SMM : What was the mind set behind the Psycho video?
J.Irja : I wrote Psycho at a time in my life and career when I had reached my breaking point, it expresses how my life was at that time. As a little White Girl in the rap industry I went through so much and something inside me snapped. At that point in my life I had to restart from scratch with nothing and no one. The song Psycho was the expression of me harnessing all my pain anger and frustration and letting everyone know that I wasn’t quitting, that no matter how many times I get knocked down I will rise and hustle until I become #1.
SMM : Where did the name J.Irja come from?
J.Irja : J. Irja is actually my real name. J is short for Jessika, it’s what everyone has called me since I was a shorty. I actually got kicked out of kindergarten for the day because I refused to write out my full name “Jessika” insisting that my name was J. Irja is my middle name, after my great-grandmother Olga Irja RIP, one of the strongest women I ever met in my life. Irja is Finnish, I am 100% Finnish by blood, it means “one who changes the world” and that’s exactly what I intend to do.
SMM : What was the reason behind you moving to Atlanta?
J.Irja : I had been living back and forth between Wisconsin and Chicago for the past 5 years and was ready for a the next step. I just got off of my “Breaking Barriers Tour” and I headlined the Dynamicon festival here as the last city on my tour. I started immediately making connections and getting a lot of love out here, I got booked for hosting, shows, features and radio interviews. Now I'm even in the works of getting signed to a major management deal. It's like it was meant to be.
SMM: We heard you Co-directed the "Let It Die" video ... How did that come about?
J.Irja : I actually write all the treatments and direct all my videos, even when I was with my old crew they just never gave me credit for it. “Let It Die” and “Psycho” were actually both filmed in the same day it was about 20 hours of straight filming. “Let It Die” was very important to me, it showed the softer, deeper side to my pain about everything that I was