An Interview With Lyrical Lemonade’s Jake Millan
Lil Jake, 20 years old. DJ, Writer/Influencer & Artist Manager at Lyrical Lemonade. We caught up this week with the legend; the man behind the scenes; Jake Millan... Manager for many popular names such as Yung Bans & Kodone. Lil Jake is proving to be an un-stoppable force any label or artist… Let’s dive in..
COLTON: “Sup Jake, you totally ripping today or what? Besides being the most versatile manager in the game, tell us a little about yourself?”
JAKE: “I’m Lil Jake. Manager, DJ, blogger, influencer, curator, king. I try to do as much as I can and stay busy.”
COLTON: From DJ, writer at Lyrical Lemonade, to managing some of the biggest names right now.. Did the “high-school” Jake Millan know this is the life you would ultimately live?”
JAKE: Hell no. In high school I was really just a huge fan of everything I’m doing now which is crazy. My high school self would be very very proud of what I’ve done so far. I was honestly content with going to Southern Illinois University and studying hotel management, but then I kind of just had an awakening moment like a week before college application deadlines. Last minute I decided to apply for Columbia College Chicago when I found out you could study music business management. I wasn’t doing anything then other than being a fan, going to hella concerts, and blogging for small platforms. When I found out I could be apart of the music I love I went for it. I soon realized school was not for me at all and really learned everything on my own just from different experiences. You can’t really teach someone how to be a manager or something like that.. But going back to high school. Lil Jake, I was a pretty average kid. ‘I was captain of the varsity bass fishing team and just really liked music’. I wasn’t the ‘cool’ kid in high school, but I was cool with most the kids. I just didn’t really fully fuck with most of them except my super close friends who I still talk to almost daily.
COLTON: Lyrical Lemonade has become a media powerhouse on a global scale. Describe your role and how you got started with LL.
JAKE: It’s crazy because I’ve been with Lyrical Lemonade for about 3 years now. When I was in high school I really wanted to do blog work and that was pretty much my introduction into the scene. No blogs would let me write for them without showing them my past writing from other blogs. I was like ‘what the fuck, how am I supposed to write for a blog if I’ve never written for a blog!?!’ So then I made my own blog for like a month to show to other blogs as my examples. I had a small writing position for an old blog called GoILL and then I met Cole Bennett. I met Cole because I was 17 and he was throwing an 18+ concert. I went up to him at a different event he was holding and asked him if he’d get me in. He let me in and then we started talking more and eventually he made me apart of Lyrical because of my other bro in LL Elliot. Over the years we’ve all just became super close and became the powerhouse media source we are today. It’s really just 4 kids who all fuck with music super hard and work together greatly. Obviously I still have my role as a writer, but I’ve been getting more into the behind the scenes work for LL and using my networking skills to get us as far as we can. After getting the new HQ a few months ago we’ve really all came together and been able to be a lot more collaborative with our ideas. I run the Spotify playlist, do a lot of artist management through LL, and have a fuck ton of super crazy low key stuff we’re about to bring to the public.
“Bans has just about every label in the industry trying to sign him right now”
COLTON: Bans & Kodone are coming up quick fast. Describe your workload/journey working along-side these upcoming stars?
JAKE: Managing Bans and Kodone is super easy for me because those are my brothers. It never feels like work when you’re doing something you genuinely love for people you genuinely believe in. I can say with all honesty those are two of my favorite artists right now and I love helping them grow as much as I can. Sometimes shit gets a little stressful with how much we have going on at once, and how fast everything has happened but we always make it work. Bans has just about every label in the industry trying to sign him right now, but we’ve decided to stay independent and keep building him from the legal situation he is in on house arrest. Ron just signed to Alamo which was perfect for us considering the relationships we have with the guys over there. It’s been a crazy 1.5 years with these guys. I actually met both of them in a group chat on twitter called GLONE. I was helping them both get their shit out there through Lyrical, and then we decided to take it to the next level and really start working as a team. I also manage Captain Crunch and Kodone, I met both of them in that group chat too.
COLTON: It’s all about the journey though. Tell us about your most wild moments working with the team so far!
JAKE: There’s been way too many crazy moments. Meeting Bans for the first time was an experience itself. At the time I was one of the first people in the music scene to meet him since he’s been on house arrest for so long. I went to Atlanta the day he got out of jail and with his ankle monitor still on he convinced me it was fine for him to go to sky zone to play dodgeball and to go out to dinner. He went back to jail a few days later for another week for leaving his home on house arrest. It was also crazy performing at Day n’ Night. It was Bans 2nd show since they started letting him travel and by far the biggest show he had ever performed at. Hella artists fuck with Bans so it was super cool seeing him finally get to meet everyone in person for the first time. He was also definitely the first and only artists to rock a festival stage on house arrest with the ankle monitor still on. Legend.
COLTON: What can we expect for the rest of 2018? A Lil Jake love-tape??
JAKE: Rest of 2018 you can just expect me and my team to continue fucking shit up. Just gonna stay on our king shit and take shit over, FR. Everyone has some crazy surprises on the way too so stay on the lookout. A love tape is definitely on the way, S/O to my queen.
