IN CONVERSATION WITH JAFARIS

Words by Katie Mulvihill

I was lucky enough to get the chance to catch up with up and coming Dublin rapper, Jafaris to get the full scoop on his career to date and future plans.

Why the name Jafaris?

So I was Profound for a while and I wanted to keep that but on Soundcloud, I kept looking up my name but there was a bunch of Profounds and I knew that was a problem, then someone on Youtube commented on one of my videos saying “Yo we have an artist called Profound you guys have to battle for the name”. So I looked him up and he had way more of a following than me so I was like alright cool, then I went on Google trying to find a different name and I went in alphabetical order but went straight to ‘J’, I found Jafaris straight away and I looked up the meaning which was “The deeper need to inspire” and knew this was what I am about so I took it and ran. I looked it up recently and that name does not exist apart from me. 

What age did you start writing your own lyrics?

The influence at music at first and wanting to sound like other artists so I just started writing about girls and stuff like that. I started letting the interest be known to my parents but they weren’t on it at all, my dad compromised because I wasn’t budging and said “If you’re going to do the music thing at least make music your parents can listen to” So I started writing more poetry and started going into more introspective and then it snowballed the first time I dropped something on Facebook, the reaction was good so I started dropping all the time.

Was there a particular song or point in your career when you began to see a big following? 

I think it all comes in waves before I was Jafaris I went by the name Profound and two songs that pushed my music a bit further were, the first one was on Soundcloud and it was called ‘Cheesecake’ that just brought a whole different crowd and another song ‘Needed’ that brought a whole other crowd then, which was kind of like the transition song into Jafaris. Then I dropped ‘Velvet Cake’ my first ep, I got a big following. It just kept building and the time where I felt I had a core following was after Longitude.

How do you feel about the Irish music industry?

What industry… There is obviously an industry but it’s not really catered to my music, it’s not catered to the urban scene, not yet anyway, I feel like it’s going in that direction but it’s a slow burner and the only people who have the mentality to change it are the young people and the people who are in the scene but they need the people who are actually in the seats to make a difference. 

What do you think the difference between the Irish crowd and the London crowd would be?

There’s a huge difference, the Irish crowd is just so much more welcoming, they don’t care who’s on stage they will still give you love, but in London, you could be the sickest person but if they don’t know you they can’t connect to you. I did a show with Joy Crookes and it took the whole set for the crowd to finally warm up to me and afterwards they were giving me so much love and I was like “why didn’t you show me that love during the show?”

Where was your favourite place to shoot a music video?

L.A. was pretty cool, it was sick, we hadn’t planned to shoot a music video we actually just went for a holiday and spontaneously shot that video. We saw so many cool places that could have been there own video so I think when we go back it’s going to be an actual planned out video 

What was it like working with Joy Crookes?

It was cool, very random. She hit me up on Instagram and it was through her friend who found me, her friend works for BBC or something. She followed me, we started talking and I just so happened to be in London the week after we had met on Instagram and she asked to meet up when I was around so we met up but weren’t really planning to make music just meeting her and her friends, had food and just driving London. Out of nowhere, it was just me and her so she just started playing the keys and I started mumbling some stuff. We started telling each other a whole lot of stuff about relationships and then we came up with a song. 

Do you have any advice for someone starting up in any realm of life, similar to when you were starting into your music career?

There’s a lot to say I feel, I would say understand what you’re doing like music anyway because there are a load of people who get really pissed off that this person was blowing up because they’re not really serious with their music just doing it for clout. I would say figure out what your goal is, are you trying to make an impact or are you trying to get money. There are always going to be people who have needs and there is always going to be people who can meet those needs. Once you’ve figured that out just learn your industry, learn what you’re supposed to do and what makes people successful or read back on your history of who has made it, not to take literal things but it is a good mentality to have. I watch a lot of interviews and documentaries, it always gives me an extra boost every time, the idea that there is time and let me not rush too much, really perfect what I am trying to do, research as much as I need to, you look at people like Beyonce and she is so hands-on. In Ireland we are so babied, we always have someone in our corner. In the industry it feels like the general narrative is everyone has gone through something, everyone has gone through a struggle but their passion was a testament to that because they got out of it

Do you ever feel like you don’t acknowledge your success?

I feel like up until this point I didn’t really know what I wanted to get out of music I was just doing it for the sake of doing it so whenever something happened it just felt like another thing. I don’t know what that moment is that I’m waiting to get excited for. I just make the music and everything else around is just a bonus Everyone else gets really excited about it and I have to be excited about it as well, it’s not like I’m not excited it just doesn’t feel satisfying. Everything just adds a whole layer of ego so if I start thinking about it too much I’ll start basking in everything I’ve done and I feel like I would lose the plot. I have cool people around me that always keep me grounded, always proud but never to make me bigger than them. Sometimes other people make me feel like I’m bigger or better than them and end up demeaning themselves 

How do you feel about Dublin’s nightlife going down and how do you think we could make it better?

There’s a big brain drain right now, everyone who can make a difference is leaving the country and everyone else who is still here and can possibly do something are so focused on all the problems “we don’t have the industry blah blah blah” like we know and we need more people to come up with solutions rather than pointing out problems that we all know already. Leaving is a cool solution for personal reasons but it doesn’t help the scene.