Dahlia Magazine

If
Jorja Smith isn’t on your radar right
now, you might want to rectify that.
And it won’t take long to realise
what the fuss is about. Smith is
often name-checked with Sade, Alicia
Keys and Adele , and it’s true that her vocals,
smoky yet somehow soothing, have a richness
and complexity that comes along rarely.
Introducing her at a show in Toronto in 2017, the
Canadian rapper Drake described her as: “One
of the most incredible voices, incredible talents
and incredible humans I’ve ever met.” Such
attention could, and should, be head-spinning.
Did we mention she’s only 21?
Smith’s mother, Jolene, a jewelry designer, was
the first to notice that she might have a special
voice. “When I was eight I sang at church in
front of everyone,” Smith recalls. “My mum
used to make me sing, tell people I could sing
and I hated that. I was so embarrassed!”
Eventually Jorja left Walsall for south London,
where she lived with relatives and took a job
in Starbucks. All the while, Smith was writing,
putting out tracks on Soundcloud, and it
was one of these – Where Did I Go? – that
found its way to Drake. He made contact on
Instagram, said the song had kept him sane
on a long flight, and asked her to do a duet on
a song called Get It Together. Smith, scarcely
believably, said no, because in her words: “I
didn’t write it, I didn’t know what I was talking
about.” But she changed her mind a
year later and the track appeared on
his ubiquitous 2017 mixtape More Life.
Before the release of Lost & Found,
Smith was mainly known for such
collaborations: with Drake, and on the
Kali Uchis track Tyrant, and on Kendrick
Lamar’s soundtrack for the Black Panther
movie; she also shared vocals with Stormzy
on a song of her own, Let Me Down. “It was
never part of my plan to work with Kendrick
or Drake or Kali, but they just added to
everything,” says Smith now. “Because then I
got opened up to a whole new Drake world,
a whole new Kendrick world and a Kali world.
So I got new fans from it and maybe they were
waiting for me to put a project out and then
they liked that, hopefully.”
“It was never part of my plan
to work with Kendrick or
Drake or Kali, but they just
added to everything.”
Smith’s success is all the more astonishing for
the detail that she isn’t backed by a major label.
There’s a simple reason for that: she doesn’t
much like being told what to do. There’s a
simple reason for that: she doesn’t much like
being told what to do. That clear-headedness
could be seen at the Observer’s photo shoot.
“If I don’t like something, I won’t wear it,” says
Smith, who has now changed into her travelling
outfit of a Mondrian-ish Nike tracksuit. She
giggles: “I have a lot of control, yeah.”
This is Smith’s life now. So busy, so in demand
that work expands into almost every small
fissure of the day. Her only downtime is when
she’s sleeping or running 5k at the gym. That’s
fame, I suggest. “Don’t want to be famous,”
Smith shoots back. “I’m not famous. People”
– she pauses, picks her words – “know about
me. No, do you know what? I don’t have
goals or bucket lists because I don’t like being
disappointed. But famous? Famous is like
Rihanna. I’m not Rihanna. I’ve got a lot of work
to do. I’d like to be successful. That’s what I’d
like. And happy.” As for what’s next, Smith just
wants to get back to writing. “Or else I’ll never
put out another album. And this year I will write
more stuff.”
And oh, horse riding. For her next video, which
Smith plans to direct herself, she wants to
gallop on a horse, bareback. There are only two
problems here: one, that is really difficult; and
two, Smith has next to no experience on horses.
But, as ever, she is unfazed. “I’ve only told you
that,” she says, opening the car door, “so let’s
see if it happens.”
--AG
18 • Dahlia.com
19