Boldy James Breaks Down “Live at the Roxy”

Boldy James Live at the Roxy

The Intro and Outro were very autobiographical. Have any of the people mentioned heard it? What were their responses?


Nobody heard any of the music yet, this project was as top secret as the Khalid and Drake vocals.

Your music sounds more mature. Why? Do you feel your decision making as an adult has gotten better?


It’s not that I took off from the music due to me catching a case, walking these papers down and raising my children. I guess me looking at like through the eyes of a father of 6 I see life differently and maybe I’ve matured and grown a great deal during the process.

I really liked Ran Up a Check and 10 Blood, can you tell us anything about those records?

What motivated them, what was the thought process?
Ran up a check was motivated by the Streets as usual but my Bruddas Taj Mahal and Big 4 encouraged me to keep pushing until this project was finished and during these 2 records were in the middle stages of the project. Blood was motivated by me counting up a couple thousand dollars once and it was literally blood on every bill.

Given the difficulties in your past are you happy? What do you think the keys to happiness are?


At the moment I am happy because my kids are happy so as long as they good I’m always happy. Doing what makes you happy is what life’s about to me. I’ve done so much wrong in my life, not glorifying it at all but life has to has balance so I’m just tryna make sure my rights outweigh my wrongs and I have a chance to make it right with God before it’s all over said and done with. That’s my definition of happiness.

What’s it like making an album with one producer? What does MStacks production bring out of you?


I rather do my projects with 1 producer and if you noticed in my career my most successful projects were entirely produced by 1 producer and M Stacks is like a real brother to me so we joke and have plenty of disagreements but at the end of the day we admire each other’s work so much that’s it’s a given that we make dope music but he’s also a dj/ my dj so he knows what the people need and he has a lot of confidence in my flow to even spend countless hrs on the road back and forth from Cleveland to Detroit to make sure I took time out away from the Streets to get it done and M Stacks generally wanna see me win so us making this album was actually some of the best times I’ve ever had while working on 1 of my projects because I was on my knuckles down bad creating it and I watched everybody turn they back and switch up on me, and M Stacks and Mafia Double Dee stayed down so it feel good to know who to rock wit and how to play it this go round.

What was the recording process between you two like?


It’s always simple, he plays 1 beat, I always think the beat is dope, we smoke some weed, I come up with the material, he loads the session up, I hit the booth and lay the vocals , come out the studio smoke more weed, and continuously repeat the process until he has to get back home to Cleveland. Crazy thing about this particular body of work is recorded most of it in a church smh “Bible”.

Does your music help you deal with traumatic experiences? Does the vividness of your lyrics ever cause flashbacks?


I use the pain and past experiences to release the evil spirits and demons trapped in my mind that plague my brain and my heart that used to haunt me in my sleep. Making music and hearing the finished product is more so a healing experience for me. I been through a lot in my life and overcame a lot of hurdles and obstacles so the music is a better way for me to cope with all my trials and tribulations losing everything I ever loved to the streets.

Are you ever resentful that people take pleasure in music detailing your pain?

It doesn’t matter to me 1 way or the other but just know that I’m very conscious and aware of the things I’m saying in song and the message I bring in my music is really who I am so If the listener can relate is more than likely because they feel or have felt similar pain before in their times of despair and desperation.

What’s the last piece of good advice you got?

Mind Yo Biness!

What’s something that really made you think?

Talking my Father always makes me think because he keeps me grounded in my decisiveness as a father and a man. He raised me to be exactly what I am, a stand-up, respectable, commendable, individual slash smooth criminal. You can hear I’m a deep thinker In my music. My father is a deep person so quite naturally it made me a thinker. Think about it “knock on wood” but I’ve committed some of the most heinous acts of crime and I’ve never been to prison so that’s something to think about. Either I’m the most blessed person you know to be standing here today a free man to be able to give you this interview or I have to be smart than a MF.

What surprised you about Nas?

That he respected my music enough to give me a chance at making history and him being my favorite artist of all times having the chance to work with him surprised me more than anything I’ve ever done in music because it’s a dream come true. Plus when I met him he was as cool as I always imagined he’d be. Being able to grace the stage with Nas the 4-5 times I’ve performed with him was very much so surprising.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*