Meet Jalen Melville | Musician & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jalen Melville and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jalen, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Because for my own safety. I started doing this music stuff as a way to cope with alot things I had going on at home and so it was kinda my escape. It helped me change my outlook on life and so I was like yeah let me do this. I do computer programming to cause I am aware that this shit is risky, but its still worth it. I love making music, its a core part of me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I think at least when it comes to rap, It’s like im speaking for myself. Ion really expect people to understand what I am saying half of the time. At least when it comes to more poetic stuff, like my song ‘Numb’ of my last ep ‘heartache & rain’. I think that plus the fact I am a very technical rapper and love multi syllable rhyming and flow separates me.

It was never easy for this rap shit. I started 4 or 5 years ago and im 19 now. and I only started listening to rap and stuff since i was 12 or 13. I sucked at the beginning. I was terrible, didn’t know how to float, didn’t know how to mix properly. I think i was mixing my songs in audacity at one point instead of fl studio. Audacity is not the program to mix music tracks. its good for recording audio, not mixing full fledge tracks.

At least for the world I would say anything is possible as long as you practice in put in the time and effort, you can be great at whatever it is you really want to do.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Sip coffee & Cocktails in Grand Rapids. It’s one of my favorite cafes and Sunny Boba Tea downtown. Best Boba Tea in GR so far. Ion do much fr besides cafe hopping and eat, so those would be the two things I would say right now.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My Friend Jaron & Devyn. Those to have been kinda pushing me to get better, especially Jaron (YMKRondo) because we grew up together and he was one of the people who pushed me to get better at this. He introduced me to a lot of other key influcence in my style like Captial Steez and Joey Badass which led me to my main influences Earl Sweatshirt and Kendrick Lamar. Jaron & me are very competitive when it comes to this and focused cause we both want it, even if its not the same lane. You know YMK does more Michigan, Trap, Hood Music, while i do Jazz, Cloud, Sampled rap. We both also step into each other lane because we both talented and versatile in the game so we push each other better.

With Devyn thats my dawg who make the same type of rap shit as I do. Been hella supportive of each other since we met and pushing each other in our lane. He’s really one of the few people who understand my spot in rap, coming from DMV. We both standout from most rappers in our respectful areas.

Tyler or Tyy Finesse Is also one of them to and just as important. He’s a streamer but he also one of my best friends. He someone who kept pushing me to keep with my style and not to give up in this rap shit. Along with a lot of my other friends in TN, our friend group. I have a lot of people who support me and I really couldn’t have done it without them. A lot of people in TN helped me get where im at now, too many that I really need to just shoutout the group for real

Instagram: rag3g0d

Twitter: https://twitter.com/XxJayMelxX

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Z3l-C2J8qe9kZZC5oWjSQ

Other: Gaming Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@kingjaymel Spotify Account: https://open.spotify.com/artist/25yJqiMSfhk7R7ZX0oMnZL?si=iSCmkpkkTQ63D4ZALTfEMA

Image Credits
Art Drawing – IG: i.c_froggy, name Chris