It wasn’t that long ago that Jamal Cristopher set a goal to get his music heard by simply, as many people who would care to listen. And although that hasn’t panned out to his liking, Jamal has figured out a way to get people to care. “My music is bigger than it used to be but I don’t do numbers like that at all. But I still have these huge goals, so I had to pivot…and it worked”
Amassing over 80,000 followers on instagram was once something Jamal deemed, “Out of reach” but now that he’s surpassed that, the goals have grown. “I realized that there’s more than one path to my goal. Maybe the people just didn’t care about my music, or what I had to say at that time, hence why it was such a struggle. And that’s okay…I realized that people care about…you, if you present it in a way that’s worth caring about. What you eat, where you eat at, who you be with, what you’re wearing, your life. I tapped into that and my only regret is I wish I did that sooner.”
Jamal Cristopher was once a rapper who released music seemingly non stop. “I used release music like nobody’s business. It was exciting. But my music was never bigger than my goal. And once I realized I wasn’t getting as close as I’d like, I had to do something. Only an idiot does the same thing and expect a different result, you know?” So Jamal switched things up a bit. The music releases came to a stop. It was on late night drives through Los Angeles, and work shifts at Los Angeles’s The Grove, is when Jamal started piecing things together. “Back when I was working at the grove, that period of my life where I saw the path. Really before then but that’s when it clicked. I saw that releasing music don’t mean a thing if nobody’s listening, or knows you. So I had to figure that out and lean all the way into that…What do people care about? How can I get them to care about me?”
Recently out of commission due to a torn achilles which as Jamal says, “is very painful” Cristopher has found a different perspective on life. The change of pace is one that Jamal at first didn’t welcome. “It was the worst at 1st. But I’m getting better. I just focus on being grateful. Gratitude is out superpower.”
Jamal Cristopher says at times he’s afraid to share his goals. “There so big, I don’t share them with anyone but my brother. But I know exactly what I want out of life. I won’t stop. I got this far, why not keep going?
instagram.com/JamalCristopher
