The Courtlin Jabrae Interview

1. Who are you? “Yo, What’s up, first off, thank you for having me for this interview. It’s a honor man! I love what your doing for the 618! My name is Courtlin Jabrae, I’m a singer, rapper, song-writer, producer and engineer. I’ve been doing music my whole life. I’ve wrote for Trey Songz, T-Pain and Demetria McKinney. In 2017, Me and producer Eldeve got added to the Grammy Nomination poll for Demetria McKinney’s “Easy”. I’ve worked with some of the industry’s top producers, Business Boi (credits: PartyNextDoor, Rae Stemmurd, 6Lack) Needlz (credits: Drake, Cardi B, Lil Wayne). I share my talents with my fellow artist from the 618 by helping write and engineer their music just like I do with some of these big artists in the music industry”.

2. Where are you from? “I’m from the eastside of Carbondale, IL”.
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3. How old were you when you released your first project? “I got my first record deal at 15 with my group “Pop It Off Boys”.

4. Tell me about your old group, the “Pop It Off Boys”. “Me and Lil Action meet each other playing basketball on the eastside. He mentioned he had a studio at his grandparents’ house and was only here for the summer. So me, always being interested in music, I went over to check it out. All he had was a computer with FL studio on it and a tape recorder. We started making beats and recorded songs on a cassette tape with a $20 Walmart microphone. A year later after my dad seen us taking this music thing serious, he bought us a real studio. We then started to actually put our music out on SoundClick.com and MySpace.com. We soon generated our first hit song “Crank That Batman”. After our good friend DJ Soufside Kent and his boys made a dance video to the song, Crank That Batman went viral. That moment changed our lives forever!"

5. How would you describe your musical style? “My musical style changes every month man. I’m always trying new things, I’m like a Chameleon, I’m changing different vibes all the time haha. When you listen to my music expect a surprise here and there”.

6. What kind of message are you sending your fans? “There are levels to the messages I will be sending to my fans over time. The first message I’m sending to my fans is living your life with no regrets! Being yourself! That the bigger the struggle, the bigger the blessing. Later on, I will have a bigger message but you’ll see. It takes time to lead the future”.

7. Who are your biggest music inspirations? “Well, sound in general inspires me musically lol but I really enjoy Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Queen, The Dream, Jay Electronia and Drake. That’s just off the top of my head but there so much more”.

8. Who is your dream collab with? “Currently, I want to collab with 6lack and that’s very possible for me right now. My dream collab would be MJ”.

9. What is your opinion on the Southern Illinois Hip-Hop scene? “I love it man, It’s so much talent in the 618! My biggest dream is to start my own label and only sign 618 artists. Right now, I’m doing my best to engineer 618 artists. If any 618 artist wants good industry quality sound or help with perfecting their craft, come work with me. My job is to develop artists man and I don’t think people realize that.”

10. When is your next project dropping? “I really don’t know man. I’m currently just focused on pushing my new single “Drippy Drip. I’ve gotten a lot of good reactions to the song. It takes time to blow up a hit record. Sometimes it can take a year! It literally took us a full year to promote “Crank That Batman’ before it really blew up. So after my new single, I’ll start planning on a project release”.

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