By Jessica De Vault

Jerry Blue knew at a young age that he would have to fend for himself. His parents worked a lot. He and his sister were close, but she was sent to a group home when he was in the fourth grade. "When I lost her, I lost my guidance," he recalled. "I had to start providing for myself. It pushed me to the streets." Blue, whose stage name is Jay Blue, may have found comfort in the street life in Dunn, but a tragic turn of events led him to pursue music full-time and try to be a positive influence in his community. Shortly after his grandmother died, Blue who was about 18 years old, decided to start his own label and become a rapper. He and fellow rapper Darly "D-Roc" McKoy formed a group called Legend. "We got together and started producing our own beats, looking for production, looking everywhere to see what we got to do to get out in the game," Blue said. "We needed a way to get our music out. We performed at local clubs, passing out CDs, and soon we got a little buzz. " Legend dropped their first mixtape "Hip-Hop 101" in 2007 under Blue's music label, Hustle Grind Eat Entertainment. His solo debut "From the Block to the Booth" followed in 2009. Now at the age of 28, he's working on his second effort "M.I.C. (Music Inner City)" and a mixtape called "Weekend Music." His label has two artists, rappers D Willz and Q.P., and helps other artists with music distribution, Blue said. The rapper talked to the Weekender Street Edition about his music, message and plans for his music label. Weekender: What was it like growing up in Dunn? Blue: Where I grew up, it was like the inner city, the rough part of town. You see drug dealing, people getting carried off in ambulances, people getting shot at. It gives you something to write about. I took a lot of that, and I feed that into my raps and rhymes. Weekender: What made you want to leave the streets? Blue: When my grandmother passed, the day before, she had talked to me. She had told me to get my life in line, and that there wasn't nothing out there in these streets. Me hearing that from her, it enlightened my whole overall way of looking at life. She had always been my mentor. So I knew I had to slow down and stop doing what I was doing. The next day, she passed away. Those were her last words. That's been my mission in life ever since. Weekender: Do you think your grandma would be pleased with your efforts? Blue: Yeah, I can feel her presence around me all the time, especially the times when I want to give up. It's something beyond me that's keeping me going forward. She's definitely keeping me on target. And my sister, she's part of our street team. Anytime we got a mixtape, she lets everyone know. Weekender: What's the message you're trying to send in your music? Blue: It seems like everyone got the same M.O., like "I sold drugs, I did this and that." But my message was to reach out to the youth, to tell them you can do other things. You can go from the block to the booth. You can. I don't talk about drugs, I talk about what I'm doing now. I might make statements from where I came from. But I don't talk about it all the time. Weekender: Who are some of your musical influences? Blue: I used to love people like LL Cool J, Run-DMC, Heavy D. Then as hip-hop started progressing, it was Naughty By Nature, Master P. A lot of my influences are people who ain't in the game no more. Weekender: Do you think your work is similar to any of those artists? Blue: I feel like the way my rhymes are, you'd have to compare me to T.I. He's got a different style about him. Or Big Boi from OutKast. I get a lot of that comparison to the Southern types. Weekender: What's up next for you and Hustle Grind Eat Entertainment? Blue: Right now we're looking at more venues in the Triangle. It's getting ready to be Thanksgiving, so we're trying to work with some of the local colleges to do a food drive. We're trying to get canned goods so everyone can have a good Thanksgiving. Weekender: What do you hope to achieve with Hustle Grind Eat Entertainment? Blue: If we don't pick up a distribution deal through a major label, I'd like to be worldwide. And with the path we got set now, I don't see why we can't reach that. Staff writer Jessica De Vault can be reached at devaultj@fayobserver.com or 609-0649. Jay Blue Want more? Visit www.myspace.com/ jaybluesmusic Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.