Jake Hill, or iamjakehill, is one of the most exciting rappers in the scene right now. Jake began writing his first rhymes around the age of 12, and has been going ever since. Apple Music describes his music as "a dark, emotional hybrid of rap, alternative rock and metal", which is pretty spot-on. He is also well-known for a large number of collaborations with fellow artist Josh A. Jake has released ten albums and a number of EP's and singles as well, including his latest track, "How It Ends". We recently got to chat about what got him into music, about his pop punk side project, and more.
MSM:
So tell me a little bit about your background. Where did your interest in music come from and was it something that you always knew you wanted to pursue?
JAKE:
I guess I wasn't really like super into music until I was like 13 years old. Well, I got into skateboarding and there was this, the cool kid of the school like invited me to come skate with him and I was like this little dorky kid. So I went and skated with him and they were listening to Silverstein. I've told Paul the drummer this story like twice now, but it was the album When Broken Is Easily Fixed, and I thought it was the most awful thing I had ever heard in my life cause I had never heard music like that before. But I wanted to be cool like the cool kid, though. So I started forcing myself to listen to that album, ended up falling in love with it, and Silverstein kind of started it all. It made me get into all the bands I listen to now and made me just, it kind of changed me a bit. It just influenced my life a bit. The, the style of music that I got into. And then, yeah. It wasn't something that I always wanted to do. It just kind of branched off into metal music. I wanted to be a guitarist. I wanted to play metal music, like on stage. Like I wanted to be cool and like do breakdowns and shit on stage. And that dream just wasn't gonna be able to happen because I live in a town in Alabama where not much goes on. Everybody here is clueless. Well, I guess that's kind of a mean term to say, but nobody really understands the music industry here. It's all about blue collar jobs and having kids at 20 years old, which is fine. Everybody can do their own thing, but nobody had the same mindset I did. So I started rapping as a joke, not thinking anything of it, cause I used to make fun of rap music. I didn't like it, so I would make fun of it. And it just started like kind of taking off a bit with these stupid joke songs. Then I kept getting like little YouTuber opportunities and I was like, I'm gonna try to take this for real and be serious about it. And I started writing serious music and it worked out somehow.
MSM:
Yeah, definitely. You are one of my favorite rappers by far.
JAKE:
Thank you. I appreciate it.
MSM:
How did growing up in Alabama help shape you as an artist?
JAKE:
I don't know because there's not really anything going on here. I'm surprised I'm even still here. It's just home and it's comfortable and it's easy to live and the cost of living is super cheap. But I guess I wouldn't really say Alabama did anything positively. I guess just anxiety shit I've dealt with in depression and things like that that I've getting way better at. A lot of that inspired my music and being just stuck kind of shitty, but kind of not shitty town where nothing goes on and just not having anything to do other than fine creative shit to do. Like video games. I was, I'm, that's all I do now is play freaking video games. I grew up playing video games, but a lot of my music inspiration comes from games like Bloodborne and The Last of Us and Dark Souls and RuneScape and things like that. So I just kind of took what I had available to me, which wasn't much, and just tried to create my own little world inside my mind of games that I've played and just, you know, try to bring it to life in music.
MSM:
What is your creative process like when you're starting a song? Like, do you start with lyrics or with a beat?
JAKE:
Nine outta 10 times, it's always a beat. Music and sounds in general just do something to me in my brain. I will always starts with the beat, however the beat makes me feel. Usually it's either how the beat makes me feel is what I'll write, or if I have like a topic in mind or something recently that's been just fucking with me that I'm like, I need to make a song about this. I'll search for a beat or I'll get one of my dudes to make me a beat that sounds how I feel in the moment. So it's really just how the music sounds that gets me to start the lyrics.
MSM:
What do you attribute most to your success?
JAKE:
Taking negative experiences and putting them into a positive, my positive would be making a song about it, like anxiety, shit, depression breakups, things like that. Where I used to, how I felt I would play guitar and I would just you can't see me on video, but I'm sitting here like acting like I'm playing a guitar, trying to like describe how I'm doing this, but I would play guitar and make sounds that captured how I felt. And that was like my outlet. But now since I've somehow found out I can write music and rap and shit and sing a little bit, I put it towards that. So yeah. Long story short, turning negative things into a positive outlet that people also like to listen to.
MSM:
So, "How It Ends" goes really hard.
JAKE:
Thank you.
MSM:
How will that compare to any future releases?
JAKE:
I think the next one I'm putting out is better. I'm super excited about this next one.
MSM:
Awesome.
JAKE:
Right now I'm in like a fucking hard ass music type mood, but then it could change next week. I'll be like, oh, I wanna put out a little singy song or whatever, or I wanna do something on my little side project. It just depends on how I feel that day when I wake up. But I want to make a "By The Sword, Pt 2" that is just my biggest song. Like I want, I want big ass songs like that that go crazy live. Just to make hard shit that people can go to the gym and like hit a PR to, like a deadlift personal record.
MSM:
Yeah. That would be cool. What else are you passionate about besides music?
JAKE:
Fucking Rocket League, video games, as nerdy as that sounds. My cat, my daughter, my actual daughter, Ellie, my family. And cars, for sure. What am I saying? Cars? I have to tell myself that they're just like these metal shapes with rubber wheels on them that are depreciating assets. But I have four stupid expensive ones that I just love and I can't get rid of and I just can't bring myself to sell cause I love cars so much. Speaking of earlier about how I said sounds do something to my brain, well, the sounds of cars, like certain exhaust sounds, give me chills. I'm rambling here, but I love cars.
MSM:
You can differentiate between some of them? Like you know what it is when you hear it?
JAKE:
Oh yeah. Like one of my cars is a GT 350 R, which is like an exotic Mustang, sort of. Their exhaust note is so specific that I can 100% recognize if I hear one in the distance, oh, that's a GT 350, cause they sound like a Mustang, but they don't really sound like a Mustang. It's hard to explain.
MSM:
That's a whole other level to like having like a musical brain, you know?
JAKE:
Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. It is. For real, for sure.
MSM:
So what is your motto or good advice that you live by?
JAKE:
Maybe not a motto, maybe not good advice, but I kind of hope for the best and expect the worst. Which maybe that's not the greatest way to put it, but hope for the best. But know that it's not always the case. You're not always gonna get what you want and things aren't gonna go the way that you want them to, and I try to keep a mindset like that for everything. Or just little things like I'm about to order this guitar. I want it right now, but there's like a two month wait, it's so stupid. It's kind of maybe a stupid explanation, but just little things. Don't fucking sit there and expect them to go perfectly how your brain wants it to, because it's not gonna happen cuz it's life and life sucks ass sometimes.
MSM:
Sure. Which makes good music, though.
JAKE:
Oh, for sure. Yeah.
MSM:
So, I actually don't know anything about your side project. Do you wanna talk about that?
JAKE:
Here I'll play a little. This is one song from my side project. You may have heard this on TikTok. I'll just, I'll try to, hang on. Let me mute my mic and I'll find the chorus and then I'll play it real quick.
MSM:
Okay.
JAKE:
All right. Here you go.
JAKE:
I don't know if you can hear that.
MSM:
A little bit.
JAKE:
Oh, okay. But my side project is just a bunch of love songs. I wanted to do pop punk shit so I can say things that I can't really say on my main account because it's a little cheesy and a little corny and it's very explicitly sexual. Yeah. You'll just have to listen to it, it's called ur pretty.
JAKE:
U R like the letter. Ur pretty. I'd suggest starting with "Keep Riding Me". It's a good one. It's only four songs.
MSM:
Yeah. So far.
JAKE:
Mm-Hmm.
MSM:
All right. And my last question is, do you have any closing messages for your fans?
JAKE:
Let me think. Take vitamin D. Vitamin D is so important,and I didn't realize that. Take a vitamin D supplement with K2 and Magnesium. That is the most important thing I have ever done is starting that, and I never took supplements. I know this probably sounds crazy, but all of like 2022 and 2021, I just started like just going through these little depressive episodes that would last couple weeks and when nighttime came around, I would just feel like a darkness was just closing in and it was be so hard to get out of it. I didn't realize how important, like getting sunlight and getting outside of the fucking house was, but what was also a big thing is my vitamin D was low, and if your vitamin D's low or you're deficient, you're gonna feel like shit mentally and you're gonna feel like shit physically. Make sure you're getting sunlight, drink water, and take vitamin D. Go get your blood work done if you can. If you have the means to it, get your vitamin D levels checked. I know that sounds crazy, and I wouldn't say my life has changed, but since taking Vitamin D supplements with magnesium and k2, my mental state has been double what it was. And I haven't, knock on wood, fell into one of those little depressive episodes where life sucks ass for two weeks and I just feel like dog shit mentally. It's been like almost a year now where I've been fully stable. And I can say that I really believe that the vitamin D has helped with that. But besides that, I say it at every show, if you're going through some shit, just keep on going through it. Life's not meant to be easy. It's all you can do is keep going. And exercise, eat better. Very important. A lot of my music obviously is like mental health focused and do the shit I do to, to, if you're going through some shit, do what I do. Exercise, get on a normal sleep schedule, get vitamin D, get sunlight, drink water, stop eating dog shit, stop eating processed foods. That's just, maybe I sell like a health nut here or whatever, but I don't know. I've made some huge changes in my life and it's helped a fucking ton. And it took a minute for me to really get into it doing those things. But I can just say my mental health is way better and I hope anybody reading this can want to do these same things so you can see for yourself that if you are going through some shit mentally, life changes will help you so much. You just have to find the motivation to do it and you gotta stick with it.
MSM:
Okay. All right. And then, creating, too.
JAKE:
Oh yeah. Find creative outlets. Go for hikes. If you have nature and scenery, do something. Especially if you're young, do something. Make content on TikTok. Make Instagram reels, find something funny to make. Do something with your time. We are all going to die one day, so don't just sit around and play video games like I do. Because I'm stupid in the moment right now, but you know, I am doing positive things, too. Find something to do with your time that isn't just wasting it. And yeah, there's things that you can do with your time that you enjoy doing. But find something creative to do. Get your content out there. Start writing songs. If you can't do that, start drawing, start making art. We're more than just people sitting here waiting to die.
Photos by @noxnohi
