J'Calm: The Rising Star Redefining Caribbean Pop and Dominating TikTok
- Jayda Pitter
- May 21, 2024
- 3 min read
You may recognize the name J'calm from his hit single Tempted that made Obama's 2023 summer playlist or from his popular tiktoks @jcalmofficial. The musician, dancer and tik tok star is on a rollercoaster ride that only goes up and he's on our list of artists to watch.
His journey into music like a lot of recent up and coming artists started during the pandemic.
“I started off with an obsession for music production. What is it, how do people produce music, what are the tools, the software etc? And it grew into a hobby once I had the knowledge and the software. I started making beats on a whole. I learnt to use FL Studio and that’s still the software I use now. I started on my phone and then I started using my laptop."
Like any rising artist in the modern day he has made the most of the fastest growing promotional tool in music right now TikTok.
In the past few years we've see the platform give musicians exposure and led to the discovery of hot new artists like Pink Pantheress and given more autonomy to independent artists like JVKE. While some people may deny the longevity of music from TikTok and dismiss artists as "TikTok artists", J'Calm takes no offence to the term.
When he started on TikTok his goal was always to pursue music. First he figured out what people gravitated to on TikTok and started off earlier with some comedic videos, “but I grew past that."
For me, TikTok is really a tool. I wouldn’t say to be a “TikTok artist” is a bad thing. There are going to be changes I’m going to evolve for sure so.
However he has also been unofficially coined a Jamaican Pop Artist.
When it comes to his sound he describes it as "a mixture of Caribbean vibes with RnB and pop. " His influences right now are 2000s RnB and afro beats.
My main influence is Chris Brown. I'm listening to Afrobeats: Wizkid, Rema, local is like Protoje, Koffee, Masicka and then early 2000s RnB: Usher Alicia Keys, old Rihanna.
When it comes to where his music fits in the local music landscape, J'Calm is more interested in creating his own community and doesn't not feel any pressure to fit into the dancehall space.
For me it’s not about how to find a space in a community but rather for me it’s building a community and spreading the awareness as far as possible. Not saying I don’t tap into dancehall and the culture. I use elements of Dancehall to signal that there’s elements of the Caribbean in my music.
Some could say he's interested in finding his own niche. And on that note his album NICHE, dropped on January 15, 2024.
J'Calm is still heavily involved in his own music production with this self produced album under his manager's independent label Rose Gold, to which he has been signed since October of 2023.
His own unique fusion sound shines through in this album and he is authentically himself thanks to the great support around him. His close knit team is like a family, with some members actually being his family like his step father that plays the role of manager. They have a fun working relationship that J'Calm pokes fun at occasionally on his TikTok and seems to the same easy going relationship with his sound engineer and road manager who also make occasional appearances on his page.
Strong support and passion feeds success and creativity and J'Calm is constantly *creating.
"I’m always at my table, I’m always around my macbook so I’m always making music. So I’m always making beats, melodies and making new hooks. With songwriting now it’s something that just comes to me, whether I’m cooking, whether I’m in the shower, whether I’m outside, those are the times it really kicks in. It’s like my mind is a 24 hour clock for music so I’m always thinking about a lyric or some form of vibe. "
His priority for 2024 is to create a foundation for bigger things to come, to release solid work and create a catalogue and he's already started with NICHE.
