At an art kid party in Manhattan a few weeks ago, I heard a girl gasp under her breath "Oh that's Juiceboxxx!"). He's not content with just being some underground darling, either (He basically is already. The first thing he put out on Thunderzone was a seven-inch for Huntsville Southern rappers G-Side. "I don't want to limit myself to fellow white twenty-something weirdoes." And, he hasn't. There's a hive mind at play that can produce boring shit that I'm not interested in," he explains. "Communities breed a lot of middling music and culture. "That's what Thunderzone is, I'm trying to create my own lane." He's also trying to create a movement, citing Insane Clown Posse and Factory Records as models.Īt the same time, he has mixed feelings about community. "I'm sick of being slotted into other people's lanes temporarily," JB says. The label's vibes are fun and funny but never ironic-there's an extreme humility and earnestness to everything JB does. In addition to putting out tapes and records, Juiceboxxx also has Thunderzone-branded energy drinks and hacky sacks. On it he's released projects by Paper Rad-affiliated nu-metal ragers Extreme Animals and weirdo Baltimore DJ/producer Schwarz, and he sees DJ Dog Dick, Antwon, and B L A C K I E as like-minded kin. Fed up with being misunderstood and tagged onto a new, buzzing niche genre every couple of years, he started his own label, Thunderzone, back in 2011. Juiceboxxx likes to call what he and a motley crew of other artists are doing Nu Americana. I might be the only person making these crazy connections, but somehow I'm connecting the dots." "I think there is just a continuum of American music that I can draw from. On his 2013 mixtape Beyond Thunder Zone, he samples Big Star-Alex Chiltin's voice tweaked to chipmunk range-and covers Wyclef Jean. He draws from rap, rock, and punk along with American noise, electronic dance, and power pop-he's transitioned from electro pop party anthems to a noisier place with more distortion in recent years. "I'm just trying to make the most honest form of modern American music."Īlong with Public Enemy and the Boss, Juiceboxxx's constellation of principal influences include the Beastie Boys and Suicide. But it makes sense when you think how Juiceboxxx is exploring unknown territory, attempting alchemy in trying to synthesize his favorite artists into a new pop music. When you talk to JB, he uses that phrase-just figuring it-out a lot, which might seem surprising coming from someone who's been making music under the same name for over a decade, since he was teenager in Milwaukee.
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"It's more complex but I can't go back because I feel like I'm just starting to figure out how to do that show that's in my mind-that Bruce Springsteen meets Public Enemy show."
Last week, he embarked on the sixth or seventh tour with the band in only two years. Not as much as he used to is still prolific. "I don't tour as much as I used to," says Juice. Taking Mike and Willy D, his drummer and guitarist, on the road makes touring more difficult logistically. "They play for two and a half hours, they are so entertaining, they have so many hits, and they do so many fun things live. "Instantly when I saw them play live with a drummer on that tour, I started thinking about Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, who are another inspiration of mine, and I was like 'obviously Public Enemy are the rap version,'" he says. But playing shows on the road with Public Enemy a couple years ago changed things. Occasionally I meet someone who says they don't like rap music or never listened to rap music, and I just honestly can't wrap my brain around that."įor JB, touring used to mean hopping on a Greyhound and traversing America with just his iPod. Rap music was the predominant club music of the 90s, but it was also the predominant music to play in your car.
"In my mind rap music has been happening for over 30 years," he says. At 27, Juiceboxxx is part of that same generation, even if he's been playing music forever. His aspirations are not unlike Miley Cyrus's: Her reviewers constantly point out that she's of a generation who grew up listening to hip-hop alongside rock and pop.
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