Casey Jones II
Casey Jones II
by Alec Kissoondyal
photos by Khary Khalfani
Hip-hop artist and Gainesville native Casey Jones II has emerged into the spotlight in recent months after releasing a song that has in many ways captured the zeitgeist of 2020. The song, titled "Can I Live" focuses on the daily struggles and challenges faced by Black Americans, and the lyrics delve deeper into the compelling rhetorical question laid out in the title. Casey wrote the first part of the song about a year ago. The second part of the song was written during the last several months and it addresses recent events like the horrific murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police.
I interviewed Casey earlier this month to learn more about him, his music, and the impact that 2020 has had on him so far:
Q: The first part of "Can I Live" was written over a year ago, but the second part was written within the last few months. During the process of combining the two parts, what was it like to revisit part 1 after a year and see how relevant it still is to current events?
A: I was up one morning, and I was just thinking. I wanted to put my thoughts on paper, so I wrote [part 2] one morning and realized that it could work into "Can I Live." It just shows now that a year and a half later, things are still the same. But it wasn't meant to go into "Can I Live." I was just writing one morning then I started rapping and I was like, oh, it would be cool to do this and work it into the song, so that's how that happened.
Q: At the end of the music video [for "Can I Live"], there was a clip of Tupac. Who are some of your inspirations, musically or personally?
A: Musically, my two favorite rappers of all time are J Cole and Tupac. Those are two huge influences for me. I love Kendrick Lamar, I love Nas, I love Jay Z, I love Anderson .Paak, I love Saba, but obviously, he's come around in recent years so it's not like I grew up on him. Everybody kind of likes Drake. And then just a lot of older R&B or Soul music, so I'm a big Donny Hathaway fan, I like Teddy Pendergrass, I love Boyz II Men, I love Brian McKnight.
Outside of music, Kobe Bryant was my idol. Just the way he lived life. And of course, my dad.
Q: One of the lyrics in the song mentions that when you were younger, your dad told you to keep your hands out of your pockets when you were shopping.
A: Yeah. When I was a kid, I'm just cold, so my hands are in my pockets, and he'd always say, don't do that. People are going to think you're stealing. It's not fair because pockets are meant for you to put your hands into whenever you want to, but we have to set ourselves apart and act differently to avoid any trouble. And sometimes it's like you have to live your life apologetically. Like you have to do everything in a way that nothing can be taken out of context. And it should never be taken out of context, but that's kind of how you have to prep yourself, so that's one of the earlier memories I have of knowing that things are different. Like when people are yelling at you, don't raise your voice back at them. They're going to see that as aggressive, or don't put your hands in your pockets when you're in the store. Just keep them out. Stuff like that.
Q: As a Gainesville native, how has growing up in this town influenced you?
A: I mean, I love Gainesville to death. I've been a Gator fan all my life, and I know every nook and cranny of the city. I think it's cool to see it in the light that I see it now because when you're younger, you're with your parents, you're not driving yourself around. Even in high school, I played football and I did ROTC, so I was on a schedule. So I would have school, then maybe football practice, maybe ROTC, then a job, so it wasn't until I graduated high school that I got to see all these different places. I don't go to clubs, but I've been to midtown a thousand times at this point. You stop in weird little places. Then you go to the cool places where access was restricted because you weren't fully grown. The city is a lot more beautiful than people give it credit for. But the potential for more is there. That inspires me more than anything. The talent is in the city, the heart is in the city, but for some reason, there's no execution.
Another thing is the west side of Gainesville versus the east side of Gainesville. The east side of Gainesville is a little torn down, but when I started meeting college students from out of town, they had never been past Main Street, and they definitely haven't been past Waldo Road. It's just crazy to see that one side of the city is neglected. And I have family that lives in that part of the city, I've been to church on that side of the city, so with stuff like that, it's like, man, there's so much more potential in this area. But you have the good and the bad. You have the creativity, and the intelligence and the culture of the College, but you still have the ghettos on the other side.
Q: On the topic of community, a major challenge faced by local artists is the temporary closure of local music venues because of COVID-19. Has this affected you?
A: Definitely. I did a live performance on Instagram, but it's not the same. You can't get the energy from everybody that's there or make eye contact or really take the time to engage with people, so that's the main difference. I've also come across other artists and we're all like, man, I'm hitting this creative slump. And it's because you gain inspiration from your environment or your conversations. You can go somewhere and say, 'man, that reminds me about when I was a boy,' so you write about that. But when you're shut in, it kind of keeps you from gathering inspiration. But it's a double-edged sword because it forces you to find new ways to be inspired. Let me read this book and be inspired by that. Let me watch this documentary. Instead of seeing what other people have going on, let me sit here and be alone with my thoughts and reflect and not wait for anybody to give me inspiration. It's time for me now to create it.
Q: The record label that you're a part of, Dion Dia, seems to be very community-oriented. What is it like to be part of that and to be able to give back to the community?
A: It's been dope, but to honest with you, there's so much more that could be done. It's cool doing events. We don't have any money, so if we have events, we use any money from it to go to other events or literally just to buy recording equipment or whatever we can just to pay to put our stuff online. Other than that, I know there's so much more we could do for the community. It's cool to be a part of it, but I'm ready to get out of where we are and actually start to make a name for ourselves so we can reach more into the community like how we plan to.
Q: You mentioned that there is more that could be done. What other things do you think you could do to get more involved?
A: Layla Fakhoury--she's part of the label--and she was helping to put together a disco with Village Green, which is on Northeast 15th Street. A lot of city kids live there and she was hoping that she could put together a disco, but things started falling through. Once COVID hit, it was like, wipe that out. But that place is very dear to me because I have friends who grew up there, and I used to walk by there on my way home from middle school. Stuff like that, being able to pour back into the community. Even through our music, being successful would help us pour back into the community because it would be homegrown and something that's attainable. Help cultivate creativity in places that it doesn't exist. Like I was talking about earlier with the east side of Gainesville. My friend was able to do a mural on the east side and I thought that was so cool. You're not directly speaking to anyone, but [kids] go by there every day and they'll get older and be like 'remember when I was a kid and there was a mural downtown and there was that guy there, and he was black, and that's something I could do.' I think being able to bring creativity to the east side of Gainesville or just to students is something that we look forward to.
You can watch the music video for "Can I Live" by Casey Jones II on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTSCyO63x2g
You can also follow Dion Dia Records on Facebook and Instagram:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diondiarecs/(Dion Dia Records)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diondiarecs/ (@diondiarecs)