Ejay Mallard
Who are you?
Hi everybody. I'm Ejay. I am a R&B recording artist, Houston, Texas.
How has Tupac inspired your music?
Tupac embraced everything that we as rebels want to be as artists, but he also represents a revolutionary mindset at the same time. That's definitely something I'm attempting to be more, at least as an artist. I want to remain as creative or as cutting edge and as not giving a fuck as possible. I also want to be revolutionary and changing and dynamic. I feel like when you see your Tupac, you don't think of just a rapper. You think of an icon. You think of an actual character whose story is more developed than just being a rapper.
“I have that rugged, bad boy vibe in R&B and definitely and it's kind of like oxymoronic because R&B's known to have those softer undertones or those love undertones.”
How would you describe your sound?
I have that rugged, bad boy vibe in R&B and definitely and it's kind of like oxymoronic because R&B's known to have those softer undertones or those love undertones. So people hear that rebellious, hood, negative, dark connotation in R&B music and think of it as dark R&B, but it's just a different form of expression. You have happy rap songs, you have dark rap songs. It's just different forms of expression. So I feel like it's still R&B, just a different way to express myself within the realm. I try to be honest. I used to, but I don't make music for other people anymore. Like I make music for myself. These songs are a reflection of what I wanted to hear at the time and , honestly, I could care less if anyone really listened to it. Not, I'm not trying to be a little cocky shit, but honestly, at this time, this sound is missing from what R&B is right now. I try to find the holes that people aren’t filling right now in the music scene, and I try to fill those holes in whatever capacity I can.
What are some things you have on the precipice in 2021?
I have my project dropping in the Summer, we've been working on that throughout 2020 and early 2021. We dropped our first single on February 12th, Connections. We have another single drop in April. We're just trying to make sure to do as many visuals as possible, as many collaborations as possible. I want to maximize my attention, my outreach, my visibility. Just trying to make sure that I stay as active as possible within the R&B scene, especially trying to take over the R&B scene in Texas right now.
“During the beginning of the year we did that with like the interactive album series, like allowing people to vote on different beats and shit, like finding, disrupting the way music, the music creation process is ultimately looked at and in flipping it on it’s back.”
At the top of 2020, the pandemic hits, in what ways did that kind of assist in you growing as an artist?
Yeah, I think for 2020 it kind of just placed me on a level playing field. For me personally, As an artist I felt like my creativity had to grow expeditiously as well. I feel like I had to make sure that I was on my shit. A lot of people were doing the same shit. Like everyone is on the internet. You hear and see everything and still have to innovate, still have to remain and create. You had to just stay on your toes and think of some out of the box, shit that nobody is doing, finding those holes. During the beginning of the year we did that with like the interactive album series, like allowing people to vote on different beats and shit, like finding, disrupting the way music, the music creation process is ultimately looked at and in flipping it on it’s back. I feel like, again, I focused on finding those different holes, finding those different avenues to be creative. And with that, separating myself from everything that was going on. I feel like at the time, I wasn't dropping a hell of a lot of music, especially once like all the police brutality shit started happening, I just essentially felt like it wasn't the time, especially as a black artist. There were larger conversations that needed to be addressed. And I felt like, especially at that time everyone was paying attention, especially on the internet, I didn't want to add to the distractions. I felt like 2020 was just a big hoe. Everyone lost something in 2020. So collectively this past year was a stepping stone for everyone to just kind of like, I don't know, be more humble about shit, grow as an individual. You grow as a person rather than just an artist. You grow as an individual. Definitely a little bit more humble, more thankful for a lot of shit, more appreciative. You start to really realize what's important & what's not important. And now you can maneuver through life and be happy.
