We recently had the chance to connect with Patrick Braddock Jr. and have shared our conversation below.
Patrick, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
One thing that always makes me lose track of time and helps me to find myself again is digging for samples. My music is heavily sample driven and has been for most of my career but it never ceases to amaze me how I can still just get lost in searching for and finding that perfect drum break, loop, snare, obscure movie quote, or whatever like it’s my first time creating all over again. Then as soon as I find what I’m looking for, not only do I find myself, but I also rediscover my love for music and the reasons behind why I do this in the first place!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is JÜNE aka $kinny Blak and I’m an MC/Rapper, Producer, and Musician from Porterville, CA by way of Anchorage, AK. I come from a musical family so I’ve been making music all my life but I’ve been pursuing music professionally since 2009. I’ve been involved in the music scenes in Ventura County, the Inland Empire, and the greater Los Angeles area for more than a decade, rapping as a solo artist, playing percussion in Jazz ensembles and live Hip Hop bands, and producing beats for some of your favorite underground artists from these areas and abroad. Other than the slew of beat tapes I’ve dropped and features I’ve been a part of since the last time catching up with VoyageLA, my most recent work is the Mirrors In The Clouds EP which is a collaboration with the IE legend Noa James and myself on production. MITC was originally going to be a full length album, but we decided to split it into a two part EP, with the latter half, Ripples In The Atmosphere, dropping some time towards the end of this year.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
The person who saw me and my potential before I could see it myself was Leslie Drayton. He was one of my music department professors and the Jazz Band director during my time at Ventura Community College and a music industry legend, having been an original member of Earth, Wind, and Fire and arranging music for the likes of Marvin Gaye as well as serving as his conductor and Musical Director. Before he came around, I was still caught up in the lifestyle that I had been living since middle school which would’ve eventually led me to prison or an early grave. Without him taking the time to sit down with me one on one and mentor me the way he did, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t have finished at Ventura College and transferred to Cal Poly Pomona where I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music, let alone be alive for this interview.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I would say not to let the praise get to your head. Being talented and involved in music from such a young age led to me being a few steps ahead of my peers mostly in regards to knowing that this career path is for sure what I want to do for the rest of life. Like I feel like too much praise can hinder your growth just as much as dwelling on a haters opinion of you because you can get to a point where you think you can take more breaks than others or not work as hard towards your goals because you’re already getting the praise. Getting too caught up in the praise can throw off your trajectory cause now your peers are still pushing themselves while your growth becomes stagnant to the point where you look around, and everyone that was behind you at one point, is lapping you now. So yeah, learn how to take praise without letting it get to the point that you stop progressing and doing the things that got you the praise in the first place.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
I will always protect the idea that you are the best you that you can be. Trying to be someone else will only get you 2nd place at best. I feel that this is really important in music, more particularly in Hip Hop/Rap because the foundation of Hip Hop comes from telling your personal story and how it resonates with like minded people. At a time when almost every rapper sounds the same sonically and subject wise, I feel that it’s important to remember that Hip Hop culture is one of originality, without that, it’s just another product to be consumed. If you just be you, you’d be surprised how many people will relate and be inspired to be themselves and tell their story as well.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I would stop sitting on music and ideas and release them to the world. I’m somewhat of a perfectionist so I have so much music and even ideas outside of music that I’ve been just sitting on because this isn’t right or that isn’t right or whatever the case may be and it’s something I’m working on getting better at but if I knew I only had 10 years left, I feel like that would definitely help move things along. The crazy thing is that none of us know how much time we have left! It’s almost kind of overly optimistic to assume we even have 10 years left, especially the way things are going in our country and around the world right now. So if you’re reading this, take this as a wake up call to do that thing you’ve been putting off and I promise I’ll do the same!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.justjune.bandcamp.com
- Instagram: @june_skinnyblak
- Twitter: @june_skinnyblak
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JuneSkinnyBlak?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@14junebug?si=IzcXhesVzqYifSqE
- Soundcloud: https://www.SoundCloud.com/justjune
- Other: Check out my newest project ‘Mirrors In The Clouds’ with Noa James produced by JÜNE and stay tuned for part 2 of the collab ‘Ripples In The Atmosphere’ wherever you get your music from!
