We recently chopped it up with Canadian entrepreneur, Jay Honest. He is a man of many different passion’s/businesses. We talked with him about his beginnings, his grind, label, and where he plans to be in the future. Check it out below:
Where are you from?
My names Jay Honest from Ottawa, the capital of Canada
What’s it like being from there?
The city has its beautiful pieces and its broken pieces, like a puzzle, some are missing, such as city wide support even for basic things outside music, rising as a musician or rapper from my city is (in my opinion) harder than most places as canada has a small population, not many major label resources, and not much happens out here unless you live in Toronto or Vancouver.
Who are your Influences?
Because I had split parents, I had a wide range of musical influences growing up, from country to metal to pop and rap, Pac & Bone Thugz, to Three Days Grace & My Chemical Romance, to Ne-Yo & Chris Brown. These days I’d say I’m highly influenced by the more energetic mainstream rappers as that’s my musical preference, Rich the Kid , Tyga, SkiMask to name a few.
What makes you different from other artists?
I don’t have a team, since I began planning this back in 2012, I did it all alone, never had a big groups of friends that were into creating, in my city there isn’t a lot of that, and when you find it, they are already busy with their team. To say I’ve achieved 1.4m streams, played shows, have fans around the world and maintain my life thanks to my music, I’d say that makes me different, cause, regardless of what anyone says, thinks, the image they have placed on me or the doubt they have in their mind, I am too determined to stop trying until I succeed
How long have you been doing music?
Since I was extremely young, my bestfriend/brother was an extremely talented musician before his passing in 2018 (Rest In Peace Matthias Foks) , and he would always play music, he got me into it really… Age 6 i’d say was when i was writing songs, poems and formulating proper song templates, since then I’ve been experimenting and developing.
Talk to us about your label. What’s it called?
HONESTGANG, we’re a group of young talented individuals all chasing the same thing, happiness and success thru our passion. We have singers Nicki Tha Great & Devonté , Female Rapper Kvyybez & Rappers Millinnial X & Myself aswell as a group from Kenya finding great success right now called Sheddy Empire , you can find all them at www.honestgang.us/artists or on instagram @Nickithagreat @devontesworld @kvyybez @millinnialx @iamjayhonest @sheddyempire
How did it start and why?
This goes back to my bestfriend Matt, before he passed, our goal as kids growing up was to make a team of like minded people, and when he died, realizing I have a son, I needed to make this passion into a career to help sustain not only myself and my family but to help others do the same the way my brother would have wanted. I take no royalties from my artists, no percent cuts, no publishing, no masters, its UNHEARD OF in the game currently and its more of a family than a label.
What’s next for you?
I may have a project dropping very soon, before 2020 is over, or next week, who knows, I always have content for my audience wether its my hourly stories on instagram , my daily posts or on my youtube channel! But I see a major feature coming up!!
Anything else you’d like to say?
thank you to HipHopsRevival for the feature, thank you for reading and be sure to check me out @iamjayhonest on instagram and on spotify under ”Jay Honest” , listen to a couple songs, my catalogue is big and guaranteed to have atleast 1 song you will enjoy!!
Links:
Instagram: www.instagram.com/iamjayhonest
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6TF1QGLxM9VRrcEw1d6qyD?si=tBkjQBowRxCQ-1bgny22Yw
Newest Single: https://unitedmasters.com/m/cashguns
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK4grsY6FOiIqmyYOCfzzwg