Benz and a Backpack

At just 23 years old, Miguel Jontel is fast becoming a force in the realm of R&B. Having written for some of the most prolific singers and hit-makers of our generation (Musiq Soulchild, Usher, Mary J. Blige, and many more), it seems only natural that at some point he would get his own opportunity in the limelight. What really kick-started the Los Angeles-native’s success was his smash hit “All I Want Is You,” featuring Roc Nation signee J. Cole. With an album by the same title set to drop at the top of 2011, we chopped it up with Miguel about working with Cole, the beauty of writing your own music, and what can happen on the first day of high school. Text and audio of the interview after the jump, but here’s a sample:

Dizzy: If someone like Busta Rhymes from the 90’s were cross-dressing and shooting crazy videos today [shouts to ARS], it’d probably work against him because he’d be left exposed to rappers taking shots at him. Do you think it’s okay to differentiate yourself completely from the mainstream, or is that not the most viable career move?

Miguel: You know it’s funny because as an artist I’m inclined to rebel and just be myself. But I’ll never forget, this is something that Mark Pitts told me: you have to play the game to change the game. So it’s like, you have to win it under the rules that have already been set in place to change those rules. It’s really a balance for artists; it’s our job to be balanced. It’s about what you intend to do with your art. At the end of the day, it’s that I want my music to reach as many people as possible. I’m not going to sacrifice my integrity, but at the same time I realize that there are things that I may have to do that I may not have wanted to do. But you gotta play the game to change it. That’s how it goes.

MiguelJontel_Interview_BaaBP by BenzAndABackpack

Dizzy: Miguel, would you give our readers who might no be that familiar with you a little background information about who you are?

Miguel: Absolutely. I was born and raised in L.A., and I’ve been singing and performing ever since I can remember. I wrote a record called “All I Want Is You” featuring J. Cole, and it’s the single now. I was signed at Jive by Mark Pitts in 2007, and here we are now.

Dizzy: Awesome. You just mentioned that you hail from L.A., and I know you were featured on two tracks with Blu and Exile on “Below The Heavens,” which is now considered a classic in a lot of circles. You were on Johnson & Jonson with Blu & Mainframe as Jontel Johnson, and you were also on the TiRon song called “Go” on the ketchup mixtape. It seems like that whole team, of which you’re a part, is comprised of people with superior musical talents. Would you talk about that whole squad?

Miguel: Maaan, absolutely. I met Blu in high school, my first day of high school, I’ll never forget it. We’d been friends throughout high school, and then we just kept on. That’s like my boy, like my brother. He pretty much introduced me to real hip hop. Through him, I just had a lot of new school growth, and being with him through the process of getting signed to Sound in Color at the time, and then the creation of Below The Heavens, and him introducing me to DJ Exile, and just being in that scene of up and coming emcees and really dope musicians on the underground tip was great man. I met TiRon on the scene as well. And, he was trying to work with Fisticuffs, who happened to do the majority of my forthcoming album. It was really dope. I’ll never forget the joints we did for Below The Heavens, it was all pretty much done in Long Beach. And uh, Exile, man, is just ridiculous. For people out there who don’t know who these people are, please take the time out to check them out.

Dizzy: Foreal man. “First Thing’s First” is the joint by the way, just want to let you know that.

Miguel: Haha. You know we did that song at our best friend’s house on a Sunday morning. It was overcast, and we had partied the night before. We were like, you know, we don’t really want to do much today, and he put this beat on by Exile. We were just laying in the living room at my boy’s place, and he put it on. And the first thing I said was “First Thing’s First, they try to mess with…” And it just all came and we wrote it all in that living room.

Dizzy: That’s crazy. So clearly they influenced your music, but you’ve said your influences include varied artists like Stevie Wonder, The Beatles and John Lennon, Bjork, The Rolling Stones and more. And I know you have a great appreciation for every art form. Do you think it’s important for an artist to have a relatively comprehensive perspective on creating art, or is being single minded advantageous too?

Miguel: What works for me is exposing myself to as much creativity as possible, because I’m the kind of person who is always looking for outside inspiration. We’re all different in how we go about doing that. I do believe that it’s really important for us to inspire ourselves, but we’re all different in how we go about doing that. And for me, it just happens to be that I’m inspired by other people’s art. It allows me to open my mind to things I wouldn’t have considered myself. But then there are people who don’t want outside influences because it may taint their creativity in some way, which is cool. It’s whatever works for you.

Dizzy: It’s a personal thing.

Miguel: Yeah. But me, I’m always trying to expand and find new music, visual art, films, photography.

Dizzy: You know, it’s funny you say that, because in an interview a couple months ago, Blu said he sees himself as a producer longer than an emcee, and a filmmaker longer than a producer, that he doesn’t want to be limited by anything.

Miguel: And Blu is probably going to be one of the dopest directors ever. This guy’s mind is crazy.

Dizzy: So speaking of talents, you have many. You are a singer, producer, songwriter. You’ve written for some of the biggest stars out now, Musiq Soulchild, Usher, and Mary J. How did you cultivate those talents growing up?

Miguel: You know, I started writing when I was 8. It started as poetry, and when you find something you love, you just do it, especially when you’re young and you have the time. If you fall in love with something, you’re just consumed by it. That’s what writing was to me. And not only was it something I enjoyed, it was something I needed to express myself. My parents were going through their divorce and what not, and that’s where it all started. And it just evolved into me being able to express myself about other things as opposed to just about things my parents were going through, or my family. And I just stuck with it. I fell in love with writing and music. I think that’s really where it started, and I’ve been in love with it ever since. Creativity and passion are self-perpetuating.

Dizzy: You see a lot of pop stars and R&B artists who come out now who don’t write their own songs. Can you talk about what it’s like to have that much creative control over your music?

Miguel: Honestly, it’s a blessing. It’s really a blessing. I think especially when it comes to hip-hop, it’s almost like, you really want emcees to write their own stuff. You almost expect it. And then when you find out that things are ghostwritten, as fans, you lose respect for it. But on the opposite end, with songs that have melody, you don’t really expect it of the artist. And that’s okay, but when it comes to me and my art, I just want to be as involved in the creative process as possible. Being that they gave me the leeway to do everything myself, it’s just been a blessing and I take it that seriously.

Dizzy: And I think that comes through in your music. Do you think normatively it’s a good thing or a bad thing to have an artist’s songs written by someone else?

Miguel: I wouldn’t say good or bad. Art is all about honesty, and the more involved in creating it, the more true it’s going to be to who you are. So I think it’s so much better for artists to be as involved in the creative process as possible. Because then even if people don’t like your music, they can respect it.

Dizzy: And I think that’s what’s distinguishing you in the game today. If someone like Busta Rhymes from the 90’s were cross-dressing and shooting crazy videos today (shouts to ARS), it’d probably work against him because he’d be left exposed to rappers taking shots at him. Do you think it’s okay to differentiate yourself completely from the mainstream, or is that not the most viable career move?

Miguel: You know it’s funny because as an artist I’m inclined to rebel and just be myself. But I’ll never forget, this is something that Mark Pitts told me: you have to play the game to change the game. So it’s like, you have to win it under the rules that have already been set in place to change those rules. It’s really a balance for artists; it’s our job to be balanced. It’s about what you intend to do with your art. At the end of the day, it’s that I want my music to reach as many people as possible. I’m not going to sacrifice my integrity, but at the same time I realize that there are things that I may have to do that I may not have wanted to do. But you gotta play the game to change it. That’s how it goes.

Dizzy: Well, you are reaching a lot of people right now, starting to get your mainstream shine. You were just in XXL last month, and as you said before “All I Want Is You” is bubbling and was on 106 & Park recently. Why is right now your time to shine?

Miguel: You know, I don’t really deal in whys. [pause] Malcolm Gladwell has this theory, I believe it’s that it takes 10,000 hours, which roughly equates to ten years, to achieve mastery of something.

Dizzy: That’s Outliers, right?

Miguel: Outliers, exactly. And I made the decision to pursue being an artist professionally at the age of 13, and I’m 23 right now. So it kind of worked, and I’m working hard and I’m really passionate about it. It just took some time to come to my own realization of who I am, and once that happened it was just a matter of finding people who believed in it as much as I did. So you know, 10 years. It kind of worked out. [Laughs]

Dizzy: [Laughing] Yeah “All I Want Is You” is really blowing up. Can you talk a little about how it came about?

Miguel: “All I Want Is You” came about in Miami, with a producer by the name of Salaam Remi, who is responsible for some of the illest hip hop that’s come out in the last decade or so. I’ll never forget walking into the studio at his house and being a little intimidated, cause I mean, it’s Salaam Remi. So I sat down and he played this beat, the “All I Want Is You” beat, and I freestyled for like seven minutes straight. And I was like, is there anything in there that you like? Are you feeling any of it? He was kinda like a sphinx; he didn’t have any expression. I asked: “What do you think?” And like anything, he said: “Be honest.” I said, “I don’t know what to write about,” and he just told me again to be as honest as possible. So I aked him to step out for a minute and he did, so I went into the booth and “All I Want Is You” is what came out. I just happened to be going through some questioning of a decision I made to leave my girlfriend at the time, and that’s the song that came out.

Dizzy: How did you get J. Cole down?

Miguel: Well we finished the song that day, put a rough mix on it, and sent it to Mark Pitts. Mark also happens to manage J. Cole. I’ll never forget the call. He called me like: “Yo. This record is crazy. What do you think about J. Cole getting on it?” I was like, “What? You know I love Cole, he’s ridiculous.” So Mark said he thought he’d do it, and a couple days later I found out he did a verse, and he sent me the version and it was a wrap. That was it.

Dizzy: Yeahman, that song is crazy. “You got me on layaway / girl you got a hold on me.” [Laughs]

Miguel: [Luaghs] For real. His verses are stupid on there.

Dizzy: So, ten years strong in the game, do you have any advice to offer to aspiring artists?

Miguel: Work hard and stick to your gut.

Dizzy: You’re hard at work on Gravity, it’s that what’s up?

Miguel: You know, I changed the album title to All I Want Is You, and I’ll tell you why I did that. What I wanted to do was have a unifying theme, and as the album evolves and changed, the story of the album, we started adding and taking away songs, the story of the album and the journey changed, and All I Want Is You fit in the overall theme in terms of the realization of a very simple idea, and that idea is that the grass is not always greener on the other side. So the album title is All I Want Is You, and it’ll be really dope man. I’m excited about it.

Dizzy: Is there a tentative release date?

Miguel: It’s going to definitely be top of 2011. It was set for September, but I think it was a little too soon, so I asked them to push it back so we have a little time.

Dizzy: Miguel, thank you so much.

Miguel: Man thank you for having me, I appreciate you guys.

~End~

Download: Miguel ft. J. Cole – All I Want Is You

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