Words by Tom Alston
Music is one of the most competitive, challenging, and congested industries out there, closely followed by film. Now imagine conquering one and setting your sights on the next. Well, that’s what New York rapper, Lil Tjay, is doing.
Born in The Bronx, the 23-year-old has cemented himself in the US rap scene securing two platinum albums with ‘True 2 Myself’ and ‘Destined 2 Win’ whilst seeing singles like ‘Calling My Phone’ chart third and second in the Billboard Top 100 and UK Singles Chart respectively.
Now, he has turned his attention to the big screen, and I was lucky enough to head down to London, for a red-carpet event, to see the early stages of his upcoming film “Losses” as well as speak to the man himself.
When asked about the inspiration behind making this film, Tjay took me on a trip down memory lane, he said: “I’m not going to lie, I really wanted to be an actor when I was younger. We have just been trying stuff and when I was young, I had a lot less money at the time. So now I’m like let me put my money into something real quick and see what it can do.
“I wasn’t too sure about the idea of making the film so I held the idea for a long time. I then recently looked back at it and thought here we have something, so we’re going to try and build on it and I’m definitely going to revisit this idea.”
At the Everyman Cinema where the event was held, I was shown a 30-minute teaser of the film. It’s based in Los Angeles and is a story about the established rapper, Tjay, trying to get his friends out of the hood and follow in his footsteps by joining him in Beverley Hills and reaping the rewards of his successful career. The rapper, however, comes into some conflict due to his past and has to manage how to stay away from trouble whilst starting a new relationship.
Tjay seemed incredibly excited about this movie coming out but didn’t want to reveal too much about what fans can expect.
“Everything. Tjay is going to be covering everything,” he replied when asked to give a teaser of the movie. The film is still in its early stages and even from the short snippet we saw, there was still work that needed to be added post-production. So, fans may have to wait a while before finally seeing their favourite artist at the pictures.
Rappers making the step from music to film isn’t as unheard of as you might think. Pharrell Williams has also looked to broaden his resume and recently came out with his own film titled “Piece by Piece.” This is a biopic of the rapper with a slight twist, it’s animated and set in the world of Lego.
For an artist to step out of their comfort zone and into a new industry can be a very risky decision, however, Tjay assured me this was all for him. “I’m doing this for me, myself. I don’t even think it’s necessary [for artists to make films] I’m just doing it because I want to do it, I’m outside!”
And he wasn’t joking when he said he was outside as the artist also began his European tour the day after the event and sold out the 20,000-capacity O2 arena in London. He was joined by fellow American rappers Polo G and Fivio Foreign as well as artists from the UK like Tion Wayne, Young Adz and Jordan Adetunji.
More music is released, check it out on his Instagram!
