PROTOJE

With Freshmen Friday it's always been extremely important to conduct casual conversations that truly mirror the present and document for the future, all the while exposing and representing our culture. These conversations are typically held in my studio or the interviewees place, but as summer swiftly approaches we've been getting out of the house and exploring a lot more. And thankfully so! Or else we wouldn't be able to bring you this gem, slightly out of the ordinary.. Below is a behind the scenes conversation that future Freshmen Friday feature Gabija Mitchell conducted with Jamaican musician Protoje on Miss Lily's Radio.

P - Let me tell you about who can you call and the second verse especially… the thing about when you do the type of music I do you're expected to be righteous and perfect and an image of perfection. But I'm a man and I make enough mistakes, I'm a man of this world. There's enough things I go through and stuff I feel that maybe you would say oh you shouldn't sing about that! But if I don't hear myself expressing it, if I don't hear my words how do I improve? So that verse when I say

I've seen empires fall and wither down to dust and all the money in the world it could not lift them up. The most brilliant of ornaments crumbled down to rust because they put their faith in lust and disregard the trust. Hell, I know the rush. I've had the feeling take me over, the power in my hand when all the band over my shoulder.

You feel like you have this power… standing in front of three hundred thousand people and your brother is behind you playing music and you have this mic in your hand and you say yeah and you hear 300,000 people say YEAH! It will do something to you if you're not careful, you know? The bands of money coming in will change the ones around you. Be wise ya know because it cannot stop you getting older. But still… like even knowing all of that… But still I admit that I get caught up in the game. I've seen the legends do it, naturally I did the same. So I'm rolling 'round the city Miss Jamaica there with me.

Earth there pon my platter, knowing all of this nuh matter.

And that was an influence from watching the Bob (Marley) documentary and drawing the parallel between his life and my life. So when I say I saw the legends do it, naturally I did the same I saw Bob Marley do it up, travel the world, having Miss Jamaica… you aspire to these things when you're twelve, thirteen years old because you think this is what success means. And then you see him have something like that at the peek of his career and then he has to leave the flesh and leave all of it behind. So you know certain things don't really matter so I had to express stuff like that and be free about those things. So that's why that song is my favorite song.
GM - So questions, I have to do this, it's Miss Lily's I represent a lot of beautiful ladies and a lot of them have asked me if there's a little love floating around in your heart?
P - There's always love in my heart!
GM - A love for them to take (laughs)
P - I know the songs on this album in terms of matters of the heart are kind of sketchy because there's Love Gone Cold, Girl Why Don't You Answer to Your Name? and Styling. So these three songs dealing with the love idea is representing a time in my life, so moving forward we'll go in to more positive songs! (laughs)
GM - How do your parents feel about your music career?
P - My Mom and Dad are very supportive of what I do. I dropped out of school and wanted to do music and I wanted Mom to manage me, I guess she didn't think I was that good until she heard some material and realized I have a skill and she was like if you really want to do this you'll have to put everything in it. We (Rasta's) are very free with our children and making them follow their hearts and instinct.

GM - Where did the term Reggae Revival come from?
P - The term revival actually came from a friend of mine who was fascinated with the Harlem Renaissance of the '20s and '30s in New York, he could go and research the Harlem Renaissance because there was a word that identifies it and he was like there needs to be something that can be identified by media all over the world. He's very savvy like that and the word he has is the revival. And that's how the whole term kind of even came up.
GM - So Jesse Royal and Chronixx caught up afterwards?
P - I wouldn't say caught up, everybody was doing it. We would go to a show and see Jesse Royal singing and be blown away. And people see five people hanging out like Chronixx, Jesse, everyone… it was just natural. And we heard Jesse come out and for Jesse for me, it's more about his presence on stage. That's what drew me to Jesse more than anything was that when I saw him on stage he was 100% committed to what he's doing right now, he really believes and energy exudes from him. It's just a natural thing and for us it's not about any body trying to be the man but knowing that everyone's going to get a chance where they have the spotlight on them and then when you do that you just bounce it off to each other and then every one grind and every one's happy. I don't want to be the only one happy, I want to see every body happy. So it's happening all over if you check hip hop, guys like Joey coming up bringing a level of consciousness. Rappers talking about Christ consciousness and that type of stuff… you see it happening, you see music popping up from Africa, you see it coming from Europe, like everywhere I think there's a level of consciousness in the music right now. And not even in the music, just in people… all of the sudden something like yoga is widespread in Jamaica, you wouldn't see that five, three years ago. All the sudden it's cool to be vegan and to be eating like that.. it's a cycle, the music is just playing a part in it.
GM - Tell us more about being Rastafarian and how its teachings influence your music?
P - I started to read Walter Rodney which got me to Marcus Garvey, which got me to His Majesty (Selassie I). And then when it reached to His Majesty, it really started to change what I wanted to do in music. First of all, I just wanted to make good music, that was it. Just good quality music, good production, good song writing. When I started to get more into the teachings and philosophy of His Majesty it was more about ok, can there be a deeper purpose within the music? That's why in the last verse of the Flame, when I say

I'd rather be spiritually attained than critically acclaimed. Put that on your brain, systematically drained…

Then it becomes less about the tune they want spin but knowing that the work was the best it could have been. That's a thing His Majesty always says, it's not about the accolades you're going to get from all of this. It's about knowing in your self that you put your best effort forward. So the teachings of His Majesty is the main thing for me that keeps me grounded, because I know that certain things don't really matter. His Majesty is more a spiritual, philosophical thing then a religious thing for me.

you can listen to Protoje's music here, and follow him on twitter.
as told to: Gabija Mitchell // video: Olivia Seally

CHRISTINA CHENG

ER: What do you do?

CC: I’m a freelance multimedia reporter/journalist, lifestyle blogger, men’s stylist, social media coordinator, copywriter and mother. I create content; tell stories, share experiences and live life through my many passions.

ER: Why East Room?

CC: East Room has become my home away from home. It has given me a safe space/outlet to buckle down, remain focused, get creative and turn my ideas and thoughts into solid form. I’m a night owl who tends to pull all-nighters a few days a week. As someone who holds many titles and has many passions, 24 hours in a day just isn’t enough, and East Room allows me to squeeze in more hours to make magic happen. The walls of East Room have heard all my ideas, even the wildest of them and they’re safe there.

ER: What are three things you need to do your job?

CC: I need my MacBook, my iPhone, and a few runs a week with my Nike Running crew to distress, regroup, and feel inspired.

ER: Do you feel like a freshman, sophomore or senior in your field?

CC: One thing I fear is stagnancy. If one remains stagnant, they are not growing, evolving; being challenged or flourishing by any means. In my creative field/journey, there is always going to be change and advancements. My fields of interest feeds the future. I will (and I hope to) always be relatable to a freshman in some areas, a sophomore in others and a senior in few. To me, success is to never stay sedentary and to constantly create and flourish with opportunities at hand with creative, like-minded individuals. This right here is being a freshman, a sophomore and a senior.

you can follow Christina here. You can find out more about East Room here.

As told to: Olivia Seally / Photos by: Michael Rousseau

IAN ISIAH

Ian Isiah is my name, 26 is my game and Brooklyn is where I am here to stay.
FF - Five years ago what were you doing?
II - Five years ago I was singing and starting a career in something that I didn't think I'd be starting a career in… being an ambassador / creative team member for designing stuff with Shayne from Hood By Air. I never went to school for art or fashion so it was cool growing up with Shayne and watching him really, really do his thing and it pushed me to learn that process. And him being my best friend for all these years we kind of think alike so

it was just easy to create ideas, it was easy talking to him about concepts. And the results of all those concepts were crazy

so something is going right for all of these things to go how it's going. And it's just a great experience, it's basically like I'm learning without paying for it. So it's a blessing.

FF - You're learning from life?
II - I am actually learning from life. So five years ago I quit my job working in retail, at a retail store which is where I met most of my friends that I still know today because they're all still around… but anyway I quit my job and took control of myself and took control of my passion and decided to go out and start doing what I wanted to do, which is singing and writing.

FF - How did your musical interests begin? In choir right?
II - It started in the choir! Brooklyn, New York… two, three years old, I'm in the kitchen… actually it may have started in the kitchen! I wanted to be a drummer first, I'm three years old, I'm in the kitchen, I'm making a drum set out of pots. I was learning the theory of music really young because

by five years old I'm singing in the choir and playing the organ so I developed this thing for music when I was really young.

By junior high school it couldn't get away from me at all, I went to private school where I didn't do anything but sing and play basketball a little bit, from like kindergarten to eighth grade… still singing, creating glee clubs just so I can sing with other people, a bunch of gospel music, R&B music all at the same time. I feel like I listened to that whole thing come together because obviously gospel music is an influence for every genre but in the 90s there was some sort of weird connection where it got even deeper and you really couldn't tell the difference and it was also during the age that I was growing up. Then, in Brooklyn at that time dancehall went insane… dancehall changed the game, it changed life for me, for fashion, style, music, attitude… dancehall basically changed my life in high school. So I started dancing and within me dancing I got a little comfortable with being flamboyant in public, around my normal people, being myself. I met a few people who helped me get started or just helped me realize that it's time and I have to put something out. Not that I wasn't ready and didn't want to do it, I just didn't want to rush anything. So I waited and met a few people I felt confident in as far as producing and co-producing and I made a mixtape called 'Love Champion' last year, which was great.

FF - What was your first project 'Love Champion' about?
II - It's about… the new generation needs to not only be lost in the hook and the lyric, they need to also be lost in the affection of the music, the chord progression and how that intertwines and fucks each other to create a beautiful track. That was kind of the inspiration for the video 'Mind Fuck' because the whole video I'm basically fucking Boy Child, who is an amazing person and amazing performance artist herself.

But basically we fucked the whole video, it was like a soft porn that was immediately taken off of YouTube, because they couldn't handle it.

When I put it out I hosted it on YouTube and YouTube was like get the fuck out of here, basically… I don't know what both of you are, I can't tell if you're a girl, I can't tell if she's a girl, I can't tell if you're a boy, I can't tell if he's a boy… basically being like this is too much for YouTube. So Vimeo tweeted me and was like this video is awesome, everyone check it out. So I put it on Vimeo, I felt like I kinda started a war between YouTube and Vimeo!

FF - Good! As you should! Stir it up…

II - Yeah! The response was really good, a lot of people enjoyed that video and from that I started doing the 'Love Champion' mixtape, which is the first mixtape I actually put out into the world. It's full of a bunch of love songs with a futuristic touch to it. There's a lot of auto tune… because I'm used to singing live, I wasn't used to doing so much studio time and when I saw all this fun auto tune equipment I was like this is fab! It's fun to use auto tune when you can actually sing, because it's actually an instrument.

FF - Tell us about your writing process.
II - I learned to respect that I was also a writer, I learned that if it's corny it's only because I said it was corny. And once I learned to do that is when I actually started writing things down, keeping them and nurturing that. It's a process… I'm still trying to learn how to write better. My process for writing, honestly right now is just like if I have an idea instead of me writing it down I tweet it and if somebody likes it then someone likes that lyric.

FF - Any upcoming projects?
II - I've been writing a lot and working on some brand new music, working with brand new people. I put 'Love Champion' out with Uno Records and I'm now working with new people as well as Uno Records. I'm really excited about it…

there's no titles to anything right now but it's really beautiful music.

I have so many songs already… I have like 50 songs in iTunes already done and recorded, which can possibly be sold, I'm in that process too of learning how to sell my songs and working with other artists and writing for them and stuff like that, it's going quite well.

FF - If your life was a movie what would be on its soundtrack?
II - If my life was a movie I don't know if it'd be a soundtrack, it'd actually be a link to like a 48 hour Spotify situation where you're able to have like twenty playlists that would involve my whole life. Playlist's full of like Brandy 'Full Moon', Beyonce… all of them!, Jasmine Sullivan, Ella Fitzgerald… these are my people I listen to daily. Uh… Jodeci, John Legend, so many people I can't even name… I would just have a playlist of everything I cried to, smoked to, fucked to, laughed to. And Sizzla Kalonji! Everything!

FF - What are the qualities of a life well lived?
II - (1) Love for yourself. (2) Understanding that the answer to a relationship equation is 50% on both parties. And (3) accepting learning, accepting failing, accepting obstacles.

FF - What is your message?
II - The message is to activate, that's my message that I believe in. Like you talk a lot of game bro… but it's not going to come to pass unless you activate it. I understand activating might be hard, it's a process, but you have to… I think that's my message to the youth. Also, nothing is new under the sun, everything that we're doing now has been done before on different terms, you can modify or update something but honestly the sun did not change… it goes up, it comes down, people die, people were born and the mind just elevates, it's about elevating your mind.

Nothing is new under the sun, we're all creative people but it's about the force that you put behind your creativity and how you activate it that is going to make it different from someone else who might have that same talent or same gift that you have and have done nothing with it.

You don't want to be that person, you want to be the person that activates that. And then you'll reap the harvest and the benefit of that. All these great, creative people that I appreciate and learned from, like McQueen and all these other great people that really can't handle it in their mind so they commit suicide… no! I'm not doing that. I do believe in destiny, I do believe in living it out, I do believe in reaping the harvest that I put in. It's your gift, respect your gift! And activate it! Boom! Once you activate that gift you lit! That's it!

you can listen to Ian here and follow him here.
as told to: Olivia Seally // video: Olivia Seally

AMANDA LEW KEE

ER: What do you do?

ALK: I dream of cool ideas and make them into tangible realities. Creative Design & Product Development

ER: Why East Room?

ALK: I enjoy being in the company of like minded people. A creative, healthy and productive environment goes hand in hand with working outside the box and pushing new boundaries. A community is only as great as the contribution of it's members. The East Room is a beautiful space filled with friendly talented individuals.

ER: What are three things you need to do your job?

ALK: Inspiration, collaboration, technical skill.

ER: Do you feel like a freshman, sophomore or senior in your field?

ALK: I start the day feeling like a freshman ready to take on any challenge or lesson that may come my way. Mid-day I feel like a sophomore researching, referencing, problem solving, and developing skills. By the end of the day I feel like a senior. I reflect on the trust I have in my intuition, the craft and skills that I have honed, as well as my support network of mentors, friends and family. But on my better days I'm a freshman in every aspect, always ready, always learning, and never jaded.

you can check out Amanda's work here and follow her here. You can find out more about East Room here.

As told to: Olivia Seally / Photos by: Michael Rousseau