Arts IN Focus on PBS Fort Wayne is funded in part by the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne Coming up, we'll talk with hip hop artist and DJ J. Tubbs and author Tina Gasnarez.

It's all next on Arts IN Focus.

Welcome to Arts IN Focus.

I'm Emily Henry.

J. Tubbs is a hip hop artist, producer, rapper and DJ.

His love for music and performing started at a young age and eventually inspired him to create his own original music to share with his audiences.

We visited with him in his recording studio at Crush House Entertainment to talk about his passion for the art form of hip hop music.

Tubbs be the name Boy, you know I got it.

Oh, you big mad boy, you need to stop it Tell me how these fools deserved to call the play they aint trying to push the culture they aint trying to help the people.

That's why I spit the truth like a preacher in the pulpit.

Optimus Prime.

My rhyme.

Optimus transform, switching flows, attitude and gratitude to be half as mad as you I Thank you.

Because it made me who I am.

Got my head held high please don't kill my vibe just in days gone.

Try.

I'm still royalty.

Jay, Thank you for having me to your studio today.

Tell me when you got into music and and making, like, the process behind making it.

Oh, man.

I've been in some music probably ever since I was a little kid.

Honestly.

But just, you know, listening and being curious about stuff and just kind of grew up into it.

And next thing you know, boom, you know, working in the studio and producing music and.

But I can't imagine it was that easy.

It was not boom.

Now you are producing and making rapping and doing all the things.

So tell me a little bit about that journey.

Well, I was just like I say, I go back to when I was younger.

My mom actually got me into music.

She was a real, really, real big hip hop person.

She put me on groups like, uh, I mean, Outkast is probably my biggest one.

That's my one of my favorite and most versatile groups.

And I remember for a lot of people who don't remember cassette tapes, Oh, I do.

I got the opportunity to check out some of that and started writing and was pretty much writing and rapping about nothing pretty much since as a little kid.

Like, what am I talking about?

Yeah.

But just I love just the creativity behind it and just hearing different styles and I was just like, Man, you know, this is something really cool.

So, you know, I grew up and I played basketball, roller skated and all these kind of different things, you know, just a lot of stuff to kind of exercise my creativity.

But it always comes back to music, you know?

And I just kind of got curious.

So I just took the route of being self-taught, really.

I didn't have no professional training or anything like that.

So you mentioned that you were curious and you wanted to kind of figure things out.

So is that what really led to the the production side to really wanting to get on to that side of it?

Yeah, I would say yeah, because kind of like when I started writing and rapping, that was more so, you know, like I said, that's kind of where I started.

But then I had this opportunity where I was able to like I was wanting to produce songs and, you know, I put music out and I was like, Man, I can't find any producers to work with and stuff like that.

So with the lack of resources at that time when I first started, I was like, Man, maybe I can get in here and dive in and learn how to do it myself.

That's incredible.

So how did you learn how to do it yourself?

Like I said, this looks like a spaceship to me.

Like, I don't understand how any of that works was it daunting or were you just excited to dive in?

I was excited to dive in, definitely a lot of bumps and bruises, you know, kind of trying to figure everything out.

But, you know, with enough study and practicing, you know, you just kind of get you get into it and you just kind of keep evolving.

But I started from a program called at the time, they called it Fruity Loops.

So like, that's pretty marketable, right?

Yeah, right.

But now they transitioned to a company called FL Studios and so they had they still had the fruity loops.

Yeah.

Moniker or whatnot.

But it was really simple, simple bass, you know, it was it was a lot like, you know, like the iPhone, if you will, you know, really user friendly and easy for, for amateurs to become a producer.

When you got into it, did you know immediately like, oh, I love this.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

You know, it just it just something about hearing, you know, for me its like 808 driven, you know, like, you know, you hear the boom coming out of the speakers like, oh yeah, this is it right here.

You know.

Let's talk a little bit about your rap career.

So you mentioned that when you were a kid, you were just rapping about nothing but were you good at it?

Did it come easily to you in the beginning?

Yes, it definitely came easily.

You know, I think the biggest part about me growing up was, you know, trying to find your own sound, you know, because you have all these inspirations and people that, like I was mentioning Outkast and people like this, like it's hard to not want to follow that trend, of course.

But as you get older and you find your voice, you find who you are as a person, and then you start creating the content that molds around you as a person.

So thats kind of that leads to my name, you know, J. Tubbs, but my actual name is J. Tubbs Jamarius Tubbs becasue I don't want to go by a different name or a different moniker, because when you hear my music, you hear extension of who I am, actually, as a person.

Yeah.

What inspires your music now that you have found your voice, what do you find yourself writing about?

Man Everything pertaining to life, really.

You know, everyday people, you know, the ups and the downs.

Because a lot of the times when it comes to hip hop music or even just, you know, just music, music in general, you hear a lot.

You see a lot of the good side and the party and the fun.

And that's good.

That's great.

Don't get me wrong.

That's a that's a part of your life.

But let's talk about a lot of stuff that everyday people would experience as well.

Yeah.

Now tell me a little bit about how you got into DJing.

Was that did that run parallel to production and all of that or it was that that was probably the last piece that came in.

And I was in college at the time.

I went to Indiana Tech and yeah, a lot of my friends was like, Hey man, you rap, you produce.

You said you should know how to DJ, right?

You know, that's like, I'm like, No, that's actually kind of different.

Yeah, but the thing that that came along with is just having a broad ear and just loving music, you know?

So and so with that, you know, it took some time to kind of get myself educated with that, the technical side of DJing.

But as far as my love for music, I always had a wide base of stuff.

So I listen, I listen to everything from hip hop to classic rock to electronic, you know, you name it.

So yeah, Now when you go to DJ, are you tell me about the art of that.

Are you trying to keep in mind the the audience that you are playing for and play based on what you think they will like or how does that work?

Or do you just play what you like?

Oh, well, that's the part about DJing a lot of people don't know you have is not is totally not about you.

And I would say that part is definitely playing to the demographic.

So, you know, whatever the the event calls for, just like we were talking a little bit about the skate event.

Yeah.

You know, it was a lot of disco.

It was a lot of funk.

It was a lot of like old school R&B and stuff like that, like seventies, eighties kind of stuff, you know?

So we just kind of like tailor made for that occasion, you know?

And then usually I just kind of go from there.

That's the that's the fun part about that, especially being, you know, wide based with your music taste, you know, you just kind of like, oh man, this is sound good, I can bounce here, I'll bounce there, you know, So how do you put a show together or do you is it something that you plan out in advance or are you just kind of feeling the crowd and seeing what is going to come next?

I would say I would definitely say feel the crowd.

Yeah, that's the that's probably the adrenaline rush of DJing, you know?

Yeah.

I mean, even as a emcee, even, you know, you just like you just feel the crowd out like, okay, they're leaning towards more a little, little bit of this style so I need to go more that route, you know, so I'll have some you know, Xing some stuff out at the last minute and adding some things, you know, That's insane.

How are there, there can't be enough hours in the day to.

You'll get lost in that sometimes.

Yeah.

Okay.

Because you also I mean in addition to music, you are blogging and you have these beautifully produced music videos and how do you get how do you get it all done?

What does a day look like for you?

Oh, man.

Oh, it definitely varies.

And sometimes I have to wear one hat in one day.

Right?

Right, right.

Doing all of them is like is it's too much.

But at the say you know a typical day let's say at the studio likely I'm just I'm in I'm writing some new material producing and usually I produce a beat kind of ahead of time because I have a home studio as well.

So I'll kind of get my ideas out and I'll come here and I can finish them, you know?

So I come here to fine tune them polish them a little bit and then I can kind of right start my writing process.

And after that I start to thinking of like, you know, features.

if I like can have a live instrumentation on it and, and just kind of like just start and start to build.

But it's really not no formal format to it you just some things come faster than the others sometimes.

Lyrics because before the production side of how have you grown and evolved as an artist, you make it sound really easy and I can't imagine that it has been.

So how, how have you grown?

I think honestly, just the taking the time, just being around, being a sponge, you know, watching a lot of people before me locally, regionally and even nationally, I've grown some relationships with some people who are on the forefront and and just honestly, just like I said, being a sponge, you know, and also just being, you know, I'm still a I'm still a lover of music.

So, you know like I try to see it from from a consumer, you know, perspective as well.

Yeah.

So what's next?

Do you have a goal or a dream that is beyond where you are now?

Its really important for me to just help continue to push the culture of hip hop or just music in general and just really kind of stand back and being a curator, you know, helping younger, younger emcees or just younger musicians and DJs and stuff just come along and be like, Hey, this craft is is still here.

It's a necessity, you know, and art makes the world go around.

So, you know, it is getting to the point where they almost taken art out of schools and music out of schools and stuff.

You know that's pretty heartbreaking.

So I like to you know, that's one of the biggest things for me is, you know, being able to leave something that people are like, hey, man, you know, that that the culture is still pretty cool and we can still attack this.

We can still do this.

Yeah.

Does it scare you that the technology keeps changing and evolving because you want it to be a relevant art, but it's hard to keep up?

Yes, I, I would like to say is good and bad.

So you find a good size of it where the accessibility for everybody to create.

Right.

And going back to that program, I was saying, you know, Fruity Loops, you know, most of the time, you know, a lot of people can't afford a $50,000 mixing board, you know, so so being able to do things digitally and you can learn that aspect of it in a way, you know, inexpensive way.

Yeah.

You know, it helps the helps people to want to learn and be able to learn, but also at the same time, it gives the opportunity for a lot of people who's maybe not that good, you know, but but we get to push it out and that's that's the most important.

There you go.

What is the best part about working within your passion?

I can tell how passionate you are about music and and you have built your whole life around it.

What what is that like?

I mean, it's just a beautiful thing, just for me is this is part of who I am.

You know, I get to I get to live it.

I get to do this.

It's and is just is just easy.

You know, like I said, it just is grassrooted for me is like is literally something that I come from from my from my youth all the way up to an adult And so when I step into the situations where I have to create or get to create or just simply talk music like, like we're talking right now, you know, is just I don't know.

It's just I don't know.

It just it's easy for me.

I was going to say, what would you be if you weren't a musician and producer and DJ?

Do you even consider that?

I don't honestly, I don't see anything outside of that is so strange because, like, I have my college degree.

Yeah, my day job, I work at a bank.

Yeah, you know, but I still come back home to music.

I love that.

I love that.

Well, please continue to create.

Make sure that this art form continues.

And thank you so much for taking the time today.

Very welcome.

Thank you.

For more information, find J. Tubbs on Facebook.

I'm joined now by author Tina Gasnarez.

Tina, I've already had such a great time talking to you so I'm glad now cameras are rolling and we can really get down to the nuts and bolts of your beautiful book.

But before that, I want to know what led to you deciding to take on this huge project.

And, you know, it's kind of an interesting it's a very personal story.

I'm one of 12 children and I'm number eight out of the 12.

I have five sisters and six brothers.

And in December of 2020, my younger sister, Tammula, she actually passed away unexpectedly.

And it was interesting and through the mourning period with my siblings, we were going through photos, we were preparing for the funeral, and we found ourselves laughing.

We found ourselves crying, We found ourselves reminiscing.

And I thought at the time I felt myself thinking about our childhood.

Yeah.

And that led to me because in the past and when I was a teenager, I would always just write.

I was in the habit of writing.

I took creative writing classes in college, and I found that it was always a very cathartic experience for me if I could get it out.

And as so, in January of 2021, I started writing a story and I just started thinking about my childhood with my sisters.

And as I started writing it, just the words began to just flow right out.

Just the imagery, the friendships and the emotions.

Being a nine, ten year old child.

Yeah.

And over time, before I was by, before I knew it, I noticed that there was a story there.

And I said, okay, I think I want to publish this book.

And I was very concerned about shopping my book around.

And so I did the work of searching for a writing coach, someone who could really walk me through the steps of how to self-publish.

And that was an arena I was very unfamiliar with.

And I found someone and she was she's based in Atlanta, Georgia.

And as we started working on it, we were meeting.

It was all virtual because we were still shut down during this pandemic.

But what a wonderful diversion it was for me, first of all morning, but also working on something that occupied my time.

Yes, Right.

During this shutdown, I was still working from home.

I had actually shifted from work at Purdue Fort Wayne to my home.

So I was stuck at home.

And then I notice after I logged off for the day, I was still at home.

So it was nice being able to continue to write, to meet with my writing coach.

And it was that creative space that I created in my home was just what I needed.

And so by that time I learned how to come up with the concept for my book and I worked with a graphic artist based out of California, and I had to show him photos, I took photos.

I said, Here, I have something in mind.

I know what I want.

And I came up and here is the final product, the book.

So it was it was published in August of 2021, and I just launched it.

I've never created all of the package material and setting up book sales.

And it was I learned literally on the fly, I had my son in law who was wonderful about working with setting up websites for businesses, and I said, I need your help.

And he was phenomenal.

So I was able to really I knew there were experts out there that knew more about this than than I did.

And I knew where to find them.

And they helped me a lot.

And so a lot of good people helping.

So first, I should say, I'm so sorry for your loss and and grief is so hard, but when you can channel it into something positive, I think that changes everything.

But I want to know how scary it is.

I would imagine, to take this piece that, like you said, it didn't start out as something that was intended to be published.

Is it scary to to say, okay, I this this I poured my heart into this and now I'm going to send it out into the world?

Oh, it was a very scary experience.

And it's something it's one thing to be in a creative writing class where you're critiqued by your classmates and by your professor, and they're kind of showing you the mechanics.

Here's how you can work on this.

And it's one on one.

It's much more personal, but when you put your book out there for all, that means so many different opinions, responses.

And I just thought I remember kind of preparing myself mentally for that experience.

What what would you do?

How would you feel?

And I remember at one point when I read the story and one of and it was one of the younger one of my beta readers who was a ten year old young man, and he wrote his feedback and he told me exactly what he liked about the book, what he didn't like about the book.

And that was pretty much the start of where I said, okay, I've touched a nerve and it's making an impact and it's positive, negative.

I think.

I don't think that's necessarily the name of the game here.

The fact that it touched a nerve.

Yeah.

And he was responding to those words.

Yeah.

And I at that point I just said, you know what, I believe in this book.

I like this story.

And I stand by it.

And so I think that's where the fear subsided, Right?

Because I think I said, you know what, Some people will like the book and some people will not like the book.

But I love this book.

I love the story.

And I think I'm just sharing something that I that is a labor of love.

And I think that is why why I think that the fear, it's it's gone now.

It's gone now.

And I think now that I've actually talked to young people, I visited a after school program, the McMillan Park after school program, and I was approached by Camille Curry, who reached out and told me, we want to use your book as our featured book club selection.

And for eight weeks, the students, they she read the book to them while they worked on projects with themes within the book, and I was blown away by it.

I mean, she literally created a curriculum around this book.

Yeah.

And I was impressed.

And then on the last day of the program, she invited me and I got to listen to the children.

I got to listen to them and listen and answer their questions.

Why did this happen?

I, like I asked, which character did you really connect with?

And they were sharing.

And I just like I said, this warms my heart.

This is amazing.

There were boys in the audience.

There were girls in the audience.

So I get the joy of seeing young people pull those elements, pull the the themes throughout the book.

And they were talking about exactly what I said.

Yes, that's it.

Yes.

Yes.

I nailed it.

Yeah.

Without saying a word.

This is this was their their comments and their reflection.

And I just thought it was amazing.

So it was it was I felt like I felt so proud.

I felt very proud watching them because it set exactly what I put forth.

I wanted them to be able to capture and to grab that information and to say, I got it, I see it, I see it.

And there was no greater joy for me.

I actually teared up a few times just listening to them.

And I'll I'll I'll tear up again.

I'm a crybaby, I admit it.

But it was so rewarding to be able to to see the book in action.

And it was an amazing experience.

And I read the final chapter to them and they were a wonderful audience and I felt so honored and I got to sign my copy of my book and gave each of the children a copy of the book.

And it was just amazing.

It really was.

So now that Martina is out in the world, now that she lives and helps kids articulate their feelings and their experiences, do you plan to write another?

You know what?

I am in the process of writing a second book.

It's actually the second book in this particular series.

I like Martina.

Yeah, I like spending time with her.

I tell people and I make this very clear, I said, Martina is not Tina Gasnarez Yeah, she isn't me and it's so funny because I think I couldn't help because now that I hear from different people who have read the book, they they've asked me, did this happen?

And I said, well, I mean, there are some elements, right?

But it's not a it's not a my my, my story.

Yeah.

I just pulled from different elements of my life and I created this story.

And when my granddaughter, she's four years old, her name is Eliza.

One day she saw the book sitting on the coffee table.

She says, Nana, is that you?

I see.

You know what, Eliza?

Maybe it is.

Yes, it is.

It's.

I couldn't say no, so.

But the second book is, my grandson, Lorenzo.

He actually asked me after because we read the book together, and he was very drawn in to the story and he had questions and he actually had a shared experience from the in school where he actually said Nana.

And he gave me this story.

And I said, That's right out of Martina's book.

And we talked about it.

And I said, How did you feel?

And we talked and discussed it and it was a wonderful moment.

And he was the one that asked me, Now, Nana, are you going to write another book?

And he's because he's interested.

He wants to know what happens next.

And I said, You know what?

I said, Yes.

I said, I would love to be able to write another.

So it's nearly done and I would like to be able to get this get this out there, hopefully by the spring for sure.

Oh, my gosh.

How incredible to go from, you know, a cathartic experience working through grief to really helping kids, you know, find a voice and and organize all of those thoughts.

It's just incredible.

I think you are so inspirational.

Thank you.

Thank you for bringing Martina to the world.

I'm so excited that there's a second and potentially more books.

And thank you so much for sitting down with me.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

And thank you for the invitation.

It was lovely talking with you.

For more information, visit Tina Gasnarez dot com Our thanks to J. Tubbs and Tina Gasnarez.

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