Exclusive interview with rapper Ljak

Today we had an exclusive chance to interview Ljak:

Who do people say you sound like? 
People say I sound like Tupac, J. Cole, or Eminem. I think they say so because of my delivery and how I manage what I say.

What’s your best advice for handling criticism?
The best thing I can say for handling criticism is to love it.
I love criticism. 95% of our existence is made up of criticism. The best advice about handling criticism I can give is, whether positive or negative, take it all as positively affirming your craft, and as a tool educating you on what part of your inward person you need to work on for making your craft that much more potent. Criticism is only relevant according to how it is used and employed. Take every criticism, whether good or bad, and bring it within; flip criticism upside down. Let it educate your self-esteem so that you can think and feel higher than the esteem you already do or do not have.

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What are you focusing your time on now?
I’m currently piecing together an EP. Honestly, all of my time and energy goes to my books and to speaking engagements. I don’t give music the time that I should give it, or that it deserves, but recent comments about my music, about its sound, feel, and delivery, have inspired me to invest more time in it. All I know is that, either through books or through music, I will live on and inspire future generations to enlighten their age.

How do you currently feel about the state of Hip-hop in general?
I don’t think that you can call today’s affair with music “Hip-hop.” The music is what it is, but it is not Hip-hop. Maybe it is unconventional Hip-hop, or maybe it is not traditional Hip-hop, and there is nothing wrong with that; let the evolution of music be what it will be to the ears of the generation. But because of the current state of “Hip-hop,” I honestly haven’t listened to rap or Hip-hop since 2010.

What do you want your legacy to be? How do you want to be remembered?
That is a thought I’m always thinking about. I even have songs I have yet to record discussing the subject of my legacy, and of the mark I will leave on this earth for future generations to study, experiment with, and take even further than me.
My legacy will be philosophical, in that through my art I give rise to a way of thought moving generations forward in how they, through their craft, love and edify their self and one another. I want to be remembered as an individual faithful to the philosophy bettering his heart and his mind, and who risked making that philosophy public to inspire artists to develop their character and penmanship for edifying other minds in ways that society will not.

What would you have done differently if you knew then what you know now? 
The one thing I would do differently is picking up the hard work of actually making connections with people myself.
In the beginning of my career as an artist and as a writer, I gave so much money away to people believing that they had my best interest and that I needed them. Yeah; stupid; I know. Even back then I knew it was stupid, but when you really have no sense of self, and when you’re so sincere for the vision you have, you put your better judging or perceiving self to the side and take hits from absolute fools. Looking back, instead of thinking that I was not that intelligent to do so myself, I would better care for actually putting myself out there for discovering connections with people who actually have my best interest.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your music? 
The best compliment I’ve ever received is that, although I may talk fast when I rap, that I’m actually speaking or giving substance.

How would you describe the music that you typically create? 
I have been told that my music is “conscious rap.” When I create my songs, I’m writing from the perspective of being an author and poet writing on the philosophy I write about within the Bible. I’m not a religious or spiritual rapper talking about a religious philosophy within my songs, or about “God,” but am philosophical in my speech, making sense of my experience by singing about my personal and public experience with the philosophy I write about within my books.

What’s the best advice you ever received? 
The best advice I’ve ever received was, “Don’t worry about what you can’t control.”
At the time, I had no idea what this even meant, but now, going through experiences where you have a vision of your self, and where controlling the experience seems to be the only possible route to manifesting that vision, I understand that there is only so much you can do, and for everything else, so long as you do what you can do to initiate that vision, you have to let go and let time and chance give to you what you feel you already possess.

Have you heard the theory that some musicians write their best music while they’re depressed or going through a bad time? 
I’ve actually never heard that theory, but as a poet, and as someone who enjoys writing lyrics, I can say that it is true, but not entirely.
How I feel always dictates what I write about. I would say that it’s not really about “feeling,” or about emotional state, but more about understanding what is felt and what I’m going through. When I write music or poetry, it is true that I may be feeling angry, or frustrated, or sad, or depressed, or even elated about something, but the reason why I write in and through these states of mind is to, for understanding how to live and think better, uncover why I feel the way that I do, and to even celebrate the vision of a better me through it all.
I took a break from writing and recording music because I realized that what I was producing was not helping me to understand my human being. I was using music as means to vent and not as an instrument to know why I needed to vent. Now my music, like my poetry, is an instrument allowing me to grow closer to the person I am within, both as an artist and as a human being.

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