Wednesday Elektra [Wednesday]: Greetings Jair, please introduce yourself to the readers of Space Junkies Magazine and tell us a little bit about how you became involved in the rap movement.

Jair Dynast [Jair]: What's up all you Space Junkies out there? This is Jair Dynast, "One whom God enlightened,the ruler of a dynasty." How I got involved in the rap movement is a long story but I'll try to give y'all a condensed version. Basically, I used to be heavy into basketball and I earned myself an athletic scholarship to play at a D1 JUCO in Texas. However, I was diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy that forced me to give up my scholarship. Upon returning home, I was pretty upset, but was trying to deal with it all and my mom asked, "What are you going to do now"? I said I didn't know and she asked if I could rap, "because you're always listening to that rap music." The very next day I'm at my boy Gates' and he plays me this tape of him rapping and it sound pretty good, one thing lead to another and I started messing with the beats and rhymes, and we formed a group. I honed my skills as an artist and now I'm a solo artist signed to eMultimedia Group, Inc. about to drop my solo debut album "V.I.A.L.E.N.C.E."

Wednesday: How would you define "conscious" rap and how does it separate itself from the generic blends of rap that are more commonly found on mainstream radio/TV and so forth?

Jair: My definition of conscious rap would probably be very broad and most would disagree, but I would say rap music that is socially aware can be defined as conscious. So that could be anything from 50 Cent to what I'm doing. As the motto of eMultimedia Group goes, "Hip-Hop is social commentary on life" it just depends on what your life experiences are. If life has been an existence of dealing with drugs, violence and the lack of the basics we all need to survive, resulting in you being a quote unquote "hustler" and you reflect that in your music then no one can condemn you for that. However, to further expand on your question, where the line is drawn between mainstream rap versus my music is that I explore some of the very same ill's, but from a less glorified standpoint - more from a reflective standpoint providing the other side to things. The end result for the majority of impoverished people where I come from is "either you're dead or locked up in West detention" to quote myself. Most cats don't have the 7 Series BMW, the "blood" diamonds in their mouth and the generic model chick on their arms that we see in most of the videos.

Wednesday: What are "buzz singles" and when was your first buzz single introduced to the general public?

Jair: Buzz singles are records released to build initial awareness for an artist. My first buzz single drop in April of 2005 and peaked at #4 on the Underground Top 30. My second solo buzz single just officially dropped on August 8th, 2006. The song is called "Vicious" and it's the #4 most added single in the country amongst some dope records from J. Dilla (RIP) featuring Common and D'Angelo, Butta Team featuring Little Brother and Big Daddy Kane and Born Unique. I feel blessed to be amongst legendary company like that.

Jair: Well "V.I.A.L.E.N.C.E." is my debut solo album. The title is an acronym standing for Vicious Ignorance Amounts to Little Except Negative Consequences N' Expression. I just went in the studio and gave fans a walk through my life experiences up to this point, and I tried to give a good description of my background and incorporated a lot of my Caribbean Heritage in the musical compositions as well as the lyrics and the stories I told. I wanted to use the talent God gave me to enlighten people going through some tough situations. As for the reception from fans and peers, it's been crazy! Cat's haven't even heard the full album yet and I'm getting requests for collaborations from all around the world, and the fans are loving the single, already purchasing downloads where ever they can find 'em. It's nice to have such a personal piece of work being embraced like this.

Wednesday: What inspires you to create/compose your music and what impact do you hope your music has on it's listeners?

Jair: The inspiration for my music is my life experiences. What ever I am going through or have gone through gets recorded. On the album, I have songs ranging from racial profiling, to finding the right young lady to share my life with, to being cheated on by my ex-girl and the feelings I had for that situation to commenting on the political and economic climate in North America. I really hope listeners take away some positive inspiration from my album. If I can just touch one kid in the hood with this recording I'd feel like I won a Grammy. I'm trying to effect change amongst impoverished youth and how we think and see our lives. I grew up with many cats who always felt like they never had any options beside what society allowed them to see as attainable and I'm here to tell 'em that anything is attainable in this life. With God all things are possible!

Wednesday: I heard one of your songs "Can't Wait" is on a TV show. Can you tell us more about the connection between the song and the show?

Jair: Yeah, "Can't Wait" is the theme song for the TV Show "Make Some Noise." The show recognizes the efforts of young people who are using their talents and/or resources to make a positive impact on the lives of other young people or the community in general. The producers of the show saw "Can't Wait" as the perfect fit for the show's theme as it is a call to action for heads to get involved with and be educated about the voting process. As a community our voices are powerful and voting is one way we can get involved and let our collective voices be heard. To be clear, it isn't enough to go out and cast a ballot we have to know the issues and understand each candidate's position on these issues and how that will impact us as a community. Once we know that, we can make a vote that can serve to protect some of our interests as young people.

Wednesday: How does the cross-pollination of your music from mediums such as radio to TV to performing live to the Internet helped or hindered your music and career?

Jair: I feel it all helps my career. It provides cats the opportunity to experience my music in various different ways, allowing for them to catch the messages and just enjoy the vibes in general. They are all great mediums for getting the word out there and making it possible for my music to touch that one kid in the hood that really needed to hear what I've got to say on something that he or she might be dealing with right now.

Wednesday: What advice do you have to give young upstarts looking to join the rap game in the future?

Jair: My advice would be hone your skills, stay true to what you believe in and remove the words "can't" and "never" from your vocabulary - when it comes to discussing your career as a rapper or producer.

Jair: Well I'm all over the Internet like HTML [laughs]. Cats can hear my music on http://www.jairdynast.com or at http://www.myspace.com/jairdynast also, http://www.rap4abuck.com/jairdynast.htm, amongst others.

Wednesday: Thanks Jair for the interview, is there anything in closing you'd like to leave our readers with?

Jair: First, I'd like thank you for taking the time to interview me. Shout out to all the heads out there supporting my movement and requesting my records at radio nationally, I really appreciate the love and support. Oh and the fans in France that have been asking where they can hear my stuff out there. Peeps in France can tune in to 95.9 FM Radio Laser Friday nights between 11 PM and 12 midnight to hear my joints.

Bless up Space Junkies!

http://www.spacejunkies.net 8/30/2006