Ever since Jae came back into the hip hop stratosphere, I’ve been covering him extensively. After posting his incredible visual, and premiering his song, I wanted to sit down with the man himself and introduce him to my readers. I met him in 2013, but we lost contact as he moved to Atlanta and took a break from making music. Now he’s back, and better than ever. Peep below.

Hey Jae, how are you? Glad we get to talk.

Juelz what’s good homie? I’m feelin’ good and blessed, can’t complain at all. How about ya self lady?

Doing good man! Glad to talk to you. So first tell us a little about yourself.

Well for those that don’t and do know, I’m Jae Haze, representing the #Woodside Of Illinois…around Bellwood + Maywood. Small suburbs right outside of Chicago. I’m a rap artist who’s been creating and pursuing music for quite sometime now. A very humble and cool dude who loves life, family, and of course music. I’m really just trying to make some noise for the city I rep, as well as Chicago.

You’ve taken a little break from music. Why did you decide to take some time off?

I really took a break for a few reasons. One was because I recently moved To Atlanta in November of 2016, and I just had to reset my mind and just get a fresh start in a different atmosphere. It’s so much goin’ on at home it’s a little hard to stay focussed at times, so coming here was a breath of fresh air. It gave me a better energy and is a musical swimming pool for new talent, so I left social media and all that other stuff just to get a clear head and get a better jump start on my new life here.

You started things back up in May with a short audio clip of an unreleased song, an official music video, and a song that we actually premiered just a week ago. Was there a reason you dropped those 3? 

No reason at all specifically, I just wanted to kind of show those who felt like I was missing in action that I was still working. It was just a way for me to resurface myself on the science.

What has the response been like? 

It’s been great, been getting a lot of love. More followers and great criticism so its been lit.

Do you feel like you approach your music and output differently this time around?

Absolutely, being that the music I’m making now is more motivational, inspirational, and relatable, and also a bigger piece of me as far as my life is concerned. I think it’s very different from the work I’ve done in the past.

Tell us about your management and team. How have they helped you with your come back? 

Man they have been a huge help from helping me get things back rolling, to slowly building up my social media presence, to booking studio time, to pretty much handling all the tasks needed for me to prosper and grow as an artist. I definitely appreciate them as a whole, real spill them my boys.

Going back into your earlier work – you are/were a part of a collective called R.A.N. Tell us about how that started and the status of that. 

Ran was started and founded by my dog Weasel Sims, he pretty much made a platform for me and the others apart of it to basically come up on the Chicago music scene a few years back. Weasel created a song called real ass nigga (r.a.n.) which caught a lot of attention from our hood. Someone made a shirt with the acronyms R.A.N. on it, and next thing u know the streets were begging for the brand. A better design of the logo was made, and before you know it, we had the whole hood as well as people out of state rockin’ it. Then that led up to the music getting notarized from myself, Weasel, Chief BL, and Tae butch, and that’s what pretty much made everyone relevant. As of late, everyone has been tucked off working on music getting to the money and rebranding themselves, but we still #RanNation all dat till its over.

You dropped your solo album “No Idea” last year. How did you feel about that project?

I honestly felt, and still feel good about it. Tt was actually my 1st body of work after years of making music so it was like one of my goals and milestone of mines. Tt was a blessing to accomplish that.

How long did it take to put that together?

It took about 3 years collectively cuz most of the music had been done for a while but not released, but once I finally decided I was gonna do a project, it took about 4 months to put it all together.

What are your goals for this year? What can we expect moving forward? 

My goals this year is just to grow more than I already have, stay consistent, make more connections, make some real noise down here in Atlanta as well as back home in Chicago and other places around the nation, and just take my talents to new heights. You guys can expect more great music and visuals from me and another EP. No date for a release just yet, but I got some smoke in da chamber for those who waiting on haze to drop!

Thanks for the time Jae!

Anytime homie.