Cash Johnson
New Jersey
“My mom used to get money, my dad used to get money, so they decided to name me Cash.”
For our third Spotlight we got the opportunity to speak to Cash Johnson about his origins, inspirations, and aspirations. Coming from New Jersey a place thats home to many renowned lyricist in the hip hop culture, Cash gives us an in depth look of his past, his journey, and his goals. Thank you to Cash fro sitting down with us and thank you, our readers, for the continued support.
How has this pandemic affected your creativity?
Cash: It hasn’t affected my creativity itself. Before everything happened I was going from venue to venue trying to promote and get my name out there, but now that everything is closed it’s allowed me to focus on the music part a little more.
Your name is the thing the world will come to know you as, what was the story behind your name and how you became Cash Johnson?
Cash: Actually it was my mom’s street name and my parents decided to give it to me. My mom used to get money, my dad used to get money so they decided to name me Cash. Most people think it’s a nickname or a rap name but nah that’s my real name. I felt like I already got the perfect name for this industry but I used my full name because everybody’s name is Cash this or Cash that. As far as growing into my name, I feel like I’m not even him yet, I’m becoming him, but I’m not him yet. But when it’s 5Ms in the bank we can have another interview.
Before you decided to pursue it or be apart of that industry, how did the love affair with music begin?
Cash: I’ve always loved music. I remember the first song I actually listened to was Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues. My grandma used to play that in the car ride on the way to school. I used to love Earth, Wind, and Fire - Reasons in September and Rick James had Mary Jane, those were my favorite songs those are the reasond I LOVE music. The Old School vibes.
What made you want to pursue music as a career path?
Cash: Back in like highschool I used to battle people and I had been rapping for a long time. But when I was on house arrest, one of the things that kept my mind from going crazy was making music. So I would do it all the time, every day. Then I’d also watch motivational videos and I stumled on one about fear. In the video it said “everything you want is on the other side of fear.” I decided that I was just gonna go in. I started going to events by myself, stepping out of my comfort zone and going hard. I was probably like 20-21 at the time.
My Introduction to your music was Cold Nights what was going on that made you express yourself so deeply in that song?
Cash: I threw the beat on and I got that vibe and I just channeled back to cold nights. When I was 17 I got tried for a murder charge that I didn’t do. Just being caught up in the wrong crowd. So I got placed on house arrest until further notice which ended up lasting like 2 years. Going through all that turmoil led to a lot of cold nights. If you listen to the lyrics I even said “You know how it feel when your famiily dont show you love?” My inner immediate famiy was valid but I had family that just read the paper or watched the news and judged me and thought I did it.
In the outro you spoke about your friend Terrance, who was he?
Cash: The first time I ever hit a booth was with Terrance, first show i did was with him, I was nervous and I felt like I didn’t do good. So I’m super competitive so we both did a show the week later and i tore the stage up. But he ended up getting killed and the story was fishy.
“You know how it feel when your family don’t show you love?”
What was the inspiration behind The Art Room?
Cash: I linked with a producer we did a couple songs we looked up and had a project. Then we looked up and had a project. The 4 songs wehad made sense. In certain songs you see me experimenting with my voice and singing a little on it like on She Got It On Her Own. Even the second verse of Born a Boss was a little differnt so I named it The Art Room and had the chemist cartoon on the cover because I did a lot of expirementing on it.
What can we expect next from Cash Johnson?
Cash: I’m getting back to the raw rap. I’m airing out all friends and all of that, I’m putting my demons on the microphone. No expiraments, no singing, no autotune nothing, that gritty shit.
What do you want people to walk away from your music thinking.
Cash: I just wanna be knon as somebody who was really dedicated. Somebody who left his soul in his music. I want to be respected as an artist.
