happening here. I don’t know anyone, and it’s quiet. You have the autonomy to do what you want and not have people in your mix.
Joi Gilliam: Exactly. I call it being hidden in plain sight. I’m right in central Los Angeles in Korea Town. It’s a cool ass small apartment that has provided a haven of solitude and reflection, restoration, and creativity. It was precisely what I needed. My daughter graduated from high school in 2014 and decided she would go back to Atlanta because she was home sick.
U.G. Digital Mag: It’s funny how they’re home sick at an older age. My son is home sick here.
Joi Gilliam: Yes. Listen! I did move her in high school. She did her junior and senior years here, but as soon as it was over, she wanted to go back. Once she was gone and I was here alone as an empty nester, I was able to ask myself that real important question. Who are you now? Your child is out of the nest. Now that you are actually alone, sans day-to-day responsibility of motherhood, who are you at this point creatively, and what do you want to do? I was doing a night here, weekly, that was based on a night that I did in Atlanta. It was called Sugar Hill Live, and wildly popular in
Atlanta for about three years. I did it with a brother, J. Carter, who is now doing One Music Fest, which is a tremendous success, and another brother, Richard Dunn, and also Lil’ John Roberts, Richard Dunn, and also Lil’ John Roberts. I was the host, and a girlfriend of mine, Monica Payne, suggested I do an edition out here. I did it for about a year-and-a-half, and it was a great way to let people know I was in the city and keep my chops up on stage. All of that was good, and during that period was when I started thinking about recording again. I did some recording my daughter’s senior year, and really began to explore it deeper once she went back to Atlanta. I began to do some tracks with a brother named Black Shakespeare. We ended up doing about ten songs, and they were all very good. Then, I put them down for a while, and further pondered what do you want to do? It was a lot of quiet time and pondering. A tremendous amount of time by myself.
U.G. Digital Mag: But you think more clearly that way.
Joi Gilliam: Absolutely. That’s how I was doing it. I’ve become probably a fraction of the social butterfly I once was in my life, because I spend so much time alone, which is good. I’m great fucking company (laughing). I continued to make music. Different people reached out to do features. The young hip-hop community continues to
be supportive and give nods my way in large part because of the work I’ve done with DF (Dungeon Family) over the years. I’ve done collaborations with K.R.I.T. on a few of his projects.
U.G. Digital Mag: I think he is so underrated.
Joi Gilliam: He’s fantastic, but as we’re talking, I’m going to shift you from using the word underrated when you talk about artists who don’t have the level of visibility you’d like them to have. I challenge you to say something other, even though I know what you mean, and know the place it comes from. There’s truth to it, but I challenge you to use different language when talking about artists who don’t have the commercial visibility. Perhaps, even I wish more people knew who he was, or had more mass visibility. I say that because he’s not underrated to the people who know him, and I’m not. So there's some falseness up in there, even though it comes from a well-meaning place. Completely brilliant and less visible to the masses. But he is fantastic, I’ve done work with Run the Jewels, and lots of background on Pop music. That was a lovely Segway to get into, working with Max Martin, who is like the fucking Godfather of modern Pop over the last 15 years or so. Sold massive records from these massive boy bands, young Pop starlets. I did a lot of