A Conversation with Black Creative Jalil Wright: Artist, Producer, and Web Designer

Jalil Wright, AKA Runituprawww, is an artist, producer, artist developer, and website designer. A creative in various ways. He played trombone, piano, xylophone, drums, a little bit of trumpet, and violin growing up. This added to his love of music as he’s currently in the process of making his own label called Poise Productions, and building a recording studio.

“I’ve always been fascinated with music,” Wright said. “ I can sing and I can rap. And I’ve also done plays too. playing those instruments and seeing how whatever I play can uplift somebody’s mood or bring back a memory or make someone feel in some instances it makes making someone emotional or something like that. But it’s just cool to see how music and the vibrations of it can affect someone’s mood to where they’re looking now at the person, making the music as if they are a magician.”

Philadelphia being home for Wright “kind of kick-started” his musical ability and thought the process, but having ties in Florida gave him a different perspective to take his time. “They move a little bit slower and they also listened to slowed down music,” Wright said.

Check out some of Wright’s music here.

“They’ll take a regular song and slow it down. Florida kind of made me look at things and take my time more before I rushed and puts them out. Whereas in Philly, it’s like everybody’s trying to be the most popular person just so they can get the most reciprocation back when a lot of the times, from what I know, and I’m sure you can relate, you know, you can get all those people, but nine times out of 10 half of those people, don’t like you, or half of those people are only saying that so that they can get to your position.  They might be saying, Oh, this is hot in your face, but talking crazy behind your back saying that it’s really not.”

Wright also recalls the first song he wrote and produced, which became a family affair. At around 10 or 11, his mom was creating a Thanksgiving drive and gave him an opportunity to come up with a song, which he had her sing on as well. 

“I performed it at the Thanksgiving drive,” he said. “I was extremely nervous, extremely nervous. That was the first time I was able to express myself through music.”

That was the first time I was on stage for something other than, you know, theater, a play, choir, or something like that. So I was really nervous, but once I got past the first couple of lines, I started getting into my element. I don’t know if you watched the movie a Soul where he kind of goes into his trance when he’s playing the piano. It’s something similar to that. Yeah, that was that that was the first moment where I was like, ‘yeah, I could do this.’”

Although Wright had family involvement in his music career, they also wanted him to have a little more job security, which led him to another love; website design. “They wanted me to chase my dreams, but they also wanted me to have some security so that I’m not a struggling artist… because the world is cruel,” Wright said. 

“As I got older, like mid-highschool/pre-college, I kind of faded away from focusing on music just because I needed to find a career at which I would be able to support my dream. You know, they called it a hobby. Of course, you know, sometimes family can take what you do and not take it as seriously as you do. So I went to school at Fairleigh Dickinson University for computer science and technology, and that’s where I started to get into the websites.”

Despite taking a shift from music, Wright said “it all works for a reason.” As he thinks back, he said “I wish I would have probably pushed a little harder,” but he isn’t upset because he developed a new skill. That skill has led him to one of his current positions, a web developer for Vi3ions, an emerging, Black-owned photography studio located in Philadelphia.

“Web design is actually one of the things that excites me. It’s not necessarily a job,” said Wright. “It’s almost like art to me. When I make a website, I like to express the person behind the business to the fullest extent. If that makes sense.”

When it comes to being a Black creative, Wright says he used to feel pressure, but now that it’s “kind of elite.”

“It’s kind of cool,” Wright said. “It’s like putting myself in a different tier of creativity because there’s a lot of amazing creatives, especially black creative. So it’s just like, it’s not, it’s not even a category. It’s more so an accomplishment in life. Like I can make something today that people 50 years from now will go. Wow, that was awesome. That was beautiful.”