What’s your stage name and where are you from?

Stage name is JB3 and I’m from Charleston, SC

What’s the story behind your stage name?

Pretty simple—I went through all kinds of stage names. My first back in college was OB-1 or 0131, then switched to Bern-1 which was my Radio DJ name. Later, Algo Rhythm for something cool and unique, however, I eventually realized everyone calls me JB so felt it was more natural.

Describe your musical journey in three sentences.

Rhymes to beats, to recording and throwing it all together. For the most part always have been solo and has been part of the process. No delays, no drama, creativity flowing, not trying to be someone’s motivator to record music they’ve spent hours writing, and not being afraid to fail.

Share an interesting experience you had while creating your latest track.

I was up early, threw this beat together—it had that perfect vibe, the kind that paints a sunrise over the water in your mind. As I sat there, watching the sun creep up at 7 AM, I was eating bacon – So I thought, F it, I’ll write about 7 AM breakfast because I’ve never heard anyone do a hip hop track about breakfast. Thinking how De La Soul/Tribe Called Quests, 90s hip hop of the world could rhyme about anything I wanted to make that more of a point in my music and not create music that’s about the same subject matter like we hear on the radio.

What message do you want to convey through your music?

No fear in being creative and coming up with tracks people can vibe to and feel good about.

Tell us about a challenge you faced during production and how you overcame it.

It’s a pain in the ass to mix and get the vocals correct. I think that’s the most challenging part. When you write the track, make the beat, recording it over and over without suffering from the fatigue of hearing it a million times is challenging. So getting that excitement in the vocals and being satisfied with the recording, and then spending all the time trying to mix it is the challenge. Over the years, I’ve learned to stop caring how my voice sounds (because most of us at first may hate how we sound) focus on the delivery, adding flavor and attitude, and making sure you articulate what you’re saying and you believe in it and are confident.

If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?

Tribe Called Quest or Redman….Tribe Called Quest was my first Hip Hop CD I ever had, “Low End Theory” loved the flows and beats. Redman “Muddy Waters” got me through college and love the fearlessness of Reggie Noble not giving a damn.

Where do you see your music taking you in the next year?

That all depends on who digs it and the exposure I get. I’ll say, unexpected places.

What’s the next big step for you as an artist?

Gain exposure and greater viewership.

Where can we hear/watch your most recent work?

https://soundcloud.com/realjb3