Life is truly interesting, it was a couple of years ago on a rainy day after seeing an interview of MC’s touring Australia (I forgot who it was) my curiosity and to a certain extent internet addiction led me on a search to see what the hip hop scene was like “down under”. Unfortunately in my part of the world Australia and hip hop are not normally associated with each other. I found myself nodding to the beats and as I kept digging, I liked what I heard. One of the artists I found on that day definitely stood out and if ever there was a ‘Hip Hop Nation’ Maya Jupiter is an excellent ambassador of Australian hip hop. The Miss Education talked to Maya on the phone while she was in Los Angeles. Maya talked about her upcoming music project, the Australian hip hop scene and why she is so passionate about it and tells us how she came up with the name Maya Jupiter.

TME: Tell us a little bit about your self?

Maya: About myself?

TME:Yeah tell us who is Maya Jupiter?

Maya: (Laughs) it’s so funny when you do interviews you gotta to watch what you say. I’m an mc first and foremost. Always been rapping it feels like I’ve been MCing forever, I started rhyming when I was in high school and ummm the music just took me from there I guess my passion for hip hop got me into radio and I started doing a hip hop show in Australia and I produced and presented on national radio which I love because I got to play 50% Australian hip hop which is really good for our scene. And I also got into television presenting, so I become a VJ On channel V which is our national music channel and I got to interview a lot of hip hop artists including Australian artists; which was my passion for a long time which was pushing Australian hip hop and our own music and culture. Sort of re-defining what it means. We love hip hop from the States. You know we all came into rap from listening to artists from America. You know what is it to be Australian? That is the debate, What makes Australian hip hop uniquely it’s own thing? And how do we harness the scene to be able to provide opportunities for Australian artists. That’s my passion I guess.

TME: So how did you come up with the name Maya Jupiter?

Maya: Well Jupiter is my mother’s last name, my mother’s surname. My mother is Turkish and my father’s Mexican. Make a long story short; I like to put myself and who I am into my music and my name. Maya represents my Mexican side and Jupiter represents my Turkish side. I just felt very well balanced with Maya Jupiter. Well Jupiter is my ruling planet as well; I’m a Sagittarius so that convinced me a little. But how can you not use Jupiter when it’s on my birth certificate, how can I not? (laughs)

TME: What inspired you to get into hip hop? You talked about your love for it, but what made you say I want to rhyme?

Maya: I don’t know, you know when you’re a kid you don’t really think why I am doing this? You know as adults later in life analyzing our likes and dislikes and where they came from. I just love listening to rap, it was something I connected to, some people like techno I hate techno can’t stand it! Some people feel that way about rock; I don’t get off on rock. I can hear but it doesn’t make me go crazy, hip hop does that, it makes me go nuts, throw my hands in air, it makes me loose myself. That’s what would happen; I would loose myself in rap. It wasn’t until later on when I was 18 when I understood hip hop as a culture, the four elements and what it really meant. But as a kid 14/15 I just wanted to write my own raps, you know I just started writing and freestyling as much as I could. Like I said before in Australia we came up on a lot of American music so a lot of R&B and hip hop would make it out. We would have friends that would travel to states and they would bring back tapes. We would pass one cassette around and dub until a tape got worn out. I always had a passion, a love for rap. I can’t really say what it is or why I feel connected or inspired to do it. It’s just who I am.

TME: A lot of people are not familiar with the hip hop scene in Australia could you tell us a little bit about what’s going on down under?

Maya: Yeaaah, you know what I love about hip hop in Australia is that we are really diverse. Like because I think we are country of immigrants, refugees and indigenous people. Hip hop can be found amongst all people. We have a really healthy scene, for at least 20 years, 25 years. It came to us through the breaking movies, you remember the breakdance? And wild style. Yeah so I think breakin’ and graffiti art were the first introduction to hip hop and then rap because our graffiti artists are known all around the world, I think in terms of hip hop culture a lot of people around the world would know of our writers and artists more than our rappers. Our music has many different faces and many different stories to tell just like here in the states, we have people who rap about social issues, indigenous rights, human rights and things very political then we have fun groups who rap about parties and barbeques and enjoying a beer, the lighter side of life. That’s what I love about it, it’s very rich, I wish more people around the world would get to hear it.

TME: What’s the biggest difference you see in the hip hop scene in Australia and what you see here in the States?

Hmmmm…Difference…that’s a hard one, I could probably find a lot more similarities than differences. I would say probably say culturally I would have to look at Americans as of how they are as opposed to Australians, I think the big difference is we don’t sell our selves as much; maybe we could take a note out of your book… (laughs) upping the ego a little more or maybe that’s LA. Here people are very confident in saying I do this, I do that. Whereas in Australia culturally it’s not the way we are, it’s actually frowned upon if kind of talk about yourself, you know big up yourself, you know if you get big for your boots we cut you down. It’s called the tall poppy syndrome in Australia we do it to all our artists, actors any kind of successful people, if they get too big then for some reason society feels the need to cut em down. I think if you are good to be proud of who you are and to be confident what you do. If you work hard for your art why not speak up about it. That’s probably the biggest difference… maybe that’s why we’re still quiet little Australia at the bottom of the world (laughs)

TME: You Hosted a Video music show in Australia, how did that come about?

Maya: Well, I started out presenting for channel V. They knew I was an MC and they invited me to become a presenter on their channel, I guess…I hate the word urban(laughs) but the urban presenter. R&B, Hip Hop, Soul Reggae any kind of black music(laughs) I’m your girl, don’t know why, its just music I love. I started championing an R&B/ hip hop show, which was a way I could interview Australian artists as well as American artists. It was a weekly show called freestyle some weeks we would have Kanye West and 50 cent on, the next week we would have Delta or the hip hop who’s who are all Australian artists, so from week to week you would have underground to extremely commercial, the whole spectrum in-between, so I loved it. I don’t see music through the eyes of commercial or underground. I just see good music or wack music (laughs)

TME: The group foreign heights made some noise in Australia; could you tell us more about the group?

Yesss! My girl MC TREY and I, who we’ve been friends for years and been working together for years, so we decided why do an album together and we joined with another one of friends DJ Nick Toss. Who’s a wicked DJ but also a producer and we got together and over 3 years we made an album. That was a lot of fun, just a one off project but I think we will work together in the future when we finish solo things and whenever we feel like getting together again I’m sure we will.

TME: So you guys are going to be the Australian Blackstar? (laughs)

Maya Jupiter: (laughs) The Australian female version…I don’t know if I’m Kweli or Mos Def hmmmm probably Kweli because T.R.E.Y. does the singing/rapping thing sometimes

TME: So we’ll look for you in 20….? (laughs)

Maya Jupiter: I know right, but that album was fun (Foreign Heights), we did a couple of video clips and you know we had a lot of fun. It was really good writing with somebody and bouncing ideas off one another, it was a real collaborative effect.

TME: So you’re in L.A. right now? I heard you are working with Aloe Blacc, how did you link up with him?

Maya Jupiter: He was in Australia at the Red bull music academy and I was working for Channel V and I actually interviewed him (laughs). Which is quite funny because usually you don’t think you will ever see the person ever again you think well that’s usually the way, you’ll meet them, you’ll have a 20 minute conversation as if you’re best friends and you never see them again or hear from them. That’s it, that’s the job, but we stayed in touch and became friends and I just thought…I really admired his music and I really related to it, in the back of my mind I always thought I would love for him to produce my album because musically he’s right up my alley with his latin influences, soul, hip hop and even a touch of dancehall.

TME: What are the future plans for Maya Jupiter?

Maya: Well I am working on an album, right now in Los Angeles and that’s the priority for me right now is to get the album out. It’s produced Chicano musician Quetzal Flores and Marta Gonzalez they’re from a band in LA from here called Quetzal and I’m collaborating with them and also Aloe Blacc to make the album. It’s been really cool, we are actually combining my love of Latin rhythms in this case it’s Son Jarocho music from Veracruz which is the east coast of Mexico it’s a particular rhythm just from that region that I love that I’ve been familiar with the last ten years because my brother-in-law is from Veracruz so we’re sort of mixing that sound with hip hop as much as we can. It’s all live instruments, real people playing real instruments. There are a little bit of program beats but it sounds more live in that sense. I’m really enjoying that and yeah that’s the thing that’s happening in the future for me.

TME: Is that the whole album or is it just a segment of the album? A mash-up I should I say.

Maya: I would say it comes in and out there’s all kinds of influences the two major ones would be Son Jarocho and hip hop to different degrees, mashing up to different degrees, Like there are particular instruments used in Jarocho like the Jarana which is a small guitar or the quinto or the Tarima which is a wooden box and girls will dance Zapateado which is tap dancing, on top of the box to make the drum sound sound rather than using a traditional drum kit; the percussion sound is the Tarima, Cajon and the Conga…so it’s different in that way. It’s interesting because it’s a traditional rhythm done in a contemporary way. You know people like their hip hop in a certain way, you know, it’s just gotta be four, four boom bap. Well this is the same way it’s like taking a rhythm that has been around for 500 years and mixing it with contemporary sound. I guess the most popular Jarocho sound would be La Bamba you know La bamba right?

TME: Yeaaaaahhh everybody knows La Bamba

Maya: Okay, (laughs) soooo not the rock version but the traditional version of La Bamaba would be the most popular Jarocho song.

TME: So basically you got a hot album?

Maya (laughs) I hope so, I don’t know if anyone else in the world will like it. But I love it, it’s my most proud work to date, for me it’s a dream come true making this album I hope other’s will like it, if not oh! Well I don’t care. (laughs)

TME: I’m going to wrap this up real quick, anything else you want to add?

Maya: aaaahhh no not really I think I covered it all, you can be my friend on MySpace, face book, twitter. Gosh I’m trying to get my social networking game up, I haven’t sent a tweet yet but I promise I will soon(laughs) I always feel like there’s nothing worth talking about.(laughs)

TME: Thanks Maya for the interview

Check out Maya Jupiter at www.mayajupiter.com

Interview by DeVon Thompson
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