By Benjamin Joe
Jamal Gasol is often called Mr. 31 for his journeys between Niagara Falls and little-known city of Lockport, NY, the county seat for local government where Gasol lives with his family and promotes his newest EP “The Novelty of Standards.”
Gasol has a natural cadence that is reflected in his music, steady with round-about indosecracies – the same way he talked at local eatery Tom’s Diner, ordering breakfast and informing me he got a babysitter for his two-year old while he talked to me.
“I’ve (always )been rapping,” he said. “But on a serious tip in 2009 when I did it for the high school talent show. I started to look at it a little more, but I was always rapping since I was like a kid.”
Gasol talked about his background in a very music oriented family which gave him the opportunity to listen to his uncles and cousins “who were big into music” and discover his own roots in the medium.
“My uncle was a DJ in Niagara Falls,” he said. “He had people come over and record as well – he had a studio – so I’ve seen different artists come through there, back in the day, and record different songs.
“My step-dad had gotten DJ stuff in his house, too, and one day, we were able to record over it, I mean talk and rap, and that made me want to try it more. I got a crazy feedback on my first time trying it. … People were surprised at me rapping.”
Gasol said it took a while to figure it out, but he’s discovered that the more he raps the way he talks, the better the response. It’s this approach that creates the warmth in his recordings.
“I treat it more like a conversation, do you know what I’m saying?” he asked. “So, instead of changing the tone of my voice – being higher or lower – I just want to be able to talk to you as I rap.”
The big draw on “The Novelty of Standards” is “Cataract City” his memento to Niagara Falls and the populations outside the tourist-filled lines of the Falls, right in the streets and neighborhoods he grew up in.
“I’m from the Falls where it go down that/ Nothing to offer/ Come once, you won’t come back/ Unless to see the waters.”
In another track Gasol talks about being a natural mover, shaker, and benefactor in the modern city with “Superior Man.”
“How you hate the man in the mirror?/ We supposed to be equal/ But my roots taught me the black man is superior/ I learned you all be getting fly to cover damage interior/ You really hurtin’”
In all of his efforts, Gasol tries to communicate the dirt and grit he’s had to endure while at the same time allowing music to give him hope and also allow him to give hope to others. He describes the process of growing up into the artist he is today.
“I feel like I started paying attention to the newspaper when I was a kid,” he explained. “There was mad things going on locally and the world! A lot of things happening in the Falls. … If crime happened, that made the front page and then people you know or people your heard of (would be in it.)”
“I started putting that in my rhymes, speaking on realistic things and things people could relate (to) … Speaking on my personal experience (and) people around me, (and) seeing people at home, (that) created my content … and they love it!”
Gasol continued to talk about influences, house music, the industry, getting older, drug court, health food and family throughout the interview.
And now just coming off a tour of the northeast with his cousin during the COVID-19 pandemic – Gasol has put on shows across the whole country – he said it was a long drive from Lockport to Brooklyn and then up north into New England.
When asked what he sees out there, he called it, “life.”
“Life,” Gasol said. “A lot of opportunity and it clears my head and gives me time to think.”
“Usually I’m at home with the kids. My girl works days, but I’m home with them. The fact that I’m always working – trying to get my music ahead at home – and balance that with family time? That road time really gives me some time to think.”
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