Jesse Boykins III Has A New Mixtape For Anyone Who’s Over Pokemon Go And Lazy Sex
Jesse Boykins III has just released Bartholomew, a mixtape that’s the follow up to Love Apparatus, the 2014 album that put the Jamaican-born singer-songwriter on the map. The new mixtape features a bunch of big names as well, including Willow Smith, DeJ Loaf, Kilo Kish, Little Simz, Syd tha Kid of the Internet, Trinidad James, and Donnie Trumpet. Recording with all of these artists, he told me over the phone, was something like a dream in how well all of the experiences turned out.
“Getting in the studio felt like being a kid in a sandbox,” he said. “We were all so excited, like as though we were getting a new red truck to play with.”
Listen to his new album on SoundCloud here and read our interview with him below.
How are you feeling since putting your mixtape out?
I uploaded all the songs to Soundcloud at 3 AM last night. I’m feeling good, but also nervous, you know? There are just so many things that come with the feeling of putting out a project like this, and I’ve definitely been feeling nervous about it. As an artist, it’s really hard to know when something is finished, so every time I play a song back to myself, I’ll be like, wanting to add more to it.
So maybe the part that finishes your work is showing it to people!
Exactly.
I have to say it—you are so attractive. How do you feel this influences the reception of your music?
[Laughing]. It’s funny that you bring this up, because I was talking about it the other day. The most important thing for me is getting the message across that I have something to say, you know? And sometimes when people focus on the other stuff, it’s not as much about listening. Like I’m not sure if you saw my last album cover—
I did.
Yeah, so everybody was all up on that, talking about how I had abs showing or whatever. And I think it’s important to be healthy, and I think I’m probably more about health than others are, but at the same time it’s just not what I want people to focus on. Like I don’t want to be the guy that people recognize from Tumblr.
I think you should talk about it.
Well, I don’t want to be arrogant. In my personal life, I don’t care. I’ll say whatever, but I’m definitely conscious of that when I’m speaking through my music.
Who cares? That’s what the whole Kanye issue is anyway, no?
It’s true. And I do agree with a lot of what he says, but I feel like I’m working towards a platform to be able to say things like that.
I just don’t know what other artists are owning that as part of their image.
A$AP Rocky is.
True. Okay, aside from that, what other subjects does your music bump up against?
Well, my music is kind of for people who are also trying to see the next Marvel movie coming out, or doing yoga on a Saturday [laughing]. No, I don’t know. It’s for people who are into open-mindedness, I guess.
Having an open mind feels pretty hard to do right now.
I know! On one hand, it’s crazy, because we have access to so much information, but then at the same time it feels like people are forgetting a lot about how they’re missing out on experiences. I hear people say, Pokemon Go is great, because it makes people go outside. Why not just go outside because the sun is shining?
The sun is so good.
That shit is like drugs. Even if you’re like, someone who just got their heart broken…if you go to the beach and just watch the sun set, it’s like you’ll forget what you’re mad about. The sun is good.
How do you feel about virtual reality porn?
Sounds lazy to me [laughing]. And I don’t like lazy sex. You gotta work for it a little bit, right?
