The AllStar interview by John Symms

skodeo7

Active member
Staff member
Nice interview with Jarred by Symms over on ESPN. Check it out!

Source: http://espn.go.com/action/freeskiing/news/story?id=4662200

The AllStar Interview

http://myespn.go.com/conversation/story?id=4662200

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By John Symms

Archive

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Salomon Freeski TV: Season Finale

23-year-old Jarred "AllStar" Haynes hails from the town of Wyandanch

in Long Island, NY. The aspiring hip-hop artist first appeared on

skiers' radar screens after he composed an original hip song for an

episode of Salomon Freeski TV. This year, a skiing-related mixtape

complete with a controversial courtroom-inspired song has made AllStar

into a significant musical figure throughout freestyle skiing.

The first time that I heard of you was when you did

the song for the season wrap up of Salomon Freeski TV last

year. It stuck out to me because it was a rap song made

specifically for a ski video, and yet it sounded like a real

rapper, as opposed to somebody pretending to be one. How did

that collaboration come about?


[Laughs] I appreciate that.

as_ski_allstar01_324.jpg
Photo: Matt StaubleJarred "AllStar" Haynes

Basically, Mike Rogge and I went

to college together. We both went to the College of Saint

Rose, and we lived on the same floor of our dormitory. He's

a skier from upstate Lake George and I'm from downstate in

the city — two totally opposite people. But for some

reason, he really dug what I did musically to the point

where he came out with me to this freestyle battle — I

have to tell this story real quick:I did this freestyle battle in college — that's how

I made money in college — I went to all these freestyle

battles. We'd go to the University of Albany, and there'd be

nothing but black people in the room. And here's Mike, with

his little camera, and everybody's all dissing at me like,

"Haha, you brought a white boy with you!" and all this yadda

yadda. But then I would win, and after that we'd have to run

out of the school like there was a fire, because we'd be

scared for Mike's life. It was hilarious.

Mike was always down with what I was doing musically from

way back then, this was 2004. So he showed me a ski edit

that had a Dipset song in the background. He said to me,

"one day you should do this. See, skiing and hip hop go

together." And I was like, "Whatever" [laughs]. I just kind

of blew it off.

We went our separate ways, but we stayed in touch. He'd

call me all the time, whenever he was with friends, or with

a girl that he wanted to impress, like "I know a rapper"

[laughs]. He'd call me like, "Yo AllStar, I'm in Lake Placid

with three girls, Tiffany, Andrea, and Lindsay, and there's

a dog in the room, his name is Shea, and they want to hear

you freestyle about all that stuff." So I would do it.

But this one phone call, he calls me and says, "I'm in a

room with a bunch of skiers, and I want you to freestyle for

them." So he gave me their names and I did a freestyle for

them, and Steve Horton [who works for Salomon Freeski TV]

liked it, and got my contact information from Rogge. And

later Steve came to me with this idea, "What if we do an

original song for the recap of last year's season?"

He sent me the idea, and I sent him back a track, and he

was like "that's hot." And he sent me back kind of a script

— I didn't know any ski lingo, I knew no skiers

[laughs]. So I just kind of did my thing, and they were like

"this is ridiculous."

So you're a pro at rapping about skiing. Have you

ever skied yourself?


No! And I've gotten so many invites. I'm still waiting for

somebody to call me and say, "Come on, Jarred, come to

Whistler." I was supposed to be going to Whistler at the end

of the year. But I still haven't had a chance to jump on

some skis yet. But I'm willing to. I'm willing to

do it. I'm not casually unwilling. I hope I don't get

unwilling, or get scared, but that's another story.

I listened to your mixtape

"The Urban Segment" though, and it's nearly all skiing.

How much non-skiing-related music do you make, compared to

the amount of stuff about skiing?


Well, to be honest with you, I made that mixtape in three

days. I had been telling myself, "I wanna do a ski mixtape,"

because after I attended IF3, I felt like I had learned

enough about skiing to do it. Especially the Simon Dumont

movie, the Transitions movie, that was really like a

beginner's guide to skiing for me. So I watched that, and I

started picking up some of the lingo. When I got back, I

felt an obligation to this new culture that I'd met, to do

something for them. So I came back and put everything on

hold to finish the mixtape over the weekend.

photo wide photo

as_ski_allstar02_576.jpg
Photo: Matt StaubleJarred "AllStar" Haynes

Do you have another job? Or have you made it to

where you can make a living off of your music?


Great question. And I really wish I could quit my other job

[laughs]. But I do marketing for Sears, oddly enough, as my

part-time job. They offer a tuition discount for my master's

program.What are you getting your master's in?

I'm getting my master's in higher education. Like college

administration, or something like that to fall back on. I

guess I consider myself an educating artist. I'm

graduating from that program in January, and I hope to leave

that job in January as well, and officially dedicate my

living to music. You know, you skiers, you make me mad at my

nine-to-five job. Why can't I just live in a one-bedroom

apartment and hit the slopes all day?

There's this anti-WME rap by you floating around on

the Internet. What inspired you to do that?


Uh oh [laughs]. That's like the most controversial song I've

ever done [laughs].

Well, it's the most controversial thing that's ever

happened in skiing, too.


Well, I met Decker and Coty at IF3. And Decker showed me the

B-Side of the movie Refresh and it was based off

the movie Belly. And I thought it was hot. It stuck

in my head more than some of the movies I saw. When I got

back home, and I'm listening to The Ski

Show and Rogge is talking about the legal dispute going on between Level 1 and Warren Miller

Entertainment and it kind of made me upset. So I decided

to do this song. I sat down and read some of the news

articles, and the blogs, seeing people's reactions to it.

I put names in the song. I probably shouldn't have done

that, but I did. I just felt like I met those people [from

Level 1 Productions] and they were cool. And as far as the

culture goes, if you say you're a part of something, trying

to make the sport as great as it can be, you can't try to

hold me back when we have the same goal. I felt like WME was

being hypocritical about the whole situation. You can't tell

me that you love making ski movies, and then another company

is doing the same thing and you're going to hit them with

some litigations. It's like a little kid, you gotta spank

them sometimes. So that's what I did.

as_ski_allstar03_324.jpg
Photo: Matt StaubleJarred "AllStar" Haynes

A source of constant debate in skiing is that the

kids love to dress like the dudes in the rap videos. One

side says that they're just doing what they like to do,

while the other side contends they're a bunch of wannabes.

But it's not clear how qualified any of the participants are

to make those arguments in the first place. As a young,

aspiring hip-hop artist from Long Island, NY, would you be

so kind as to give us your stance on this issue?


Two things: First, on Newschoolers there

was this blog, and it was like a black versus white

debate.Oh yeah. They happen all the time. But there's never

a black person involved.


[Laughs] I'm reading this, and I'm like, "what's going on?"

Every ski movie I've ever watched has a hip hop song in it.

So I'm reading this like "what are you talking about?" It

just doesn't make sense.

I actually sat down, not because I was confused about it

myself, but I was just wondering, you know, what the signs

were, that all these ski cliques were throwing up. I sat

down with Mike Douglas, and he kind of explained to me that

everybody's young, they just kind of form into cliques. And

that made sense to me.

I don't feel like these guys are pretending, or posing, or

none of that nonsense. I simply think it's like any sport.

When you're involved in something and you want to be the

best, you have to have a personality that goes along with

it. Something that people can gravitate towards, and grab

hold of.

If you're in a profession where every day, you're doing

your passion — if I'm 40, thousand, however many feet

in the air, and I land, and I stick that? I'm not gonna be

like, "Yeah, that was cool." I'm gonna be

like, "Listen" [laughs]. You know what I'm

saying? "You see what the hell I just did?" I'm not

listening to Mozart while I'm flying through the air. I'm

listening to something that's gonna pump me up and make me

fly through the air. When I land, I'm not gonna put the

thumbs up. No, I'm going to want to land, and put a gun in

the air like I shot something.

It's the thrill of the game. It's the thrill of the hunt.

Hunters don't shoot a deer and then say "that was

cool." They scream and shout and throw their hands

in the air and they act stupid. It's not about trying to be

black or trying to be white. It's about a love for what

you're doing.

You've got a new album, Genre, coming out

soon. What can people expect to hear on that?


The album is called Genre because I don't like to

classify myself. Even if I'm rapping on most of the tracks,

none of the songs is going to sound like your typical radio

hip hop song. One song has like a punk vibe to it. Another

song has a soul vibe to it. Another song has kind of a

reggae bass tone to it. It's like a melting pot of music.

Gospel undertones, street hip hop, but it's all my voice. If

you liked "The Urban

Segment," you'll like Genre. And if you like

listening to lyrics, Genre will not let you down.

 
I like the fact that Symms threw the WME stuff in there, now it might be getting attention at a national level (it is ESPN haha)
 
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