Jay Kasai has a lot going on, but you’d never know it. Beneath his effortless charm is a moodier seriousness that tells of a man who knows what he wants out of life and will get it. Three projects in and currently working on his fourth, Losing Time, the stakes have never felt as high as they are now. At the start of his career in 2011, Kasai took a one-man-show approach to his music. He did everything from creating beats and artwork to handling the entirety of the production: mixing, mastering, and clearing each record. When I spoke to him about his process, he described the production as the “heart” and broke down his philosophy on how music at its most basic level is a half-and-half mix of art and science. While growing as an artist, developing new techniques, and consistently releasing new music, Kasai co-founded the Inland Empire collective Over Everything (OE) and began supporting other local artists through their music journeys. In 2013, after hearing a beat from local producer Oh Gosh Leotus, Kasai decided to include Leo in OE and his creative process. Since then, Kasai and Leo have developed immensely as collaborators and individuals, releasing multiple songs like “Dame Time” and “Pray for Me.” Leo heavily dictates Kasai’s latest project, Losing Time. When asked about the experience of creating Losing Time, Kasai responds with one word: “quality.” After a moment, he adds, “I came in with an exact vision of what I wanted. I did my thing and control-freaked the first record we did, but I know that Leo’s a genius producer. So I am trying to expose myself to that. I think that allows me to open up to more.” To understand the concept behind Losing Time is to understand a part of who Jay Kasai is. Inspired partly by his favorite movies, which include Memento and Mirage, and the HBO series Westworld, the project explores thoughts and philosophies about time travel and existentialism while simultaneously chronicling real-life experiences that culminate into various emotions. The songs are diverse and distinctive, and while the subject matter sometimes gets personal, they have narratives and themes joining them into a single sci-fi world. Although the sequencing of the project matters and is a fundamental part of world-building, the tracks are also digestible in pieces, and if a fan decides not to listen from intro to outro, the music will not suffer for it. This project’s defining characteristic is how Kasai’s storytelling has changed since The Kasai Tapes. Where the Kasai Tapes focus more on the narrative of his inner workings, Losing Time is an artistic masterclass in blurring the line between reality and fantasy. It broadens its scope and finds connections that we all know exist but hadn’t entirely realized. Most impressively, as on “Time Machine,” he frames them personally, humanizing it all and stopping us from trying to put any distance between us and the concept. This project is Kasai at his most mature yet. He has grown immensely, and this is him using that wisdom to step back and deliver his most cinematically immersive project to date, a project that is homage and disruption. Some say your first project is the easiest because you have your whole life to write it, and each project following is more difficult because you have to top your life’s work—but Kasai bucks that trend well. Jay Kasai has been traversing the realms of hip-hop for over a decade now. He has honed his flow’s crisp technicality by studying greats like Lupe Fiasco, giving each one of his releases an instantaneous nostalgic edge. Avoiding markers of redundancy as he’s grown, Kasai arrives three years later after the release of Kasai Tape 3 positioned to unite his early talents with a contemporary flair across his newest project. In this project, you see Kasai take a solid step forward on a career that is steadily bubbling up in a manner distinct from his peers. Losing Time is a showcase of Jay Kasai’s intentionality towards lyrical prowess, sonics, and his dedication to the genre and craft for the long haul, situating himself as an artist who is firmly leading the future of the IE.
You can download and listen to Losing Time here:
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