Let BJ the Chicago Kid be your Internet Guide
The incomparable four- time Grammy award nominated singer-songwriter, with a voice so sultry and lyricism so captivating, it’s Obama approved; has returned with his newest project, 1123. The highly anticipated sophomore album follows a mightily successful 2016 release of the beloved, ’In my mind’. A strong contender for icon status. With a roster of collaborators just as iconic as himself, BJ the Chicago Kid’s nostalgic R&B, neo-soul, trap fusion is just what you need to unleash your sensual side. Allow yourself to be completely immersed by his seductive ballads and school you on his ultimate loves and loathes. This is the Internet guide with BJ the Chicago Kid…
What would you like to see more of online? What would you like to see less of?
Erm what I would like to see more of online is…I always want to see more positivity, like within “black twitter” and “black Instagram”. [laughs] Some of the negative stuff do be funny as hell though, I can’t front, I do be laughing sometimes – it is very funny, I am very human and I think my sense of humour is tapped up a few notches, so something’s I really get that other people may not get. One of the things I would love to see less of online is stuff we talk about, like say for instance if I say ‘pants’, ‘dog’, ‘dog food’ and ‘dog shoes’ all of this stuff will pop up on our phones within an hour – that creeps me out, and will forever creep me out till the day that I die. Who’s listening? What’s going on? Stop it! [laughs]. Yeah, that part.
What or who is the best account you follow? The worst?
I don’t have a worst account that I follow, cause I really just unfollow or block them if – I block people, people get blocked every day b. I think the best account that I follow is @freddyibs, my cousin @larryisledgend he is comedy, @badluck he’s a rapper and he has a podcast as well in Los Angeles, incredibly funny guy. Those three is lit for right now, those three keep it lit.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve read about yourself online?
The craziest thing I read about myself online is that I got into this business because of Janet Jackson, it’s comedy. I don’t know where that came from. I think it could- it had to be a misprint but thank God I have a chance to correct it now. So I went to see a Janet Jackson concert as a kid, because my dad he was a bouncer, he did security from everyone Micheal Jordan to Eddie Murphy, Oprah Winfrey, Mohammad Ali, Robin Harris, you know, the old school Hollywood that would come from Chicago he would hold them down. So he had the opportunity with this thing it was called like B-Street, or something like that, and they shut the street down and had this big ole concert in Chicago in the south side, and the Jackson’s came by, everybody except Micheal of course, and a bunch of other artists and stuff like that. I saw Janet perform that day, and just to see the pyro and all this crazy stuff, like a real stage production as a child it blew me away. So I thought that yeah, this would be something that this would be something that I would love to do. I wasn’t even really singing at that age, I was just very young, I was a pup pup pup pup pup pup, so that show was just probably the biggest show I’ve ever seen as a child and it just made me just like googly eyed. But that’s not the reason I’m here. I later began to understand that it was way deeper than Janet Jackson [laughs], so thank you for letting me clear that up.
What’s your favourite meme?
My favourite meme at the moment is a tie between the guy looking out the window with the different haircuts and the glasses, the black guy and – by the way that guy that drew those he has a job now, like somebody hired him, it’s a really cool company that hired him cause they thought that the guys art was really dope. Somebody else got hired that was really dope and amazing too, so you know June Teenth(?) they were looking at Google- for Google to change the header, but nobody changed it so this black guy drew a header, he tagged them and the world began to love what he drew and they tagged him and now Google actually hired him now. So a lot of amazing things happen through the internet, just like a lot of crazy things happen through the internet on the negative side. But I just think that is really cool, and it’s something to continue to show you they can look if you give them something to look at – they’re always willing to look and, the ‘they’ is the biggest and the lowest, you know whomever you seek for they will possibly find it if you want them to.
What’s your earliest memory of the Internet?
Ah man, my earliest memory of the internet was opening a magazine and seeing a CD inside that said AOL live on it [laughs], and you put that in and that was the internet, yeah, straight up. The internet came in a magazine – how bout’ that.
What about the internet that we know today?
This is the big brother of that, yeah, this is the more advanced version of that, the internet is now on your phone, it’s not even on a CD anymore, they don’t even make CD’s anymore. I mean time, technology has advanced so much, mankind has advanced so much, it allows us to have it at the tip of our fingers at any time of the day
Is the Internet a good or bad thing for music?
It’s both. It’s good because you have access to everything right away, but we don’t need access to everything right away. The cool part that I think that kinda help start this thing, was us as musicians we are able to hear from the fans in real-time, that was the initial idea and then being able to post pictures, and memes and GIFs and all this – and it’s like oh shit [laughs], and now it’s another world and I love it. I think everything remains until it’s changed, and I think this is something that will forever evolve into something bigger. What it will evolve into we all don’t know, that’s what the crazy part is, the unknown, it’s like some black mirror shit [laughs].
How many followers represent success?
I think that’s a question for someone else to answer, I really wouldn’t know. I don’t really measure success financially or through followers or anything, but I understand that is a big way of how companies or entities look at that. So, I respect it, but I wouldn’t know – I would be learning from you, what you think? What’s a decent number?
I don’t think there’s a number, I think it’s engagement more than the number –
The connection with the people…
Exactly, cause you could have a million followers and five likes, or you could have five hundred followers and five hundred likes
Yeah, very true, I feel you, yeah you helped me get through that one cause I was kinda stuck, thank you
Finally…what’s going on in your life?
I be on VladTV, I be on WorldStar, I be on everything [laughs], yeah, I have inspirational sites that I go to, I have all kinds of worlds that I tap into via the internet that I kinda do daily, and I think it’s pretty cool that you have this world full of everything. But it makes me feel good that my phone is pretty much full of solid websites and things that I’ve probably visited, and pages that I’ve gone to, I don’t wile out too much, I have a little fun but you know I’m very solid and I make sure I feed my soul through it because I’m an artist, and I don’t feel right if I go too long without – it sound weird – but learning something. I feel weird if I’m going on too long without learning something that I really need. A lot of times I’m looking up cooking recipes or seeing how it’s cooked like ‘ahh no they put too much of that’ –I mean for the craziest things I tap into the internet, and I think it’s an incredible tool that we have. My parents have adapted to it, which is beautiful, makes their life a little bit easier so it is the advancement of what we do, so I love it, yeah.
BJ the Chicago Kid’s next album ‘1123’ is out on Friday. Follow him on Instagram here now.
