Q&A With Rising Hip Hop Artist Justin and the Honored None

Justin and the Honored None!! We like unique and creative MC names like yours bro! Also, let me congratulate your with your latest album release!! Dope knowing that J. Lately is on the project as well!! Please tell us what are code you rep, how long have you been rapping? Also, how did your MC name come about?

Thank you, I appreciate that! I’m from South Sacramento, California currently living in LA. I put out my first official project in 2010, and released 4 projects under the name J.Good with large gaps in between releases, but my path led me here as Justin and the Honored None. The name came from me wanting to just go by my first name, and “the honored none” represents making moves quietly and positively, reaching happiness in whatever that means to you. That’s not something that’s necessarily going to get trophies, but it leads to such a fulfilling life.

Your style and rhyme scheme is super raw and different! How do you describe your sound? How long did it take for you to find your sound?

I listen to a lot of Jazz, so I would say a lot of that bleeds into my scheme and style. I like to keep it from the soil and abstract and find the groove in that. I think in some ways I’m still finding my sound, or at least I hope because I want to go to different places musically.

Tell us about your Hip Hop and/or music influences? Any Sac Town influences? Was there anyone in your life that motivated your to STEP IT UP when it comes to making dope Hip Hop?

I get a lot of music inspiration from guys like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and MF Doom.
Besides that though I get inspired by nature, life and growth. I’m personally in a really awesome place because I’ve figured out how to stay grounded and find the bright side while embracing the grey and I think that comfort comes across in my music.

Other than yourself!! Who is making noise in the underground Hip Hop scene out there in Sac Town!!??

Sacramento has always had amazing artists come from the area. Of course, Jackson Nakanishi is amazing. Keno, Abstract Ninjaa, Dceased, Chuuwee, Tellapath, LSDS, Soosh*e, Glen the Saiyan are all artists making quality shit from the city, but really I could extend that list to include so many more because there’s so much good music from the area. I would put it up there with any other city.

Please breakdown the creative process of your latest album “Wanderlust”.

I usually go into albums with a world that I’m looking to explore. Wanderlust and all my past projects have been conceptual. I prefer to create full albums, shit that is best listened to from front to back. With this album, I was inspired by a James Baldwin essay titled “The Creative Process”. Wanderlust is the adventure of me confronting the duality of myself and my personality, however conflicting that may be to some people, and accepting it all.

Jackson and I worked on the album for a few years and made a ton of songs for it and decided this group of tracks represented everything perfectly. He’s one of my favorite producers period. I think his style is crazy and I appreciate getting to work with him. We were on the same page as far as being patient with the process which was dope. I get inspired to write a lot by nature, so I wrote a lot of it tucked away in the trees or the desert. We wanted to create an organic, eclectic college that had a little dirt on it and I think we made that.

What are you looking forward to for 2017? Anything you going to be doing differently compared to past years?

I’m just looking forward to sharing more music with everyone, and there will be a lot more to share this year.

Any pressuring situations before you decided to push your album? Did everything work out according to plan?

With Wanderlust, the pressure came from Jackson and myself having to force ourselves to stop creating songs. We would’ve been working forever. Aside from that though, things just happened to go our way and aligned in our favor.

Any new projects coming out!?

I have an EP coming out this June and I’ll be releasing another project this Fall. We’ll be dropping some visuals and remixes from Wanderlust as well.

Rappers nowadays think by throwing up a few videos up on social media and pushing quick projects, they can blow up overnight! Give us your view on how over saturated the market is right now with so many MC’s/Producers but not to many quality music.

I try to stay out-of-the-way of what other people are doing since I can only control how I move. People have their own ways of doing things but I just move at the pace that I produce. It brings me a lot more peace haha. There is a lot of music made, but there’s a lot of content created in general right now so I think it just fits along with everything else.

How often do you perform LIVE? Any shows lined up in the near future?

I’ll be doing shows for sure, stay tuned for more info on that.

Where do you see yourself in 5yrs time?

Still creating of course, but hopefully I’ll be off the grid in the trees, releasing music as I enjoy life.

Here it is! Our most popular question! What is your definition of “underground hip hop”?

My definition of underground hip hop is anything from the soil for sure, any music that is authentic and true to the individual.

Where can people find you on the web? Drop all the vital links.

Justinandthehonorednone.com
soundcloud.com/justinandthehonorednone
twitter.com/justinthenone
Find me on Spotify and Apple Music as well.

Lastly, and shout out?

Peace to everyone who has supported the album, First Ballot, Fall, the honored none and of course Underground Hip Hop Blog for reppin the real.