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'Save Yourself': The Fall of a Boy, Growth of a Man

Looking in the mind of Artist: Jxylen after the release of recent EP 'SAVE YOURSELF'. Listen and watch him grow in between the years of 2018 - 2019 as he touches on topics of Mental Illness and struggles of being an Artist.

By Amari JayPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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A Quick Conversation with Jxylen

The transition from the adolescent years to becoming a man isn’t talked about much in this day an age. Jxylen, an upcoming artist from Massachusetts depicts all the trials and tribulations he struggled with in the path of not only becoming a Man, but becoming the artist he truly wants to be. Known for his dark and gritty lyrics, Jxylen’s approach on his newest release ‘SAVE YOURSELF’ the EP, is more straight forward and honest than most of his previous works. Heartbroken, Lost, struggles with mental health, dealing with loss and struggling to survive, Jxylen has some things he has to “get off his chest” while he can.

SAVE YOURSELF’ a line used often in Jxylen’s music, as he pushes awareness to get the help you need, or take the steps you need to better yourself. Like everyone, we all have our trials and tribulations, but as a man, taking those steps to better yourself mentally isn’t something that happens often... Jxylen is here to change that. Leaving Massachusetts to Georgia, Jxylen gets away to focus on him and better his mental health, along with bettering himself, and helping his mother/family. After getting a taste of how life is after high school, and waking up to a realization, Jxylen decided to take more risk for his own happiness in chasing music, which results into family conflict and deeper situations.

Over piano keys and rugged samples Jxylen paints his pain throughout the EP with appearances from Taixchi, Righteous Justen, and even his own mother. “Faith” shows Jxylen’s persistence to fight for his own happiness, and the life he wants to live as a Artist/musician, all the way to ‘Slave’ where Jxylen talks about being a slave, and living a life he knows is not meant for him, resulting into taking serious risk. It must be hard dealing with all of these things fresh out of High school with no help, right? You can hear the frustrations and pain in Jxylen’s voice as he follows a path he knows is not fully promised—but nothing in life is. As long as he has Faith in his heart and soul, he can achieve anything regardless of what anyone puts him through.

This piece of work from Jxylen is more personal than any of his other releases especially from this year. Jxylen released a few songs this year including "LAW 14" ft Righteous Justen, and "R!GHT/Von Count (DEMO)" which is completely different in sound compared to ‘SAVE YOURSELF’; it has a more gritty and grunge sound, which also shows Jxylen’s way of balancing his sounds... Duality: the light and the dark have to coexist somewhere, right? Duality is something Jxylen is big on, the need for balance, light and dark, good and bad, all reasons why Jxylen as an artist is very conflicted, and he presents that all within his music and problems he portrays.

SAVE YOURSELF’ vividly describes Jxylen's expressions of his frustrations with life and depression, but he's also showing you... I still have faith throughout all of the madness, and eventually it all balances out in the end.

Artist such as Earl sweatshirt who released ‘Some Rap Songs’ towards the end of 2018 also shows you the pain of an artist, and struggles with mental illness from his personal struggles & experiences. These two projects stand out beautifully, because the pain of an artist isn’t or hasn’t been talked about much in the music, and it’s beautiful to see that it’s coming back. Not to mention others like SABA, Mac Miller, Kendrick Lamar, and even Tyler the Creator present you these aspects of pain in their music, which makes you able to connect with them, and that's all Jxylen ever wanted to do, have people connect and understand what he’s been through in a vulnerable state. ‘SAVE YOURSELF’ is a beautiful EP done by a 20 year old, and in due time, he will be recognized widely by the masses as something truly beautiful.

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