“My message to the world would be that we need to celebrate our wins hard and celebrate our losses even harder”
Jake Gatsby
To rapper Jake Gatsby, celebrating your losses means viewing them not as setbacks but as building blocks that lead you to where you need to be.
Inspired by his favorite fictional character Jay Gatsby, he goes by ‘Jake Gatsby.’ What started with writing poems in holiday cards for his mother transformed into Gatsby recording music on Audacity’s music program.
He discovered this passion at just six years old as he “spent a lot of time in the car listening to all kinds of music.”
“Anybody who knows Filipino people knows that we love music – and karaoke,” says Gatsby. I have no idea what that’s about other than that it costs nothing to sing, so for a 3rd world country, free entertainment is probably huge.”
He credits his brother, who introduced him to musical influences like Tupac. Those influences made his love for the genre undeniable and shaped him into the artist he is today.
“Thoughtful wordplay mixed with diverse production” is how he describes his music — a combination that carries a message with it.
To date, Gatsby has released 5 singles garnering over 2,500 monthly listeners on Spotify. He recently released a single, “NO HANDOUTS‘,” which has received over 3,000 listens thus far.
However, Gatsby doesn’t just celebrate his wins he is also transparent about his losses.
Gatsby creates with the intent to show people that “the only way for us to win more is to look at our losses as wins, too. I don’t know how to explain it any better, but it’ll make sense when it’s supposed to. All I want is everything – every loss, every win.”
What continues to inspire Gatsby beyond music is the” feeling of new cultures and new environments. Putting myself into new situations and thinking of things from a different perspective – whether mine or someone else’s – helps keep me inspired.
Jake has a positive outlook on his future. “I see myself happier and happier. I see myself feeling challenged and equipped. I see myself getting closer to peace. I see myself making for myself or for someone else, forever.”
