Who Is BJ the Chicago Kid?

BJ The Chicago Kid's been in the game longer than most people realize. His first work in the industry was on a Dave Hollister record in 2001. He sang backup for Kanye ("Impossible"). He was even in the studio with R. Kelly in 1999 or 2000.

Of late, he's been known more for his collaborations with hip-hop artists, including a spot on Chance the Rapper's critically-acclaimed Acid Rap mixtape. He's recorded heavily with TDE, and his song "His Pain II" with Kendrick Lamar was one of last year's most moving records. In fact, we celebrated BJ's work last year as well—his tape Pineapple Now & Laters made our list of The 50 Best Albums of 2012.

BJ is a fun, vivacious interview. He speaks heavily in metaphors, comparing his career at various points to cooking, basketball, and types of vegetables. He has also clearly spent a lot of time thinking through his personal and artistic philosophies. He has a deep knowledge of his craft, from the old school days of Marvin Gaye to the new era stars like Frank Ocean, from sacred music of Mary Mary to the profane—up to and including hip-hop.

His career, of late, has definitely been on the rise. He recently signed to Motown Records, and his debut LP is due out sometime this year.

But Who Is BJ the Chicago Kid?

As told to David Drake (@somanyshrimp)

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Growing Up in Chicago

BJ The Chicago Kid: "[I grew up] on the South Side [of Chicago], between 87th and Vincennes and 95th and Vincennes. Growing up there made me who I am. From the rules—you can’t really come up to the park and play basketball unless you know how to play basketball. If they gambling at the park and one team got four guys and they need a fifth and you can play, they going to pick you up. If you win, they going to cut you in on the bread, even if you ain't put no money down. [Whispers] But you got to know how to play at least. It’s the basic rules that Chicago has.

"For days when it’s lonely, I understand, to be lonely sometimes these days is for the realest people. Because the dopest shit, really, there’s not a lot of people behind it. So I understand that, sometimes, being good, being great, and trying to be the best, you’re going to have some lonely days. It’s not too many people on that same level.

"On my block, we grew up like family. Summer times, man, psshh, we in the back in the alley or in the front on the block. Somebody has some music playing, and nine times out of ten, it’s soul music. We got whatever we drinking that day, we got some food, we probably even grilling. It’s just a good time.

"What’s crazy is, my block was a older block in Chicago. Most of the people that’s on that block own those homes. They’ve been there for years. They’ve known me since I used to rake the leaves and ask if I could shovel lawn for $10. They’ve seen how we grow up, so they know, like, ‘Ok, it’s not shooting around here, but if loud music and a little laughing is all we have to put up with tonight, we’ll deal with that.’

"These are the same people that protect this neighborhood. The same people that’s not going to let nobody rob your house knowing you just went to church. Same people that are going to help you take your bags, even if you don’t want them in your house, they take it to your door. That’s how I was raised. Musically, I present that same warmth. That same country, down-home feel."

Family

BJ The Chicago Kid: "My dad worked at Ethicon, a branch under Johnson & Johnson, they make stitches. So he did that in the daytime and he was a bouncer at night. He [was a bouncer] at everything from the Bulls championship rallies to the gospel fest, the blues fest, the taste of Chicago, down to the Cotton Club to Sweet Georgia Brown’s. The list goes on.

"My dad helped me understand songwriting because of him playing Babyface a lot. I don’t even know if my dad realized that him just being him, him just living his life, loving what he loved, poured more into me than anybody ever would know.

"I remember seeing the Black Cat tour with Janet Jackson as a kid. They were wheeling a cage out on stage and there’s a black panther in there! I’m like a kid in the photographers pit like, ‘Woah.' She’s beautiful and I’m seeing a real live fucking cat. That’s because of my dad doing his job, not knowing that his son would later be signed to Motown Records and do the same thing. So they were instilling and pouring into my soul the whole time.

"The experience, it poured into [me] a huge quest what I could create and contribute to the game more than wanting to be a part of it. I wasn’t one of the guys that saw the music video and said, ‘I want to do that.’ I was one of the guys who saw the music video and was like, ‘I want to sing that. I love that song.’ Image-wise, it’s going to be who I naturally am, so that comes in time. But let’s start with this song to make a video. There’s no good music, there’s no meeting, there is no video. It starts with the music."

Learning To Sing

BJ The Chicago Kid: "[I learned to sing] through church. I fell in love with playing drums first. I’m the youngest of three boys, both of my brothers sang before me. But when I combine that poetry with the melody, it was rap. But that’s when I was older. I fell in love with singing [when I was] like five or six.

"I remember the day my mom pulled up to the church. She had to sing a song that day and she had my other two brothers helping her. But it was a note still missing. So we in front of the church and she tells me, ‘I need you to sing this note.’

If this ain’t the most pressure situation ever, you going to tell me in the car before I got to walk in? And I got to remember the whole service?! Woah! We went up there and we did it. That day, I got bit by the bug of singing. I fell in love with the attention. I fell in love with the feeling it gave me and the people. I fell in love with the whole essence of singing."

Singing Inspirations

BJ The Chicago Kid: "I would hear Commission, The Winans, The Clark Sisters [growing up]. My pops would be playing Marvin Gaye, The Whispers, The Chi-Lites, Luther Vandross, and Babyface. Bobby Brown. Usher. Dave Hollister. D’Angelo.

"Who else? Uncle Sam, this old R&B artist from back in the day that was dope. He wrote a song about his girl cheating on him with his best friend. He’s from Detroit. His voice was one of those classic singing voices. If he had gotten the proper acknowledgement, he would definitely be a known voice. Like his voice alone—Samuel L. Jackson has a famous voice, Uncle Sam had a famous voice. Whatever happened, happened. Uncle Sam was a beast.

"Boyz II Men, Jodeci, it was a bunch of ‘em. A bunch of artists that pretty much poured into me. I’m talking about after the soul era. Jagged Edge, man I’m a huge Jagged Edge fan. As crazy as it sounds, I love them ghetto loving records. I’m an R&B singer so I can’t front like I don’t like it, but today, my influence is more hip-hop than R&B.

"There aren’t a lot of new R&B guys that I really take liking to. I rocks with Frank Ocean’s music. I rocks with Chris Brown’s music. Luke James, Wolf James is what he calls himself now. It’s a few dope artists, but not a lot that’s being consistent.

"I’m not out here just singing because BJ the Chicago Kid can sing. I’m really trying to bring real music back. I have a jersey on with ‘Soul Music’ on the back. That’s the team I play for. I take pride in that. There’s so many people that hide behind that because other people have put labels with the soul title, and made it neo-soul. Now they think you got to wear a yarn hat and shit. Like, nah, it ain't about that. It’s about the warmth of the music. You being who you are. This is how I dress. This is my third time changing clothes today, but I’m very much who I am.

"That’s what creates the art. That’s what fucks people up when they hear Kanye’s song and then they see the video, he got all this gothic shit and all these lights, and this king look. It’s like, yeah, it’s the art. That’s what makes it art.

"If I looked exactly how I sound, that’s not really art. It has to be a contrast. It has to be an actual different visual with what you hear. It really has to make sense without making sense to you from the get. That’s what brings the art to it. I feel like i’m walking art, I’m living art. From what I sing, from what I wear, to what I listen to.

"I listen to a lot of Marvin, Willie Hutch, Al Green, Isley Brothers and all that, but if Young Chop samples one of them guys, and I get called to do that hook, I’ve lived two lives for that one hook. I listened to this OG shit, but I’m a young dude, I live the young man life. So I live my life through that chopped up version, too. More than just ‘Ugh, I’m trying to figure out this part.’ No I can really see myself murdering this song because I really feel two different loves from it, in the same record."

Songwriting Inspirations

BJ The Chicago Kid: "Tommy Sims is probably one of this generation’s greatest writers, after Stevie Wonder. He’s a very low-key guy. But him, Tony Rich, Harold Lilly is an incredible Grammy Award-winning songwriter. He’s like a brother of mine. Harold Lilly is a huge part of why I am becoming who I am becoming. Not why I am who I am, cause I’m still morphing. If mothafuckers think I’m a beast now, wait til the morph stops. [Laughs.] Cause honestly, I want to keep growing in this thing. I thirst to be better.

"Mary Mary are incredible songwriters. Love songs, not just gospel. Those girls are lyricists. They really writer incredible songs. Before the world knew them as Mary Mary, they were two songwriters that wrote incredible records for a little bit of everybody in the industry. Rico Love is a dope songwriter and he's a good homie of mine.

"Ryan Lovett. My brother Aaron Sledge. Syleena Johnson. Asaleana Elliott from Chicago. Ms. Elliot is one of the illest female vocalists I know period. She’s an incredible songwriter. She’s from Chicago, she’s buzzing. Her and my brother Aaron did ‘Stay’ for Tyrese, which pretty much got him going to the Grammy’s this year. These are people I grew up with.

"[Babyface] really understood simple but effective songwriting. Babyface wasn’t the best singer, but the way he wrote those songs, he knew how to captivate his audience. If you weren't interested, you weren't interested. But what he did, he did it incredibly well. He taught me that simplicity means the world. It carries the weight of the world."

Hip-hop Inspirations

BJ The Chicago Kid: "Growing up in church, of course, I would get the gospel. Being in the crib with my pops I would get the soul. But being on the block, man, it’s real. That’s where I heard ‘The Block is Hot,’ ‘Money, Cash, Hoes,’ ‘Money and the Power.’

"I remember one time, my boy bought a brand new Pathfinder. He put sounds in it and he played [Dawn Penn’s ‘No No No’] all day. The only way you knew he was around, you’d hear [bangs beat on table]. This is years old and I’m stunned by that. I understand that now when I create music. Even if I’m talking about love, let’s throw an 808 on there because I know my guys like that. Let’s make it tangible. Let’s make it grasp-able. Let’s put it right in front of them.

"If you like broccoli, but you’ve never had asparagus, you’re probably going to aspargus, cause it tastes a little bit like broccoli. But your same steak is there, seasoned well, same good potatoes there, still got your same glass of wine, your beer right there next to it, or your water. Everything you love is still there, it’s just a slight niche up from what you doing.

I feel like that’s what I’m bringing to the game, that niche up. I’m a fan of hip-hop, how could I not do it aggressively? Some of my best friends are Gangster Disciples, Black Stones, Vice Lords, Four Corner Hustlers; I come from an aggressive environment. So, because I’m a professional and because I do music, I have aggression to me in certain ways. That inspires to me to take things by force, musically.

Some of my best friends are Gangster Disciples, Black Stones, Vice Lords, Four Corner Hustlers; I come from an aggressive environment. So, because I’m a professional and because I do music, I have aggression to me in certain ways.

"That’s a part of what I’m doing, because I’m really trying to bring something real back. When I was growing up, kids could actually go outside and play. Kids on the computer now. ‘Go outside? Yeah maybe tomorrow. Y’all going to the gym, I might hoop, but I’m on WorldStar, nigga.’ That’s the generation. So I believe even in bringing this kind of music back, at least bring back that feeling. If I could just do that, I’ll feel like I’ve done something. Because that feeling is untouched, it’s missed.

"But this is the same feeling that we sampling, these records that T.I doing, that Ross doing, that Ye doing. It’s the same shit. So y’all going to mean to tell me when this nigga do ‘White Dress,’ it’s not another knock for these motherfuckas to open that soul door when I come? I come from that same cloth. I’m singing the same sample, that’s who I am. So he ain’t doing nothing but letting you know I’m coming. And he a rapper. So I appreciate it. Every rapper that keep soul samples going and all that shit, I appreciate that. Because that soul thing is different. It scares a lot of people.

"I’m not scared of it, but this my way of looking at it. I’m going to live up to it, but I’m not going to live in it. Most soul singers is tragic-enders, man, straight up. Tragic enders. Whether it’s death or they still living, and it’s just a fucked-up situation. So I’m going to live up to, I’m going to give y’all all this shit. But I ain’t going to live in it."

Mentors

BJ The Chicago Kid: "Kevin Randolph, he’s one of the illest people that contributed things to my life, outside of my family. I would just sing and sing. He’s like, ‘Are you counting?’ He taught me how to count bars. He was the first guy to take that poem and say, ‘Why don’t you come to my crib, let me try to make some melodies. Let’s try to get you to sing these joints and see what it sounds like.’

"He was the first guy to ever really plant that seed. He got me my first placement ever with Ramsey Lewis. Like some OG king shit. Like now I’m older I’m like, ‘Wow.’ When I was younger I was like, ‘Man, where’s R. Kelly?’ [Laughs.] Cause I was so dumb, but smart at the same time, to be able to at least get that opportunity. That’s far more respected, no offense to R. Kelly.

"Kevin Randolph is a young guy, but he’s been a jazz professional since he was a teenager. And he’s this prodigy. But it’s very hard for musicians to make that transition to being a producer. A musician can play the most incredible shit, but a producer can play the most perfect shit in eight bars. Phew. Cold game right?

"So, he understood the transition and he began to pretty much help mold me as a songwriter, he began to help mold me as an artist. Not saying I was being a solo artist then, but he was just molding my music career [so that] whatever was to come, I would be prepared. He definitely understood that before I met him. I put a lot of some of the best music I could find in my system. Because of him, I met R. Kelly at Tracks at the studio."

"My first time seeing R. Kelly in Chicago, he had a white and black zebra du-rag on, a white wife beater, some basketball shorts, and some white Air Force Ones, mid-top, with all of the laces out. That’s how you know he was living at the studio. He was so comfortable, it was like his house shoes. And this was ‘99, 2000. He inspires me greatly, from my city. Him, and, of course, Kanye.

In my eyes, those guys, musically, can do no wrong. Without those two gentlemen, when it comes to the pride of my city musically, we wouldn’t have a lot. Of course with Jennifer Hudson and a lot of few other people, but those two are two of the main pillars of our city when it comes to music. I was working with Kanye on the Mission: Impossible joint ["Impossible"] with Twista, Keisha Cole. And my vocals got the feature love and everything. That was one of the first times I heard my voice on the radio.

My first time seeing R. Kelly in Chicago, he had a white and black zebra du-rag on, a white wife beater, some basketball shorts and some white Air Force Ones, mid-top, with all of the laces out.

"I did backgrounds on that and I sing at the very end. A lot of people was like, ‘I thought that was a sample.’ I was like ‘Yeah. Cool.’ [Laughs.] I’m a blessed individual, man. I’ve had many chances to witness some very life changing events. Like doing the Grammy’s with Usher and James Brown. Or being in Teddy Pendergrass’ crib before he passed away and he talked to me like, ‘So you sing, huh?’ Like he Tony Soprano and I’m the young kid trying to come and be a part of the mob. Like, checking my temperature.

"But he’s in a wheelchair with his mouth directing but he got Gucci’s on his feet. He’s still a boss in his way. He still hold the prestige that he’s built all these years, regardless of what happened. It was an honor to get checked by that man in his house. ‘So where you from? What part? So you sing? What you sound like?’ I wish I could’ve had Marvin do that. I wish Michael Jackson could’ve did that.

"I would love for it to happen with Bill Withers. I’m a huge fan of Bill Withers, he’s still living. Stevie Wonder. I would love to continue to meet my forefathers and the greats because this generation is full of instant mothafuckers. You go buy a camera, now you’re a video director. You hang with songwriters, now you’re a songwriter. We don’t have big homies these days to be like, ‘Nah I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t say that on the Internet, 'cause it’s going to look bad and you’re going to cut your bread off.’

"That’s needed in this generation so much. We wouldn’t have all this bullshit going on. This is an instant generation. It’s like quick grits, you rip the pack, you put hot water, and you mix it up, and you got your grits. I just pray we get some more substance."

Getting Into the Industry

BJ The Chicago Kid: "My first R&B placement was Dave Hollister, Things in the Game Done Changed Up, a song called ‘For You’ in 2001, maybe. I wrote all of the lyrics. Daedae, who produces a lot of stuff for me now, Daedae’s brother produced that record. So I worked with my homie’s big brother then.

"It’s crazy how life makes so much sense later. I think that’s the best part about life, you don’t know how it’s going to pan out, you just got to be strong through it all to see the beautiful end of it and work your ass off to earn it. And I enjoy the blind side of that.

"It took me actually living life to meeting Kevin Randolph. Next you know he’s the same guy that got me to L.A. moving with a job, working with Mary Mary. From then it was a wrap. I had a choice to move to L.A. or New York.

"I didn’t know a lot of people in New York that could really put me in the proper networking circles where I could move quick enough. I knew so many people in L.A. and they were wide spread, so that gives me a lot of territory. If I connect with each one of those people, I connect the dots. That’s what I ended up doing.

"I’m learning to do all the work you can do, so you don’t feel bad letting go to enjoy it. Versus, ‘Fuck I forgot to—If I just put into that extra time.’ Nah fuck that, do all that shit. Because, on this album, I got to bring it all. Like I’m bringing back songs I did four years ago and listening to them again with another ear. Like should we redo the production? Lyrics is cold.

"You get one shot. Em was not lying. You really got one shot and a lot of people still waiting on that one shot when it’s passed. So I thank God I got the opportunity, I’m going to just make the best of mine."

Working With Kendrick Lamar and TDE

BJ The Chicago Kid: "TDE has been family from day one. I met them through some other rap friends in L.A. They called me to the stu. This was before anybody ever knew what TDE stands for. This was even before the ‘HiiiPower’ movement. We became fam from the gate.

"I love how they rhyme. I loved the creative vibe over there. It was more than one person trying to write this song. It was like, ‘Help, let’s get this shit together.’ And nobody was being stingy. You could tell it was a family-oriented place. Me being an R&B artist, I’m not a part of Maybach Music, so it’s not like me and four or five guys all the time.

"So for me to see that family environment, I honored that, I respected that. Shit, I’m a part of TDE on the low. We family. They a part of what I do, I’m a part of what they do. Like, I could call Top just like he could call Kendrick. It’s really that serious. It’s no limits with us.

"Someone asked me in an interview earlier, ‘Were you mad that you didn’t make the good kid m.A.A.d. city album?’ And I was like, ‘No.’ We did four records for it, and all of them were bangers it just probably didn’t fit for them on that album. Me making albums, I have to understand that instantly, though. Cause there’s people that was on Pineapple that didn't make it because I had to be disciplined with that sound in order for people to actually understand it the way I wanted them to.

"No matter how much I love this track, no matter how much it bang, no matter how good the 808s sound, somebody would be like, ‘Mmm, that one song…’ or they’d be like, ‘Something about it ain’t right.’ But I wouldn’t want to cause that feeling. So staying disciplined to that feeling and that emotion musically, I feel like is what that was. And I respect it.

"And, two, if you really think about it, if y’all loved good kid m.A.A.d. city, and what I did for it didn’t make it, my shit got to be coming next, to be bigger. If we only making better music and putting out music better tomorrow than we did today, obviously the shit must be better than good kid, in my eyes.

"I’m sure them records are going to come out. I got another two in the cut from before then. So me and Kendrick at least got over a half an album worth of music. But he’s building his brand, I’m building mine. Even the world can understand if we ever actually decide to put out an album together, it can be an equal balance."

The Making of Pineapple Now & Laters

BJ The Chicago Kid: "I told myself in creating Pineapple Now & Laters that if five people download it, or 5 million, I’m going to be happy with the product and then put it out. I didn’t have any goals. My goal was for this music to be exactly how I feel. It was very stingy, man. Pineapple Now & Laters was a very stingy product.

"I based it off everything I love. I was simply testing everything I have poured into my soul and my spirit over the years. Is this so authentic and so popular, so tangible that a lot of people can identify with this? Let’s really roll the dice and let’s gamble and see who is really fucking with us. For artists that really want to gamble and see who’s really down with you, create an album like that. Don’t think about sales, don’t think about none of that. Be very selfish. Do exactly how you feel and put that out and see who gravitates towards that.

"Pineapple Now & Laters—it formed from this massive album I was working on all of these years. It's formed from the songs that didn’t make that main album, which is going to be the album I put out with Motown. I put those on a playlist and it made sense.

"All my life I’ve been working on an album, so when I hear a song or I get a dope track or I hear the lyrics, I’m going to work on it right then and there. Because it don’t stop. This is a 24/7 not a 9 to 5 for me. I’m always working. Sometimes my mans will call me at five in the morning, I’m up. Or he’ll text me ‘You Up?’ And I’m like ‘Yup.’ It’s an ongoing thing. I’m like the city that never sleeps, I’m the man that never sleeps.

"Yeah, that’s why I picked Pineapple Now & Laters, it’s just something so me. It’s identical to my life. It was my favorite candy as a kid. My cousin who gave me the candy, was a huge music lover. Being with him and his little brother—it was like, ‘Woah, how the hell did you get a VHS of Michael Jackson in Japan?’ And then you going to play Guy, and then you mess around and play Ice-T, then you play Ice Cube, then he playing Janet Jackson, then he playing Tony! Toni! Tone! Just like the weirdest playlist ever. But now that I’m older I got to see that that was just nothing but good music. He was just playing the balance of him."

Performing Live

BJ The Chicago Kid: "[Live Shows are] a part of the dream coming true. Part of the dream is hearing the audience sing those lyrics back if you wrote them. If you ain’t write ‘em, that isn’t really the dream. It’s the writer’s dream. Getting that transfer of energy that you come out on that first song and by the ninth song you’re tired as fuck and they give you that energy back and you’re like, ‘Where did this extra burst of energy come from?’ Just so many elements that is loveable in a live format. It’s crazy.

"Especially for those that really love entertaining. It’s one thing to be like, ‘Yeah! So, Uh!’ and then you sing verses being in a character when you come out. When you walk out the ladies screaming because they see you in a character. These is women that see you on a regular day and see you dressed like that.

"When you see someone in what they love to do, you see them in a whole other way. You’d be like, ‘Man, I just had drinks with this dude, but I saw him on the court and he dunked on Blake Griffin. Oh my god!’ It changes your whole outlook on that person. I love that mindfuck when it comes to my live performance. It’s incredible. I love for people to see me in my happiest element and my happiest moment. And doing the best thing I love to do."

His Upcoming Solo Album for Motown

BJ The Chicago Kid: "We’re planning on releasing it this year, but we’re still working on it. And being very hands on, that can change. We’re definitely looking at a release this year. Tomorrow I’m going right back in on the project. I’ve been inspired on this trip so much I can’t wait to actually sit down and spread the papers on the desk and incorporate this new inspiration into what we’ve been doing.

"We’re going to pick up where we left off with Pineapple, for sure. But it’s another journey. It’s going to be just enough to remind you of where we came from. This is the widespread album that Pineapple formed from, the songs that didn’t make this one. So this is the main movie.

"It was a blessing to even have the support of people clicking ‘buy’ instead of ‘download’ for this one. I didn’t want to test my big album, the big baby, for the first time somebody clicking ‘buy,’ that’s a huge gamble. It was just a blessing that those songs fit in the right way. I was living life at the time and I was able to incorporate all of that together to create Pineapple.

"Maybe two songs were created with the producer. Everything else, they sent me the beats. So whatever producers were on there, we were all in the same planet at one time. When I got it, it was right what I needed. Like Brody Brown, Jairus Mozee, Daedae, those three guys will forever know where I am musically if we don’t see each other for three months. If I’m like, 'Yo I’m working on some shit.’ ‘Alright I’ma send you some shit.’ I bet you if they send me five beats, at least three or four of them going to be where I’m at. [Whispers] They always know.

"But what we can’t answer is what tells you enough to keep working with them forever. That’s all I need to know to keep working forever."

The Future

BJ The Chicago Kid: "More hard work. I already work hard, and I’m seeing more ways that I can work harder. I can’t think about nothing else but the hard work, but I don’t know what to expect from it. I can’t wait to go to work, but I don’t know what my check is going to look like. It’s trusting that blind side of falling in love with the music.

"I feel like that’s the best way to bring real music back, the most honest try ever. And if you swing with your eyes closed then you just have to have good timing when the ball’s coming. Bill Cartwright had the ugliest shot, but we won championships. It’s so true. I just understand there are different recipes to cook up winning dishes. But I’m testing out seasoning, cutting up onions, all of that."