How Jay Wood Turned a Single Into a Mini-Doc About Community, Celebrating Black Music & Arts Education
Photography by Noel Walton
As a child growing up in South Suburban Matteson, Jay Wood always had a knack for the creative. Following in his sister’s footsteps, Wood joined his elementary school band, picking up the trombone and baritone.
By the time he hit middle school, Wood started writing spoken word poetry —even winning a school poetry contest in the 6th grade—while standing out among his peers for his emerging instrumental chops.
At the same time, Wood’s sister was in the marching band at Rich South High School, which wound up getting an invitation to perform at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2012.
Wood, along with two of his middle school bandmates, received invitations to practice with the Rich South Marching Band and even joined them on their trip to Washington D.C. Although Wood didn’t actually march in the inauguration, he remembers his experiences with the high school band vividly.
“Being on that bus [to D.C.] with all the high schoolers was crazy, ” Wood said. “It was like, ‘oh man, high school is so cool. This is the band, everyone’s really good at playing their instruments.'”
While Wood was developing his musical talents, he was also cutting his teeth on the gridiron. As a high school student attending Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Wood excelled as a strong safety, becoming a team captain and even receiving Division 1 interest for a time.
Despite this, Wood chose to pursue the arts.
Wood’s passion for marching band came after watching the movie Drumline — starring Nick Cannon and Zoe Saldana —which he cites as one of his favorite films.
“It feels good. it’s Black,” Wood said. “I remember watching it with my parents and just being like, ‘man, this is what college is like? This shit is super cool.’ It made me feel excited like when they had battle of the bands; the drumline's going off. I just felt the same energy rush I got from playing football.”
In recent years, Wood has maximized his creative talents by carving out a career as one of Chicago’s most exciting hip-hop artists, captivating audiences with his passionate lyricism and jazzy, boisterous instrumental backdrops.
Perhaps no song captures this better than his 2022 single “HOMESICK,” featuring fellow Chicago lyricist femdot..
Over a blazing, horn-driven instrumental, Wood and Fem spit a pair of pensive, reflective verses musing on their own personal concept of “home.”
Unbeknownst to Wood, though, “HOMESICK” was about to become much more than just a single.
Wood tapped the marching band at Central State University — an HBCU located in southeastern Ohio — to collaborate on the music video. What followed was a seven month journey filled with complications, twists and turns, battles with college legal departments, and finally, a mini-documentary entitled “Homesick: The Documentary,” which captures the entire process of completing the music video shoot from start to finish.
Now, Wood is ready to present the finished product to the world.
On Friday, May 26, at 6PM Wood will be throwing a film screening party at The Silver Room, located at 1506 E. 53rd St in Hyde Park From 6-9pm. Hosted by Naira, it will also include a conversation moderated by Steven "Tuck" Tucker.
Just ahead of the film screening, Wood sat down with These Days Mag to talk more specifically about the event, the difficulties he faced while creating the mini-documentary, and the importance of fully funding arts programs in the public school system. An edited transcript follows.
Conceptually, what does “HOMESICK” mean to you?
I can speak to that by first saying I don't usually make songs on purpose. Like, I didn't have the concept, and then was like, ‘oh, we should make Homesick.’ It was more so [that] I heard the beat and started writing — I just kept writing and kept writing — and was like, ‘oh, I think this song might be about this.’ Then I record the demo, listen to it for months, and I'm like, Oh, this song is about THIS!’ Then I come back to it, put the finishing touches, do the post production, et cetera, then that's when it gets delivered. In retrospect, what the song means to me is, It's like a duality of good and bad. It’s grand, It's proud […] it’s definitely where I’m from. “Homecoming,” Kanye. But also, this is what I'm running from, or these are the conflicts I have back home. It's very human; it’s giving the crib its own humanity.
What inspired you to work with the Central State University marching band?
I knew I wanted to [work with] an HBCU. If you go back and watch Drumline, that’s what it was, it was HBCU. Also, part of the reason why I quit the band at Marian was just the culture was so different from the band culture I was used to; they didn’t march in that style. And it was cool, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful. It is its own art. But, I was like, ‘this isn’t what I was looking for.” I definitely wanted to do an HBCU and make sure Black kids got their shine. The second [reason] being, I had a connect there. [My] friend Chulo, he was in the drumline when he went there. So I hit him, like, ‘hey, bro, do you got your director’s phone number? I got an idea.’ He was like, ‘nah, but I can connect with someone from the band.’ I was able to get in contact with their new director. Which very cool, full circle moment, He worked on Drumline as one of the music producers for the movie. He also helped produce “Morris Brown” by OutKast, which is one of my favorite OutKast songs.
Can you speak more on the importance of children in Black communities getting their shine?
Bringing it back to the importance of this screening, Matteson isn’t a poor suburb by any means; it’s one of the more affluent ones. It is definitely predominately Black, though. Like, motherfuckers got money out here, but I don't think the school system reflects that. I remember having the same books my sister had —seeing her name in the book, she’s five, six years older than me—and that’s fine, but the book wasn’t in great condition. Or, schools being threatened to not have band or the arts, or lose certain sports […] I felt like it was important to give the extracurriculars something special.
Central State does a lot of cool stuff. They’ve worked with BET, they’ve done inaugurations and parades, this, that and the other. I think it was really cool for them to be like, ‘Yo, we worked with this rapper out of Chicago, independent, up-and-coming. You know, we figured it out. It was also really dope just going there and meeting the kids because they was very inspired. It was like, ‘Yo, bro, listened to your music! Thanks for coming down here!’ Like, you're thanking me? I’m thanking y’all for learning my music.
How did the video shoot go down?
I called the director. He’s like, ‘yo, step in the band room for a second. I want to play it for you before we get to the field.’ As I walk into the band room, they're playing full volume. The horns is blaring, you can feel the vibration in the walls. It was crazy. Honestly, an out of body moment; just blown away, because it took months to put together. I first called him in February, and we didn't get out there until late August. So all these weeks of back and forth, back and forth, ‘What about this? What about that? How can we make this happen? What's the budget on that?’ It finally coming to fruition was like, ‘yo, this was crazy.’ They performed the song for me, I'm like, ‘yo, this sounds dope, let’s do it!’ He commands them out to the field, we got 30 minutes before sunset […] Mind you, I don't think the kids are supposed to be out there, because it’s summer camp; campus wasn't live yet. [We] walk to the football field, we line up, my videographer was like, ‘we got three takes; let’s do it!’ And we just ran it. Even as far as a set, it was me, one of my homies and the videographer, we was making it work. It was very run and gun, but also very intentional, very natural.
Can you tell me more about the mini-doc and the screening?
Across this seven months of planning this screening, we had ups and downs, we had moments where it’s like ‘yo, we gotta cancel.’ We had problems with the Airbnb, like any type of difficulty you could think of, we had. Someone told me, ‘hey, bro, start documenting this.’ So when I got an email from the director, I recorded a video, sent it to my videographer Noel Watson. She’s like, ‘take this camera, go on the trip. I can't be there, but have someone follow you around with it.’ We just wanted to make sure we documented everything we did. She had already started filming me at some of my shows earlier in the year, some things I did in the summertime. So when it came around to it, she was like, ‘yo, I got a whole documentary.’ I was like, ‘what you mean?’ She was like, ‘check it out.’ [She sent] me the link. I'm like, ‘bro, what? How did you do this?’ She’s like, let's just do two more interview scenes.’ We figured it out, got really cool locations. The way it came together was so natural; we never forced it, We never had a script. We never was like, we're gonna make a documentary and do this.’ I was just like, ‘man, we have a story to tell, let’s tell it.’ It’s really about the kid, it’s about being an independent musician, It was about the song.
Can you talk more on the specifics of the film, and some of the challenges you faced along the way?
The film follows me building this collaboration. There’s no blueprint for how me and Central State collaborate, It’s never really been done before. So, it's literally me and a director going back and forth. “What if we do this? What if we do that? How can we do this? Is this possible? Oh, legal won’t agree with this. Oh, we can't do that because the kids won't be here till this day.’ So us battling financial constrictions. covid, the legal department […] For a while, it was like, ‘well, you can't do it on a football field, because our emblem is there, and we can't have you cursing your music when our emblem is there. So we had to figure out location [and] the logistics of this collaboration. But on this journey, we learned more about the ins and outs of being an independent artist, and what that looks like. How you can be resourceful, how you can pull funding, how you can build community. The result of the collaboration shows the importance of keeping music in the schools. it’s making sure kids have extracurricular activities, why it's important, why we should keep investing into our future, and into the youth
Whenever education funding gets cut, art programs are usually first on the chopping block. To you, why is it important to keep these programs fully funded?
The importance of the arts and the schools, one, culture. Education, it's not just about grammar; you also have to make sure you're culturing your youth. That gives them context, that gives them perspective that builds their person, that makes them more rounded out. You don’t want to build robots. We wanna make sure that people understand why we're here, how to celebrate our existence and how to express our existence. That's why the arts are so important in the schools. Two, I remember for this exact inauguration trip that I was talking about earlier, I remember being at the meetings, and the school didn't have enough funding to send them. So all the parents are like, ‘we can have this fundraiser, we can sell chips here, we can get it done.’ That's really cool, because it takes a village and I love how everyone was able to come together and do that. But I also understand how hard it is for parents to make that sacrifice. Work two jobs, make sure there’s food on the table. At the end of the day, families need support to make sure their kids have the best future possible. And I think the arts is a great way to do that.
What is the importance of fully funding the arts and extracurricular activities in communities of color specifically?
These are communities that are already underserved, and I think that having extracurriculars is just a really good way to build community, keep kids safe, keep them busy, give them things like discipline, teamwork […] It's just a great life building skill. And everyone can't do sports. Like, ‘okay, football maybe isn't for me.’ [Not everyone] was built to run track, so there has to be other avenues for people who have different interests and different skill sets. I might be really good at music, but okay at chess. Someone might be really great on a swimming team, but not that good at the speech team. We all have different strengths, and I think it's important to have the opportunity for all kids to be able to access those avenues and figure out what they're good at, figure out what resonates with them so they can build those life skills today and possibly make a future with those.
Was there a specific audience in mind when putting this project together?
I feel like anybody trying to be an independent artist should watch this. I feel like if you were in band at some point in your life, you should watch this. I feel like even the entrepreneur should watch this, because to a degree, being an independent artist is being entrepreneur. You run a business, you have a brand. You got to look at analytics, you have to sell things, whether you're selling yourself or a product. I just think it's a great moment for people to get a source of inspiration, but also see a great story.
HOMECOMING’S film screening host Naira, Jay Wood and moderator Steven “Tuck” Tucker.
Can you talk about the film screening itself? What will the event look like?
Once we made the film, I thought, ‘how can we put this out?’ I looked up film festivals. I've performed at film festivals, so I have relationships with certain people. I'm just like, Yo, what does this look like?’ They like, ‘yeah, we love this. However, you can't publicly put this out until after the festivals.’ I just wanted a way that we can celebrate each other, bring my community out, build community, and show what we put together. The way I see the event working out ideally, is an open forum for people come in, there's drinks, there's music, I'll have a DJ, I'll have some drink sponsors. Have a good time […] Look good, feel good. We'll have the floor open for mingling, then we'll have a 10 minute showing of the screening followed by a quick panel talk. I’ll have a panelist ask certain questions, I'll respond as the crowd watches, and open the floor for any questions [from] the crowd. After that, maybe we showed the film one more time if people came late, or we just turn the music back on and have fun. I think it'll be a really dope night.
What made you want to document this process?
Understanding the power of storytelling. You don't have a good story until you have some conflict, right? Getting this together was very difficult. I went through a lot of emotions, trying to make things make sense. A lot of calls, a lot of emails, a lot of talking to the legal department, or talking to this department. ‘I don't know if we can do it.’ Or, ‘who can I get to come help me? Who's gonna hold the microphone, who's gonna hold the camera?’ So, in all the back and forth and the conflict and everything, something told me like, ‘I should start recording this.’ So we’d have weekly meetings with the director. After the meeting, I would just get on my phone and recap what I was feeling at the time. Although some of those recap videos may not be in the film, I sent everything to Noel and that allowed her to get the story and see how she should put things together.
What message are you trying to get across?
I think I really just want people to know that you really can do whatever you want; there’s really no rules to this shit. At any point, I could have looked at my idea like, ‘well, no one really cares,’ or ‘I don't really have a big enough budget for this.’ There's so many things I can say to explain why I shouldn’t have done what I’ve done, but I was like, ‘fuck it, I’ma do what I want.’ I think there’s power in that. I’m raising awareness on some pretty important things.
After everything you had to go through in the making of this mini-doc, what feelings and emotions are you experiencing now?
I really don't know that it's hit me yet because it's not like I had an idea and then told someone what I wanted, then got something in return. I’m spearheading these projects. I'm on the phone, I'm in the emails, I'm figuring things out […] I'm handling the logistics. Even with this event, [I’ve been] planning, so I'm still in work mode. I don't think I'll be able to really appreciate it until I'm sitting in a chair in front of everybody and [I] get to see their reaction to the video.
I have already shared the video with some close friends, and they all were just like, ‘Yo, bro, this is special, This is a moment.’ But I guess I kind of expect them to say that way. So I think I'll be more touched when I see the reaction of people who don't owe it to me to watch it. Or just for everybody who comes out, who took the time out of their day to RSVP, pull up [and] sit down and listen to what I got to say. After Friday, I think that’s when I’ll be able to process that.