Trap Songwriter & Media Influencer Aye Jeff is in THE HAVEN!

Media influencer and artist, Aye Jeff, joins V. Helena in THE HAVEN to discuss his latest MP3 and rise to social media influencer status.

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Got you a one you made thatyou got live. We don't need it's
gonna chase if you got you whatyour nigga face? We gotta live with
her need. It's no change.We don't strunk, but her whole nigga
viagons replace. It's something soup shouting, we y'all get away, smoke cats,
and ain't y'all different flavors? Andthat is your bitch while she's doing

(00:30):
me favors getting letter, It's justpart of my nigga got your good given
neck when I count this paper.If you guess what chant nigga face we
got living with her need, it'sno change. We don't strum, but
the whole nigga reagons replace. It'ssomething up shoting, we y'all get away,
snow cats, and ain't you'all differentflavors? And that is your bitch
while she's doing me favors getting letters, Just part of my nigh got your
good gevern neck when I count thispaper. Yeah, let's make a movie.

(00:52):
Baby. I'm licking the way youpursue me. Baby, What up?
What up? What up? Thisis me Helena, and you're listening
to the sweet sounds of some timeby a Jeff from his album Done Being
Humble. Jeff is a songwriter,artist, videographer, and media influencer with
over thirty thousand subscribers across five platforms. He's here today to talk about his

(01:14):
songwriting and media influencing. Please joinme in welcoming Jeff, Welcome, Welcome
you, thank you, so goodto have you in the Haven. Glad
to be here. Yes, yes, absolutely, So we just heard Summertime.
We just played during our intro tothe show. Talk to us about

(01:38):
the song. Where did the inspirationcome from? Okay, so I have
a brother named Isaiah Hall. Okayhe is, he's a bit old.
So he the sample I forgot.I think it's I think the sample is
called Summertime, but I can't rememberthe artist. But he sent me the
sample. He sent me the song. I was like, Okay, I'm
gonna send it to my producer.Send it to my producer. Then he

(02:01):
made made the beat and then itwas surround summer time. So talked about
the summer time. What we doduring the summer, You get lit,
drink some a little bit, youknow what I'm saying, parties, stuff
like that. Like that's it.So how long did it take to write
to write the song, I'll proit r probably takes me by the day.

(02:23):
Once I came up with the hookof the song, it was it
was easy to write the rest oflyrics. And and so how did you
come up with the hook? Howdoes that happen? Okay? Usually I'll
get like a vibe, but likeI'll play the beat and I'll get like
a vibe of how I want themelody to be. And once I figured

(02:45):
out what I was talking about,lyrics is easy to cause. Yea once
once you know what you wanna talkabout, it's easy to think about some
lyrics. Wow. So do youcollab with other people at your writing or
is it totally and completely it's completelyfrom right here? Yeah yeah no,

(03:07):
no uh other writers and none ofmy music, it's just me. So
that's the lyrics. What about thethe music or is it both? As
far as like engineering and producer wise? Okay, So my producer his name
is uh ao Wan. He producesthe beat. And my friend j Bino
he is a also a mus uhmusician, and he engineered for me.

(03:30):
So I went to his house andrecorded a song in his studio. Okay,
okay, now I mentioned trap musicearly on, but you said,
no, they're the same trap music. I mean, what the it's a
mixture of trap music. Uh,really a vibe. Sometimes I pour my
heart out into my music, LikeI talk about things that I go through
in life and stuff like that.So I sometimes it's about trap, sometimes

(03:53):
it's about how I'm feeling, andyou know, just different vibes. And
you can catch a different vibe fromevery song on on my tape Dump Beyondble.
Yeah. So I'm I'm asking thesequestions one because I know my dream
catchers are also as they're listening,cause they're sponging off of information from all
of my guests that come on.Uh. They may have a interest in

(04:15):
music, they may have an interestin the kind of music that they're hearing.
M And they have their process ofdoing it. But you're someone who
is doing it and doing it successfully. So hearing from you about how you
pull that together and it sounds veryorganic to me. It's like no real
road map or script of how ithappens. It just grows, it happens

(04:38):
organically. M A. Is thereanything in your process that you definitely ensure
is a part of your process asyou're creating like for example, for writers,
there's a a beginning, middle end. Okay, I does that fall?
Is? Is is any of thatin the y? I? It

(04:59):
is? Usually I try to comeover with the hook first, because a
hook is what really catches the listener. So whenever, whenever I try to
UH make a song, I tryto get a real catchy hook or something
that relatable to everybody. So itreally depends on the beat also, so
I really just go with the vibeor the beat. And yeah, and

(05:21):
how important is it to have theright producer? Very important because one you
can be cause my producer he standsout from most producers in the DMV.
He uses different samples from different typesof uh other artists such as like what's

(05:41):
that song? Well, for examplesummertime summertimes as sample. So it's it's
really important to be different, whicha beats, beat, a selection m
So once you get a a nicedifferent sound than everybody else, then it's
kind of easy to stand out.And and how how did that happen?
Was it you heard about him andsaid, you know what, I wanna
produce me? So he actually foundme on YouTube and he said that he

(06:06):
liked my videos and stuff like that. So then I found out that he
started making beats and I had madeone song called no Sleep and that was
just me O being funny for YouTube. I went to the studio. I
was a rapper for twenty four hours. That's the name of the video.
So when he saw the video,he said, bruh, you you crank

(06:28):
you. You know what I'm saying. I wanna make some beats for you.
So he sent me on a bunchof beats, and then after that
it's it was history. After that, we just started making music. Okay,
let's talk about the change. Talkabout the change. We'll talk about
the the the the money part ofthat, okay, okay. So and
it's very interesting. So there wasa musician on Before You who talked about

(06:49):
the pitfalls of the industry and hookingup with people who say, you know,
I'm I'm gonna make you a star. Basically, you know, I'm
I'm gonna take you on this trackand you're gonna be famous, and we're
gonna do all these things together.If you sign here and give me fifty
thousand dollars, I'm gonna make it. So there's that you gotta pay me

(07:11):
in order to play, you know, to get what you want. Do
you find that to be some ofthe challenges in your music journey or not
at all, because I kind wekind of make it like an equal exchange,
like I'm putting cause I put himonto like a lot of other artists
in the DMV, so once theyheard him, you ain't tell him yet

(07:38):
it's coming the most, all right, but I'm sorry, go ahead,
But he as soon as I startedmaking music on his beats, other artists
had to come to him, sohe kind of like thanked me for that.
So it's really it's not even worknow. It's kind of like a
bond that we have. So it'sreally important if you if you can create
a bond with the people that youmake anything with, money's not really in

(08:01):
really issues top of the discussion atall. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
So I'm helping him, helping me. Okay, okay, very good,
very good. So let's let's talka little bit more about your process.
So this done being humble is yourfirst? My first? Yes? Okay?

(08:22):
And when did you? And Iheard every single song on it,
every single song I was I wastrying to find one that was not explicit
lyrics, but anyway, that's wholeanother. I mean, it's really you
know what For me who clutched thepearls often, I thought it was very
very well done because I I haveto tell you, I was the the
music, the beat is really reallyyou know what gets me. And then

(08:46):
hearing your voice on top of that, and many times I was like,
my God, is his broat gonnabe okay? Is it gonna be okay?
Yelling and screaming? Yeah, andthe mic is right there. I
know why you singing so loud.But anyway, well let me ask you
that, do you have to liketake throw balls andes? No, it's
just, oh my gosh, Iknow what I'm talking about. I know

(09:11):
exactly what you talk about. Iknow exactly what you're talking about. But
it's really my energy is just theenergy that I put into my songs and
sometimes my lyrics. I feel mylyrics so much that it's going to you're
gonna hear how much I feel itin my voice. Yeah, it's very
powerful. Yeah, and that that'sa hook in itself. You know,
it's like hearing your voice and Ilove how you added or your producer added

(09:35):
other elements into it. You know, there were a few songs where there
was a woman talking and were singing, Oh you hit this hype guy in
the background, guys in the background. So, I mean it just really
pulled me in to it, youknow, from the very first song all
the way I had to listen tothe whole thing. I actually wish it
was longer. You need to makeyour next one need to be longer.
You need more songs on it.It needs to be longer. Okay,

(09:58):
So thank you for that, thankyou for listening. So okay, So
I w I was just talking aboutthe the basically the next album. So
there. So you did your firstone, there were probably a lot of
things that you learned. Yeah,musically you as an artist, things that
you wanna maybe do different in thenext one. So have you started working

(10:24):
on your next one and have youstarted incorporating those changes or like, what's
the next thing in your musical Asfar as changes, I can say that
I want to start cause I Idid talk about what was going on in
my life a little bit in myfirst one, but I want to get
more into that on my next project. Okay, So I'm most most of

(10:46):
my uh I had do I dohave some new songs that not. I'm
not really working on the album yet, okay, but I do have new
music that I haven't released yet.So and it's most definitely like I'm talking
talk on right Okay, Okay,I can't wait to hear that. I
can't wait to hear that. Doyou have a timeline? No? Right

(11:07):
now, I'm really focused on pushingthe UH songs out and making music videos
for me, okay. So I'mnot really really in a hurry to make
another tape okay, Okay. Now, there was one question that I started
asking, then I got caught upin whatever else you were saying. So
again I mentioned trap music, butyou said it's like a mixture of different

(11:28):
things. It just seems like themusic industry is starting to change. Yeah,
d Do you feel that as anartist? Most definitely. And it's
really because cause it I feel likeit's TikTok, Cause TikTok is a very
big platform that you can blow upon. So if you can make a
certain song that will be catchy thatit can make everybody start making videos to

(11:50):
that one song, you wanna blowup. So it's some people make songs
just for TikTok. But I'm notreally too into that. I'm okay,
I really just wanna make music forw what I wanna make? Yeah?
Yeah, and then if it endsup on TI, yeah it does.
But that's not your driver, that'sthat's not where you're trying to definitely go.

(12:11):
So let's talk about your social mediapresence. Okay, did you work
out their little situation with with thewith the young man and you know about
that? I tried to and didit work for you? Did it work
out for you? I mean Imade my videos, I got some money
for it, so and they don'treally wanna It seems like a shame though,

(12:33):
cause y'all used to be tight,used to be tight. But everybody
has different paths. So now Iknow my listeners are like, what the
hell are y'all talking about? Soif you wanna learn more, tell them
where to go. I go toYouTube. Ajef a ye j f F.
That's it. You can an andit it. It's a lot of
drama to be it's a whole nothermood. It's a whole nother reality show

(12:56):
and that's happening and the whole thingand you'll like kind of learn the whole
story of this drama. That ensuedand his response, which I thought was
excellent. Thank you. And whenwe're off camera, i'm'a give you some
lessons and like about that situation ifif you don't mind listening, Kisho.
So let's talk about your social mediapresidence, because that was the other thing.

(13:20):
There were so many people that werefollowing that drama, and I was
looking at all the likes and thecomments. I'm like, oh my gosh,
So how did you get into thesocial media scene? Okay, so
first when I was when I firststarted being on social media, I was
making like skits and stuff like thatand that's and I would post my skits

(13:41):
on YouTube. But then I realizedon YouTube, like it's certain types of
videos that you're supposed to do toblow up. So it's like trends that
you want that you basically wanna doso you can start getting numbers and stuff
like that. So once I started, uh, doing my homework and why
watching the other people do these certainvideos and stuff like that, and then

(14:01):
I started to get into like aan idea of what people want to see.
So after that, it was itwas it was easy and once I
knew what what they wanted to see, I gave it to him. It
is so funny watching your video.I'm sitting there, I'm cracking up the

(14:22):
entire time. And there was onethere was what time I laughed? Just
think about it. There was onetime that you called somebody and they answered
the phone, but they sounded likeDonald Tuck. So it's like you just
distorted the voices and like Donald Duck. You can kind of make out what
he's saying, but but it's DonaldDuck for so I was like, why

(14:43):
in the world he do that?But so there's the shock value of it,
which seems to attract. What elseis I'm sure do you pay attention
to the analytics for okay? Andso that that's where you know what's working
and what's not working. And sopeople, my dreamy people out there who
are trying to figure out how toget your followers numbers up, what advice

(15:07):
would you give to them? Myadvice would be do your homework. I
feel like that's with anyone what that'swhat they doing it watching the show,
They're doing it homework, and sotell them what's so one thing you said,
watch analytics, Watch analytics, seewhat is getting the most hype and
be consistent and be yourself and bethose it the most important thing. What
happens if you're not yourself. Ifyou're not yourself, you're gonna fall into

(15:28):
the category of other people, andyou just gonna fall into the mix.
You want to stand out as muchas you can, Okay, So once
you yourself, no one can beyou. Right, You're the only person
that can be. So once youstand out, you're gonna put yourself in
your own lane. If you tryto, you know what I'm saying,
getting everybody else's lane, you justgonna look like everybody else right, right,
And and the whole point is tostand out from the crowd. Got

(15:50):
it? Got it? So let'stalk a little bit about monetization. Okay,
So are you at a place nowwhere you can monetize off of you?
You are? Okay? So howdifficult or challenging is that? Was?
That is? That is a grind? That is a a huge grind

(16:10):
for YouTube. You have to geta thousand subscribers and four thousand watch hours,
so that means you have to bewatch hours. So basically, say
I dropped a ten minute video andsix people watch that ten minute, ten
minute video. Oh, that's ahour. Okay, So once you get

(16:33):
all those hours and then you getin a thousand subscribers, and thousand subscribers
are the hardest thing to get unlessyou get blessed well you have more than
oh yeah, yeah at first,but I'm saying in the beginning stage,
it's very hard to to get upthere. But once you get past that
mark and you start, you knowwhat I'm saying, being consistent and standing

(16:56):
out, doing the trans doing thetrans as and being yourself at the same
time, it starts to work out. But YouTube puts some limitations and restrictions
on you, right, I meanthey they do that too, so it
it's kind of maneuvering through that.And yeah, it's very YouTube's getting very
strict nowadays. Mm. So it'sit's very hard to cause mm cause you

(17:18):
know, we get paid off ofour ads really and interviews too, but
mainly we get to pick the ads. We get to pick where we place
our ads. So I can placeabout maybe seven seven ads in a thirty
minute video or something like that,so m we get to pick uh where
we place'em, but not necessarilythe ad okay, but do they usually
find ads to kind of go nicelyyeah, your content yup. Okay,

(17:44):
Well that's good. M that's good. And I noticed that too when I'm
watching something that the ads are somehowrelated to whenever I'm watching, So so
that's good. What other limitations dothey place on you? Limitations? Uh,
it's really just cursing. Maybe dothey bleep it out? Do they

(18:06):
make you bleep it out for thefirst there's like ways to get around it.
Sometimes you can bleep out words forlike the first two minutes and then
the rest of the video. Theywon't necessarily pay attention to that, but
the first two minutes you can bleepit out and then rest of the video
you watching it? Did I notsay? Did I not tell you that

(18:30):
YouTube is one? Okay? Soanyway, okay, that that's really good
information to know. Okay, Soyou have kind of a dual persona because
you are an artist and people followyour work. Do you have a website

(18:52):
too or it's strictly social media ishow you communicate with your people's okay,
which is really good because then it'scentral line in one place. So if
people want to know where you're goingto be performing, they don't have a
website to go to. They haveto go to follow me on social media.
Instagram. That's my That's where I'mactive at the most is Instagram every
single day. Nothing on Facebook.It's wrong with Facebook. Nothing wrong are

(19:21):
on Facebook, now, that's what'shappening. But no, it's also it's
also people, younger folks getting onon Facebook too because Facebook's starting to pay.
So okay, you might see metransition over the Facebook too, sooner
or later, soon, sooner orlater? Okay, okay, all right,
So with this dual persona that youhave, how much does your non

(19:48):
trapp and say, I'm trying tofigure out a name to your artistry,
how much does your artistry play intoyour social media persona? And what and
what I'm mean by that is this, there's a stereotype, okay, there's
a stereotype of artists who perform thekind of music that you perform. You

(20:11):
know, I don't want to saythug life, because I don't believe it's
thug life, but it's it's aside of the industry that has traditionally been
looked upon as you know, justkind of hardcore. And I don't believe
that you're that way, but theindustry that you're in just kind of advocates

(20:33):
it or at least shows that sideof it, and I don't know why.
I don't know. Maybe it sellsmore. It does, it does
sell more, but it is sohow much does that persona influence your you?
Your persona as a social media Okay, it doesn't at all, because

(20:56):
yeah, since I post videos andstuff like that, showing my personality,
being myself and stuff like that,right, they'll listen to my music,
they'll follow me on the Instagram,see what else I do. Once they
click them videos, they'll be like, it don't seem like a rapper like
you. You wouldn't think that he'srapping about these things and stuff like that.
But it's really, like like Isaid, it just gotta be yourself,

(21:18):
like I I'm not no hardcore dudeor nothing like that. Like I'm
chill, you know what I'm saying, entertaining doing. I just stay in
my own lane. So it's reallyjust being yourself and showing people that you're
being yourself m and being different fromeverybody else. So I can rap about

(21:40):
anything and they can go on mysocial media and see that I'm most definitely
s I most definitely rap the lifethat I live, but I'm not no
gangster, like every rapper is supposedlysupposed to be, like right, but
you think I think some of thatis for show. You don't have to
own anything. I'll put it onme, So I think some of it
is for show to sell records.Uh oh yeah, most definitely, cause

(22:03):
some stuff is gonna sell more thanthan other things are. So yeah,
sometimes you gotta put on a littlea little different type of face, but
it's entertainment at the end of theday. Yeah, and that's and that,
and that's an another reason why Ipost like vlogs and stuff like that,
showing my true self so people won'tget necessarily confused, like, oh,

(22:25):
yeah, he's just doing this becauseit's it's funny. Yeah yeah,
but it is fun Yeah yeah itis. Okay. So who are some
of your influencers influences? Okay,I would say DDG. He is a
YouTuber that also makes music. Okay, so he's most definitely uh a influence
on me, most definitely. Heuh also boxes. I do plan on

(22:48):
boxing too, sooner or later.Oh, okay, I do wanna be
it. Don't mess up all that. Yeah, I ain't gonna mess it
okay, Okay, make sure Ishtick stick a move. Okay. So
that's really it. I would reallysay he's really the only person cause he's
the only person that succeeded in becominga YouTuber and then transitioning into the rap

(23:12):
game. So that's whereas you werea rapper first and then did the YouTube
or no, I was uh aentertainer first before I started uh making music.
I literally started making music just because, just for the fun of it.
But then people started saying that Isound good. I need to keep
going. I was like, whynot, Yeah, but you gotta do

(23:33):
something up it. I just gottamake I gotta make'em feel it sometimes,
gotta make'em feel it. Okay, Now you said entertainer, could
you tell us exactly what form ofentertainment? Okay, So when I'm a
actor as well, I I startedoff acting, making short films and skits
like that. Yeah, and Iwould I would say that I'm pretty funny,

(23:57):
so a little comedian. Yeah,it is a little comedian in there
too, just a little bit,mkay. And that's really it. I
just wanna make I thought you werea DJ too, nah, I mean
I dibble and dabble and okay,okay, yeah, okay, so acting

(24:18):
rapping would we will use rapping andvlogging social media influencer, what advice would
you give to someone who is lookingto blow up like you have and to
get in on the rap scene andor be where you are in terms of
an influencer? Okay, Like Isaid, the biggest platform right now is

(24:45):
TikTok, TikTok, TikTok, TikTok. Post all your your best video that
you have and just put'em onTikTok. As it is if you're consistent
and post about three the five videosa day on TikTok. Oh, goodness,
it's not. It's artists. It'sit's not good Like, what are

(25:06):
you thinking of? What kind ofcontent you coming up with five times a
day? It can be anything likeI can drop a vlog, say my
vlogs about thirty minutes long, andit's like different pieces in this vlog that's
like that will be entertained that somepeople. I can just click those and
then I'll put those funny moments onTikTok and then they blow up on TikTok.
Then I'm like, WHOA, where'sthe where's the rest of the video.

(25:29):
Then they h Okay, I gotyou see, very very very very
very smart. Okay, so tellus one more time where we can find
you and your music. Start withthe music first, Okay, you can
find my music on Apple Music,Spotify, SoundCloud, I think all streaming
platforms, uh under age F andspell ah. So is a y e

(25:56):
e a y e j e fF yup AGEF. Okay, so we
just type that in and the wholeinternet gonna blow up yep with your music.
Okay. And now on social mediaand social media for YouTube channel,
it's a f A y e jf F and Instagram is a y y
e e j e F. Ohno, So you're doing too much now,

(26:17):
I expect because somebody somebody had somebodyhad a JEF already on on the
Instagram with it saying that's a lotto remember. We got to write that
down just two wise to easey.That's that's easy. Well, thank you
so much for coming the Haven,coming in the Haven. We thoroughly enjoyed
having you and much much continued sacsuccess in your music and in your influencing

(26:41):
world. Thank you, look forwardto having you back when you dropped that
next CD yes or MP three,So Dreamcatchers, thanks for tuning in and
being a big part of why wedo this. It is my hope that
you are inspired in your own writer'sjourney and that this season will inspire you

(27:02):
to continue to finish, whether itbe in pinning your book, your script,
or laying down tracks like my dudeover here so. You can stream
us on any of our nine streamingplatforms, including iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio,
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For more information on where to tuneinto a broadcast or podcast, visit

(27:26):
our website at www dot writers haavemanshowdot com and you can also follow me
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and perhaps I'll see you in thehaven really soon. So thank you and
until next time, cast fired,just try. I'm suppoking to us God

(27:48):
that she said up, but Godthat we doing the desk of a dottie
like a holiday tatoos all over mybody? Yeah win or where's your mardy?
I'ma come me audie'a promise. Iput that on Mommy's proms sometime.
Man, we about it. Yeah, I just undressed on you, Shine.
Okay okay s.