Walk in Your Purpose: The Journey of Jointdexter

 In this interview, we had the opportunity to sit down with hip-hop artist, host, and community leader Joint Dexter.

During our conversation, we dive into his goals, the importance of time management, discovering your "why," and the journey that has shaped him into the person he is today.

We hope you enjoy watching this interview as much as we enjoyed creating it. Our mission with every episode is to inspire, connect, and highlight the stories of amazing people making an impact in their communities.

If this conversation resonates with you, please LIKE, COMMENT, SUBSCRIBE, and share it with someone who could use a little inspiration. 
Watch "2 Geeked" Music Video
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LgqbSPCjiEU

Joint Dexter YouTube Archive
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCFwdTzZ4VMpIpq4KzNMkDhA

Listen to Joint Dexter on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ohvAMY8L3NDMAC0OKAKel 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay. Hello everyone. Welcome in to another episode of The Artist Journey. Today we have the pleasure of speaking to Joint Dexter. So, like how we start every artist's journey, we like to read the yogi tea and to start off from there. So first, so joint's different. So I gave him some tea and he was like, pick for me. I don't even know. I don't know. Did it did it seep in yet? The taste? Nope. Do you want to know? Do you want to know which one it is?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I'll take a guess.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

I'm gonna take one soup.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

It was between, do you remember, it was between um, what was it? Elderberry elderberry lemon and turmeric.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Elderberry lemon and turmeric. Honey, right? I can't really taste it. So I'm just gonna guess and say the one with the honey.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yep, turmeric, yep, and it has turmeric in it too. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Oh, you did both?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Well, no, I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. But the one that was look at that. I'm a gene. Look at that. Never even tasted it before.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yep. So so in each each yogi tea, there's a there's a message on there too. So what does your message say?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Okay, hold on. Let's see. Let's see what we rock it with. Gratitude leads to love. Damn. I guess you all know what that means now. To be fair. Yeah. I think uh gratitude leads to love, just means being thankful will allow you to um be more appreciative and loving to the the things and ones around you. So like instead of being all negative about what's going on and generating negative energy out into the world, when you're thankful for stuff, the energy translates to everyone, which is another form of love.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

That's true. That's a good response too, and a good interpretation. So join okay. So knowing you, you're an example uh for artists who because your your drive, you have such drive and ambition, and you move forward, and you just um you have project after project that you're releasing, you're always collaborating and connecting with people. So, and that takes work, you know, and it's not easy to do, it's not easy to um put yourself out there in the first place, but to also do it and then do it well and then keep continuing to show up each time. So, my question to you is what is your why? What is your reason? Like, or do you do it because it's something that just because you want to, simple as that, or is it something um you know deeper than that? What is your what is your motivation?

SPEAKER_00 2:48

My motivation is that I told myself that I was going to give my best effort uh to this journey, career, whatever you want to call it, until I'm 35. So until I'm 35, there cannot be no slowing down, there can't be no quitting, there can't be nothing that distracts me too far off to where I can't give my best effort. Because if I don't succeed, which is okay, uh as a music artist, whatever, right? If I'm not so rich and famous rapper, whatever. Um, I just want to know that I gave my truest, most best effort. Because I can die happy, like knowing that I tried. I didn't shortchange myself. Because we all multifaceted. I don't have to be a rapper. You know what I mean? I could do, I might invent the the next car that doesn't use gas. Like there's a million things that I can do. Uh, but this was my first love and first passion. So I just wanted to honor it by giving it everything I can for at least a long enough period of time to see some results. But if I get to that period of time and the results ain't there, it's time to pivot.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Okay, that's your choice. So you you have you have a timeline, a time cap off on it. Okay. So my my next natural question to this, and um you may or may not have an answer to it, but do you have um no? I don't even want to talk about that because you're because that's okay. So what is your if you if you make it to 35 and you're like, okay, I'm not this is not it, I'm gonna do something. Do you know what their other passion is?

SPEAKER_00 4:21

No. Uh I'm going to first see how I can make $100,000 a year and like what's either the quickest or most common paths. So whether that's doing a trade, doing something with CDLs, doing whatever job, there's a bunch of different jobs and pathways to doing that. My biggest concern would be making sure that I'm making at least that amount per year because at this point I've been making like the they say that the average now is like 100k, but I don't believe that. I think the average is like 50, 60k. I feel like that's what most people make. That's what I've been making since I started working. You know, no matter how many promotions or raises I've gotten, I haven't really gotten past 60k unless I was in management or something. So um, I want to make 100k a year. That's like my personal living expense. That would be double what I make now, which would be enough for me to take trips, buy stuff, hang out with family, start a savings, all of that great stuff. So I don't have a particular specific job. And I probably would still be doing some music-related things. Yeah. That just wouldn't be the hardcore focus like it is right now.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Okay. Very, very well said. Thank you so much for sharing that. So going back to when you first started making music, when did you first start making music? And um when did you decide to make the commitment to it? So that's two questions in one. So I'm just gonna ask you the first one. So when did you first start making music, like to begin with?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

I started rapping when I was eight. Okay. I started making music um professionally two years ago. So that was when I decided to commit two years ago.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Okay. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

But I had been rapping when I was since I was eight till like 20 something. Then I stopped and just lived life. I wasn't a rapper. Yeah. And then I was like, I think I still love that. I think I want to give it a try. I don't want to die knowing that I was so in love with this and I didn't try. Like, I don't I don't want to be 50, like, I could have did that. Little oozy, who's little oozy? I could have done that. You know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

That's smart. I like your philosophy. I like that you say that you don't want to live in the what-if that you want to experience and put it, give your give it your all at the very least. And that choice alone is powerful because you create a whole nother um timeline for yourself versus like if you just did what was um like expected of you, of your of wherever your upbringing was, you know, of your environment or whatever, you know, just doing that, but you're like, no, I want to um create something, and you know, you have something to move forward move towards, which is powerful.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Um big facts.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah, so so s so where are you from?

SPEAKER_00 7:06

I'm from a town called Valdosta. Valdasta, Georgia. It's like right before you go to Florida, you gotta pass through Valdasta.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

I like that name. I never heard that before. I never heard of Veldasta.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Yeah, it's a college town and a military town. Other than that, it's nothing there.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Are you was there a lot of beaches? No. Nearby? Oh, there's no beaches?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

It's country.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Okay, okay. Valdasta.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

Vildosta.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

So V Town.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Yeah. Do you think you're um so living in Veldosta, did you you said you started making music when you were eight years old. So what introduced you to music? Like who introduced you to um music in general?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Like well, my dad had like a very large uh CD collection. So I was exposed to a lot of songs just in general, like a lot of music, a lot of because you know, CDs was a thing back then, yeah. I'm I'm aging myself there, but CDs was a thing, and my dad had a whole CD collection. He was in bands, so I'm guessing he really loved music. Now, as far as rapping goes, I was on a school bus when I was eight years old. And there's a um somebody that rode the bus with me, and he was rapping. He was like, hey, read this rap or whatever. And I rapped it or whatever. So, all right, cool. And I think I went home and either wrote a rap, I think I wrote a rap. And then I came back the next day and rapped it for him. And from that day forward, I was a rapper. It's really that simple. From that that I don't know what it was, I don't know what it was. Like, I don't know why I attached to it so hard.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

That's cool. Because he probably was like, yo, that's dope.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

That's probably what happened, and I was not gonna read another one. Yeah, probably. I I can't remember that clearly, but most likely.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yeah, there's a um there's a lecture from KRS1, um, and he talks about um hip-hop and the early stages of hip hop of how it was created. And to be put simply, it was just like some someone said, Um, yo, check out my rap. And then he did his rap, and his friend was like, yo, that's dope. Like, that's tight. That's his language. He said, That's tight, man. And then um they just he just started rapping again and doing it again. And then his friend was like, yo, this you have to listen to him, he's good. Like, so it was just like someone telling you, someone telling you that you're um talented, usually is the first, like, that's the first thing, the first step towards that path, you know. You like think of like a child, I guess, drawing something, and they're like, Wow, that's really good. It's gonna like it's gonna encourage you to keep going.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

You know what? Yeah, that is crazy how powerful someone just uh uplifting you, like how far that could take a purse. Yep. That is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yep. So and um so yeah, that's cool. So you're hosting um you're hosting Artist for Artist Showcase, um, where you spotlight indie artists in Atlanta. Can you tell us some about that?

SPEAKER_00 10:08

So yeah, this showcase is basically by way of um um platforming people, like putting people in a spotlight that uh either I appreciate or the community appreciate, or someone that may deserve the appreciation. Um, because you know, I used to do an event where we would have like one artist, and I've just was like, okay, that's cool and that works, and it it helped it it helps with teaching a lot of the artists in the community how to do a show. Um, but I just feel like it's just so many people that deserve the love and the appreciation and the spotlight. So just uh because so this one is special. Yeah. The reason this one is special is because it's at East Atlanta Village Treehouse, and it's one of the last events that will be taking place at that venue. So that's why it's so long. Because usually I wouldn't do a five-hour event, usually it'll be three hours, two hours. Right. But this one is five hours long because we why not? It's one of the last events there. Like, yeah, you know, the um they're not allowing him to renew the lease. Okay. So that means they want somebody else to buy it or they want somebody else to use it. It might turn into a restaurant, it might turn into a bar. We don't know what the fuck's gonna happen to it. So can we curse it here? My bad. I didn't mean to.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Yeah, everyone says ask that question, but yeah, you can you can you can curse from my my knowledge, yeah. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

I'm not gonna curse no more. That just came up.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

No, I mean, yeah, you're just expressing yourself. So, yeah, so that's cool. I mean, so but you this isn't gonna be the last um event that you create for um.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yeah, okay. Not at all. It's just like the first one to kind of just introduce the idea and uh to re reintroduce my community into like each event that I'm doing, you know, that's from me, not from something that I'm attached to. Right. You know what I mean? Like who whoever wants to support joint or the things that I do are the community that I have providing that platform so they can do that.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

You know, because a lot of people ain't going back to the other platform. So because of that, where they gonna go? And um, I could have partnered with other people, and but I just want to take that, I I just want to take that responsibility and um make sure things go the way that I feel like they should go, versus allowing it to be in someone else's hand and then be like, well, you know, yeah, it's not up to me. You know, now it's like it's up to me. So if I want to bless somebody, I could bless them.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

That's beautiful. I mean, taking responsibility, that's that's you know, that's wow. Cause I feel like it's easy to not take responsibility or to wait or to just let it be, you know. So but to rise up and and say, you know, I'm putting my hands because I know it's it's safe here. So that's great. So your song Two Geeked uh music video is dope. So I really like the yeah, I like the sequence, I like the storyline, um, the house party theme. When I saw it, I thought about it, just brought back memories of like those um 90s movies, like those old school movies, you know, they had the house party. Yeah, so what was your first of all, how long did it take you to film this? Because it was very thought out and well put together, and I could see that you put a lot of time and energy into it. So, how long did it take you to create this um this the music video specifically, but also how did it take how long did it take you to um write the song as well?

SPEAKER_00 13:53

The song was like I wrote it in the studio, like yeah, it wasn't after that to deep thought. It was there's an artist out there, his name is Juice Two Geeks, my bro. Uh, and we wanted to work together. We met at an event. I like his style. Let's say let's work together. Uh, you do a song for me, I do a song for you. So I put a verse on one of his songs, he put a verse on one of my songs. My song happened to be two geeked, named after Juice Two Geek. You know, I like to pay homage to the people I work with. So we both are stoner artists, we just talk a lot about smoking, so it's only right that we make a song about smoking. Now, the verse was just me rapping. Like, I didn't even talk about smoking in my verse. I didn't even talk about smoking in my verse, I just was rapping. Um, so made it in studio. That's how it came about. Now, the theme of the video was just the idea. It was like, hmm, how can we do a music video together? And I was like, let's do a house party thing, let's do like a house party gone wrong type of thing. Like, you know, easy storyline. I like, I like to make my work cinematic, you know, make it entertaining more than just a video, like a story. So it didn't take long to come up with as far as filming goes, probably like six hours, only because we were actually hanging out. So in between the shots, we were actually just chilling.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Um six hours is not bad at all.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

It might have even been shorter than that. I can't even cap you. Like, it wasn't hard because I I if it's my work and I know what my vision is, chop chop. Like, ain't no reason to like, you know what I mean? I was like, I'm on it. I'm on it. On fire. Um, so it didn't, it wasn't hard to do. Everybody was cooperative. Um, I think it came out well. I did all the editing, I did the storyboarding, I invited all the uh, excuse me.

unknown 15:35

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

See, this has been off like for days, and I've been missing phone calls, so I just turned it back on.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

So as I was saying, uh, I edited it. I did the storyboarding. I invited all I did the casting. Only thing I didn't do is hold the camera, you know what I mean? Um, shout out to Crush Velvet Films, that's my partner that helped me with it as well. Um, but yeah, so it didn't take long. Um, it was very fun, and I think it came out great. It could have been a little better, but like I'm happy for what what we did do, and I learned a lot about directing and editing and lighting. Yeah, and I'm glad you liked it too. That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Yeah, yeah. It was, yeah, I like it a lot. I like I like a lot of your songs too. Um I'm gonna there's another song I'm gonna I'm actually no, I'm still I'm talking about, I'm thinking about it now. So the music video za, that's another song. That's that's a recent song that you just released. Yeah, that's the most recent release. That's your most recent release, yeah. And that's a stoner song. And I like that song. It's a banger, it's it, it's a it's a vibe. Because you just like it's it's a chill, like the song is a vibe. So what is uh so how long did it take you to film that? Was it six hours two?

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Or nah. So I'm part of a music festival called uh Camper Trip. Okay, right. So I'm doing a collaboration project with Father B ATL. That's a platform and a collective. So I'm working with the collective. That's all the artists that's going to be on the project, about 16 to 20 of us. And so we had two weeks of worth of studio sessions, and we went back and we picked out the songs we like. So we're shooting videos for the songs we like, releasing them, and pretty much promoting together, working as a team to kind of expand everybody's brand. So going back in the camping trip, I invited the whole team out, and true, one of the leaders, he had the idea of shooting the Zal music video while we were there. Okay, we just shot it while we were out there.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Okay, that's nice.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

But it was fun though. It was very it was it was fun. I loved the song, the video is a vibe, it was very HD.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

It looked like you had a lot of fun creating it.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

What was your what would you say your best memory is in the creation of that video?

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Just the fact that they showed up, yeah. Just the fact that everybody showed up uh and everybody had a good time and everybody remembers it. And even to today, they'd be like, What's the next one? So that right there to me is like, okay, bet. Yeah, bet, all right, cool.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, that's great. So what advice can you give to artists who may be hesitant to do the work based on fear they may have?

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Uh don't let fear get in the way of your dreams. And that's not even just about music, that's just life.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yeah. Yeah. Is would you say that's easier said than done?

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Uh it depends on what that fear is. It could be different for different people. Like I my only fear would be to invest all of this money and time and energy and to g to come out with nothing. Right? So that's a possibility. But I ain't gonna let it stop. I'm still going.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Yeah, you're also making um moments, you're making memories, you're making money. All of that matters. Yeah, and the one thing that I find it to be cool is that you're making timeless music because once you put something out there, it's out there and it's always going to be out there. And I think that's I think that's beautiful too. Yeah. So you have a lot of projects that you work on and you're always working. So how how do you manage time? Do you have a time management system? Nope. Um, nope. I didn't so you just you just you just get up and you just get to work, like you just do it. You just have a bit, you just know what you need to do, and you just do you just it just gets done.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yeah, I've been blessed. I just surround myself with like-minded individuals, and that that also helps like when it's not just you, you know what I'm saying? It's like, all right, if it would just be baby, I sleep, and but because I know it's a whole group of people depending on me, it's a lot, it's a lot easier to be like, all right, oh, I gotta get up, you know what I'm saying? I gotta go to such and such, or I got to go support such and such, or I gotta go do whatever that makes it easier. Um, but I am now, now, uh, after recent events, re uh inventing my schedule and what that looks like, and looking into my time management because I want to include more self-love in my schedule.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

So that's a that's a fantastic idea.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yeah, for sure. No, we got to, and I encourage everybody to yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Yeah, because whatever that looks like for you, self-love, adding that to your schedule, that's that's a game changer. There's a there's a man who he's a he's a um public speaker, his name is Jim Rohn, and he talks about um financial growth and personal development, and one of the things that he says is if you don't like how things are, change them. Things aren't gonna change until you change. You know, things aren't gonna get better until you get you wanna increase your income, you wanna increase your way of living, work on yourself. You you are the biggest investment that you can invest in is yourself. You know, things around you would change as soon as you do and or as slow as you change, as soon as you get things moving. So that's um when you said that, that reminded me of that. Because adding self-love to your schedule and being um mindful of your of your actions is is a game changer, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, I've done a lot of helping other people and realized that I needed to put some of that help into my own life, you know, my own being. So, you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah, so do you have any um do you have any new projects or releases to that you're putting out to look forward to?

SPEAKER_00 21:49

I am getting my funds together because I'm going to do a rebrand soon. So a lot of my music's gonna be taken down. Um some of it will be re-released, though the songs that are uh uh quality enough in my opinion. Cause just my whole since being in the industry now, my whole perspective on releases and music and songs. Going back to kind of the conversation we was having earlier in the kitchen about like the value of music. Yeah. And with understanding that um it's two ways you can go about it. You can not care and you could just put all your art out and just be like, look at all my different art and the different pictures and paintings and projects I got. Or you could be more intentional and like, okay, so I got 80 songs. I'm going to pick these eight. All right. I'm going to focus we're going to put focus on this song. All right, let's see what that happens. We're going to put focus on this song. Let's see what happens. And I'm in I'm in that bag now because before it was just like I'm making my art I'm going to put my art out keep it moving. Eventually if I it's kind of like YouTube if if you've never heard this before when you do YouTube or content creation of any kind you want to stockpile.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

So that it's like once you start going, it's like automatic and it keeps going.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

So right so if you stockpile it then when you press play on the automation and get everything rolling first off that takes some of the pressure off of you to not have to like be constantly like all right I need to upload okay I need to get this done. It's like if you do it all in advance it it's going to come out a lot smoother. And the second thing about that is I want all of my work to get an appropriate amount of appreciation and time. Like I have a lot of great music so a lot of the reasons people haven't heard it is because I didn't show it to them or give the songs time to be heard or seen. That's why it's called a single you push that record. So so yeah I want to do that for all the songs that I love.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

That sounds great. And that sounds like a good plan too because it's not about like I feel like qual quality over quantity is is basically what you're saying is quality over quantity and you put out good quality music and video and artwork and time and energy you're going to attract the right people you know and I think that's important is attracting the right people and the right experiences and you know just putting it out there and then that's what's going to be the stepping the true like the stairs to um success from my interpretation. So yeah I'll take that yeah so um and the final question that I have for you is what are you most proud of in your journey?

SPEAKER_00 24:37

That I'm still going after all the BS I've been through I'll say that I'm proud of that. It's a lot of uh tricky waters in this ocean it's a lot of interesting characters in this um industry or all the damn industries in the world in life so I'm proud of me I'm still here I'm still going I ain't give up like I said I was I was gonna give up and I ain't gave up so I'm proud that I'm still going you know I'm happy for you and I'm proud I'm proud of you. I said that I received that I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Yeah you're welcome all right you guys this is the artist journey and it's been a pleasure joint and I am so happy that you were able to come and talk with us today and we hope to see you again. So um until next time you guys have a great rest of your day bye