Daily Inspiration: Meet Jalen Melville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jalen Melville.  

Hi Jalen, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi, my name is Jalen Melville. I also go by the nickname JayMel the Rage God. I write and make music independently and I have released tons of music! I grew up in Grand Rapids as a little kid and then moved to Muskegon Heights after my mom and Dad split. I went to a Private High-School and I had a big group of friends. I was bullied a lot all of my life and for a good portion, I had been depressed and at my lowest suicidal. I had no idea who I was supposed to be plus the backlash from my friend group had beat me down. Once I found music things ended up changing for me. Writing music helps me stay away from those thoughts. The first ep I released (Which is no longer out) was called “Essentials”. I wrote to just show off what I could do when it came to the music stuff. I believe I released that ep when I was 14 or 15. After releasing that whole ep, I went on to do my first group project with my rap group, Xraritey. I came up with the name when looking on YouTube for beats. Usually what we did was search up “Free for-profit beats” and put whoever artist that we wanted that type of beat from. A lot of the time it would have an x between a few artists to get more clicks (for example Mac Miller x Denzel Curry). Xraritey is supposed to be “rarity x variety”. This group was made up of my closest friends and cousins at the time. YMKRondo, ChevySolo, JJNOCHILL23, Zombienukeman, and TN Jah(DapperDan) were all in this group. We released our first group project on Spotify and other major platforms and we got the attention of my now good friend M4zie. We were put on a Spotify playlist and we were proud of ourselves. There is one song from that project that is still released on major platforms called “pink cap” if you want to check it out. The drama happened within the group and it was dissolved for a little bit until recently. After the group album and drama, I dropped my first solo demo which was called “UGLY/LITE: Demo”. It was a fun little demo where I tried out a bunch of new things, especially interludes and world-building through sound. This is evaluated in my next project called “Desires & Regrets”. In the demo, I have one of my best songs called “King” which was released on a whim and somehow made the cut. The whole Demo itself was a dramatic change in my heavy, bass, mumble type of rap to more lyrical and more thoughtful music. 

After releasing that Demo, I had a small ep (Summer & Friends) and then started my new project called “Desires & Regrets”. It was my first actual album with a theme and a storyline embedded within the album. It is a very dark and melancholy album discussing a lot of the problems I had growing up throughout my years. Being an outcast, constantly bullied, depression and suicidal thoughts were throughout this album. I wrote and mixed all of it while taking a bunch of hard classes for my senior year of high school. Throughout the album, you can hear me pacing around my neighborhood as I remember all of these thoughts or heart-aching places. As I progress, I arrive home and the album which from more public problems to more personal at home, with feelings of guilt about my sister or relationship troubles. It all in all is a part of the story of my life. 

However, I am currently working on another Project which focuses and shows hope and how I made it through all of that pain and trouble. Learning to let go and move forward despite all of that. I am planning to release it this year along with my final ep as I brace myself to try and do YouTube and college this upcoming year. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One thing that makes it hard is that I don’t get a lot of response when it comes to music. I put in a lot of my time and effort into this music and sometimes I just don’t get the response I was expecting. It really hard for me to put myself out there just because I am not an extrovert and I am very introverted and don’t like talking to that many people. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I make music! More specifically rap but I am not limited to just one genre. I can do whatever I put my mind to and I will do it well. I am known for my ability to rap and my song “King” which I made a while ago. I am most proud of my recent album “Desires & Regrets” because I was able to give out a meaningful album and push myself beyond my comfort zone and try something new. One thing that sets me apart is my style of rapping. I do a mixture of fast and lyrical rap. Think Kendrick Lamar and Black Thought from the roots meet Earl Sweatshirt. 

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory was playing Minecraft with my friend Jonas (JonasTheStorm on twitch) and my friend Tyler (Ty_Finnese on Twitch). we were like 10 and we just loved playing Minecraft all together and all the time 

Pricing:

• $20 for a Feature

Contact Info:

• Website: https://divergent-records5.webnode.page/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rag3g0d/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Z3l-C2J8qe9kZZC5oWjSQ
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/xxxjaymelxxx
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/

Image Credits
Olivia Johnson