I’ve got a short story. A guy named Jo$e Santos (from my hometown of Chicago + the surrounding neighborhoods) hit my inbox yesterday with a video submission. He spoke on how he hadn’t made music for a long time, and only had a few tracks on SoundCloud. I give every song a chance and try not to make general assumptions, but I have to admit I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

Then I pressed play. I flipped. Trees contained many sub genres of rap with attributes from the best voices in hip hop. But, after my first view, I realized Jo$e probably doesn’t have many musical influences. He does whatever the fuck he wants (as you’ll read below) and almost without trying he spins gold.

This guy has only 2 songs out on SoundCloud and he’s already gotten a premiere on The Daily Dose and Lyrical Lemonade. Dude is humble though and hasn’t let those accolades get to his head. Throughout his email he asked for feedback and any criticism.

Long story short, his debut visual (directed by talented videographer Pat Banahan) is great. The song is even better. This is an extended edition of our dissection series so read on below.

Hey Jo$e, thanks for taking the time to talk to us! So you submitted this video and provided some excellent insight to who you are as an artist. You were also really open to feedback which is so appreciated. Why do you feel it’s important to stay humble in your music?

Not a problem. Thank you guys for the opportunity. But yea, I just feel that it’s super important to stay humble in everything you do, not just music. Nobody likes a cocky ass mf you feel me? I hate people who think they’re the shit for absolutely no reason. I just be be wanting to fight those kinds of people. Like smd hoe, you know? Plus, I was raised better than to be cocky. My mom didn’t raise not cocky shit head.

Let’s get right into the “TREES” visual. Pat Banahan shot the video and he’s a part of Lost TV. How did you initially get involved with him and the company? Tell us a little about Lost TV.

I actually first heard of Pat last year, around the same time I had started rapping from my homie Kwame. This was way before he started working on videos for all these big artists. But Kwame put me on to his work originally. Then a couple months later, my other homie Kiraly had his video for “Stunt” shot by Pat and I had met him there. Another couple of months pass by and he does a video for “Drone” for Kwame’s band, Leaf, and I was mad impressed with the work I was seeing up to that point. Not long after that I had hit him up about working and we took it from there.

What drew you to their work? Why did you want to partner with them on this video?

 I was really drawn by his work ethic. Pat is really passionate about what he does and is always looking to improve. Its really hard to find motivated people like him lol mfs be so lazy. That man is a genius with the cam though. S/o Pat Banahan & Lost TV!

One of the opening clips of the music video is dirty hands getting washed. When I saw that I thought there had to be some meaning behind it. What was it?

Keep your hands clean after you touch these hoes cuz them bitches dirty jo.

One of the reasons I loved this visual was that you seemed like you were having so much fun and just wildin’ out. Was that how it was shooting it?

Oh yea most definitely. Honestly, this video shoot was mad fun. It didn’t even feel like we were shooting a video cuz we honestly just goof around like that on the daily. But S/o Lil Brick and my primo Jay Corona for coming out to shoot with me they some fuckin idiots yo haha I love em.

Is this how you are in real life?

Oh yea most def, I’m a fuckin idiot in real life. I dead ass just goof around about everything. I’m always having fun. Except when it comes down to school…. Fuck school.

Did you guys draw up the concept of the video together? What was Pat’s role and your role?

To be honest, I had came up with a whole ass other concept for this video shoot. Pat loved it too. Everything was set and ready to go and then like the week of, a lot of things started falling apart and the idea seemed farther and farther away from happening until I just said fuck it and then me and Pat just came up with this current idea for the video that’s out now. So, basically Pat and I bounced our heads together to come up with a bunch of different concepts/ideas to do for this video.

What did you want to get across in the visual?

I honestly just wanted people to know I’m out here with this music shit. Like dead ass I’m kinda new to this still and seeing as I only had 2 other songs put out before this, I just wanted to basically be like, Yo! Don’t sleep on my ass bruh cuz im tryna make noise you feel me?

This is your first music video ever and was premiered by Lyrical Lemonade. Did they reach out to you or how did that come about? How does it feel to get that placement?

I had reached out to them for the premiere. S/o Elliot Montanez and Lyrical Lemonade 1 time! Elliot writes over at Lyrical and has been showing mad love to me since I started this music shit last year. I am super thankful and happy that the folks over at Lyrical Lemonade were fuckin with the video enough to premiere it.

This is your 3rd track release. What made you decide to create a music video on this one?

So, originally me and Pat were gunna shoot a video to the last song I had put out “Free Wings” cuz like I said I’m out here trying to make noise so I wanted to do visuals cuz I didn’t have any. But then that didn’t happen for various things falling apart again, so then we basically said hey you know what fuck it, let’s just come up with some shit for this next joint. So then we did it for “TREES” instead. Which came out pretty fuckin sweet if you ask me

What’s coming up for you music wise?

You can definitely expect more music and shit to come from me in the future. Just don’t expect all my music to sound or feel the same. I like to record based off emotions or how I am feeling at the moment. Anything I drop can sound anywhere from something super ignorant and bouncy to lyrical and chill. It honestly just depends on what I feel like when I’m writing. Also, I do plan on eventually putting together a small project sometime soon so be on the look out for that.

Any last thoughts or shout outs?

 Uhhhhh shit, yea shouts outs? I got a few. First of all, BIG HUGE S/O TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE THAT SUPPORTS ME IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. YALL SOME MUTHAFUCKIN REAL ONES, OMS. I LOVE YALL. But umm lemme see also personal s/o to my moms & my sister that’s fam obviously. S/o my homies slash bro bro’s Lil Brick, Serg, Kiraly, Lil Tuna Capone, K muthafuckin G, Kwame, Jr, and Eugene. My bad if I’m forgetting anyone I’m really tryin to remember everyone that fucks with me. Shit S/o Pat Banahan, Elliot Montanez, and Lyrical Lemonade again. Uhhh yea I think that’s it… Oh and s/o to you guys over at Flows For Days. You guys are awesome. Thanks so much for giving me my first interview this was really cool. I hope we can do this again sometime.