Sixshot.com: Hey! How’s it going?
Jacka: What’s up? I’m just chillin’

Sixshot.com: Ok. I hear you’re about to drop an album soon. What’s the title of the album?
Jacka: The title is “The Jack Artist” and umm… it’s an independent album…you know what I’m saying…I’m putting it together by myself…you know and a couple of producers.

Sixshot.com: How many tracks are on the album?
Jacka: 18

Sixshot.com: 18? Who’s being featured?
Jacka: Featured so far I got Cormega, Yukmouth and the Mob Figaz.

Sixshot.com: What’s it like growing up in the Bay area?
Jacka: Growing up in the Bay area it’s cool. It gets kind of ruff because the cost of living is so expensive?

Sixshot.com: Is it really? I wouldn’t have thought that.
Jacka: Nah. It’s one of the most expensive places to live and um…so you know when things get ruff it’s just like any other urban inner city scene, same as everywhere else.

Sixshot.com: Let’s get back to this album. I listened to a couple of tracks off the album and I noticed a lot of paraphernalia talk and it seems as you were almost an expert…does that have anything to do with how you came up?
Jacka: Oh yeah. It’s something that I experienced. A lot of people talk about the dope game and stuff like that…but I hit it from a different angle cuz’ I talk about th e lifestyle the real drug life because you know I got a lot of friends that ain’t here, some doing time behind drugs and stuff like that…but it’s like one of the only ways in the Bay area that people can umm…survive because you got to have a lot of money out here…like, either you gonna live really poor or you’re gonna do something about it and you’re gonna try to make a better way. Most of the time it’s dope, because it’s like the easiest way to come up out here. It’s right in your face…it ain’t no big movement they putting it together to stop it…it looks like they just helping by letting it continue to flood the streets or whatever so…yeah it’s like a big problem out here…the drugs….and everything…that’s probably the number one cause for all these deaths that’s happened out here.

Sixshot.com: At what point in your life did you start rapping?
Jacka: Umm…probably when…I really put a stamp on it when I was eleven years old…what really made me do it …I knew that I wanted to do something. It seemed like the type of thing that was being offered at the time for me to do was the type of stuff that I couldn’t picture myself doing….you know…you know how it is when you just got your mother raising you…no positive male role models and the people that you look up to are the people out there in the streets because they got all the stuff that you want so the closest people to you are the people in the streets and your mind is made up right there so you know when you get old enough to start…you’re just making a decision. I was like 11 years old when I started to rap because I started uh….seeing all these dudes in the dope game and they looked just like the rappers…you know what I’m saying…so I showed them that I could rap…making a few dollars…so I kept it up and I told my mom that what I was gonna do and I wasn’t gonna finish school.. I’m not saying this was the wisest decision in the world to make cuz’ I feel like I’m not living my dream just because I chose to rap. I really wanted to be a super star at 16 now that would have been my dream, but being the lifestyle that I chose…you know…this music business which leads into this drug business, whatever it is you just get caught up in this lifestyle and it ends up taking a little more time…you know…you end up going to jail. It’s a lot of stuff you got to do to get yourself together and you don’t realize that living this life you don’t have any pension plans. Nothing is fixed in your future, so every move you make has to be for your future or you gonna end up slain like some of the cats you know…

Sixshot.com: But at what age did you just say “fuck the bullshit” and do what you love doing so much?
Jacka: When I really started writing and hitting the studio…I was fifteen. That’s when I started making my first songs and umm….this dude was putting out this compilation album in the Bay area and he had me and my little cousin do a song. I had a producer back then and he was like twelve. And he was a real respected dude even back then as a producer.

Sixshot.com: Word?
Jacka: Yeah, cuz we was like the only dudes in this town- as far as the Bay are in a place called Pittsburg California-we was like the only dudes rapping and making beats. So you know that people was pulling for us, they wanted us to make it.

Sixshot.com: Can you compare this album with your first? Has your style grown?
Jacka: yeah. It’s grown a lot, but it’s still the same type of album that I wanted to reach the same type of crowd you know what I’m saying? The first album that I put out I really made it exactly for the streets only. A real street album…you know? So, I wasn’t trying to have not one radio song on that album or nothing commercial, I wanted to have straight realism on the album, just so people could love it. You know they can grow on it, they live the type of things that I talked about not only am I talking about certain things that people are living and going through everyday but I’m speaking on ways the can change also so it wasn’t like I was leading them into the fire but you got to really be…they say “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” so you got to be “a sheep in wolves clothing” in order to talk to people from the streets you got to be them…you got to live just like them and let them see another side of you so they’ll know that ain’t the only thing that you do. I mean you may not change everybody but a few people will.

Sixshot.com: OK
Jacka: so this album is also street but the songs are more powerful because as you grow you gain mort knowledge. The songs are a little more powerful than the last album.

Sixshot.com: So do you think that the things that you’ve gone through molded you as a person and as an artist?
Jacka: Yeah. Because it really just showed you how to be a survivor…how to survive and you know living in that type of business you really got to know how to read people it ain’t like you just get into something with somebody-it’s kind of hard because people are snakes. So, yeah it molded me a little cuz it gave me more game on what I was talking about.

Sixshot.com: Are you doing any promo tours?
Jacka: Yeah. I got a couple of things coming up…umm… I was mainly gonna hit the West Coast and the Midwest on a little promotional tour for my album. We got a lot of people that fool with us in the Midwest and the West Coast so we set up a 13 city tour.

Sixshot.com: Just small venues or…
Jacka: Yeah, whatever…we can perform with who ever…when I be going to the Midwest, it’s like I be opening up- I’d probably open up for the main act like Lil’ Jon or somebody like that, so I get pretty good exposure doing it, but at the same time it’s still kind of hard because uh…. If a lot of people haven’t heard of you…that’s your start right there…so you have to make a pretty big impact at the time because if you got a big headliner coming on after you it is easy to be forgotten.

Sixshot.com: You’ve been around for a while- It seems to be a large resurgence of old school rappers and a lot of them feel they’re not getting their due props. Do you agree with that?
Jacka: I agree to an extent because you know certain rappers they come out- older rappers you gotta respect them, but they want to come out again after they stop keeping it real with the streets like they came out and at first they was hella tight but then as the years go by people go pop and start doing a lot of commercial stuff and then they wonder why people don’t like them no more. Some of the old school artist that have never done that and have always kept it real you know they always gonna be. You know somebody like Slick Rick, he’s like my favorite rapper and he never got enough credit. He was like one of the rawest rappers from the East Coast, but these young dudes today they don’t really know who he is. It’s a whole other generation and they only know what’s going on now and the music is so different. You know the music is much better now to the young dudes that they really don’t pay attention to the older stuff so they probably wouldn’t know none of the older dudes. It’s probably hard on them but I feel like the dudes that kept it real are still in the game, they’ll be alright- but for those who didn’t they got to realize that once you stop fooling with the streets and fooling with where you came from…they’re not gonna respect you the same…the youngsters ain’t gonna know who you are, because ain’t nobody gonna keep your legacy going.

Sixshot.com: A lot of negativity is surrounding hip hop these days and its treatment of women. How do you feel about hip hop and women?
Jacka: I grew up around women, like I had uncles and cousins positive male role models but I didn’t see them quite as often as I did the dudes on the streets and that’s where they get those attitudes from…the people on the streets. They see what people on the streets are doing and make songs about that. They probably aren’t living like that as far as disrespecting women-but they see it happening and they rap about it. I personally don’t like it though…you know….you can say a few things about the girls that carry themselves like that but it’s a lot of real women out there. You got to think about the real ones and do stuff for them.

Sixshot.com: I agree. Most of the guys that I’ve asked pretty much said the same thing. What’s next for you? The album drops in March and then promo after that? Any up and coming projects or features?
Jacka: I got a few features coming up. I got this guy in Ohio name Alberchino. I’ve known him 5-6 years now.

Sixshot.com: Oh yeah! What part of Ohio?
Jacka: Ok. They got some dope rappers in Akron. Some of the tightest rappers I’ve heard came from the Ohio area. A lot of people don’t know about them though.

Sixshot.com: They don’t get a lot of exposure which is unfortunate. I grew up between overseas and Ohio. Any plans to travel overseas?
Jacka: yeah. I definitely want to go overseas. I want to go to Australia…that’s something that we’ve been working on getting set up this year. Tours overseas- in stores, however they move we’re ready to do something like that. But as far as what I have planned now, I have a artist named Lil’ Chuck from Dallas, Texas and he’s pretty nice with the flow so I am trying to develop him…you know…get him right, he’s getting ready to get out of school {high school} and he’ll have time to go on the road and do everything he got to do to become a successful artist and at the same time I’m gonna show him the ropes, so he’ll know how to run a business.

Sixshot.com: okay. It was great talking with you thanks for the different insight. I wish you the best of luck.
Jacka: I appreciate everything. Thank you and take care.

Sixshot.com: You too.