If you take a look at most Rap outfits, it seems every crew has their own young gun. That one cat that spits relentlessly trying to prove one thing and one thing only : “I’m nice.” Enter JR Writer. Buzzing on the mixtape scene for almost two years now, he hit big with “Stop-N-Go” off the Diplomatic Immunity II compilation. His ability to rhyme every word in the accompanying four bars with such a rapid delivery on the track silenced many haters. At twenty years of age, the pressure is now on him to defy the one dimensional mixtape punchline rapper stigmatism.
With a new mixtape on the shelves, “Writer’s Block 2” and a couple of features on the upcoming More Than Just Music compilation, we catch up with the Dominican phenom. We talk coming up in the game, battling Jae Millz, and we find out what’s good with his resemblance to Cam’s flow. Part two of Dipset week; AllHipHop.com keeps it all the way funky!
AllHipHop.com: How long have you been rapping?
J.R. Writer: Since I was eleven years old.
AllHipHop.com: What were you listening to that truly inspired you?
J.R. Writer: I listened to ‘Pac, BIG, Big L, Big Pun. I listened to everybody. Everybody that was hot. But ‘Pac was a big influence on me.
AllHipHop.com: How so?
J.R. Writer: ‘Cause he just had that powerful music. I used to sit back and just listen. A lot of people didn’t understand his flow, because his s**t was so futuristic, man. That’s why you see people still playing his s**t now.
AllHipHop.com: How did you get down with the Diplomats?
J.R. Writer: Basically Jim, Cam, Juelz – we all grew up in Harlem. I look at it like, we were all destined to be a family, be a group, be a label, whatever you want to call it. We call it a movement. I was running around Harlem or whatever, doing what I had to do. Getting on public access, on DVD’s, battles, cyphers. Whatever was going on, if it had anything to do with Rap, I was in it. My man Bonny introduced me to Louch from the Taliban. I went up there to 145th to spit for him, and he was feeling me. He told me to come through, you know what I’m saying? After he told me to come through, I was on 145th rain, sleet, snow just out there going hard. Battling n***as, doing DVD’s. You might of seen the battles, probably on the Internet, but you know I was out there hard. One day Cam had popped up, it was right around the time Cam just got signed to Roc-A-Fella. He just finished shooting the pictures for the cover of the first Diplomats mixtape. I remember they all had the minks on. Cam pulled up with Juelz in an all-black [GMC] Denali. Louch called me over to spit for him. There was a lot of people around, so he couldn’t really politick with me. He was like, “Yo, you hot. But right now, I ain’t situated.” This is before Juelz or anybody got signed. But he was like, “When I get situated, I’ma hit Louch and we can get up.” So basically four weeks after that situation, he end up calling Louch. I get downtown, I got on Juelz’ album. After that, it was just love.
AllHipHop.com: When you first joined the Dips did you feel intimated or nervous?
J.R. Writer: Not at all, ‘cause everyone there was nice. I f**ked with everyone. They respected me. It was all love. As soon as I got there, Juelz showed love, he threw me on his first album [“Squalie”], took me places, brought me to radio. It was love. No intimidation, we are all nice.
AllHipHop.com: Your verses are very punchline heavy. How do you go about writing your material?
J.R. Writer: I don’t really sit down and think of a bunch of metaphors. Nah, I just flow with it. Metaphors just happen to pop up, and I put them in there. This s**t is easy for me, man. My album is retarded. Like this mixtape s**t is what I do, that’s not even hard. I can put out mixtapes for years, man. My album is totally different from my mixtapes, man.
AllHipHop.com: How so?
J.R. Writer: The big difference is, that it’s not all some street s**t, and just airing n***as out, and metaphors. It’s songs about me, about my life. Just concepts, I got crazy flows on there. I got a song called “Slow Down Son, You Killing Them.” I sample Puff’s Voice, and like every eight bars, he like, “Slow down, you killing them.” But in between that, the flow is just crazy. Everybody I let hear it, went crazy when they heard it. My album is powerful. It’s not just a bunch of songs put on there. If you don’t like it, you’re hating, that’s how I feel. I’m a fan of my own s**t man. Sometimes I sit back and think like, “Damn how do I do this s**t?” I go back to my crib and blast my own s**t. My s**t like takes you back to the essence of Hip-Hop, ‘95, ‘96. Like when n***as had them albums you could listen to the first track to the end of it, and really like the whole s**t. My s**t is like a movie.
AllHipHop.com: A lot of heads say that your flow bares a very strong resemblance to Cam’s. How do you react to that association?
J.R. Writer: I’ve heard that a lot. I feel like when you’re coming up, when you’re nice people always got something say about you. Like this n***a is too fat, he’s to skinny, he’s mad tall, he’s mad short, he’s ugly, he nice but he sound like this person. They always got something to say. But people get past that. Look at Shyne. I feel like when you nice, everybody always got something to say about you. But I’m going to make them love it. If they don’t love it, they hating.
AllHipHop.com: Have you ever ghostwritten for other members of the Diplomats? Have any of them done so for you?
J.R. Writer: Nah. We all nice, man. When we all get into the studio, we make miracles happen. We all nice, man.
AllHipHop.com: It was rumored that Warner Brothers was hollering at you for deal. Especially with Jim over at Warner Brothers now, why the Koch independent route?
J.R. Writer: Basically, Cam is my CEO, and also he’s my dude. He’s been in the game for a long time. I sat down with Cam, and asked what would be the better look. Cam told me Koch. He gave me my own creative space though.
AllHipHop.com: I heard you battled Jae Millz. When and how did that go down?
J.R. Writer: Yeah, I battled him twice. It was crazy. A lot of people, in Harlem know what I’m saying. I battled him the first time, that actually was my first battle. I was 16 years old. A lot people said I got the first one, but a lot of people said he got the battle too. I feel like he had that battle. That was my first battle; I ain’t know what was coming to me. But the second battle, if you ask Millz, shout out to my man Millz, I went over to his block and I did my damn thing. Word, and that’s why I feel like everybody that’s coming up to got to do to get your name. You got to get your street credibility before you can even hit mainstream.
AllHipHop.com: What’s your response to people that consider The Dips fake Bloods?
J.R. Writer: Damn, I don’t even know. That don’t really mean nothing. What does that have to do with our music? Like we not running around like just, “Blood this, and Blood up.” We is what we is, and we move how we move.
AllHipHop.com: What happened between you and Un Kasa? It seemed y’all were taking shots at each other on some mixtape songs last year.
J.R. Writer: Yeah yeah, that was something little inside s**t. Some little stupid s**t we were going through. We squashed that, we been squashed that. That’s my n***a.
AllHipHop.com: With Latinos at a disadvantage in the Hip-Hop because of their ethnicity, do you think you’re in a worse position because you’re Dominican?
J.R. Writer: Nah, I don’t feel it’s a bigger disadvantage, but as far as I’m going to have to prove myself, I’m doing that now. I don’t know nobody in my age bracket that’s f###### me. 20 to 25, under 20, I don’t know nobody that’s f**king with me, dog. I just got to sit back and wait for my time, which is soon.
AllHipHop.com: Coming from that background, will you be experimenting with Reggeaton in the near future?
J.R. Writer: Um, nah not really. Maybe later later on. I did a song and with me, Juelz and my man Leaky Loco, [“OK”]. But you know, I don’t really want to go that route and confuse my fans.
AllHipHop.com: Where do you see yourself in ten years, since you just turned 20?
J.R. Writer: I feel like I’ll be considered on of the greats. Sitting on my own record label, sitting on some big change, with at least five or six albums.
AllHipHop.com: How long you want to rap?
J.R. Writer: I don’t know, I can go. You see Jay and Eminem, and they are over 30. I got a decade to go, I could keep going. I’m not going nowhere.