INTRODUCING: AVERAGE J

We are absolutely over the moon to be able to introduce a brand new prospect we un-earthed along our journey so far – the excitement is palpable. Over the next couple of years at The Sniffer we plan to find and nurture the best talent we come across and hopefully make them a household name in the future. Average J is an artist we will be tracking intently in the coming months. Already, we have searched through thousands of submissions looking for the perfect candidates to work with – Average J may certainly have the right balance, although he is still a very raw prospect just yet. I managed to get in touch and meet this wonderfully laidback artist hailing from Romford, Essex on a couple of occasions and managed to etch out a mini exclusive interview along the way.

Who is Average J?

Average J is the stage name of 26-year old Romford based rapper Jordan Moore. This lad grew up in Tottenham originally, moving to Romford later on. His grandparents are Jamaican and Trinidadian and he stays hugely in touch with his native roots – visiting Trinidad whenever he can. Moore is a keen film-maker who strives to become a director at some point but making tunes is also his forte and he is pretty damn good at it too.

What makes Average J stand out from the crowd?

A couple of weeks ago I was sent over the latest Average J EP – I was tired, I had just gone through loads of submissions (any other bloggers here will feel the pain) usually it takes just under a minute to decide on whether a song would be suitable for a feature on the blog. This time I was torn – the music I was hearing was emotive, powerful but ultimately just so raw that I nearly clicked out. Something told me to check out a couple more tunes, so I did and thank god I did. This lad has some of the most honest verses I think I have ever heard. Loyle Carner was a real breakthrough rap artist for me because of his honest subject matter and jazzy beatwork – I would perch Average J up on the same pedestal as Carner in my initial estimations! There is a wonderful depth to Moore‘s personality – this shines through brighly in his music.

I caught up with Jordan a couple of weeks ago in Costa Coffee and asked him a few questions about how he started rapping, his style and his musical plans for the future.

When did the drive and passion to become a musician begin?

I started writing poetry around the age of 8/9 and was always facinated by connecting words and rhyming structures. I think I started rapping at the age of 12 – as part of a school project I made a rap tune as my piece, I always had a thing for making films and I wanted to make a video to accompany it. It was so embarrassing, the whole school gathered in the yard for my big film debut and I shot the video – the pressure of having a whole school waiting for you to create something. That was definitely the first taste of big time pressure.

What style of rap can we expect to hear from you?

I don’t stay in one genre, each EP I have made before has been a story and each song sits into the timeline, you can’t mix and match and move the songs around, the story wouldn’t make sense. Honesty is something very important to me and I try to be as relatable as possible to the audience in each song. In regards to style, one song could be grime, the next oldschool and the next experimental – each song represents the feelings at the time of writing.

Who are your biggest influences in music?

I think the biggest influence I have at the moment would be J Cole. He is a very real rapper. He is a really laidback guy and his lyrics are on point.

Over here I think it has to be Skepta, he has some brilliant songs and ideas.

What can we expect from Average J in the coming months?

Well I have lots of music in the bank ready to go. I will be working on lots of new material and re-recording some old ones too which is very exciting. Over the next few months I will be deciding which songs to use in my next collection – I will be in the studio working on new ideas and generally just enjoying life.