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Stay tuned all month long for more from our September Artist of the Month!
by Jeff McCord
Many that are raised in bad situations dream of music stardom as a way out. It’s the rare individual that looks to raise their community up at the same time.
Since 2019, Vintage Jay (real name: Jay Herrera) has churned out four albums along with a number of ep’s and singles, all informed by his lyrical, slightly quirky flow, and a deep resonance of social justice. His body of work is already significant and impressive.
Jay was born in Tampico, a port city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. But since 2000, he’s spent most of his life in the Rundberg area of North Austin, an impoverished section of town that has drawn in a lot of immigrants. When I ask Jay if his neighborhood is primarily Hispanic, he replies “100%.”
Like many other poor regions of the city, crime and gang activity play a prominent role. Jay has seen this on a daily basis. Raised without a father, Jay was a latchkey kid.
“My mom worked a lot,” he explains. “She was never really home, except at night. It was very easy for me to just walk outside. Walking to school every day, you get exposed to a lot of things, and around those times, it was a lot of bad. We just try to survive. I’m just grateful and blessed that I’m still here, that I’m alive. A lot of my friends are in prison or in the graveyard. I’ve never gotten into serious trouble. It’s pretty eye opening when you grow up in tough neighborhoods and circumstances are out of your control.”
So Jay found his own way to take control, at first though his poetry.
“I would post my poems on Tumblr, Facebook, on Twitter, and I started getting good responses from people. And one of my buddies was like, ‘You should try rapping, bro. You have a really good way with words and the way you paint pictures.”
So he did. But at first, it wasn’t smooth sailing.
“It took me a while. I didn’t have guidance. I just went for it. I didn’t know how to break down flows, or the difference between writing a song and actually recording a song; your breath technique, your punches, your delivery. You have to get comfortable with your own voice in general.”
Yet by the time of his debut album, 2019’s A Kid From Rundberg, Jay had a lot of that figured out. Songs like “Nobody” jump out at you with their visceral force.
And it wasn’t the only talent Jay discovered he possessed. He started organizing community events, at first as a way to perform his music. But he quickly discovered he had the ability to bring people together for the greater good. The positivity was its own reward. These days, Jay helps run the non-profit Mas Cultura, staging many projects and benefits throughout the year.
All this while putting a large amount of his music out there for all to hear. There have been three more albums since Rundberg (2020’s Begotten Son, 2022’s When Thugs Cry, and 2023’s Still I Rise), each upping his profile. His latest single. “Como Tu”, is his first in Spanish. Made with his friend Sam Sage, and the record has a sleek, infectious hook.
“It was nothing new to me to write in Spanish. I had written the hook, and that’s all I had. We went to the studio, poured up a little drink and we got to writing and we did that record in probably less than two hours.”
And there’s even more music coming. Jay is planning to drop a new EP with BLAKCHYL at the end of the month.
To Jay, it’s never about any one thing.
“We live in a world where everything is so fast paced. Kids have access to the world in the palm of their hand. So I feel a big responsibility for me and the people that I work with to stay grounded and represent the people that need us. You look at me. I never thought that I could be selected to be in the KUTX Summer Jam. I was just blown away. For a kid that comes from this side of town where, nothing has really shined over here at all. I was just blown away and, now, you guys reaching out to me to be an artist of the month.”
KUTX isn’t the only one acknowledging Jay’s work. The City of Austin is proclaiming September the 12th Vintage Jay Day.
“I don’t ever do any of this stuff for awards,” Jay says. “I do it with heart and kindness; directing music videos, sharing ideas, sharing resources, doing community events. Being recognized by the city and the mayor and the council, I definitely feel blessed.”
“As a kid I was always self-aware. Luckily I was able to channel my energy through poetry and basketball and football, and not get sunken to the streets that a lot of my friends did. My goal was to bring light to something so dark and show the beauty of it. So that’s kind of what I have been doing for the past 4 or 5 years, shining light into my community, advocating, going to these schools, going into these community meetings. You know, speaking my truth. Not Being afraid. I love where I come from, you know, it made me the man I am today. If I was younger, I would have loved to have somebody to come out and show that they care, that your voice is not silent. Latino immigrants, the majority of them just want to feed their family. I just want to see a bit more fairness, and give people a chance to really feel safe here.”
