JOFRED ESTILO • TULPA
Two months since his KOJI produced single “CHOPPAS” featuring fellow PVTSTCK member, Ishmael Raps, Jofred Estilo pops out with his awaited TULPA project. The project, exclusively recorded and mixed at PVTSTCK Studios, is not only the fruition of Jofred’s hard work, but also his daily pilgrimage from Joliet to Chicago. The new album is a sonic patchwork of collaborations, the many creative relationships Jofred has fostered over the years. TULPA features production from DJ of the Innovatorz, Meltycanon, Japan’s P&K, New Zealand’s KOJI and of course his very own Chinza Fly’s Rob Lyrical. Now that the new project is here, Jofred looks to set the tone for the next level in his career.
Not only did he turn 24 on August 3rd, Jofred also made an appearance at All Smileslast Friday at Tonic Room. Jofred also hit the road for Las Vegas and L.A. this month too. Judging by the flicks we saw from his trip to Los Angeles, there might be a Chinza Fly, Mike Gao, and Dumbfoundead collaboration to lookout for. He’ll also be live in effect at Reggies tomorrow night, alongside MFN Melo, Sunde`, Marvelous, and KAMI for Neon Raps with Dj sets by SqueakPivot. I had a few questions for Jofred about the new project he dropped today, take a look at what he had to say.
How does the title of the project relate to what you’re going through now?
Well first, essentially what a tulpa is, is a psychological term meant for creating, um, I guess essentially a clone of yourself. You personify subconscious thoughts to the point they become a reality. So let’s say that you sit yourself in a room, and everyday for an hour or two you force yourself to imagine and have a conversation with a copy of yourself. And eventually it becomes real enough to the point you no longer have to think of him, he’s just there in the room when you walk in. And that person is everything that you are as well the subconscious things you don’t really think about. But for TULPA, I created a city out of my own thoughts and imagination and a lot of these tracks are maybe situations that happened in that city, and they all correlate with the artwork.
It relates to my life right now because I have a lot of things going on that I spoke into existence. I’m doing a lot of the things I said I was going to do, and I just talked about it to the point that it became a reality. That’s really the whole thing about TULPA, it’s about striving to do what you want to do, make what you want happen.
Did your approach for the project change over time, or would you say you kept the same headspace for the entirety of the project?
My project definitely did change over time. I made three mixtapes over the span of three, three and a half years. Obviously this is the final cut, you know the final, updated version of the music I’ve been making. In this final version of TULPA that I am conveying to the world, my headspace is at a clarity and with a better sense of direction of where I want to go and what kind of sound I want. And it’s in more of a positive headspace. In the old version I was going through a lot of things, I was still in school, I was struggling with how I wanted to go about attempting a rap career as an Asian American you know. The first Tulpa was aggressive, almost something that would make you apprehensive, and the one I have now still has that sense of hunger, or that urgency you find in someone who comes from these impoverished areas, but it still gives you a brighter balance of sounds, more of that uplifting energy. With this final version of TULPA, you get a more balanced person, I feel like you can feel that sense of growth in the project.
If you could’ve had a feature verse from any artist alive or dead, who would it be?
Kid Cudi. As weird as that sounds, I’m a huge Kid Cudi fan, you might be able to tell by my music. But if I had to choose like a “cop out” type of feature, Drake or Kanye would be a given. But if I had to choose someone I really wanted to create some shit with, Kid Cudi.
