Today we’d like to introduce you to Justice Black.
Hi Justice, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m a producer/engineer/MC out of Fort Worth, TX and I’ve been making music for the better part of 20 years. The spark to be an artist was lit by Wu-Tang Clan’s 1997 sophomore album, “Wu Tang Forever.” I started writing in 2nd grade and I finally figured out song structure a few years later. I wrote my first cohesive verse to Clipse’s “Grindin’,” which was easily the most popular instrumental at that time. Eventually, I realized I needed production, and nobody lived near me, and I got tired of scouring SoundClick for beats so I started making beats myself in middle school. I started where a lot of people my age started, on Fruity Loops & I eventually graduated to drum machines & keyboards. Today, I use both hardware & software to balance past & present in my music. My sound is definitely influenced by Golden Era acts such as the aforementioned Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Ice Cube, and the like, but I also developed my own sound over time, which is generally pretty dark. It played a large part in why I chose “The Black Depths” as a name, as well as desiring a “the” prefix to set myself apart from other artist and make my name harder for someone to copy. All in all, my music is a mosaic of my influences & experiences and I put in the work to convey it to the listener to the best of my ability at the highest level possible.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Absolutely not. Every artist struggles with self-doubt, and I’m no different. There have been several points I thought about quitting: lack of income, the state of music at a given time, dissatisfaction with my work, etc. It’s something most artist will have to deal with, but it’s like a sword having to be repeatedly hammered & folded to be forged into a sharp and well-crafted blade. Another struggle is having to deal with constant disappointment & rejection: rappers promising you the world via projects that never materialize, opportunities that fall through your hands quicker than you can grasp them, and persevering through the lack of audience you experience in the early stages. Consistency is also a struggle, as the pressures of life want so badly to pull you away from creating, but you have to find the strength within you to keep going. All in all, if I had to describe my musical journey in one word, it’d be endurance.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m an MC, producer, and audio engineer, and out of the three I enjoy production the most. Mixing & mastering can be a tedious process, so the joy isn’t felt until the sound comes together and you start to see the finished product materializing. As a rapper, I honestly don’t feel like I have very much to say that’s interesting and my life isn’t something very compelling to talk about, so that’s what I do the least of. As far as the work I’m most proud of, it has to be my recently released project “Murder Castle,” which I produced for Chicago rapper IAMGAWD. It was my first project I produced for someone other than myself, my first project released on vinyl, and the first one to gain any real traction in terms of streams & media coverage. I aim to set myself apart from other producers via the details in a lot of my beats. Sometimes the situation calls for something stripped down, but I generally like to put a lot of evolving elements in my music like a pulsing synth or a swelling string to give the beat more life. It’s something I learned listening to those early Wu-Tang albums and it was something I wanted to apply to my craft in my own unique way. I don’t just want to create songs & projects; I want my releases to be individual worlds for the listener to travel to. When you can do that, your music has more replay value and that’s when you get to live forever as an artist long after you’re gone, which is ultimately my goal.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I honestly wish I had a mentor figure at times, but I think having to learn everything on my own made me a better and more resourceful artist. 3G Stones is literally the cornerstone for me. We’ve been friends since high school and we’ve made multiple (unreleased) albums together. Half the time we end up chilling for half the time before any music gets made. It’s beyond music, that’s my brother for real. My homie 5D is another big supporter, who’s put me on his shows both as an artist and as a producer, and I can’t thank him enough for that because he did it just off the strength of my talent before I even knew him like that. IAMGAWD would be my biggest supporter, as he gave me an opportunity to produce a whole album when I was a relative nobody, and his name was much bigger than mine, and he was willing to do fair business too, which is relatively abnormal in the music business. My homie Majin Jams would be another big supporter of mine, he always pushes me and talks to me honestly, whether it be positive or negative to tell me to keep pushing creatively and stay focused on handling business. I appreciate his transparency because a lot of artists are surrounded by “yes men” and it ultimately leads them astray in the long run. There have been other people who planted a seed here and there but there’s way too many to list so I’ll just say those people know who they are and peace to them.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: theblackdepths
- Twitter: theblackdepths
