Words, whether small or big, can leave an impact. Words themselves can provide change, can teach lessons, can provide comfort, can give hope. Some may think words are just words, but the wise know that they are more than just that. Every day, you can land across words that might lift you from a bad time, that might motivate you to take steps further in your life. Whether it is worded in a song, in a poem, or words retweeted on Twitter from another friend. And then you have people like Xavier who give us spoken word, who use their life experiences to form something everyone at one point or another can relate to.

Where did the name “Exile” stem from?  It’s more a shortened version of my original spoken word name, which was “exiled persona,” but I figured when I actually started to do things music-wise, it was just as stretch to say “exiled persona.” So “exile” just came through.

What is your full name? Xavier Gomez.

How old are you? I’m now 20.

When did you begin writing? I started writing spoken word in my freshman year of high school, but I didn’t start seriously writing until my senior year of high school.

What led you to spoken word? My uncle used to do it when I was younger. I always thought it would be cool to like do it, and eventually, he had an event. I said I’d want to end up doing it within the next couple months, and I did it. After that, it was a wrap.

Do you create the beats you use? As far as the ones from the project that came out, cancerous A, nah. I had my boy architect produce that. Now that I’m past that, I’m doing everything myself now.

Not a lot of people knew you did spoken word until you really started posting it. Do you have any other hidden talents? I mean, I sing but only like 10 seconds of that was heard so far, but I sing.

Have you visited any places in JC to perform spoken word? Yeah, my first like official one as Exile was at Café Sol for Wolf Juice, but after that, it was a bunch of little places in Hoboken and New York.

Do you remember when it was that you performed at café sol? It was last year in April.

What should be expected from the “exiled persona” project? It’s completely different from what people have already heard. The Cancerous A project was more spoken word based. With this “exiled persona,” it’s a lot more personal. It’s almost the same concept as far as my writing, but all the beats and instrumentals will be done by me, and all the vocals done by me. I’m going to have some people feature on it, but it’s mostly going to be a collection of what I’ve gone through in the past 2-3 years.

What would you say to other people write and may be nervous to put things out there? Before you put anything out there, whether it be writing or whatever, just make sure you’re confident about it. I mean, basically just be confident about what you’re putting out there because once it’s out there. Everyone’s going to hear it.

What is the first line that comes to mind from your work if I were to ask you to recite a line right now? “I found myself in you.” I mean, honestly, for that song or whatever you want to call it, I would probably just quote the whole thing. I love that one; I can’t just quote one thing from that. But “I found myself in you” would be it, it was the most successful one of the five.

Do you plan to work with other JC artists? I’m working on something with King Kold and also Sparknomad.

Favorite JC hangout? Koro Koro.

Were you born and raised in JC? 201, my guy, yeah.

How do you feel Jersey City has changed? I mean the massive amounts of gentrification. It’s crazy, bro.

Do you feel JC youth is doing their part to make a change? As far as the arts, yeah. Its come a long way from what I used to hear back when I was younger, so to hear what’s coming out of Jersey City now is refreshing.

Do you have any favorite poets? Locally, I would say Qualea. As far as a grander scale, I would say Charles Dickens.

What goes through your head as you write? It depends on the concept I have for the project, like the Cancerous A project. I had to put myself in some really dark spots just Draking all night. It was just basically thinking about the person I was writing about and everything I had gone through in that situation, but in general I don’t really have a certain mindset. It all goes based on what I want the project or concept to be about.

There’s a lot of love in your words. Have you ever been in love?  *Laughs* Yo, you bodied me. Uh, yeah definitely.

Want talk about that? *more laughter* Oh I’m crying!

Want to give a little bit more than a definitely out of that? Yo, Nettie did me dirty! Yeah, I guess I’ll expand on that. I mean, I’ve been in love with only two girls in my life. One actually was my girlfriend for two years, the other was just like a tragic ass love story, and that’s how Cancerous A was made.

Is there anyone talented that you’re close to that you would say pushes you to be everything you aspire to be? I would say my boy Trillgodpow, only because he played a major role in Cancerous A even though he didn’t produce anything, but he got to read and hear everything. He was always really supportive.

A lot of people become stuck; every artist gets stuck, how do you manage your artist block? I’m not gonna lie and say I don’t get writer’s block, but it all depends. I don’t know. Sometimes, I just have to sit myself down and really think about what’s going on as far as my life and see if I can derive anything that’s happened recently to put it into words.

Ending this off with – are there any words of wisdom you’d like to give to the Jersey City youth? Just keep grinding. Just never lose focus on the goal, honestly.

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You can follow iamexile on Twitter, Instagram, and Soundcloud.

Follow contributor Angenette (Nettie) on Twitter and Instagram.