IDK
in conversation with Evan Mock
So the list of collaborators goes Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, Tyler, the Creator, Pusha T, A$AP Ferg, Joey Badass... and you can add Offset after the single 'Shoot my Shot' was released today.
Jay Mills, aka IDK, isn’t fucking around. Ever since the 28-year-old, Maryland-raised rapper burst on to the scene, he’s meant business intent on channelling positive change through his music. IDK may feign to be ‘Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge’ and as you’ll soon find out there is little ignorance to this man, though he certainly has a knack for delivering knowledge to his millions of fans eager to listen, to learn and to be inspired from his already well-storied life experience.
Speaking to his fellow homie, multihypenate Evan Mock, IDK opens up about his creative process, credits the artist who’s had the biggest impact on his music and breaks down what he sees as success in today’s world.
Here’s a teaser to some of the things they discussed for IDK’s Man About Town cover story.
Hey, what's good?
Ain't shit man. This your first time interviewing?
Basically. I kind of read people on the daily, but this is my first interview with a homie.
Ah sick. All right. What you got for me?
Do you feel like 2020 stalled your progression as an artist?
Hell no, it sped it up. It made me take time to focus on the creative, on the brand of what I wanted to project to the world and focused on creating my own world for my fans. It was amazing for me.
So do you find using music for positive change, is that like a thing in your music or is it just about flexing?
It's like a mixture of whatever I'm feeling. If I was to hop on the mic right now, the shit I'd say, I wouldn't be Martin Luther King on a mic right at this moment. What we have gone through with the pandemic and all the stuff that was happening, if I wake up in the morning and that's what I feel, then I do that. The most important thing in all of my albums is it always has to mean something. And it always has to point back to something that people can apply to their lives in a positive way. But it doesn't mean that every single thing I do I'm conscious of people's emotions. Sometimes the emotion is happiness and partying, you know what I'm saying? You've been out with me before... just running around, having fun, sometimes that's the mood...
IDK wears Dior on the cover of Man About Town’s SS21 issue, available to pre order here.
