‘A Tribe Called Quest changed my life. All hope of me having a normal existence was over after I heard The Low End Theory.”

Hailing from Kitchener-Waterloo, Justin Vail was raised on a musical diet consisting of his dad’s jazz and his mom’s soca and reggae, but he fell for hip-hop at the age of 10. MCs like Common, Nas and Black Thought (The Roots) also inspired him as Vail began to turn his poetry and short stories into rhymes.

Speaking from his home, Vail explains that he was also hugely influenced by regional hip-hop acts including Fraction, Pro-Logic and, in particular, Embassy.

“I was taken under the wing of a group called Embassy,” he recalls. “When I was a new jack, like 14 or 15, they’d have shows and tell me to come up and do a song or two.”

A decade later — after the recording experience of contributing to an Embassy-led CD compilation titled The Northern Horde — Vail has released his debut solo album, Just Is.
He wrote the album over a number of years, including during a period when he was a student at Ryerson and then at Trebas, and had taken the initiative to hand out free four-track EPs to anyone who would listen. T.O. hip-hop heavyweight DJ Fase was impressed enough to pass a copy to Do Right Music label boss John Kong, who released Justis’ Jazz Music EP mid–last year. Response was strong.

“To tell you the truth, I was just geeked to have vinyl,” laughs Vail. “I never thought I’d have a record out so I definitely spent a couple of hours scratching my own voice and indulging in that.”

Jazz Music, which features the playing of jazz band Ace Kinkaid, immediately signalled that Justis was coming with something a little different for hip-hop created in the late 2000s. Just Is follows on that promise, with much of the album’s production — courtesy of Mantis, Hajah Bug and Justis himself — bringing forward jazz samples and atypical beats. I wondered if Vail had any concern that the jazz leanings might pigeonhole his music?

“A little bit, but at the same time, I had fear for the whole album,” he admits. “I’m not afraid to say that I was terrified releasing this. If you spoke with Mantis, he’d tell you that I almost had an anxiety attack when I gave John the album, thinking that some of the tracks are a little older — they weren’t recorded in the last six months — so I started to worry, ‘Does it sound dated?’ I don’t want to be one of those guys that everybody says ‘This would have been wicked in 1994.’ I definitely had a big fear of that, but at the same time, it’s jazz. How can you not love jazz? I love the freedom of it. There are so many different places you can go to in jazz.”

To these ears, Just Is sounds entirely of the now. It may be a descendant twice removed of hip-hop’s mid-’90s glory period, but the beats and feel are entirely contemporary. Vail also scores points for his cadence, flow and ability to balance thoughtful, introspective rhymes with more playful party material. His current single “Try n to Live,” produced by France’s Drum Brothers, is as hooky as it is heartfelt and filled with life lessons.

“The music I do is very cathartic for me,” says Vail. “I’m really honest with what I try to say. I’m just telling people about myself and I want to be relatable. I find there are a lot of people in hip-hop who tend to almost rhyme at you or even rhyme down to their audiences. I’d much rather converse with listeners and make quality music that speaks to people’s lives.”

“You know,” Vail continues, after I ask for his take on what listeners are responding to in his music, “Some people may just really like the production, others may really be listening and like how I write and what I’m saying. I know I’ve been getting very good feedback on shows I’ve been doing, with or without the band. I try to be very energetic. I love being onstage and having fun with the audience.

“It’s hard to pinpoint what draws people, but whatever it is, I’m glad it’s there.”