JKeeth breaks down his creative process and vision

JKeeth is carving out his own lane in R&B. The St. Louis artist writes every lyric without pen or paper, letting raw emotion guide his process. His upcoming music promises to reveal the layers behind the spontaneous creativity that has defined his rise. From writing sessions with Mary J. Blige to collaborating with Lola Brooke, JKeeth’s journey reflects his belief that music is a superpower meant to inspire love and connection.

Your sound has that rooted old school soul with actual vocal drive mixed with that new R&B sound. Where did you discover your sound?

Honestly, just messing around with different styles. I am a huge fan of some of the most talented people in the world. When you listen to people from the young Michael Jackson when he was with the Jackson 5 to R. Kelly to Jaheim or Anthony Hamilton, it’s a little bit of everybody. Then I have my current influences like Breezy and Eric Bellinger. I learned that the best always take different pieces that they resonate with from all the people they’re inspired by and incorporate it in their own sound. That’s just what I did.

Was there one particular artist that made you think, I want to do this?

My sister used to have a poster of this dude on her wall and he was the first dude I seen with the blonde hair out of all the R&B singers and that was that boy Sisqo. He was a real life R&B rock star, the dragon guitar tattoos, the blonde hair, the glasses, the energy was just there and then his vocals was crazy. He was a power singer, you could feel it whenever he sang. So one person that really made me want to go crazy with this was Sisqo.

What would you say is your favorite Sisqo song?

I think it was just Sisqo’s image. During that period of time, Sisqo kind of pushed the bar for what an artist supposed to look like and lowkey it paved the way for a lot of new artists nowadays. I feel like nowadays a lot of the R&B has trended more towards the direction that he kind of curated already. So I would say it’s more so just his energy, the powerful vocals and just the eccentric style. He did what he wanted to do. He didn’t fit the mold.

What is the spark for an idea for a song? Is it real life experience or imagination?

Both. Anything I’ve ever written has been inspired by real life. And sometimes real life is inspired by imagination. So many times I’ve written a song and it’d be something that I felt deep in my soul, but I hadn’t experienced it yet. Then I go back two years later and listen to a song and I’m like, wow, I’m living in this moment right now. Your words are extremely powerful. I look at creating music as a superpower. I’ve always had life experience be an inspiration for everything I make. But sometimes I just hear something and it sparks something crazy and it turns into my life.

What was the process for Sex N A 4Rin?

I was dating a girl and she had a CLA 45 AMG, really nice, but she was so particular she did not want to do nothing freaky in her car. Man, I love a spontaneous shorty. I’m a spontaneous type of guy. So that’s just what I was on when I created Sex N A 4Rin. I was just really teasing at the fact that she was never interested in messing around in her car. 

At the time I heard the beat and I was like, this would be a fire song that I think Breezy could kill because I write music for artists as well. I ain’t heard nobody else say let’s have sex in a foreign. Eventually I was like, I think I want to keep this for myself. I don’t write anything down either. Anything you hear on a record, I just sat in front of the mic and it just came out of me because it’s inspired by real life.

You’re from St. Louis. Do you have any inspirations from St. Louis specifically?

Of course. Shout out to Nelly and shout out to Chingy. Those are two huge inspirations. I kind of got like a little country twang, country boy vibe to me a little bit, but I also have more of a Midwest gentleman type of vibe, clear but smooth but rough around the edges. That’s all St. Louis. But then I also got to give a huge shout out to Pretty Willie Dove. I feel like he’s extremely underrated as an R&B singer. 

As far as St. Louis R&B, he’s the one who comes to mind when I think of inspiration. He’s one of the huge reasons why I started making music because he was the only R&B artist from St. Louis that I had ever heard of at the time doing it on a big scale. It was like, if he could do it and he’s from the same place as me, he could do it, I could do it. He was just a fly dude, handsome dude, and he believed in God and he was not afraid to express that. He really sang for women and I love women.

I saw that you wrote a single with Lola Brooke. Can you tell me about that?

That was the most random studio session. That was a right place at the right time type of situation. I had a couple residencies in New York. I went over there to write some stuff for Mary J. Blige and while I was there I just ended up in the studio by myself. Somebody came in and was like, Derrick Milano is in the room next to you. I was like, that’s crazy, me and Derrick got a lot of mutual friends and I’ve been wanting to connect with Derrick for a long time. 

I opened the door, cracked it open a little bit, played my music a little loud so that people can hear it. One of the producers that works with Lola, his name is Reefa, walked out and I saw him. He came in and checked out my music. He was like, you’re hard. Long story short, Derrick was just like come on in the studio session.

The more you’re in these studios and you get around the right friends, all you got to do is say what’s up. It could change your life. I went from me randomly meeting Derrick Milano and Lola Brooke and Reefa to being with them for five days straight from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. just working on her whole album. It was a beautiful experience. Really inspired me.

What do you want your legacy for your music to be?

I just want to be known as somebody who helps create more love in the world, more love for the women, more love for the men, more encouragement of relationships and the healing and God. I feel like one of the biggest things that the music has been missing lately is that God connection. People don’t realize how important God plays a part in this music creation stuff. I just want to be somebody who when people listen to my music, it’s real and we inspire people to love and we inspire people to grow and we inspire people to inspire. That’s it.

JKeeth’s latest single You Deserve is available now on all streaming platforms. Follow him on social media for updates and new music releases.