Interview with Jorja Smith
Saturday, August 4, 2018
Jorja Smith (born 11 June 1997) is an English singer/songwriter from Walsall, West Midlands. She debuted with her single “Blue Lights” in 2016 which she recorded and released while working at Starbucks. The previous year, she had gone viral with a Twitter freestyle in which she sang over Treble Clef’s classic grime instrumental “Ghetto Kyote”, and also shared a cover of Camp Lo’s “Luchini AKA This Is It”. She has worked closely with Maverick Sabre and Cadenza on multiple occasions.
Smith released her debut EP Project 11 on 17 November 2016 to rave reviews, and then gained further notoriety by collaborating with Drake on his 2017 project More Life. Later in the year, she contributed “Fine Line” to the Insecure season two soundtrack, and also appeared on Kali Uchis’s hit single “Tyrant”. She enjoyed her first taste of chart success with “On My Mind”, a UK garage single produced by Preditah.
In 2018, she collaborated with Kendrick Lamar on “I Am” for the Black Panther soundtrack, released the standalone single “Let Me Down” featuring Stormzy, remixed Khalid’s “Location” alongside Wretch 32, and later unleashed her debut album Lost and Found on 8 June 2018. The album features previous singles “Blue Lights”, “Where Did I Go?”, “Teenage Fantasy”, and “February 3rd”.