2004. I wouldn’t actually begin to become a professionally recognized journalist until the winter of 2012 under extremely unique circumstances: someone’s utter lack of common sense had them take the liberty of plagiarizing self-published work of mine for a major platform. This revelation and the obvious ensuing commotion surrounding their bad decision ended up giving me my big break.
Jesse, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Much of my passion these days is directed towards covering album releases on my Instagram page (@jessereviewsmusic). For starters, I feel like my tastes are respected and people trust me to not only help them learn about new artists that may have not reached their radar, but most importantly give honest feedback on the insurmountable number of releases there are each week to keep up with. On average, at least 20-25 albums or EPs drop monthly that pique my interest and the average person is too busy with adulting (careers, child rearing, every other important time consuming thing) to even care about music the way they did at an earlier age. Luckily, my creative mind functions very differently from the average person and I’ve taken on the responsibility of keeping up for the benefit of whoever is paying attention. Im influential in some regards, but I can’t call myself an influencer (I know what an algorithm is, but I have no clue how to stand out within one and Im not sure Im eager to learn. I had a Gary Vee book about this topic but I also have undiagnosed ADHD which means I never read it), but I’ve organically grown a small crowd and Im excited at the thought of more people eventually embracing what I’ve been up to.
While I probably don’t self-promote enough, it’s possible that another reason I haven’t stood out from the pack is I don’t go as in depth as long form platforms, Instagram gives you 60 seconds unless you create a Reel, so I work within those confines: here’s what you should know about this artist and how I feel about their latest creation and maybe I’ll work a little bit of humor in there if I can. My present day job affords me the luxury of free time, so I’ve been more productive than ever on there lately.
Albums are rated on a percentage scale borrowed from my good friends at the Rap Rankings podcast. This is my personal choice for the greatest digital broadcast about rap, two good friends who dont share identical tastes attempt to rate and heavily analyze as many albums as humanly possible with song by song deep dives. A short episode for them is 5 hours, an episode covering a 20 minute Lil Wayne EP ran 13 hours because of their passion for discussing his heavy back catalog of unreleased songs. Also, I’ve been featured on the show quite a bit if you ever wanted to get a greater sense of my eccentric personality and off-color humor. As for how they and I rate albums, the simplest way to put it is we take the number of songs we liked on an album, along with how much we enjoy each song from a 1-10 rating system and take the average to determine a final score. For example, if I like 10 out 10 songs, that’s 100%, and if I rate every song on the album an 8, that’s 80% for a final score of 90%, sorry if this an excessive amount of detail for an interview about my work.
As well, since fall of 2018 I have been the lead curator for Dublab’s The Sweeter The Juice radio show. This was my dream station a few years into relocating to LA in 2012 and it was just my luck that my close friend local emcee and renaissance woman Ill Camille gained this opportunity and trusted me to take the lead once she saw my commitment. The goal here is to simply showcase my passion for good music, whether there’s the nostalgic value of a classic song or something new that Im sharing with listeners. I could have just done a ’90s Hip-Hop show blindfolded, but this experience has challenged me to work more diligently at becoming a true curator though I’ll never be satisfied with my knowledge base. Im always hungry to discover new music that amazes me and hopefully amazes others in turn, whether it’s current or something older that Im just finding out about for the first time. We’re on from midnight to 2 AM each second and fourth Thursday, and while it’s completely unreasonable to expect listeners to be awake at this time of the night, Dublab’s archive section has our whole back catalog of over 100 episodes.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I’ve seen musicians and people who considered themselves creatives hang everything up to get a day job, for me that’s never been an option. This isn’t something that can be turned off like a lamp, the bulb is always on when I go to sleep and as soon as I wake up. Being romantically involved with a creative doesn’t mean you’ll come second as a partner (assuming said creative is emotionally available with the ability to juggle both responsibilities), but there will be times where they’re consumed by a burning desire to create in order to feel a sense of emotional balance.
Most creatives work a day job for the sake of a paycheck which affords us self-sustenance, but we’re not driven by work that takes time away from our dreams. Our brains are wired differently and while our efforts are heroic in some regard, I don’t think most creatives consider themselves superior or more valiant than the average 9 to 5 person. We just want to be recognized and optimally paid for the things that we love doing, and it can be a challenge for a “normal” worker to understand this mindset, especially with creatives not necessarily reaping the fruits of their labor monetarily. I’ve made many strides, yet I still struggle with how to monetize the work I’ve committed my life to. Maybe it will require better networking, maybe I’ll organically be discovered by talks like this, either way I’m doing my best to enjoy the ride.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of my work is connecting with the people. Talented artists know they can rely on me to support them once they reach my radar, publicists can reach out to me and I’ve made friends with like minded people who understand how my mind works if at least on a small level.
Im not in this alone, I share community with good folks who are trying to get ahead and win with their integrity intact. I wouldn’t say we’re necessarily up against big corporations as mortal enemies, but big corporations don’t necessarily reward people driven by artistic merit unless we can make them lots of money. This leads to a bigger discussion about what society has come to value and expect from corporate backed Hip-Hop and R&B, an argument can certainly be made that this content isn’t healthy for daily human consumption even if it’s just entertainment. So I do the best I can to not only discuss what’s happening in music (without ever being angry or overly abrasive about things I don’t enjoy, I find that to be counterproductive even though loud personalities gain popularity) and provide alternatives in terms of albums I cover on Instagram and music that I play on our show.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/fromoldharlem
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessereviewsmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jessefairfax243
Image Credits
There are no image credits. These are personal photos.