Atlanta native Jai’Len Josey, spoke with SHIFTER’s Yannick Mutombo about her Broadway stint, genre-bending single “New Woman”, and her debut album, Serial Romantic.
“Once you’re in your individual area, you don’t see your self as a lot as different folks might even see you. The best way you deal with your self is harsher than different folks would anticipate. So after I hear someone inform me they see massive issues for me, it makes me really feel like, okay, possibly I would like to relax. I can breathe for a little bit bit and proceed on this lengthy however rewarding journey.” -Jai’Len Josey
An image is price a thousand phrases; a music is price a gallery. Jai’Len Josey’s debut EP is a testomony to this. Her vocal prowess is plain. The songwriting, immersive. The manufacturing—theatrical and instrument-heavy—offers the proper backdrop for Josey’s six-song homage to Atlanta, Georgia, and its musical soundscape. Illustrations (2020) is a masterclass in evocative imagery.
DIGITAL COVER | JUNE 2025
5 years later, Josey has develop into an oft-cited “R&B artist to look at”. Her subsequent EPs Southern Delicacy and Conversations from A Payphone, each launched in 2023, obtained comparable vital acclaim. Josey sees this as a “blessing”, although she remains to be processing how to answer fame.
“Once you’re in your individual area, you don’t see your self as a lot as different folks might even see you. The best way you deal with your self is harsher than different folks would anticipate. So after I hear someone inform me they see massive issues for me, it makes me really feel like, okay, possibly I would like to relax. I can breathe for a little bit bit and proceed on this lengthy however rewarding journey”, she mentioned.
Josey named India Shawn and Mnelia as fellow artists who deserve extra shine. She can be a fan of Victoria Monét, whose three wins on the 2024 Grammy Awards felt like a victory for all “the underdogs”. Like Monét, Josey pens songs for different singers. She co-wrote Ari Lennox’s hit single “Stress”, which samples Shirley Brown’s “Blessed Is the Girl (With a Man Like Mine)”. The music peaked at #66 on the US Billboard Sizzling 100, and #2 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart.
“The sweetness in collaboration is all of our concepts being put collectively. Working for different artists retains me sharp.”
“As a author, you get referred to as at bizarre instances. [Ari] had referred to as me round two or three. I used to be ending [a] session, about to go house. They already had the beat. Jermaine Dupri was on the turntable, Bryan-Michael Cox was on piano. [Ari] had a pair traces collectively. I completed it in half-hour. I recorded the demo, and I left. I don’t suppose I heard her model till a pair weeks earlier than the discharge. It was a fantastic expertise”, she mentioned.
Josey described feeling grounded when she writes for different artists, how she values being of service and serving to somebody’s creativity come to fruition.
“I might return to Broadway if it was the suitable factor for me.”
“The sweetness in collaboration is all of our concepts being put collectively. Working for different artists retains me sharp. When it’s my flip, I don’t need to shut someone down when their contribution to my music could be the factor that makes it what it’s,” she mentioned.
As soon as Josey discovered to belief her expertise, she mentioned giving songs away grew to become straightforward.
“It was exhausting at first. Like, dang, I wrote the hell out of that music. I spotted that as I grow old, I belief my reward sufficient to know that I can create one other one for my very own artwork. It’s no biggie to offer out a music, realizing that I could make one thing within the realm of what I already created”, she defined.
In 2017, Josey performed Pearl Krabs in Spongebob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical, alongside Stephanie Hsu and Ethan Slater. The manufacturing earned twelve Tony Awards nominations. Although she subsequently left Broadway to deal with her music profession, Josey stays open to appearing.
“I by no means actually gave up on it. I simply knew that it wasn’t my dream at that second. I wanted to depart Broadway to place out [Illustrations]. I might return to Broadway if it was the suitable factor for me. My life was gearing as much as be on Broadway. I used to be within the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta. There’s a performing arts highschool right here in Atlanta referred to as Tri-Cities Excessive Faculty, and also you’re both in musical theatre otherwise you’re in sports activities. OutKast got here from Tri-Cities, Kandi Burruss from Xscape”, she mentioned.
“What Broadway enhanced was efficiency. I like an orchestral environment, watching these folks play their devices, the horn part. Broadway positively widened my love for stay music”, she added.
Josey’s newest single “New Woman”, takes a special path from her earlier outputs. She substitutes the symphonic manufacturing which is so prevalent to her catalogue for an understated mix of UK Storage, R&B and Techno. Josey’s signature vocal runs and melodies stay. The music construction (verse, pre-chorus, refrain, verse, pre-chorus, refrain) compliments the one’s experimental manufacturing and short-length. The result’s a novel listening expertise with insane replay worth.
“Serial Romantic isn’t essentially [about] me being a serial dater. It’s [about] giving my coronary heart out a number of instances, being naive to start with. You come to this realization that giving your coronary heart out so many instances is in the end abusive to your self.”
“My mother is from Detroit. That they had this factor referred to as Ghettotech. What’s cool about Ghettotech, UK Storage, Trance, Home, is that capability to get you to bounce. Despite the fact that [New Girl] is totally different from Illustrations, it nonetheless is harking back to its essence. This new set of music is harking back to my mom, me being Southern, and attempting to mash that collectively to create one thing totally different. The [first] 5, six songs on my new album are all high-tempo. Individuals have to bounce after they press play. I like to think about Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wish to Dance With Any individual’”, she defined.
Josey’s upcoming album, Serial Romantic will discover courting, self-discovery, and decentring romance.
“Serial Romantic isn’t essentially [about] me being a serial dater. It’s [about] giving my coronary heart out a number of instances, being naive to start with. You come to this realization that giving your coronary heart out so many instances is in the end abusive to your self. It’s good to give your coronary heart again to your self. The outro was initially entitled ‘Egocentric’. It’s referred to as ‘I imagine’ now, and says that I would like to offer the love that I’ve been giving to all people—household, [romantic] relationships, work—I would like to offer that again to myself”, she mentioned.
Like earlier releases, Josey would be the sole performer on Serial Romantic.
“I’ve been doing so many visitor appearances on different folks’s songs. I don’t have any options [on Serial Romantic], and never as a result of I don’t need them, however as a result of I nonetheless really feel like I must plant my toes on this trade. I must solidify who I’m in order that by the following album, I’m bringing folks into my sound, not the opposite manner round”, she concluded.
Serial Romantic might be launched in late summer season via Def Jam Recordings.
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