Jay Rock had some heavy competition when he finally released his album Redemption on June 15th-- the TDE-signed rapper shared his release day with Nas (Nasir), and then, unexpectedly, Jay-Z and Beyonce (Everything Is Love) too. Yet, even with these OGs attempting to snatch the spotlight (not maliciously, of course, it just is what it is) from East Side Johnny, his album has perservered through -- without referring to numbers, it seems that Redemption is the album that is still in rotation and discussion, on top of already being praised critically upon its release.
Jay is headed on tour in support of the album this Fall, but before that, he returned to NYC this past week in a continued run to promote the release. We were able to chop it up with him about some of the album details, from recurring topics like being broke and the struggle therein, as well as the idea of karma and how it pertains to his motorcycle accident.
While all the album's songs are pretty impactful, "Broke+-" is among the most.
"It took some time, it was a lot of thought process going on with that," Jay Rock says of the acronym he came up with for B-R-O-K-E (B is for the blood, R is for the ropes O is for oppression, K is for the kush, needed just to cope E is for the evolution, it's for this resolution). "You end it on evolution because at the end of the day it's all about growing and excelling, it's just life experiences that you go through, as time go on, you gotta keep growing. Nobody really stays the same, everybody grows, at some point in time."
How do you get to that stage of the acronym, though? Evolution is the most important part to get out of being 'broke' mentally or financially (or both), however it's also the most difficult. "Like I tell everybody, you just gotta find something to do, to occupy your time. You gotta get motivated." He adds, 'You gotta find something to do, that you're good at, and stick with it."
On album opener, "The Bloodiest," Jay Rock raps: "Tables turned, lessons learned, karma come back fast / Flipped off that bitch, milly rockin' the wheel / 200 thousand in the bank, straight to hospital bills."
"Basically, I was saying, things I probably done did to somebody growing up, or being in the streets doing what I had to do, you know what I mean, I wasn't no saint, I had to do what I had to do, so I felt like, damn, this God punishing me, this my karma right here, getting into this accident, something bad done happened to me. But you know, hey, everything happens for a reason. I just felt like, God gave me a second chance."
What you put out there, will be returned to you in some way or another. Be careful.
