Jarred A.G.
www.soundcloud.com/jarred-a-g
Twitter: @jarredgoldmedal
How do you supplement your career as a musician?
From the jump my parents instilled in us the importance of hard work. Nothing is given to you. You got to go out and get the most of the opportunities afforded to you, and if there aren’t any opportunities, then you got out and find a way to make some. That’s how I carry myself. So any opportunity I have that can help supplement my passion and creative pursuits I at least consider.
Right now I work for a really dope non-profit, Free Spirit Media. We’re based on the west side and we do community work with high school students. We run media literacy & sports broadcasting programs, build curriculum, and workshop with high school youth from the west side and south side to foster, and develop critical thinking skills. So when I’m not in the studio, that’s where you can find me.
Do you have a side-hustle?
I don’t really consider anything a “side hustle”. Everything is a hustle for me. It’s always been that way. One day I’m doing this, the next day I’m doing that.There isn’t a lot of stability in that sense, where I can point at one thing and say, ‘that right there is my side hustle’. At the end of the day I’m trying to eat, and be smart about it. I keep my eyes and ears open and stay away from putting certain moves I make on blast.
What is the worst job you ever had?
Man, I’ve been working since I was 15, so I’ve definitely had some terrible jobs. It would be a toss up between working at a fast food joint in O’Hare, The Great American Bagel, and working under the table as a freight elevator operator downtown. I’m leaning more toward the elevator job. I had to be at that joint early as hell. The atmosphere resembled that warehouse in the first Saw movie where dude was cutting his leg off and shit. In the morning my boss would tell me to clear out the basement everyday because we use to have homeless people take up residence there at night. I never saw any of them down there but that’s mainly because I didn’t bother to check.
I didn’t get paid enough to do that shit. I was also getting paid under the table because I was so young. They probably couldn’t find an older person desperate to enough to take that kind of job for the amount they were paying. But like I said before, I try to get it any way I can. A lot of days I’d be in that elevator for 10-12 hours, mostly by myself, with a busted radio that barely worked. I felt like a damn prisoner. So yeah, I think that was worst in terms of overall experience.
What is your biggest obstacle as an artist trying to make it in a busy industry?
I think the biggest obstacle for me is trying to navigate all the larry ass politics that go on in this industry. It feels like getting exposure is 90% who you know, and 10% talent. Everyone wants to be a goddamn rapper so I think there’s a lot of over-saturation right now. Originality is hard to find. Everything is so trendy. One of the big issues crippling our city right now, and the one that the media focuses on the most is violence, and more specifically gun violence.
Now you got all these goofy ass dudes running around talking all this gunplay, not because they actually live that life, but because it’s a currency of cool, it gives them credibility with all the clowns that don’t really know a thing about that lifestyle or the effect is has on our communities. Instead people just buy into it as a trend because they think it’ll make them cooler or edgy or some shit. Gun violence, gangs, poverty and drugs are what a lot of people talk about when they talk about Chicago, but the fact that some people treat it as a trend and not a problem is troubling. It makes me wonder if there’s even any room for authenticity. Whatever the case may be, I’m going to keep building with my brothers and do what I do on my end. I’m not deterred.
This is a great article! Would love to see more of this perspective on these artists.
I thought this was about Chicago rappers?
Dope post FSD!