JAY A lets us in on his relationship with Amina (HBR presenter)

So, this is the second part of the Ghafla interview with fast rising rapper, JAY A. He is adored by the ladies, and respected by the fellas. Now comes the really interesting part. Check out how our guest interviewer got the truth from him.

WINNIE: Alright, if you weren’t an artiste, what would you be doing? Apart from being a student..
JAY: (just laughs…really?) I would probably be doing stuff to do with IT.

WINNIE: I’m talking entertainment… like can you act?
JAY: No, I cannot act. But I’d like to try that someday.

WINNIE: your music videos are so full of action; can you convince me that you actually cannot act?
JAY: Yeah, that one… it just happens, but don’t get it twisted, I just ain’t a good actor, but I never
follow a script for my videos, I just do what I wanna do and it comes out great!

WINNIE: What songs don’t you listen to?
JAY: I cannot stand country music.

WINNIE: So what genre of music do you listen to?
JAY: I listen to lots of things, literally. Hip Hop, RnB, Ragga..

WINNIE: RnB, are you the emotional kind?
JAY: Nope, I am not.

WINNIE: Ever cried coz of a chic?
JAY: I can’t lie, yeah…once. And I like putting it out there so everyone knows that am also human. It
was a relationship issue, yeah, I know…

WINNIE: Did she know you cried?
JAY: No, and she probably never will know I did, though we still talk.

PERSONAL LIFE:

WINNIE: Where did you grow up?
JAY: I grew up in Nairobi, Lavington.

WINNIE: So you are a typical Nairobi boy?
JAY: hell yeah!

WINNIE: What does your family think of your career? As a musician, especially your folks.
JAY: Uhh, starting off was the hard bit, they had reservations about the whole thing.

WINNIE: who exactly had issues? Mum, dad, or both?
JAY: My folks, both of them had issues, I think coz its music and all you know.

WINNIE: What kinds of issues? Girl stuff, school or all of that?
JAY: I don’t know how to put it, but parents just don’t like things like that, typically…

WINNIE: OK, so how did you cope with that?
JAY: I just did my thing, kept pushing, until one day they eased up on me.

WINNIE: That’s cool, so do they support your music now?
JAY: Yeah, right now they support me fully… my folks actually pay for all my music projects. They
fund everything I do.

MUSIC VIDEO

Amina.

WINNIE: Is there any chemistry between you and the lady on that ‘On Me’ Video?
JAY: (laughs..) Amina…..To me she is just like a big sister.

WINNIE: mmhhh..and that’s it?
JAY: Seriously, she is like a siz to me… and my manager.

WINNIE: Rumor has it that you two have been spotted a couple of times looking a little too cosy for an
artiste-manager relation’
JAY: Where was that? Mmhhh Amina, we have to be together coz we work together, that’s basically
it. We did a track together, and we usually have to perform and stuff, that’s why we spend a lot of
time together.

WINNIE: OK, I will buy that, what about the lady featured in the ‘On Me’ video she so fine… and the
chemistry is noticeable all through the song.
JAY: Oohh, she is just my pal, nothing more…no chemistry.

WINNIE: Really, huh?
JAY: Yeah, we are just friends working together.

WINNIE: What criteria do you use to select the chiks to feature in your video, they obviously are quite
something?
JAY: what do you mean quite something?

WINNIE: Simply put, good looking.
JAY: Actually, we just know those fit for the videos, and I have a team that helps me do the picking,
that’s something people don’t know. We all come together, talk about the video concept and all,and
we make a collective decision on how everything should be.

WINNIE: Do you audition people for your music videos?
JAY: Yeah, at times we do, like we plan to shoot my next video real soon, for the song ‘Imperial flow’
and we are halfway done picking the cast.

WINNIE: What’s the criterion for picking them?
JAY: You just have to be presentable.

RAP STYLE

WINNIE: Why don’t you ever rap in Swahili?
JAY: I don’ do Swahili coz I suck at it.

WINNIE: I just heard you speak Swahili now, and you don’t suck at it.
JAY: OK. People don’t know I’m from coast…so Swahili is our thing, but apart from the basic spoken
one, I cannot rap in Swahili, because I have spent my entire life in Nairobi (remember he was born
and brought up in Lavington).

WINNIE: Would anyone convince you to do Swahili?
JAY: Nope, since it’s also contrary to my target audience. I intend to appeal to the world wide
audience, and I want them to understand what my song says.