Who Is En-Jay:

En-Jay is from Santa Cruz, California a 23-year-old rapper who has been making music from a very young age, his love for music came at the age of 13 since then En-Jay has loved music all along. The first artists to inspire En-Jay to start making good music were Lil Wayne and Wiz Khalifa.

HEY EN-JAY THANK YOU FOR COMING TO HONK MAGAZINE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR CARRER PART IN MUSIC.

Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I grew up in a very quiet household and I always felt out of place wherever I was. When I was about 10 years old I started listening to artists like Eminem and 50 cents and it just made me feel at home in a weird way. When I was in elementary school I used to draw pictures of myself performing on stage before I had ever even imagined making my own music. In a way, I feel like this is just what I was meant to do before I even knew that this is something I was interested in.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

I did my first show at the Catalyst when I was maybe 18 or 19 and it was an artist showcase, so there was no headliner but there were about 15 different artists performing that night. I went up and did my set, didn’t have a whole lot of fans in the crowd so my expectations weren’t very high but the crowd seemed to love my set. When my set was over I was thanking the crowd and walking off stage when I heard the DJ grab the microphone and say “Give it up for En-Jay, this guy is going places, I can just tell he has that star power”. I will never forget that I was so nervous about this show, I had never met the DJ, I hardly noticed him because he hadn’t said anything all night but for some reason, he saw something in me and to this day I still look back on that night and remember that feeling I felt when I heard him grab that mic.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The biggest mistake I ever made was probably paying for a feature. I was just starting out, had no fans, and I found an artist on Instagram who was blowing up, he had like 100k followers and was around my age so I paid him a whole paycheck to get a verse on one of my songs…. He sent me probably the worst verse I have ever heard. He wasn’t even rapping on the beat, he was basically just mumbling and making sounds through the entire verse. It’s funny to look back on now, but to all my young artists out there, don’t reach out to people you don’t know for a verse haha

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I’m currently working on dropping singles, I’ve made a lot of melodic music in the past so now I’m trying to put an emphasis on rapping as hard as I can and just making bangers. Maybe a little 5 song EP soon but we’ll see.

Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?

The most interesting person I’ve met has gotta be $teven Cannon. I will never forget going to his 4th of July party last year and being greeted by $teve who was running down the sidewalk with trash bags full of fireworks to tell me to follow him down an alley to where he and Lil Xan were lighting off fireworks in the middle of the street. Shout out to $teve, he’s a good dude.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

At the end of the day, it’s all for fun. If you’re passionate about what you’re doing, you work hard, and you have fun doing it then success will come.

You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure? 

Failure is just a stepping stone to success. Stay true to yourself and stay humble, you’re gonna have bad days, weeks, months, even years but you have to be able to remind yourself of why you got into this career path in the first place.

Can you share with our readers any self-care routines, practices, or treatments that you do to help your body, mind, or heart to thrive? Kindly share a story or an example for each.

I work out every other day. It makes me feel confident and productive and if nothing else in my life feels like it’s progressing, I can look in the mirror and see that my body has been, that’s a great way to not get discouraged or impatient by the other goals you’ve set for yourself. I’d like to start meditating every day, hopefully, I’ll get that started up soon.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

I don’t really have an answer for that, I feel like I had to go through things blindly in order to learn what I was doing right or wrong. I feel like that mindset alone is what has led to a lot of my success. I wouldn’t have seen the success that I have if it weren’t for the hundreds of times I’d failed.

Can you please give us your favorite  “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life? 

My favorite quote is extremely simple but maybe that’s why it’s been impactful for me. I love the phrase “live in the moment”, I’m the type of person who overthinks everything and puts a lot of stress on myself so that phrase really grounds me and reminds me that I can’t control the future, I can only control the present.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

A couple of names come to mind but I have to say, my girlfriend, Alexandra, has been extremely supportive of my career and helped me through a lot of ups and downs. She believes in me and that definitely has helped me to never lose hope. That’s why she was in the “Better Days” music video, I felt like she needed to be in it, she’s been there for me every step of the way so she deserves to be a part of it. I also have to mention my homie, Luke. He’s been by my side literally since day one and believes me when I’m playing sold-out stadiums, he’ll be up on stage with me.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

It’s hard to say, I’d love to give back to my city, I’d love to spread awareness for mental health issues, but right now I’m trying to encourage everyone to start meditating, start saying positive affirmations to yourself, and above all I want everyone to just learn to love themselves. If you want peace in the world or if you’re sick of seeing negativity everywhere, I think self-love would help a lot of people.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might see this.

There’s a lot of artists and athletes I look up to but I’d love to sit down with Kanye or Kid Cudi. There’s a lot of great rappers and great singers out there but in my eyes, those two don’t just make music, they make art. Those are the kind of people I want to learn from.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow me on Instagram @enjaythewavy that’s where I’m most active and if you want to check out my music you can find it on any platform.