Artist Profile: Jay Exodus
Jay Exodus, the lyrically intent rapper from Buffalo, New York, has been in the game for over a decade now, but, since his artistic re-invigoration during the pandemic, has steadily been improving and becoming more comfortable in his sound, making a name for himself both locally and in the global hip-hop scene.
As a child, his love for music was founded through his parents, who continuously listened to music from the ‘70s and ‘80s: an influence that endures in his personal rotation today. He has stark memories of his parents listening to AM 1400, a local radio station, and can still recall the unique effect the AM frequency had on the classics played on the station.
Therefore, hip-hop didn’t enter his life until he grew old enough to develop his own taste. Acts like Clipse, Outkast, and Three 6 Mafia dominated his friends’ tape and CD collections and, through them, slowly seeped into his own musical consciousness.
Yet, it was the rise of Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y, around 2010, that truly opened his eyes to the possibilities of becoming a musician himself.
“[They] were the biggest influence for me to actually do that sh*t on a professional level; seeing them just do everything by themselves. Everything was independent from the videographers and dropping their own music videos on YouTube… they was breaking a lot of barriers and showing that you could basically just do it yourself. You didn't need a major [label].”
He began keeping rhyme notebooks, and, when a friend noticed his interest, invited him to his home studio to try to record some tracks. It was there, in the Langfield Projects in Buffalo, that Exodus first learned the basics of music-making, including breath control, vocal doubling, and ad-libbing.
From there, he dropped his first EP, and, over the years following, continued to drop projects and build up his following around Buffalo, even filming a music video at a Buffalo Bills tailgate that got significant traction online.
However, toward the end of the 2010s, Exodus’ life was at a crossroads. He had developed a chronic stomach condition: one that was threatening the quality of his daily life and had taken him out of music almost entirely.
After going from doctor to doctor, no solution was found, and Exodus had a stark realization prompted by a dream; if he didn’t do something soon, he could die. The next week, he met a relative of the late Honduran healer Dr. Sebi, who put him on a plant-based diet with special herbs to aid his digestion.
After a year, Exodus was miraculously healed, and, as he returned to his passion, felt personally re-invigorated.
“As a whole, as a person, as a being, [I felt renewed]. Music-wise, I felt lost as f*ck when I came back. The whole climate of music had changed. The whole climate of the underground scene, what it looks like, a lot of stuff had changed. I had to re-find myself in this place again.”
In 2020, Exodus made his triumphant return to hip-hop, spending days and months grinding in home studio set-ups spaced between different cities while finding his sound and comfort on the mic again.
Now, having released eight projects since his triumphant return, Exodus has clearly found his footing yet again, and, as a veteran of the rap game, displays a unique confidence on each and every track he flows on.
With his projects Art of Expression and Flowers Never Bloom Before The Sun Comes, as well as features from Mick Jenkins and Conway the Machine, already in the books this year, Exodus’ momentum is growing, and, as he builds toward his next project JayWalking: The Album, he knows that he is arriving upon a culmination of all of the sounds and abilities that he has established over the years.
“This sh*t is like a masterpiece to me. This is my favorite project today, between this and Art of Expression… I do a lot of different things; I'm very versatile, and I feel like this album is the perfect blend of all the different things that I do.”
