JUSTICE HILL
Multi-instrumentalist and producer Justice Hill effortlessly blends genres to create forward-thinking collaborative compositions. With his first single now out, a teaser for his debut album Room With a View, Justice makes an exciting entrance to the R&B Hip-hop scene.
Basement: How did you first get into music? How would you describe your style?
Justice: My father was a huge fan of hip-hop in the 90s when I grew up and used to DJ prior to that. When he noticed me singing he’d record me over blank tapes and then one day when I was 5 he got a beginner keyboard and I taught myself my first couple songs from ear that were just on that. Then I guess the rest of life happened.
I would say my style is somewhere on the line of Michael McDonald meets Radiohead. Iol that's my description. I don’t think it's up to me to find a correlation between myself and other artists
Basement: What influences your sound?
Justice: My biggest influence is my current circumstance at any given time. I guess that goes for most people. I feel like you can hear my musical influences pretty clearly in my music. Marvin and Nina are my home base. My music is made by trauma and triumph.
Basement: What does your songwriting process look like?
Justice: Well mostly me thinking of something and running to a quiet place to record into my voice memos. I wrote most of this album over the past 2-3 years. I recorded it completely by myself with very minimal gear.
Basement: What narratives do you hope to come across in your music/ what themes do you notice in your work?
Justice: This album was my grieving process to the loss of my aunt and grandmother, my two best friends, and I just hope people feel that and maybe it helps a bit. Also it’s about making a statement in life. This is mine. But I hope it inspires others.
“I hope people can hear the love that I’ve felt.”
Cover art by Hank Ewbank
Photo by Marcus Green
Photo by Marcus Green
Photo by Marcus Green
Basement: You have a new single out- can you tell me a bit about “Outta This” and what went into making this track?
Justice: Outta this was the second to last song written for the album and the first one finished. I wanted to try and visualize the unfortunately common need to leave any toxic relationship be that with a loved one, yourself, substance, time, location, or anything really. And just being like, “alright, peace, i’m fucking done.”
Basement: Has being a musician in Chicago influenced your sound at all? What attracted you to the city?
Justice: Absolutely. I grew up in Kalamazoo Michigan, and moved here about 6 years ago from DC and before that Boston. So I've been around but I've always loved Chicago music. I moved here to be closer to family after being on the east coast for years. The city has taught me so much. There's no other place I’ve been with such a deep rooted community of musicians and just to play with a handful of them has been one of the greatest joys of my life.
Basement: Tell me about your debut record Room With A View that’s dropping in April! What can we expect from this new material?
Justice: This is the 3rd or 4th time i’ve tried to record this album. You know writing this stuff is quite the process. Life gets in the way. You meet a love. You leave or they leave, you work, you drink, and then at night I make music. I don’t know how to even explain what it is. It’s my room with a view, both inside and out. You know, people don’t notice much that happens around them, not really I think. Maybe I’m wrong. That's what the album is about. Me looking at me looking at everything else.
Basement: Anything else exciting on the horizon for you?
Justice: I mean this is really my life’s work so far. So yeah actually Im halfway through the next album and im’ hoping to start playing this live once its’ safe to.