Originally from Birmingham, this rapper grew up in South London, Brixton to be exact. JaJa is now one of the UK's best loved lyricists and has made many fans along the way, ''I have loved music since I can remember, I went through the whole nine yards break dancing, graffiti, then I got into rapping. I used music as my personal diary when I was down I would just write lyrics and it jus evolved from there.” Elijah Kerr (birth name) realised he had a talent for putting words together ever since he went to his first live concert which featured controversial US rap group, Public Enemy. Being from the UK and trying to break into the rap game has been a struggle for many acts, but over current years it has grown immensely with the likes of Sway and Dizzee Rascal taking it global. With 10 years in the rap game under your belt, would one still have faith in the UK Hip Hop scene? ''Yeah, the UK Hip Hop scene has grown doubt grown and I believe it will get much bigger as the artists start to progress, it's going very well in the UK at the moment.”
Some UK Hip Hop acts have been caught slipping (as they say) when it comes to record deals mainly due to the fact that labels don't know how to manage them, but is it all about getting money at the end of the day? I asked JaJa his thought's on that, ''It would depend on what kind of deal they would be offering but I wouldn’t sell my soul for money, my music means more to me than just chump change''. Soze and his crew PDC, have received a lot of bad press in the past, from having whole page spreads in well known newspapers to being featured on Sky One's 'Ross Kemp on Gangs' show, claiming that they glamorize guns and drugs, but with all that JaJa has always tried to let people know that the crew have turned their backs on things of the roads and just want to do music now, ''Well the whole transformation has been an up hill struggle, people thought I would never be able to change a street crew into a record label and I did. It has been running successfully so far, but if I had stayed on the streets I would have been dead or in jail for life.”
One of the ways Kerr has tried to change peoples perceptions on himself and his establishment PDC, has been through a book called 'Street Boys' in which he talks about the goings on in the hardcore gang life of Brixton, South London. ''A guy called Tim Pritchard approached me about doing a book because he thought I was a interesting character, I said yes to it and we both started working on it. The thing is, I didn’t take it serious and thought no way is this book going to get published, but it did and now it's in all the top stores like, Waterstones, WHSmith etc and it's selling very well, now we have started a new legacy, your favourite rapper is now in your library (laugh).”
Could we see this rapper becoming the UK's answer to P.Diddy and doing films, books etc? ''No doubt, I would love to do more books and also start making films and doing theatre productions, I see myself as more than just a music artist and for PDC as a whole our main aim is to be the biggest and best UK Streetmusik label in the world and creating opportunities for unprivileged kids and giving them a chance to achieve their own goals in life whatever it may be. For Elijah Kerr and JaJa, the combination of both personalities is set to make some major changes in this lifetime, so get ready for a revolution''...
JaJa Soze' album and book - Street Boy is out NOW! (online and in stores nationwide)
www.pdcent.com // www.myspace.com/pdc28s
A version of this appears in SUPERSUPER Magazine issue 17
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