Worcester native Joyner Lucas reflects on fatherhood, shares inspiration behind upcoming Joynerfest

After wrapping up his "Not Now, I'm Busy" tour Joyner Lucas shares what he dislikes most about being on the road, what he's learned from fatherhood and why he learned how to produce and direct his music videos.

The Massachusetts rapper - who had an acting role in Bad Boys: Ride or Die - has had a busy year and he's not done yet. He talks about the inspiration behind his upcoming Joynerfest in Worcester, Mass., this weekend and what fans can expect.

Read lightly edited excerpts from the interview below, and watch the full interview above.

NBC10 Boston: The first thing I asked you, because it's an important day in Boston, is whether or not you're a Celtics fan and what did you say?

Joyner Lucas: Of course!

I'm assuming you were able to watch the [NBA Finals] game as well. What was your reaction to them getting Banner 18?

I already knew they would go in, and I knew that they lost the last game on purpose so that they can win at home. For sure.

I appreciate you giving us some time specifically because your tour that just ended is literally called "Not Now, I'm Busy,. How was it being on tour over the last few months?

It was amazing getting to see the fans. I really bring like a full production to my shows. It's almost like a Broadway play. You know, my shows are like, real reminiscent of, like a Broadway play because there's so much stuff going on, you know, there's like skits within the video walls and changes of outfits. I think it's important, to give to fans, like a real, true experience.

I think the tough parts about being on the road, for me, the main, the biggest tough part is being away from my kids. I don't like being away from my kids for that long. So I would when I have an off day, I would like fly in to see them and then fly out. So that was a lot to do that. And I did that a handful of times.

With fatherhood, I've heard you talk in other interviews about how much it means to you, but what would you say you've learned about yourself through being a father?

I think my kids teach me a lot above anything else. But one thing that I will say that, is the best part about, watching them grow, for me, is seeing how intelligent they are. My oldest son being 8 years old, one thing about him is he takes accountability. And I love that. He'll take a couple of days and think about something he did and then come back and say, "hey, I just want to let you know, I apologize for what I said the other day." At 8 years old, you know what I'm saying? I know a lot of grown people that can't apologize or, you know, don't have the conscience enough to, like, really think about something that they did that was wrong.

I think my kids teach me a lot above anything else.

Joyner Lucas

The way that you also produce your videos, direct and really conceptualize it, I imagine, as well. How does that process work and where does it stem from? Because I don't think a lot of artists could necessarily say they could direct their music videos

It stems from essentially being broke and not having money to afford, to pay for music videos. So I really had to learn. In my position, I had to learn how to direct. I had to learn how to direct. I had to learn how to do it. Also, I kind of use that as a way to make a little bit of money, you know?

Once I actually learned how to do that then it was just like I had like a superpower because now it's like, oh, now I can control everything. I can control the record, I can control the video. Once I learn how to produce, then I'ma be able to control even more. And then I learned how to produce.

The entire "Not Now, I'm Busy" album was self-produced. A lot of people don't know that. Between me and my engineer, Leo Son, me and him sat there and we crafted the beats from scratch, every single last one on the project. And I did that because I didn't have that much control over any of my other beats on my other projects.

Joynerfest, the 22nd in Worcester, how did you come up with this idea?

I wanted to bring a festival to my hometown. I wanted to give other artists that are coming up from the New England area, doesn't necessarily have to be my hometown, but anybody that's out there doing their thing, that deserves a chance. I wanted to put them on a stage so that they can actually get the opportunity to perform in front of thousands of people. This is my way of giving back.

We got some carnival games. We got some prize giveaways. We got some vendors, we got food trucks. We got a whole bunch of other cool stuff going on, and it's. This is my day. This is the Joynerfest day. This is a day I can bring the festival back to my hometown and make sure everybody has a good time and give them something to remember and bring other artists out that they wanted to see. I'm going to have even bigger artists next year, and I'm going to start working on that, like ASAP so that way everybody's locked in.