Bo Jankans’ indoctrination into the underground hip-hop scene came about back in 2007. He was 20 at the time, and after several years of writing and recording material under the tutelage of other more experienced artists in his hometown of Herndon, VA, he eventually found the nerve to start performing on a regular basis. Since then, he has maintained a work ethic that has kept him as prolific as any new artist could (and should) hope to be. He’s now 23 and has already released two studio albums (Up Until Now and Dumb Looks Are Still Free), as well as being featured on dozens of mixtapes and compilation albums. On top of that, he’s done hundreds of shows up and down the East Coast, including a few dates on the 2007 VANS Warped Tour. His rhymes have even made it across the pond; recently he was featured on Louis Logic's Me & Everyone You Know compilation, currently hitting the shelves in Europe. And like any serious new artist looking to make their mark in underground hip hop (an industry with a notoriously short attention span), none of this has given him any reason to slow down. In addition to having another solo album in the works, he also has been performing lately as frontman for a group calling themselves Silence the Giants. I recently got a chance to ask him a few questions about all of the above.
Why’re you calling your newest release Realism?
Oh, well, the Realism mixtape [is] the first in a series of ‘em. The series is based on and around different approaches to art, this first one being the Realism movement. I’m working on another mixtape now, and then after that one I’m dropping Impressionism, which is the next installment in that mixtape series.
You started recording your material at age 17, but you didn’t start performing it in front of live audiences until several years later. Why the gap?
Well it takes time to stack material and have enough to put together a show of your own. In the beginning I was opening up for people with like ten to fifteen minute sets, because that’s all I had. If you come to one of my shows now they’re a lot longer, because over the years I’ve stacked performance-worthy material. Not every song you write translates well live, and it’s important to know which ones do and don’t.
How do you feel that you’ve changed/developed as an artist since you got started?
I’ve started taking more chances musically with my newer material. Incorporating more singing on the hooks, and just trying to get further out there with my subject matter. There’s a new mixtape called Cereal Killer that’s kinda out there in terms of its storyline and plot. Have I changed? I don’t think so. It’s just different aspects and angles of my life. Plus before, I was hesitant to say certain shit because some of the people who I knew would hear it, but now I don’t really care.
You’ve said that you had to deal with some stagefright for your first few gigs. Judging by performances that I’ve seen recently, there’s not a lot of that going on anymore. How did you get over it? Or did it just go away with time and experience?
It just went away as I did it more. There’s always an anxiousness before a gig, but I’m never nervous anymore. I’ve done it enough times in front of enough people to be comfortable up on stage. It’s funny actually because I have a small case of Tourette Syndrome, so I twitch and tic a lot and shit like that, and I rarely do that onstage. Which I thought would be a place where it would happen more, since eyes and focus are on me and everything.
You’ve also said that one of your most prolific periods was when you were at college, and you would just sit in a room by yourself and write. Do you still remove yourself from people to come up with material?
Yeah, you know, it’s funny--when I read this question it was the first time I was aware that I did remove myself from people to create. That thought never crossed my mind before. And yeah, I generally do remove myself to create and write. I do it sometimes around people in the studio and shit like that, but I prefer to write when I’m alone in my comfort zone.
Tell me a little about your creative process.
My creative process doesn’t really like have any patterns. It’s not structured, it’s not at a certain time or anything like that. Sometimes I’ll just write like a few lines for a few different songs, and then that’ll be it. Or sometimes I’ll write a whole song in one sitting. Just depends. Sometimes I just freestyle and record it and take off the top lines like that.
I’ve read your first album, Dumb Looks Are Still Free, described as “a hybrid and eclectic mix of rock meets rap production emphasizing true lyrical prowess.” Would you say that’s accurate?
Yeah, with that specific album, that’s a pretty spot on assessment of it. Matt “Mad Names” Hilferty is a producer out of Herndon, VA who is [an] animal. One of my favorite things about him is that he is heavily rock influenced, and he’s good at meshing the two together. There’s a lot of that on that record, which is one thing that really attracted me to working with Mad Names and doing that project in the first place. He also plays in a band called the Greenbeets and they’re super dope. Check their tunes out if you’re at your computer reading this.
What was it like playing the Warped Tour?
The Warped Tour was pretty dope. There [were] hella kids, and they’re all there to cop new music. It’s a tight event and I definitely want to do it again. Only thing I didn’t like was it was midday in the middle of the summer, and it was hot as shit!!!! It was the first time I’d played a daytime show and the first time I played an outside show, so… the combo was an eye-opener.
What are your thoughts on the D.C., NOVA, Richmond hip-hop scenes? Are they separate entities or do you see a lot of the same people working in these cities?
The scenes are very much intertwined, and very much against each other. It’s kind of funny, actually. Every rapper says they support every other rapper in the city doing ill shit, but [the] truth is they don’t. They’re all caught up on their own shit and they don’t wanna see someone else killn’ it. But there are different cliques and crews that all work together and shit. I’m kind of on the outskirts of all that, though. We’re pushing our own movement via Sleepy Hollows/Bo Jankans/Silence the Giants, I don’t belong to a team in the area aside from them.
Is NOVA an ideal place to start a hip-hop career?
As far as the people go, yeah. You see a lot of the same promoters and groups of people and shit at all sorts of different venues. Despite what you grew up thinking, it’s a small ass world out there. And yes, there is a fan base to be had here. There is a fan base to be had anywhere, really, as long as you know who your consumer is and what they want.
Has the NOVA hip-hop scene changed at all since you got started?
Not really. I told myself in the beginning, though, that I wouldn’t run to the music. I was going to bring the music here. You can start a movement anywhere with enough desire and initiative, I think. I don’t know. I’m not really on the scene like that. I got my own following aside from the standard hip-hop scene kids around here and shit that’s growing, so I focus on them. I’m talking to the everyday kids who go through problems and have no one to talk about them to, and no one to listen to them. So I try and provide the words that accent the feeling they already have inside them.
What do you listen to that might surprise people?
Most of what I listen to is not what you would think. I dig old shit. 50-60’s stuff. Smokey Robinson, the Doors, Dylan. Shit like that. I like words. I like lyricism. I don’t want to hear a rapper or artist [talk about] how good they are on all 15 songs on an album. I’ll make my own assessment of that. Just have a reason why I’m listening to you. What’s your message? What’s your aim? That’s what I’m more concerned with rather then how well you can phonetically flip words to make ‘em rhyme. You know what I mean?
Any favorite albums? Top of your head.
Incubus – Science
Michael Jackson - Thriller
The Doors – The Future Starts Here
Sleepy Hollows – Declaration of Independents
Bo Jankans and Mad Names – Dumb Looks Are Still Free.
What do you do when you’re not making music?
When I’m not working on writing lyrics, I’m working on tightening up my skills on the piano. Aside from that, I like to write poetry and devise ways to take over the world. "Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue."
www.twitter.com/bojankans
http://www.myspace.com/bojankans
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/BoJankansMadNames