Meet The Artist: JFilt

JayJay Johnson, aka JFilt, is a hip-hop musician and producer based in Atlanta, Georgia. When he’s not making or producing music, he is teaching music production tips on YouTube.

In this article, we interviewed JFilt on why he teaches music production, advice for rookies, and plans for the future.

JJ is popular with his followers not only for his music production tips but for his cheerfulness. His positive energy has seen him nicknamed the “Bob Ross of beat making” by some of his subscribers. He's aware of this phenomenon and counts it among his strengths.  

"My strengths are displaying positive energy, teaching in a way that's easy to understand and I guess my "infectious" laugh so I've been told."

A YouTube veteran, JFilt has been teaching music production on the site since 2009. He started with simple beat-making videos on his laptop.

"I didn't even have a camera, only the built-in one from the laptop. The next thing I know, someone asked me a question, and I answered it in another video. That still happens till this day.”  - JFilt

Over the years, JFilt has produced over 800 video tutorials. The videos have covered acoustic treatment, beat making, sampling, piano lessons, and how to use different studio equipment.

Maintaining consistency over the years is one of JFilt's strengths. Many YouTube teachers quit after a while. When asked what drives him, Jay pointed to the feeling of satisfaction he gets from helping people. "What drives me is the dope feeling I get from helping others, hard to explain but I'm addicted to that stuff LOL," Jay says.

But, consistency didn't always come naturally to him. In his early days, he didn't put out content as much as he would have liked. If there's one thing he would change from his early days, it's the lack of consistency in putting out videos.

When he became consistent, he started seeing growth in his subscriber numbers.

"What I did to grow my audience was to put out more video content. I used to do one video a month, then once every 2 weeks, then once per week.  Once I started doing two videos per week, I saw faster growth, that's what I've been doing for the last 2 or 3 years," JFilt says.

As a natural teacher, Jay wants to prevent younger musicians from making the same mistakes he did. He has three pieces of advice for people who are starting out. "Some key things people starting need to know is one, you cannot please everybody, dislikes and bad comments will happen. Two, there will be times you want to quit because you are not growing fast enough, stay patient no matter what. Three, as long as you remain focused and consistent, you will reach your goals."

For JFilt, there's still a lot of work to do. He is committed to helping as many people learn about making music. In the near future, he wants to convert all his eBooks to paperbacks and Kindle books. There are also more video courses and sample packs down the line.

His fans will also be interested in his dreams of building an app or VST plugin.