We recently connected with Khalid Jackson and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Khalid, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Covid played the greatest part in how I learned how to make music. I was going to my cousin’s house to record little unfleshed out ideas, but once covid came that wasn’t possible anymore. If I wanted to continue creating I had to learn how to do it on my own. YouTube, along with trial and error became my best resources. I’d study how to engineer myself and then make song after song which showed improvement over time.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m KAYEMJAE fka khxnid! fka .dani. I promise this name is sticking haha. I’m an artist from Austin, TX and I’ve been making music for about 6 years. I originally tried my hand at producing but found that I was really bad at that. My cousin gave me the opportunity to try rapping at his house and since then I’ve been working on different projects with different people from all around. One thing I think sets me apart is that I’m often just talking about things in my life. A lot of times people are trying to push a certain image but I’ve always either been venting, journaling, or having fun. The work I’m most proud of is a project called 19 that’s up on my soundcloud. In 5 days I wrote, recorded, and “mixed”(It’s not mixed well haha) my first project and it ended up getting some coverage locally. If there was one thing I want people to know it would be that I hope you feel something when you listen to my music, that’s all.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing the reactions of live crowds. Seeing people enjoy themselves to my music is more rewarding than any streaming numbers or views. Another thing is when people decide to follow me from a performance or go listen to my music in their own time.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I think the best thing society could do in this current time is stop enabling people who think artificial intelligence is the next step in creation. Put in the effort, learn how to create not how to prompt. I’d also like if some of these streaming algorithms were tailored more toward discovery instead of playing the same songs all the time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://whoiskmj.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/KAYMJAE
- Twitter: https://x.com/kaymjae
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KAYEMJAE
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/KAYEMJAE
