Jay Taj may have been one of the finalists of Netflix’s “Rhythm + Flow,” but he’s not a competition show rapper. The West Coast MC has worked 20 years to get to the point where his music has him recognized by the world, including some of the “Rhythm + Flow” luminaries-turned-Grammy-nominated stars.

“D. Smoke and I speak the same language. Our instincts are almost exactly the same. There's so much that got left out [of the show]. When I first spit my verse to him, he was like, ‘Y’all don't even need me,’” Jay Taj told REVOLT.

In this installment of “Studio Sessions,” the prolific lyricist explained how his work on the Netflix series garnered him love from athletes and music legends, the emotional impact his father’s passing had on his artistry, and what fans didn’t see on the show that changed his career.

Congrats on making it to the final round of “Rhythm + Flow.” Including your time there, who was the first producer or artist you locked in with that made you feel the magnitude of the moment?

No shade to all the homies that I've worked with over the years, but when I got in with STREETRUNNER, it certainly was like an elevated experience. It put all my years in the studio over the last 20 years to the test because, for the most part, I spend most of my time in the studio by myself. Most of the time when I'm writing and recording, I'm doing it all by myself, not even with an engineer in the room. To be working in an environment where you're forced to sort of take the traditional approach with someone like STREETRUNNER or 30 Roc, you have to be present.

What was some of the creative or technical advice he gave you that maybe didn’t make it on the show?

STREETRUNNER really helped open my mind in terms of just sounds. All the guitars and big anthemic sounds you hear on “Believe Me,” I didn't want none of that. He kept telling me, “Be patient; let me tweak this.” At first, those guitars were super high-pitched. The frequency was super sharp. It was clashing with my vocals, and I just was not into it. I think in one of the scenes where they show me rubbing my nose, I was like, “God, this sounds terrible.” Then, he keeps on freaking it by running some low pass filters, until we get to a place where I'm like, “Whoa, that's a pocket.” That session was eight hours long.

You also locked in with “Rhythm + Flow” season one winner D. Smoke to focus on how your music translates to a live performance. How was your chemistry with him?

Man, it was easy, bro. D. Smoke and I speak the same language. Our instincts are almost exactly the same. There's so much that got left out [of the show]. When I first spit my verse to him, he was like, “Y’all don't even need me.” When he told me to focus on the dynamics, my instincts were already there. For us, it was really just a conversation. He further validated that my instincts were in the right place. It was a beautiful session. We were only in the studio for about an hour because it was really a writing session.

When you linked up with producer 30 Roc, it was the culmination of your entire time on the series. So, what was your approach in that session?

I'm not gonna lie -- I was intimidated because I know 30 Roc for Roddy Ricch’s “The Box.” That was the first thing I thought about. When I got into the studio, he made it very clear from the jump that, “This is your world. Whatever you need, we're gonna make it. We're gonna f**king figure it out.” [Because of] the session I had with STREETRUNNER, the session a few weeks later with 30 Roc was easy. We did everything from scratch. We did the last joint at around 95 to 100 BPM. He looked over at his manager and said, “I've never produced a beat at this BPM. This is crazy.”

I'm helping program the drums and maybe freaking a bassline. He's kinda building samples because everything had to be built from scratch. We couldn't use sample libraries and things like that because of the complications with clearance and things like that. Everything you hear in them is all original samples, even the keys that you hear in the beginning of the record was me. He gave me the space to do that. After I laid the keys, he went in with them crazy violins and trumpets that came in, in that first transition.

In the second record I kinda teased in the finale, [that] was from me telling 30 to do whatever he wanted. I just wanted chaos. We laid my vocals down to a BPM and drum track. After my vocals were laid down, he just went ahead and started adding crazy s**t. So, the experience with 30 Roc is gonna be an all-time top experience for me probably for the rest of my life, to be honest with you.

What type of reaction are you receiving after those sessions?

Everybody from artists and radio hosts to even football players, actors, and actresses have reached out. The most significant one was the most recent one... Big Boy from “Big Boy’s Neighborhood.” That meant a lot to me. The first one that hit me that had me like, “Holy s**t” was Marcedes Lewis from the Chicago Bears. He went to Long Beach Polytechnic. He reached out to me and said something that was so profound, it’ll probably stick with me forever.

He said, “I'm going into my 20th football season in the NFL. When you said on the show, ‘I'm 20 years prepared for this,’ it made me look at how I'm going into my 20th season a lot differently.” The fact a quote of mine would impact somebody that I've looked up to since high school when he was dogging is crazy. From there, it's just kinda been a snowball effect.

Have you been in the studio since you stopped filming the show?

Yeah, for sure. We worked on a project called LITTLE JERRY DEMOS, which dropped right along with the show, and we've seen major success from that. That project was exactly what I needed to keep the battery in my back because, I'm not gonna hold you, when I came home from the show, I couldn't write a record. I couldn't do anything. I dropped LITTLE JERRY DEMOS on Nov. 19. I don't think I really started laying down the masters that made it to that record until maybe the end of September/early October. I was in sessions. I was recording records, for sure. But it was all what I felt to be bulls**t.

On the series, you were transparent about your father’s death affecting you. Was there ever a session that brought you to tears?

I've shed tears in the studio a lot of times. There was a session I was in a few weeks after my pops passed, and we had started writing a record for this little mixtape tenfour that was essentially like an ode to my pops, and I certainly found myself full-on crying on the record. You can hear me crying on the record. I felt after the record was finished that it felt a little too personal to put on this project that had nothing to do with losing my pops.

What do you have planned for 2025?

In 2025, we're working on another album. We gotta follow up, and we gotta follow up strong. I think we have a small window to prove to the world that I am not just some competition show rapper. I think that the competition show was a very important part in the wider goals of my life. What you'll see in 2025 is, first and foremost, my follow up. I want to show the world that I am a capable artist. I've spent the last decade in film and media, and I don't plan on stopping that.

Once I've crossed that first threshold and hit that first hurdle of releasing a significant project that people respect, we probably will find ourselves furthering our capabilities in both. We’ll be in film, media, experiential, merchandising, and just continue to find ways to send messages to the world. I think that Hip Hop and music is just one of those vehicles of the real goal, which is to tell stories, send positive messages, and sort of influence generations to behave in a way that promotes longevity for humankind, if you will.