Welcome to Sui Generis!
Nikke Stiletto: We’re here to shine the spotlight on PrevYou tonight! How are you?
PrevYou: Doing very well!
NS: Tell me a little about yourself and how you got started in the music business.
P: Ok well my official gov name is Paseon Jones. And I started about 18 years ago doing music with my father. He’s a DJ. Right now I just do music that’s good for the soul. I’ve been all over; as of late I was in California for a little bit. In San Diego. Doing music, moved back to Buffalo. We were touring all over New York City. It’s just a really good time in my career right now.
NS: How did you come up with the name “PrevYou”?
P: Me and my dad actually came up with it together. When I first came out and started doing music for real my dad was managing me. And how we came up with it was my dad [suggested] the name ‘Preview’ and I didn’t want to go with just the regular spelling of it. He came up with the spelling of it and from there we just started going with the concept that everything I’m giving you is a preview of what’s to be. At this point in my career I know that I haven’t accomplished everything. I know I will eventually get to that point but until I get to that point where you’re getting the full grand viewing of whatever it is that I’ll accomplish in my career, for now you’re getting previews of me. Everything that’s going on in my life, what I’m going through personally and as an artist.
NS: Ok! Wow! There’s a lot thought put into your name!
P: Thank you…
NS: I see that you’re from New York, but what made you want to go to California when you started pursuing your music career full-time?
P: I felt that California would be a great place to get a different type of buzz. Being from the east coast a lot of times you have this closed mind-set of what’s around you. Especially being from upstate, it’s really cold, a dark place. You have New York City eight hours away and for some reason people in New York think that “this” is it. You don’t need to do anything anywhere else. But I thought that going out to California would expand my reach and my fan base. Going to Cali was a great move for me as far as my mind-set and where I wanted to go with my music because you’re getting both sides. Cali has a whole different swag than the east coast. The music is totally different and I believe that going there actually fuses those two coasts and it gave me a better sound for myself.
NS: Ok, well you know I’m kinda partial to California because I’m from there! So my comments about California might be a little biased! [Laughter]
P: [Laughter]
NS: But yeah, I think you can definitely get to another side of the music business by going to California because it’s a different type of music scene in Cali than it is in New York.
P: Yeah, it is.
NS: Kudos to you for making that trek out to California.
What’s the biggest motivational factor to keep going for you in your career?
P: I would say the biggest motivational factor in my career…and I know people might not want to hear it and they might not believe it, but it’s just been God. I feel like from a young kid I’ve always been told that I was gonna be successful and that’s something that constantly plays in my head. And I feel like to have faith in God I [must] have faith in [where my career is going] and that’s something that honestly keeps me going no matter what it looks like.
NS: Cool! Do you feel like your music can be described by a typical genre or do you feel your music covers multiple genres?
P: I feel like my music covers multiple genres at times because I’m a person that listens to a bunch of genres. So a lot of times a certain genre might influence me to write a certain song and that genre [will stand out] in that song.
NS: How did your single ‘Already Stars’ come about?
P: Wow…um I was doing a talent show. It was a talent search type of show hosted in San Diego with Sylvon Marshall (the manager of Cali Swag District), DJ Billy Knight, and Mr. Key to the City, he was actually hosting it, and I had the great opportunity of having an interview along with one of the other artists Dame Luke. He gave me some feedback, which I appreciated, because you know time is money and we’re on two different calibers in the game right now. I’m just coming out in this thing and he knows about the business and has been around for a long time. He gave me some advice in reference to where I wanted to go with my music and me thinking about that and me having a song that spoke [to] that commercially. And there’s nothing wrong with that because sometimes you have to build a bigger fan base with the music that you do, but [at the same time] stay true to yourself. So I after that show I went back and literally made the beat that week and three weeks later came up with the song and we recorded it. And at the time I was recording at J Watt Studio in San Diego and J Watt was a part of that as well. Then we just performed it! The song came out, we thought it was legit, we brought it to DJ Billy Knight, he told us he loved it so we performed it at the next show and from there we just promoting heavily, doing shows with it, we put it up on iTunes and Amazon and we’ve [received] a great response from it. So it was def something different that I’ve done at that stage in my career.
NS: So lot of collaboration came together on this single. Do you feel like some of the industry veterans that you may run into are willing to share knowledge to help new artists or do you feel they want new artists to kind of pave their own way?
P: I think it depends. It varies. You get some people who will give you advice and try to lead you down the right path and some people who want you to just make your own way. But that’s just in life. Not everyone is going to be as willing. But at the same time, I don’t think that people who have [already] made it can give you a recipe for how to “make it”. Sometimes it was just luck, sometimes it was meant to be, sometimes they were just in the right place at the right time. So they can’t really offer you much but to continue to work hard, make the music that you want to , make sure you’re responding to your fan base and what they like and hopefully preparation meets opportunity and good luck will come about.
NS: Do you consider yourself to be an indie artist or and artist who’s main goal is to become a mainstream artist?
P: I believe right now at this stage I’m definitely an up and coming artist. Semi-underground as far as my roots [are concerned]. I’m not even looking for a “record deal”, but a distribution deal would be lovely! But I think that would be my main focus. In this generation I think a lot of people have learned that its better to have your own business and start working towards that. Especially as young as we are, we’ve seen the failures and the prosperity of our elders but we’re just trying to do it in a better way. A lot of people I know who are my age either own their own business or are trying to own their own business. That definitely motivates me to continue to grow my brand and my business.
NS: Is your business just “PrevYou” the artist or do you have a separate entertainment or artist management company that you’ve signed yourself to?
P: As of right now I’m signed to myself. I do have a manager, Maurice Nash Consulting and he’s out of San Diego as well. I would just say right now my business sis to be an artist. So I promote myself, I promote my merchandise and I promote my music. That’s everything that my business offers. It’s myself, my music, my brand. I mean it just consists of that. I make beats, I produce, I sing…I’m just making music.
NS: Who are some artists or groups you are looking forward to working with?
P: Immediately? Definitely people I respect locally. I would love to work with Thugzman, he’s a local artist here. As far as mainstream, man one day I would love to work with Nas, definitely Eminem, even throw a track in there with Cannabis. Some of the real lyricists that I’ve seen growing up and idolizing.
NS: Speaking of Eminem, I know you’ve heard his latest. Tell me about your thoughts on his album.
P: Man Eminem’s album is crazy just because if you listen to the whole album, you kinda see exactly where he was coming from as far as the creativity. He wanted to bring you something that embodied the Marshall Mathers LP, the original one, but to also show you that, ok, I’ve come from here, but this is what I am now. But you still feel like, I mean even listening to the album on some tracks it takes you back to that original LP or whatever you were doing in your life at that point in time, it just takes you back for a second because he still gives you those punch lines, the different voices, the odd pop mix with hip hop. I mean it’s just beautiful and the lyricism in it is crazy! And a lot of people say oh well he only raps about calling girls B’s and you know things of that nature, but I think that’s the funny playful side of it but if you look deep into the song, like when he was talking about his mother…it makes you reflect on it. Anytime I can relate to a song and I haven’t even been through that, that’s music! Like I had no issues with my mother growing up or anything but listening to that song its like I’m relating to this in a sense but you just feel it so much! So I just thought the album was great.
NS: Ok ok! So what do you think about Slaughterhouse?
P: Aw Man Slaughterhouse is…
NS: Dope, right?
P: …messing up the game right now…
NS: Right, Right….and, again, I’m partial to Cali so Crooked I is one of my fav’s! Even though I love Joe Buddens, but, you know what I’m saying Slaughterhouse is the business right now.
P: They are doing it! A lot of people are hating on them because they’re underground…but, man [they’re] some of the best lyricists in the game. I always say right now there’s too much “Molly Music”. And not to say that I don’t respect it, business is business, period.
NS: Yeah…
P: You know, I’m still driving in a 2009 Honda and these boys are doing it! They got money. So you gotta respect the entertainment of it. But as far as being a real fan, myself, I’m going more towards lyricism and people who have a message instead of just talking about whats in the club. But when you’re in the club you love that music…
NS: Right…
P: I get amp’d up to it, too!
NS: Yeah there’s a place for everything.
P: Oh I agree! But when I’m in the club, I don’t wanna hear some deep rap about what’s going on…[Laughter]
NS: [Laughter] Yeah you trying to get into my mental and I’m tying to relax!
P: Yeah it would be pretty depressing!
NS: If there’s one thing you could do right this minute with your career, money aside, what would that be?
P: Money aside? Well, this past summer I came out with this single called “The Finish Line” and we did the song and donated some of the proceeds to a couple of different organizations that had to do with the Boston Marathon and what was happening with Trayvon Martin at the time.
NS: Wow congrats on that!
P: Yeah, a lot of people worked on that. We got free studio time. I was in Vegas at the time when I recorded “Vegas in Cali” but the girl I had singing on that, Ms Nikki, she was in Buffalo, NY…upstate…Stutsman, who runs Urban America Media Studio, came in wanted to be a part of this charitable song that I was doing and gave us free studio time for her to record the chorus for that song and mixed and mastered it, sent it back up to San Diego where I recorded it with J Watt and sent it back to Buffalo, NY to get the final mixing and mastering of the album and we put it out. I would love to be able to perform that for a large audience. Any people who have something to do with that movement with Trayvon and any of the victims of people affected by the Boston Marathon. I think it’s a deep song and I would just like to put that song out there.
NS: Ok well check out the “Crimes of Police” Facebook page and we’ll talk some more about that offline.
P: I definitely appreciate that.
NS: Yeah, definitely, anything I can do to support artists out here trying to do their thing.
And where can we find you on social media and what do you have coming up in the future?
P: Stay tuned for “Quality Over Quantity: Vol. II”. Volume one is currently out there for free for the fans. You can go on www.soundcloud.com/prevyou and get the mix tape free. www.theprevyou.com is back up and you can download it from there and you can find the links to any of the singles I have on iTunes.
I’m on Facebook: “Paseon”, which is my personal page, or the fan page “PrevYou”. You can find me on Twitter @PrevYou, on Instagram, “The PrevYou”, and also, if you go to www.datpiff.com you can get the mix tape for free there as well.
NS: That’s what’s up! Thank you for coming on Sui Generis and we look forward to having you on the Blasturthoughts Radio show in the future as well!
P: Thank you!
*This interview is courtesy of Nikke Stiletto, LLC and is for entertainment purposes only*
BlastUrThoughts & Nikke Stiletto Presents: Sui Generis Music 