Interview: J-Smash On Joint EP With K.Keed, Exploring Different Sounds, Collabs With 25K & Emtee, His Upcoming Album + More

Early last month, producer J-Smash and rapper K.Keed teamed up to release a 5-song collaborative project titled 'Izandla'.

Two weeks ago, the duo dropped a music video for one of the songs off of the project, ‘Sebenza’ featuring Lookatups and SimulationRxps. 

In the interview below, J-Smash explains how the collaboration with K.Keed came about, delves into the exploration of different sounds within the project and touches on his upcoming album, among other topics. 

How did the collaboration with K.Keed come about?

I discovered Keed on YouTube. I bumped into a joint that she did with Jones and, after that, I was like, yoh! Keed is actually fire. Then I went back, listened to all the songs that she had out there and then reached out to her on Instagram like, “Yoh, I’d like to work, just bumped into your stuff”. I think she didn’t see my DM, then I found her Twitter, sent her a DM, then she replied and we started chopping it up. I wanted to do a song for my album, but I ended up saying let’s do an EP because I just connected so much with what she was doing, and I thought that we could do something special together. From then on, she came through to Joburg, we linked up and the rest is history.

You guys described the project as “A symphony of music empowerment and unity.” What does that mean?

What we meant by that is, as we had described the name of the EP, ‘Izandla’, it’s basically asking for guidance and help from God. So “symphony of music empowerment and unity” is just basically the two of us coming together to create the best music possible. It’s like the two worlds coming together to create this crazy music. We’re doing something both of us had never done and that’s what we also meant by “unity”; us uniting just made us create this amazing piece of art.

On the upbeat ‘Lonke’, you guys explore a different sound. Explain the processes undergone during the creation of the song.

So with ‘Lonke’, what had happened was there was a time when I was so interested in the Kaytranada sound/ vibe. I used to always bump the Kaytranada stuff. And I was like yo, I actually would like to try this and I found out that Yolo was the guy that really knows how to get into that pocket so I hit him up, I was like, ‘Yo bro, please come through, let’s work on some stuff. Let’s collaborate.’ Then he came through, we went through a couple of ideas and that’s how the beat came about. I had that and I put it on the side, then when we were recording ‘Izandla’, that was one of the beats I played for Keed. She was like, “Yo this is really dope”, I was like, “Yeah, we could try something.” That’s actually when I also discovered that she’s actually dope when it comes to the vocals and the melody, like she’s lit lit. And we were just like let’s work on this thing and build it. 

What was your creative process in creating the project and what did you hope to achieve?

More than anything, what we were trying to achieve was making the best music possible, you know? Making it feel like a collaboration, making it feel like it’s two worlds that came together and created this piece of art. We were trying to explore and do something that’s different but still dope and we had a lot of people that were involved in the making of the EP. We had Relow in studio, we had Quinn. We did some stuff with Lunatik too. It was just so many ideas and so many people that were a part of this thing. That’s why we had so many different ideas because it was people that are really dope that were part of it that came together. More than anything we were trying to make the best music possible that complements both of us. That’s what it was about, bringing out the best of both worlds.

You’ve worked with some of the biggest names in SA Hip-Hop such as Emtee and 25K. What impact has that had on your career as a producer?

More than anything, the features have really opened so many doors for me. I’ve just got to show my ability as a record producer to the world that I’m really about it. So, when you have such people on your records and we get to create such amazing songs that people actually like, people actually get to trust you, your way of thinking and your process of creating a record. So having those people to jump on the stuff that I was working on and for us to create those great songs, it just made other people comfortable with working with me. It just gave me opportunities to work with a whole lot of people that got to trust the process and what I had in mind. It granted me the opportunity to be able to express myself with different artists.

When can we expect a solo project from you?

I’m actually on my debut album now and it's safe to say that the album is like 85 percent done so that’s what I’m dropping next. I’m so excited about this one because this is my best work. I’ve been working on this for close to two and a half years and I really feel like a lot of people are going to love the album and really connect with it.

Stream ‘Izandla’ by J-Smash and K.Keed below: