Jae Ellis Interview
Jae Ellis travels in Hip-Hop have taken him from South Bend to Atlanta to France and back to the states. Now with a hit single featuring Jim Jones picking up in radio rotations across the country, this Indiana rapper’s next trip could be headed to the top of the game.
Hip-Hop Wired: You’re from South Bend, Indiana. When people think of South Bend, they think the University of Notre Dame. What else is popping where you’re from?
Jae Ellis: I mean, it ain’t a whole lot, bruh. It’s a small town. It’s like football, Notre Dame, that’s about it.
But as far as the music scene, there’s a lot of cats from Indiana that’s really trying to get on, pursue their dreams, you know what I’m sayin’.
There are a lot of dope cats there. The Midwest is full of dope cats, period, just because we get influenced by everybody. East Coast, West Coast, South, so it’s like a melting pot down there. But yeah, cats are dope.
Hip-Hop Wired: So you moved from South Bend to Atlanta in 2005. What made you moved to Atlanta?
Jae Ellis: One of my homeboys went to Morehouse. He was like, you need to come down here. The music is crackin’. I moved down there about ’98 really. That was the first time I went.
So that was like the last “real” Freaknik. They say I caught the nothing end of it, but that’s what brought me down there, bro.
And then my homeboy introduced me to a bunch of cats in Atlanta and the music scene was good, so I ended up staying.
Hip-Hop Wired: You worked with So So So Def and the Dungeon Family for a bit. How did you hook up with them?
Jae Ellis: I went partying one night and my homeboy Half A Mill, rest in peace, he was working with Rico Wade. And then I had a couple other partners that used to mess with Rico.
And I was cool with Dungeon Family second generation cats like BLVD and all them cats. So I ended up going to the Dungeon and meeting Rico, listened to some tracks, he was a cool dude. From there I just got cool with them cats.
And J.D., back in the day he was interested in a group we had. So he came over, dropped off equipment, the whole nine.
He was just interested in what we were doing. That’s how we pretty much met him. But then my N***a SunNY was signed to So So Def, so from there me and SunNY did a lot of stuff together.
Hip-Hop Wired: From there you started working with a label in France. How did that happen?
Jae Ellis: I basically worked on an album with my homeboy over the internet. He would send me beats and I’d write to them, send them back.
And he got a label interested that was affiliated with Sony France. And they started flying me out over there. I was over there, off and on, quite a bit, for about a good two years.
But it was a good experience. Got to tour, got to a lot of showcases in France. So that was definitely a good look.
Hip-Hop Wired: What was the music scene in France like compared to America?
Jae Ellis: The music scene in France is more, they like real Hip-Hop.
They like pure Hip-Hop over there as opposed to everything being so commercialized. They like hardcore, underground, which was a dope change.
Hip-Hop Wired: What came of the album you worked on?
Jae Ellis: We did an album. We worked with a lot of French artists on the charts over there.
After the album got done, something happened and we just kinda split up. Me and my partner kinda went our own ways.
We’re still cool, the deal that they were offering just wasn’t right, so I kinda left it alone.
Hip-Hop Wired: You also toured with Freeway, so how did that come together?
Jae Ellis: My manager was kinda helping out and managing Freeway.
He was on the road with him and a lot of rock cats. He introduced me to Free, and then from there, me and Free got cool, and he invited me to go on the road; open up, come out in the middle of his set, do a quick acapella or whatever I could.
Free showed a lot of love. Young Chris, all of them niggas showed a lot of love.
Hip-Hop Wired: You’re signed with NFL player Raheem Brock and Beastmodez Entertainment. How did you hook up with him?
I met Raheem maybe a year before the Colts won the Super Bowl and I met him through a mutual friend who owned a record store in Philly. He hooked us up and the from there we started talking about doing a label.
Nothing really came out of it for a few years. And then he just called me one day like, I’m ready. Then from there, that’s when I moved to Philly and started working.
Hip-Hop Wired: Right now you have a single out with Jim Jones. What was it like working with him?
Jae Ellis: Jim Jones is cool. He showed a lot of love.
He came up to New York to studio, I wrote my joint, he wrote his joint, we laid it, it was hot, and now it’s on like 30 stations, getting regular rotation, so it’s doing good.
It’s only been on the radio for a few weeks, so it’s doing real good.
Jae Ellis Ft. Jim Jones – “Speedin’ On Em” [Audio]
Hip-Hop Wired: How does it feel to go through what you did in France and now to have a single buzzing and moving up the charts in America?
Jae Ellis: It feels good to see your work pay off. That’s what every artist dreams of, to hear your stuff on the radio and have it in rotation.
Just getting the feedback from different cities. Cities I’ve never been to hit me up on Facebook, like I heard your joint on the radio today.
It feels good just to accomplish that. We still got more to go though.
Hip-Hop Wired: Do you have a mixtape you’re working on now?
Jae Ellis: I have a mixtape out right now called Unleashed that I did with DJ Don Cannon and that’s like still crazy in the streets.
It’s been out for a couple months now and I still can’t ride down the street without hearing people banging it in Indiana.
It’s still buzzing. But I’m working on a new mixtape and getting ready to drop in about a month.
Hip-Hop Wired: Another artist from Indiana that’s buzzing is Freddie Gibbs. Do you have a relationship with him?
Jae Ellis: Yeah Gibbs, he’s from Gary, I’m from South Bend, that’s like right next door.
So me and Fred have been cool for years now. We’ve been hitting each other up online for years, since the Myspace days.
Gibbs used to hit me up like I see you and I’d say the same thing. I’d see his moves while I was out in L.A., we know a lot of mutual cats, like the homie Terrace Martin.
We both work with a lot of the same people. I just opened for Jeezy a couple weeks ago in Seattle, and you know Gibbs is out on tour with Jeezy.
So yeah, I’m real proud of the homie and I know he’s proud of me. That’s Indiana love.
Hip-Hop Wired: Do you have any last works.
Jae Ellis: Call and request “Speedin’,” Jae Ellis [featuring]Jim Jones. Call your local radio, make sure they start putting that in rotation. JaeEllis.com. @jaeellis on Twitter. Facebook.com/itsjaeellis.
