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Hip Hop Wired: Marauding In Paradise has been in the works since 2013. What halted its release?

Jazz Cartier: I really think it was music, man. For a while I was just the wild boy. On the road, drugs on me, I don’t give a f*ck. Consistently the most wasted in the club, getting dragged out by security. Just being very ridiculous. Then I kind of took a step back once I started putting out music again.

It’s cool to have that wild boy image, but at the end of the day, I need to get work done. Work’s not going to get done by going out every night, waking up hung over, and not doing anything during my day. For the past 6 or 7 months, I saw something face me and told myself “You have to stop, and be in the studio day in, day out.” That’s what I’ve been doing. The vast majority of this project came in the past 6 or 7 months. It’s just me going back and taking old skeletons, and revamping them.

HHW: Wait. So over that time, did you take songs that were previously recorded or did you record all new stuff?

Jazz Cartier: All new stuff. I would go back and here something, and that would inspire something new. I would hear something in that old song and make it into an entirely new track.

HHW: How drastic has your music changed since you made that epic life change?

Jazz Cartier: It was drastic. I was making music just to hear it at parties and in clubs. I was that dude. I’m listening back to the old stuff, and I’m like “thank God I didn’t put this sh*t out, because if I did, that sh*t would get so swept under the rug.” Now, I’m taking my time and making music not for anyone in particular, but for myself.

HHW: The title of the project Marauding In Paradise reads simple, but it’s very nuanced. From your definition, how do you break it down?

Jazz Cartier: That’s Toronto right there. That’s my paradise. Going out at night, if you don’t have a plan in general, you’re going out to find some trouble. When I first came up with [the title], that was my idea of how I am in the city. Then I moved back, started selling drugs, and everything kind of connected and made sense. [Toronto] comes alive in the nighttime because it’s nothing to do, especially in the winter. We all get together in a warm place, and just f*cking drink and go crazy until hours in the morning. That’s why the music is so moody up there. That’s paradise. The marauding aspect is what we all do unconsciously.

HHW: How do represent Toronto as opposed to an artist like Daniel Caesar, P. Reign, or even Drake?

Jazz Cartier: A kid like Danny…. Danny is probably one of the most talented kids I’ve ever been around in my life. That’s my dog right there. Seeing him work is next level. He’s from a town called Pickering, which is the outskirts of the city. Even just that, that’s a big part of who he is, because he’s very low key and to himself.

I think with me, there hasn’t been a kid from downtown Toronto to put on for that area. Drake’s from uptown. Every rapper from Toronto comes downtown for a party or to be seen, etc. It’s weird because Toronto is kind of like New York, where someone will travel from her to my city and say, “Hey, I’m from New York,” but they’re really from Poughkeepsie. I don’t want to call anybody out. But there’s a lot of regional difference. I’m just trying to encompass downtown Toronto. The moodiness, the chaos…. just my version of it.

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