Jefe Speaks

• J: No, no, no. Encanto Village – I mean, the name is f*ckin fire - it was actually a neighborhood I grew up in Phoenix. Phoenix has multiple different villages. There's Alhambra village, which is where my homie Ra's from. There's Encanto Village, Central City, South Mountain (which is also a place that I spent a very formative time in my life in). And what else there's uh Paradise Valley, all different bits and pieces of Phoenix. I grew up there.

• J: Wow

• J: Really, this was supposed to be an EP. I bought a bunch of things from bro on supportin’ the homies type sh*t like yeah let’s do an EP, but then m*therf*ckers kept tryin – don’t even wanna get into detail about that but I was pissed off. So I made the songs and the songs kept coming out hard and I was like, we need to do an album. And bro’s just with it even though I had scheduled projects and tapes, this just ended up taking precedence. For me, it’s a reminder of what Phoenix was during my formative years growing up versus what it’s become since. Since gentrifiers moved into the places I inhabited as a young boy. The song ‘Get Gone’, that second verse is a f*ck you to everybody who’s moved out here and made rent f*ckin expensive.

• J: My early sh*t was by myself – okay so it’s weird because actually it’s always a mix of both. Early on I was producing for my homies, my n*gga Splash Fuego, in the nature of knowing each other and making hard ass beats and broken rap really well. Look him up, you’ll see what I’m talking about because that n*gga make amazing music. I felt like I needed to follow in bro’s footsteps, not just his but a bunch of homies making turnt music I was helping produce at the time. But it just wasn’t me at all. Like…It wasn’t my personality because I’m kind of an introvert for real. So I ended up being in situations where I was recording by myself, myself being 16 at the time. When you’re a teenager, you’re a f*cking freshman dude. I had to get very comfortable with how I do my own sh*t. I was doing that up until COVID – oh nah that’s a lie – I was in a group called Cactus Crew then. That became like, I’m in a group, a community of people. I think that’s essential for making rap music. Being around people building your strengths, your skills, just by absorbing—
  

• J: He’s the homie. Just like, a solid person. I’ve seen him evolve because I was a fan of his music before we was cool like that. I stayed on the East Side, he stayed on the West Side but he knew some of the homies from the East Side. I bring this up because he lives far as shit, like 40 minutes away. We met before COVID, just kicking it like dumb thugs throughout different situations. Because I knew of his music before meeting him, I was able to see him first as the homie and then also as a fan, his evolution, as he was able to see mine. He’s the same person. Some b*tch ass m*therf*ckers who make beats out here, they on some weird sh*t, you know what I’m saying? Listen, I too produce, I make beats for the homies – literally that’s my setup right here. (Jefe pivots the camera to show his mic, recording equipment). But yeah – just love to work with a levelheaded person. We sit and have deep conversations about each record before we put it to wax.
  

• J: That’s a crazy question, a crazy question. It’s always weird. I had the title Encanto Village in the back of my mind, sometimes when I make a project the title will just come to me first. Sun of Abdoulaye, I came up with that title years prior, in 2016, but the music I was making in 2016 didn’t really fit that. Until like we were done with the album, I was like ‘oh bet Ima name it this’. With Encanto Village it was multiple things: first doing research on my old neighborhood out of boredom, seeing the effects of gentrification, how things have changed. I’d look it up and see it in like ‘Top 10 Places to move in Phoenix’ and also ‘Top 10 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods’, so it’s multifaceted. I’m multifaceted.
  

• J: –Legend–

• J: Exactly. So I enjoy when I make projects with people because we can have deep conversations about exactly what is going on, as to why I would say the things I would on a track. When we made ‘What You Know’, we had just gotten a crazy weird phone call from somebody, it was like what the f*ck are you talking about? So off, like n*gga’s done lost the plot already, you’re like – what the f*ck are we talking about right now? To be around somebody (Lord Ra) who’s going through that with me you can be like, okay, I’m not weird for thinking this. Let’s get into it. Let’s make the song. A lot of this sh*t be serving inspiration especially because like, I’ll be honest, Phoenix is a hater city. It’s like one of the biggest hater cities. Because it’s like, we’ve never had shit. We’re the fourth or fifth biggest city in the United States. We’ve never won a championship, never won a basketball championship–
  

• J: –STEVIE NICKS! Yeah–

• J: We was born at the same hospital!

• J: Yeah like it’s literally a couple blocks off Thomas I see it every time I drive past, because I’m a huge fan, huge fan of Fleetwood Mac. 

• J: Yeah! Like I didn’t even know she was from Phoenix for real, til I did my research and shit. We have had legends, we have Stevie Nicks, and I was thinking of Steve Nash: the Suns team from ’96 until Steve Nash broke his nose. In that time period we have Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire. We really had all the stars then, I mean sh*t, Charles Barkley in his prime was playing for The Suns. We’ve had all this legendary sh*t happen but as far as that moment to solidify everything – that’s never happened. So people don’t really believe ‘Oh you’re gonna do something’ because the most you’re gonna get to in people’s minds is being an urban legend, a hood celebrity or some sh*t. And it’s like…nah I want to name some sh*t after a place I grew up in, no matter the connotations or context. I want to show people, hey we have had similar sh*t to what y’all have. I mean sh*t, I’m wearing the ASU cap right now. You feel me?
  

• J: –– I appreciate you, ‘preciate you–

• J: I came up with the name Malick McFly – the reason I even came up with that name cuz on Facebook for a year I was Rich Homie Malick, on some funny sh*t. Like pretty much all my homies back in 2014 it was Rich Home Something cuz its when Rich Home Quan was poppin, like when Tha Tour Pt 1 came out. Then I went to change my Facebook name cuz I thought it was corny and played out by that point, so I just changed it to Malick McFly, cause it was catchy and because I’m a huge fan of the artist Playa Fly from Memphis. That’s what I named it after, I wasn’t thinking about Back to the Future. And like, I was 15 by the way. 15 in 2014 –

• J: –and I’m bout to be 25 – yeah, young as shit! So I had that name 15 to 22. In some situations rapping on the Malick McFly name…well, when you’re doing anything in any capacity like I’m doing it, people say your name, for better or worse. It was my government name – well not McFly but Malick is. People just throwing it left, right, front and center type sh*t, and in the rap space, m*therf*ckers don’t let you know their first name let alone the full name. A lot of n*ggas don’t deserve to be calling me the same sh*t my mother calls me. Ultimately it was also a maturation because 15 to 22, that’s a huge leap in my personality. When I first changed my name I felt low-key dead inside a little bit. As an artist, to some degree you’re putting out a persona. Some of it is real, some exaggerated, some hopefully isn’t fake but some m*therf*ckers be faking that sh*t. My shit was the very extreme version of myself, who I am when you meet me in f*cking public, you know?

• J: It’s a manifestation of extreme life circumstances, on some existential shit and a lot of life is dark comedy. The art kinda reflects that. My early shit was dead serious, me and my government name writing music. Certain experiences pointed me to well, might as well turn to the pain the sh*t. Its funny because I was around poets and the poetry world is almost hyperrealistic, you know?
  

• J: Yeah! Me and Ra talk about this all the time. The victory of the Halal Boys albums and this one, it’s talking about serious shit without “this one time when I was nine” you know – weird type sh*t. Without that uncomfortable feeling where it’s like, yo, I know way too much about you. Like, we can be in the spot hearing n*ggas rap and say their shit – with all love, all respect, but sometimes it’s like m*therf*cker, I know that event that’s shaped five years of your life but I don’t know your favorite color. You know?

• J: —Legend!—

• J: –without putting it all out there. I got family members. I can’t even be saying some of this shit – Senegalese people are a very proud people. I can’t be doing all that. In certain situations it’s like, not everything that happened was legal like, certain times when n*ggas – not me – not saying me – have been in precarious situations with the law and I’ve been around it. Firstly, cops are listening but also the weird experience of well, you wouldn’t want m*therf*ckers coming up to you like “Yeah bro that joint you made about your grandma dying bro…” like why are we even talking about this, you know–

• J: Yeah. One of my favorite mixtapes of all time is ‘Almighty So’ by Chief Keef, besides maybe like the Drought III by Lil Wayne. I love it so much because – and I was tryna explain this to my sister – it’s so bare bones. Max and I used to play Chief Keef all the time, like day one it holds a space in my heart because of Max, Rest in peace. Keef says so much with so little on that mixtape. There’s a bar like “Yeah I get gwap now that bitch remember me/ I send shots now them n*ggas hearing me”. “I send shots now them n*ggas hearing me”. There’s almost  an exasperation of like, ‘Yo I don’t want to do this violence but now y’all get it?’ Because I had to do this extra ass shit I don’t wanna fucking do – like…
  

• J: Yeah. Another bar “I fuck with God but I gotta be a demon” like so many situations where you’re like yeah I don’t even wanna do all this shit. Mind you – I don’t live nowhere near like that man’s lived shout out Sosa. But you know what I mean? I’ve had to be in hella situations where it’s like yeah I fuck with God, but right now we wishing death on m*therf*ckers. Like I might go to hell behind some bullshit. I feel that but I don’t need to tell n*ggas details like “Yeah so I grabbed the meat cleaver!” You don’t need to do all that.

• J: The first thing is Allah gave me the ability to do this. Like the fact that music comes so easy to me. I’ve been surrounded it by it so long, even before I considered rapping I was playin’ the drums and sh*t. I learned how to play guitar at 13. Even just being a little kid going into my dad’s room, watching old episodes of Soul Training. Those early experiences have given me the ability to do this. And like – In Senegal they have a phrase like “When God claps, don’t forget to dance”. It’s like mad opportunities… one of my favorite phrases. Before I even had songs out, n*ggas was sending me beats from all over the world type sh*t. So I’m not just gonna sit on the beats sent to me and not do some shit I like doing. With that being said, it’s a service to God. You don’t get the ability to paint or create without doing that sh*t, don’t waste it. Be painting, be rapping, be singing. This a grimy ass interview already.
  

• J: It's crazy, I be getting handed sh*t from God out of nowhere. Like, even the service on this call, the opportunity to meet certain people and experience certain things in my life. Even Max – he’s a big influence as to why I freestyle a lot of my records because that’s what he was doing. At the time, bro was reading the Quran, know what I’m saying? (On Halal Boys) In 2021 me and my friend Guru were fasting for Ramadan – bro had never done it, it was my fourth or fifth summer doing it. It was almost like an inside joke, funny sh*t. And it was a hard ass name. We made some early songs that were cool, but nothing that really stuck but then I had it as a brand, a concept that fell together. I’m not sure when we committed to it being a tape, it was meant to be a three track EP. Again, working with Ra it was like, let’s just keep doing it.

• J: Things we experienced invited the concept for those songs. Experiences testing what love looks like…me and bro was just talking about that the other day. We’ve known each other since teenagers, high school type sh*t, and really locked in the last four years but it’s still a young relationship. The hope is it can foster for a very long time. I journaled about this sh*t. Growing up I didn’t have the best examples of what love looks like. When I enter a romantic relationship, I’m going off examples of how my relationship with friends has went. The reciprocation, the communication, being able to see where a n*gga coming from – I use like, even my relationship with my mom. Those relationships have been supplemented by water, other plants, creating a garden over time. I’m proud that in the music despite the concept coming from trauma, it’s not like a depression album –

• J: – Yeah, even little things like the homies dogs snuffled all up in your sh*t…

• J: I appreciate you reaching out – Ra was telling me I need to do more interviews. A lot of my music I’ll drop without context but from time to time I’d like people to know there’s a real artistry, real craft behind this sh*t.

• J: There’s a James Baldwin quote about how like “white Americans seem to feel happy songs, like they’re happy, they think the sad songs, they’re sad”. Like there’s no deeper meaning, reading, from that conditioning. That’s what I was talking about with the Sosa song – on face value selling some flexing sh*t but… they’re really sad.