J1 Off The Porch Interview

Interview by Spitty
https://www.instagram.com/spittywill

We recently sat down with J1, Vice President of Music Programming At Pandora for an exclusive “Off The Porch” interview! During our conversation he talked about growing up in New York, falling in love with the hip-hop culture when he was very young, jumping off the porch, the impact The Source Awards show had on him, explains why he moved to Atlanta to attend Morehouse, doing internships at record labels while he was in high school, how Napster introduced him to Southern artists, reveals how he got into DJing, interning at a radio station in Atlanta that lead to him becoming an assistant program director, moving to Indianapolis to take job as program director, moving to DC to take another job, explains how streaming revitalized urban music, meeting Tuma who created the RapCaviar playlist on Spotify, explains how he got hired by Pandora, convincing them for him to be based in Atlanta, reveals the challenges of going from radio to streaming, launching the Pandora Play Back show in Atlanta, the lack of black executives in hip-hop, shares advice for upcoming executives, shares what he thinks the biggest mistakes artists make, the future of music, and much more!