The cover art of On Everything I Love, kJADE’s second album, is an ethereal scene. Shedding a tear behind a fence and with a sword nearby, the pastels make her look like a saint on a stained glass window. Her music has this same quality, with the rapper laying down intimate and confessional verses over spacious and lush beats. Her knack for storytelling and romantic melodies place her among artists like Liv.e or SALIMATA, the latter of which is featured on the standout track VIRGINIA IS FOR LOVERS.
A few weeks after the release of On Everything I love, we sat down with kJADE for an interview, talking about performing and finding her strength, as well as her favorite songs and a sugar-free diet.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Hi! How are you doing?
I’m really good. I just came back from Texas, it was so much fun. We literally just got back.
You played SXSW, right?
That was so fun, it was insane. It was my first time, but I didn’t know it was gonna be so much fun.
How do you feel on stage? Do you get stage fright?
I haven’t had stage fright in a really long time. Any time that I feel nervous, I really just feel excited. On stage I feel pretty at home.
When I was listening to the album, you’re very honest and open. And one thing is recording it, another is saying it to an audience. How does it change for you?
I know that a studio version versus me performing it is literally like me telling it to someone. I was really cautious of it on my first project. I was shocked because I didn’t realize I’d be performing it so consistently, and finding the emotional and spiritual hygiene to say some things in the open and then move on. People were telling me they were crying at my shows because it did something to them, or they just related to the music. I try to be very clear in my music, I’m giving myself a space to be vulnerable.
Did you also have a similar emotional reaction when making it?
Most times I do. It depends. If I get to a point where I’ve already processed the emotional aspect of the music and now I’m on the technical part, I feel less emotional about it. Usually when I’m penning this, it’s in the process where I’m writing things, like the song REDBONE was emotionally compelling. Those are the moments when I do get emotional.
I like that you bring up REDBONE, that’s one of my favorites from the album. I love the line ‘keep the raps high just to keep the rent low/I won’t stop ‘til we free the Congo.’ How do you go about mixing the personal and the political? How do you walk that line?
It makes it less difficult to connect to other people, understanding there’s an everyday struggle people have on their own basis. That’s just gonna be a constant for me in my music. In my own inner turmoil, it makes me so much more conscious of what other people go through. There are so many things I’m experiencing that directly connect to the dissonance around what I experience, [bleeding] over to the global scale. People don’t metabolize information even on a personal [level]. There are cities built off people’s plight and suffering. To me, that can still be split to understand what other people are going through.
I was stunned by how emotional and open you are. Was that always the intention?
When I started writing it, I was really coasting off of what [THE SOUND THAT TREES MAKE] had brought me. I’ve been travelling a lot, and travelling is a great time for me to write, just because I’m in a new environment experiencing new things. I don’t really think about ‘okay, album time.’ It’s a chapter that comes to me and I’m logging every bit and once it closes then I have something to give people.
Even making music in the first place is definitely consistent with giving myself a space to be vulnerable in, where I feel like I don’t get much of that elsewhere. Just knowing how I came with the first project, I kinda have another side to that. The first project is definitely darker, has more weight, whereas this one has notes of that, but it’s really more about the triumphant. The transmutation.
On the first and last songs, you feel the triumphant parts of it. It definitely feels more positive. You had a listening party for it as well, how did that come about?
That listening party was in my friends’ photography studio. My friend Esteban came through and decorated with things from their home. And my first listening party that I did for Trees, it was in [Esteban’s] home. And he produced it top to bottom, he did five songs on On Everything I Love. It was very personal. It just means a lot. When my friends like the music, I’m like ‘cool, job done.’
It’s amazing to know that it’s doing well and reaches people on a broad scale, but the biggest thing for me is feeling seen, heard, and loved. It was beautiful.
Was it the first time your friends heard the music?
It was the first time for most people. I’m a huge gatekeeper. I do not send [untitled] links, I do not send files, unless you are working on it.
When you’re working with features, how much do you let go? Do you just send the song, are you explaining the concept?
It depends. Marcel [Allen], for example, I facetime [him] everyday. He learns more about the process. But when I sent him our song and he sent his verse back, I didn’t even give him the final mix. And that’s not me gatekeeping, I was just kinda busy. And then also Ovrkast., he knew a good deal, but I’m not the type of person to create groupchats, you know. I keep it all separate.
If I were on someone’s album, I still want to be treated like there’s something to be revealed, unless I’m the engineer or your manager. I don’t think I want to be privy to everything. I’d love for you to pull the veil off and for me to see everything as is, so I try to keep it that way, you know.
Is there any feature that was supposed to be on the album but didn’t make the cut?
There is. Another friend, someone who I’ve known for a really long time is MAVI. But that n****a was in Paris, so it was hard to come about. The day that me and Kast tracked DOUGLAS, MAVI pulled up to my show and it was from there. There was an open space to rap, didn’t happen.
I wanted to ask about the song SHE’S SO HEAVY. I like the line ‘you not hard you just aggressive.’ I just want to get your thoughts, how did that come about?
There are some people that come to mind. There’s a confusion about your output, being able to afford you more space if you’re more aggressive. There’s a combination in rap, and in life at large, of the things you do say and the things you don’t say, they kind of create a picture of what kind of a character you are, your values. After processing some people I’ve encountered, there is a clear angle that strength is not just in being hard, hardened, aggressive. That doesn’t admit you grace.
Where do you find your strength?
Vulnerability. That’s something I’m still unlocking. I was really shy as a kid, I couldn’t talk to people, I had to write shit down and hand them a piece of paper. Just processing my thoughts through writing is really comfortable for me, but that’s also how you access my vulnerability. I’ve been able to realize this is a strength of mine.
Do you think your process of writing changed as you became a musician?
I’m still pretty good for living life, getting a bar out of a certain experience and writing it down. Whether it be on my phone, remembering it, or actually writing it. I’ve always been good for that. Now I metabolize information faster, I track faster, I know exactly how to record myself. Everything, that whole process, just speeds up.
I still like to write to no music. Writing to music is possible, it’s fine. SHE’S SO HEAVY, no music. DOUGLAS, music. It’s all possible, but I prefer to literally just sit there, it’s like a meditative exercise to me.
I heard that you went sugar-free. Is that true?
This is true! It’s very true now, except when I was on the road in Texas. I did have an ice cream cone and a coffee, but I try to be very strict about it. For the most part, pretty sugar free.
How is it going? Because it feels like sugar is everywhere.
Yeah! It’s in everything! If anything, just eating whole foods. Also sometimes it’s ‘sugar-free’ but then it has artificial sweeteners, it’s kinda weird. And I’m the type of sugar-free where it’s really anything that spikes my glucose, my insulin. That means no honey, no agave.
How do you feel about that change? Do you feel positive effects?
Absolutely.
I just have one last thing to ask. What’s on your playlist? Let’s go, I love this question. I was listening to 454, Bank of Amerikkka, I was listening to Biskhit, the song with Mercury and Vayda called PERFECT. She’s fire. And then I was listening to Prince, he has this one demo, Wouldn’t You Love To Love Me. Prince also has a studio version of that song, but it’s really the demo, that’s the real tea.
