J. Cash & JON YOUNG T
ell me a little about yourselves. J. Cash: We’ve been music for 11 years now, ever since we met in 9th grade. We didn’t really get a lot of exposure until Myspace came along, but we’ve had songs on pirate radio a little bit, back when Dawgman and them were doing their thing. Jon Young: We kinda just kept working on the songs and getting better and learning from each song so we could make the next song better. Speaking of Myspace, that outlet has been huge for you guys. I was on your site earlier today and you guys had over 10,000 plays this morning alone. Jon Young: Yeah, we average around 30,000 to 40,000 per day, and we got almost 15 million total plays. We’ve only been on there maybe a year and a half. J. Cash: And that’s all from word of mouth and people just coming through the page and telling their friends. We don’t do any spamming on people’s page or anything like that; it’s all from word of mouth and people putting our songs on their profiles. We have people in Indiana adding our songs to their profile. It’s growing all across the country. Yeah, but you have a bigger Myspace buzz than artists with a top ten single. I know you said it’s from word of mouth, but there has to be an element that attracted the word of mouth? Jon Young: When I first signed up on Myspace, I added like the first 500 people, and they just started spreading. I just think it has to do with the music. J. Cash: People can easily relate to it. It’s universal music. Jon Young: And also we made our page look really professional, even though we weren’t major artists. People thought we were signed already. J. Cash: It’s a lot in the presentation, with Jon Young doing all of the graphic work that made it look a lot more official before it even got to that point. A lot of people don’t realize the importance of the presentation. Its not just the music, the marketing is almost equally important. Orlando is a pretty diverse city. How has that affected your music? J. Cash: I was born and raised in Orlando — born in Florida Hospital. And growing up in the Pine Hills, Lockhart area it’s a good mix of different kind of people and different lifestyles and everything. You kinda just absorb that, and take that it, from the cars to the streets, to everything. It all just plays in to the sound of the music Jon Young: It’s a mixture of people from up North living here, from Cali, and a whole variety of people, but it’s still mainly a Southern influence living in Orlando, but you get a little bit of everything. It seems like you get a lot of hometown love in Orlando. Do you think the fact that you are minorities in a black-dominated industry has hindered you or worked to your advantage? Jon Young: I’d say in the beginning when we first started recording it was a problem, but in the past few years its gotten more accepted. It’s more about the actual music. If you make a hot track people don’t care what race you are. J Cash: That’s another thing about the internet: People were hearing our songs on downloaded mix CDs and not even knowing that we were white, so to add to what Jon said, it really is about the music. You just did a song with Lil Boosie, right? What else are you guys working on right now? J. Cash: We just signed with Defient Entertainment under Warner Music, and we’re trying to make big things pop with that. We put out a couple of underground CDs, a few on our own, and we’re gonna be putting together a major
project pretty soon that will be in stores and all that. It’s gonna be kind of a combination of some of the songs from the albums along with some new songs, too. Jon Young: We’ve been hitting all the DJ crews and everything, like the CORE DJs and all that. We’re trying to get some more exposure in the industry. John Young Parkway is a major street in Orlando. Is that where your name came from? Jon Young: Yeah, me and Wes Fif used to work together and we kinda came up with our names at the same time. His name is based on Colonial and West 50. We thought it would be a good way to put the city on the map. Speaking of Wes Fif, how is your current relationship with him, are you guys still cool? Jon Young: Yeah, we’re cool. He’s just kinda going in a different direction musically. But we still talk everyday, so we’re cool. What are you most looking forward to in terms of your career? What keeps you doing this rap thing for going on 11 plus years? J. Cash: Me, personally, I just want to keep getting it out there. The music inspires me. It’s such a good feeling to hear our song played in a club, or to perform in front of a crowd that doesn’t even know us, and have them fans by the end of the show. We just got back from Milwaukee, and we performed in front of a crowd of 2,000 people who didn’t know us. By the second night, they wanted us back to perform again. Jon Young: Yeah, that’s a real good feeling, and also we want to help out Orlando. There is so much talent that’s overlooked. There’s Treal, Dee Boi, and all these people who are struggling to make it, and if one of us can help someone else out, that’s really what it’s all about. Does Orlando have what it takes to become the next big Hip Hop hub, like an Atlanta or Houston? Jon Young: There’s no reason for it not to be. J. Cash: It’s like any other city that doesn’t have any major artists that are really reppin’ hard for it. In Miami, they’re always shouting, “MIA,” “Dade County,” and “305” on songs. So Orlando artists just need to make the city more recognizable. So that’s what we push in our songs” “Orange County,” “Orlando,” “407,” and everything like that. We got people all over the country trying to get 407 hats because they can see that Orlando is gonna be the next big place for Hip Hop. Jon Young: We just gotta all work together, that’s the only way it’s gonna happen. If we all just stay to ourselves, it’s not gonna pop off like it should, but with teamwork we can do it. You’ve got some pretty hot beats. What producers are you working with? Jon Young: Actually, I do all the production myself. J. Cash: Yeah, we do it all ourselves. It’s a combination of us doing all the hooks and coming up with all the concepts. We wanted to make it real easy, so we did everything in-house. Even the recordings are done in-house on the computer. Jon Young: We were strapped for cash. J. Cash: Yeah, the best way is to just start on your own. With us, it’s more about the quality of the music than the actual quality of the recording. We put some time in to think about the song and everything, and not just if it’s gonna be a hot sounding song, but if it’s gonna be marketable. // - Eric Perrin OZONE MAG // 83