Jay Sean Revealed What It Was Like To Work With Mary J Blige, Sean Paul, And Lil Jon, And I Love This For Him
Known for hits like "Down" (ft. Lil Wayne) and "Do You Remember" (ft. Lil Jon and Sean Paul), Jay Sean is venturing into music executive territory by partnering with Virgin Records to support upcoming South Asian artists. Alongside his latest single, "Heartless," featuring Ikky, the singer/songwriter/record producer sat down with BuzzFeed in a video call to discuss the making of his new song, being one of the first Indian pop stars in the music industry, and his excitement about launching his latest label venture.
What would you be if you weren’t a singer, songwriter, or music executive?
Jay Sean: Well, I was actually on my way to becoming a doctor. I did two and a half years of med school. It was in England, so that's halfway through because in England, it's five years and you're a fully qualified doctor. That's where I would be right now if I wasn't doing music.
What made you want to switch to music?
Jay Sean: Music was always a hobby of mine, but it wasn't necessarily a realistic career because there's no application form you can fill in to become a pop star. Whereas with everything else, I go: do this degree, fill out this form, apply for this job, do this interview. And for me, it was a far-off dream, but it was my biggest passion, and I just never gave it up. It was a hobby. I used to be in med school during the day, revising for exams, and then in the evening, I would be partly juggling medical school and also throwing concerts and doing festivals and writing raps and producing songs. And it was just something I juggled for a long time until it became very clear that music was what I was meant to be doing.
Do you have a specific moment of when it did become very clear?
Jay Sean: The short answer is when the record contract was right in front of me on the table. That's when it was very, very obvious that this is no longer something that may happen. It was going to happen if I signed the contract. And that happened with Virgin Records, actually 20 years ago. So I was still in med school. But when it got to that point where all the discussions and the "hmm, maybe, let's see" became ink on paper, that was something that was very obvious to me that this was now a path that I was going to follow.
BuzzFeed: Was that your "we made it" moment?
Jay Sean: You know, it's funny, Brittney, I have never told myself I made it. I give myself frequent pats on the back, and I go, "Well done, mate! You're doing well." But I think — this is my personal opinion — the minute I say "I've made it" is the day I stop trying. It's the day I stop challenging myself. It's the day I stop trying to grow, and I want to grow consistently through life. I don't ever want to stop and go, "Oh, that's enough." There's so much more to be done. So many more fun adventures to be had.
BuzzFeed: I love that mindset!
Jay Sean: Thank you! Just to jump in on part two of that — were there moments where I went, "Pinch me?" Did the little Indian kid from a small town in London ever think he would get this far? When I was standing on stage in Madison Square Garden in New York, which is probably one of the most famous arenas on planet Earth, I was singing my songs, and 20,000 people were singing back every single word. And I just thought, "This is one of those moments I dreamt of." That was soon after I had the number one [on] Billboard, which was another "What? Who gets the number one Billboard song when there are millions of songs on Earth?" So those moments, I do say, "Well done, mate." And it's important to have those.
Do you remember the first song you ever wrote?
Jay Sean: Yes, I do. I used to be a rapper before I was a singer. I wrote many, many, many, many, many, many raps. But the first full, complete song that I wrote where I was singing was a song called "One Minute." Prior to that, I had always been rapping in the verses and singing only on the hooks, and this is my first complete song where I didn't rap, and I just sang a whole song. And amazingly, it made its way onto my first album. The first song I ever wrote made its way onto the first album, and that doesn't usually happen. Most people have to write 100 songs before they're like, "All right, I think I'm pretty good now." So it was nice to have that documented in my discography.
Do you remember the first album you bought?
Jay Sean: Yeah, I do remember vividly. He's amazing, but when you're a 9-year-old kid and you buy Lionel Richie's Back to Front as your first album — slightly interesting choice there. Back then, you used to walk into stores like HMV, our big music store, or Tower Records, and they'd have headphones, and you could listen to them. They were showcasing his album, and I thought, "Oh, let me put this on." And honestly, I fell in love with the melodies, with the feeling, and I think that's very evident in my music, too. A lot of people say the way that I write songs, some of those more pop songs have a slight soulful, country edge to them. I was like, "I don't know where the country is coming from, but Lionel Richie is known for that — some of his songs sound country — and I think that shaped my taste in melody, in feeling, and in emotion. So it was meant to be, I was meant to pick up that CD.
BuzzFeed: What was your favorite song from the album?
Jay Sean: It's either Do It To Me or My Destiny. Do It To Me starts off with that saxophone. It just immediately transports me back to my childhood.
Which artist was your favorite to collaborate with?
Jay Sean: It's an impossible question to answer because they're all very, very different. Were there collabs where I had more fun with that person on set during the music video? Sure. For example, me, Sean Paul, and Lil Jon had so much fun on set for Do You Remember. That whole collaboration was just memorable for so many different reasons. But then there are other collabs where I'm like, "Wow, who thought I'd ever do a song with Mary J. Blige?" Mary J. Blige was the queen of R&B and soul, and when she asked us whether we'd like to feature on a song, I was like, "You're Mary J. Blige. Are you kidding me right now?" There are lots of amazing collaborations that I've done, also some that never actually got heard. Lupe Fiasco is one of my favorites; that one never became a single. I've done two songs with Busta Rhymes, four songs with Lil Wayne. There are so many collabs that we've done that wasn't released, so they all hold a special place in my heart.
BuzzFeed: What was one of your favorite memories of making Do You Remember?
Jay Sean: The way that Do You Remember came about itself was just so organic. Never in my career, and I'm pretty lucky to say this, have I done a song and gone, "I wish somebody knew blah, blah, blah artist. I'd love for them to be on this." It was never that. I never told my managers or record company, "Hey, I want so-and-so on a record." It was always somehow, some way, our paths crossed, and we met each other at an event or somewhere, and we had a mutual appreciation for each other's music. It was a very organic process. The way that Sean Paul happened was we were at the MTV VMAs in New York. I came from a small town in London and came over to America. By then, I had become known in England. But 'obscure town' to somehow ending up on the red carpet for MTV. Who's right next to me? Sean Paul. I was like, "Oh my god, why am I on the same carpet as this guy? It was all so bizarre and new and kind of fun and fresh. So me being me, I just said, "No way, are you standing right here next to me? This is crazy." He was like, "Yo, yo, what's your name?" I said, "Jay Sean," and he was like, "Yo, you got the biggest song in the country right now." I was like, "Yo, but you're Sean Paul, we should do something." And that's exactly how it happened. It was just a mutual love for each other's music, and it ended up becoming a big, massive hit.
Who's an artist you're loving right now?
Jay Sean: One of my favorites for a while has been JP Saxe. As a songwriter, he moves me the same way that Ed Sheeran did when I first heard Ed's music. But there's so much more geeky stuff behind why I like JP's music or the way he records. It sounds like he's just singing into your ear, and it's a very specific choice that he's made about how he emotes and how he manages to get his music across. His song 25 in Barcelona is one of my favorite songs in the world. I just think it is an absolutely beautiful, brilliant song.
What has your experience been like in the industry?
Jay Sean: My experience has been an incredible journey of so many wonderful highs, some lows, some moments of pinch me, and some moments of "How has it already been 20 years, and we're still going?" People are at the shows across generations now. My early fans now have kids, but their younger brothers and sisters are now the new fans at my shows. It's just really unbelievable. The hardest thing to do is to stand the test of time. In this day and age that we're in right now, you're lucky if you have one song that people remember for longer than two months. People listen to something, and everything is so disposable now. It's like, "Oh, that was great. What's next?" And you're like, "I dropped it this morning. How about listen to it a little longer than just one day?" That's the generation we live in now, so I'm pretty proud of the fact that I've managed to last 20 years in an ever-changing environment. I'm proud of that.
Being one of the first Indian pop stars in the music industry, how does it feel to be able to help represent the South Asian community?
Jay Sean: That has been my biggest and most important goal from the day I stepped foot onto a stage. I very quickly realized that there weren't other people that looked like me on these stages. And I very quickly realized that this can be one of two things: this can be about me and I could go, "Woo hoo, look at me. I'm the only one. I'm killing it. Yay, yay me." Or, I could be like, "Yo, dude, you got an opportunity to fly the flag here for your people, as well as give yourself a little pat on the back. You have an opportunity here to represent the people who never got seen, the people who never got to be on these stages. The people who dreamt but thought that it would never happen because nobody ever did it." For me, the moment I realized I was on these bigger platforms, the moment I realized I was on these mainstream networks and channels where I could talk about me and my culture, that was something really important. For the longest time, people have had an image of ethnic minorities because there are stereotypes. The stereotypes sometimes become so strong that it's difficult to break out of that box that society has put you in because it's the popular opinion. You know how long it takes to be able to go, "No, no, we're not all like that. No, I know you think you have that one Indian friend who works at 7-Eleven, or his dad drives a cab, or whose sister is a doctor. But you know what? There are billions of us. We're the biggest demographic on planet Earth. We do different things!" This is something that I am still consistently striving to change, and I won't rest until people understand our culture a bit more and give it the respect it deserves for the talent that's in that pool. It deserves to be seen.
Tell me about the label you’re launching with Virgin Records.
Jay Sean: It's called 3AM, and it's myself and my two longtime collaborators in music, who are also two of my best friends now. Jared and Jeremy Scott, who both were involved in all my biggest hits. We all wrote them together. We produced them together. There's a long history there. Jared is also a partner at Range Media Partners, which is just a massive management agency representing some of the biggest stars on planet Earth like Bradley Cooper, Mariah Carey, you name it. Virgin Music group, of course, is a behemoth, it's global. We have a really good infrastructure now. We have partners that believe in our vision: to be able to provide a platform where we can promote more inclusivity and more diversity into the music industry, something that has not really happened at the moment. It's not an even playing field, and we need to shine the spotlight on the people who just aren't being seen. Virgin and Range both believe in our mission, so we're excited!
What excites you most about this new label?
Jay Sean: I'm changing people's perception, making even a couple of people go, "Wow, I feel embarrassed that I didn't even know that all of this was going on. Now, because of 3AM and what they're striving to do, I now know. And now, I'm going to concerts listening to Punjabi music, which I may never have done because I never knew I liked it." It's the same way I could go to a Bad Bunny concert as an Indian guy, and nobody would turn their heads. They'd be like, "It's Bad Bunny. Of course, everybody loves Bad Bunny." I want that to happen for our people, too. Bad Bunny can sing and rap in Spanish as well as in English. My people are singing in Punjabi or Hindi. Same thing with K-Pop, with Afrobeats, they're getting globally accepted and recognized, and I really feel like that can happen for our people. That's what I'm most excited about.
BuzzFeed: I'm excited about that, too! I personally love K-Pop. So a lot of the time, I'll memorize the lyrics, but I don't have any idea what they're saying. I'll sing whole lines of Korean, mixed with English lyrics, just because it's so good and catchy. I'm excited to hear the songs you help produce and do that for those songs.
Jay Sean: You nailed it! That's what I want to see, and what a wonderful moment that would be.
How does it feel to give people the opportunity to thrive in the music industry?
Jay Sean: My dad has this saying, "Light someone's candle." I take after my dad a lot because I like his mentalities and values in life. He says, "Success is not how far you get personally, how much money you've got in the bank, how many people love you or admire you. It's about how many changes you made for other people in their lives. Lighting somebody else's candle is a beautiful thing to be able to do. If yours is already shining, let's lift some other people up, too. Let's make a difference in other people's lives." If I am in that position to do that, then I want to do that, and that's something that is very, very important to me.
What excites you about the future of Asian people in the music industry?
Jay Sean: As time goes on and my kids grow up — my daughter's 9, my son's 5 — I want them to live in a world where they no longer have to think that the color of their skin or their heritage or their language or the food they eat and all of that stuff should be in any way stopping them from doing what they love. When I was a kid, I was a first-generation, British-born Indian. My parents are Indian, born in India. I was British because I was born in England, but also Indian. That identity crisis was real — to understand who you are and try to figure out your place in society. When you're sitting at the lunch table, and your mum's made you a lovely roti with daal, and you want to eat it, but your friends are like, "Ugh, what's that? It smells." That was real stuff. We couldn't be proud of our culture without feeling sometimes ashamed because people wouldn't allow us to assimilate. And that was difficult for people of my generation, and I don't ever want that to be the case for my kids. That's what I hope to see change in the world. And yes, people are starting to open their eyes a lot more. We're seeing a lot more Asians on TV, South Asians on TV. We're seeing them in less stereotypical roles than we used to. We still see them in the stereotypical roles, but we would like to see it be like, "Hey, I'm just a regular guy." I can play any role. It doesn't need to be at a wedding. My dad does not need to speak like this [a stereotypical Indian accent] all the time. It can change. It might be late in the game, but at least we started.
BuzzFeed: Yes! I'm noticing Netflix is starting to have a lot of shows with Asian leads that stray away from the stereotypical characters we're used to seeing. There's a show called Heartbreak High, amazing show, with an Indian main character. They don't mention her ethnicity in the show at all, but she is Indian. Her culture doesn't have much to do with her character versus some other shows where your culture is your character.
Jay Sean: You're absolutely right. There was a show I really enjoyed called One Day, and they didn't make a big deal out of the fact that she's an Indian girl who's playing the lead. It was just a girl being a girl in this world. And I thought that was just so refreshing to see them not play into the stereotypes.
What advice would you give to young creatives now?
Jay Sean: There are always going to be hurdles. It's going to be difficult. It's tough. The creative industry is hard, especially now, when everybody's a content creator. But man, if you love it, you just love it. It might be a chore to get people to do it, like me. "You got to do more reels." And I'm like, "Why? I already recorded the song and did the whole thing." But no, you've got to do it. And what I can say is, as long as you love it, whatever challenges and obstacles and hurdles come across, you will figure out how to get over them. The thing that matters more is that you're passionate about it, and when you're passionate about it, you find the answers. That's the same thing that happened with me and my career. It wasn't all smooth sailing. I had to come across really stupid interviews where people would ask really dumb questions, ignorant questions, and sometimes racist questions. And I would think, "This is absurd." But what kept me going was my love for music and my willingness to change people's perceptions and educate them. So, love it. And the day you stop loving it, maybe it's not for you, maybe you'll love something else, but give it your all.
I’d love to hear about your new single, "Heartless."
Jay Sean: "Heartless" is me returning to my R&B bag a bit more. Before I came to America, I was known for being more of an R&B pop artist. I love that kind of music, and this new album marks 20 years of my career, so why not give a little nod to where it all began? The coolest part about it is it's featuring Punjabi on the same track. It's me singing in English as well as singing in Punjabi, which I don't do often. I've only done it two or three times in my life on record. And of course, Ikky is an incredible producer and understands how to perfectly blend Punjabi and Western music and hip hop and R&B. I think the collab was really nice, and people seem to be loving it.
What are your favorite lyrics on the song?
Jay Sean: The whole point of the song was about a guy who knows this girl is not good for him. But we, as human beings, have these weird tendencies to be drawn to stuff that we know is bad for us. The bad is just good enough to keep him with her. So it's "You only come around and break my heart and say we're even. Say it, then you hate it, but you kiss me when you're leavin'." It's one of those toxic things he comes around, and I think we've all been in a situation like that, whether it's friends or partners who are a little bit toxic. But you keep him around anyway, you know?
What was the songwriting and recording process like?
Jay Sean: Heartless was a little bit unique because we only had one day. Ikky had flown in from Toronto, I had flown in from New York. We both were in LA for a day, and we said, "All right, if we're both here, let's get in the studio." And sometimes, the chance of a hit happening just in one day, it's slim. You usually got to have a couple of sessions to get a vibe going, but we instantly clicked, and the song was made on the fly. It was made as a freestyle. The track did not exist. He was building the track as I was singing along melodies, and I was recording my stuff on a handheld mike, vibing to the stuff he was playing, which was also being recorded simultaneously. The song was being made on the fly, which was actually really sick because it doesn't always happen like that. Sometimes it's like, "Here's the track I made last week," and then you hum out some melodies, and then you come up with some lyrics, but the fact that it was made during freestyle was pretty cool.
What's your favorite memory from recording?
Jay Sean: Well, the album itself was really fun to work on because I did it in three different places. I did it in LA, New York, and India. I went to India for a couple of months and worked with some talented producers out in Mumbai and Delhi. That was just mind-blowing to me because, first of all, they were 21, 22 years old, and just so fearless. There was no thinking about anything. There was no "Oh, well, I don't know if this fits the top 10 Billboard chord structure." People analyze music like that. They're like, "This is working. This BPM seems to be running the charts." Like, stop man, feel the music, stop analyzing. It's not math, it's not science. This is music. It's magic. And these kids had that fire in them. They were just fearless, trying all sorts of stuff, and I was like, "Yes! Amazing! Let's go, let's do something new and different." So I loved that. That was a really fun process for me.
Where do you see yourself in the next couple of years?
Jay Sean: It's funny because even though I've set up the label, that's always going to be something that is the big, end-goal picture, the dream: Label head, successful acts all over the world. Yes. But hey, I still love performing, and I still love singing. Will this be my last album? I don't know. All I can say is I'm very, very happy with what I have done so far. Personally, as an artist, I will continue to go out there and make people happy and perform my songs. But I'm also extremely excited about passing the baton on to the next generation and seeing them blossom. Simultaneously, let's see what happens, let's see where we end up.
Jay Sean's newest single, "Heartless" ft. Ikky, is out now!
Note: Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
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