Jaylien
Los Angeles, CA | Established. Jan 01, 2015
Music
Press
St. Louis-based singer-songwriter and producer JAYLIEN delivers the moody visual for his recent single, "Lucky Guy," premiering today (July 18) on Billboard.
In the video, JAYLIEN watches as his woman of interest canoodles with her boyfriend, cast as up-and-coming singer Ye Ali. To his dismay, he has to witness her going back to her significant other after encounters with him. After being startled about possibly seeing him in her house, JAYLIEN's mistress does the unthinkable and ends the video on a surprising note.
"Seldom is there a song about a male falling for a women who is in a relationship," JAYLIEN says while talking about the inspiration behind the song. "I also knew I wasn't the only one who's been through that and figured people from both sides could relate." He dives further into the conceptualization of the video noting, "The idea was a collaborative effort between the director, Josh Sikkema and my team. Videos are meant to tell a story or carry a visual conversation so we came up with a few things to try and pull that off.”
He also discussed the reasoning behind including Ali in the video: “Ye Ali is a guy who's music I really enjoy. I respect what he's doing and we've become real cool. We actually met in a Uber Pool randomly and found out we were both artists; we've been cool ever since. When I called him to come do the video, he was all for it. It's always good when you can collaborate with your friends in the industry, it keeps the relationships strong & the fans engaged."
Prior to stepping out in the spotlight, JAYLIEN started his career as a songwriter and producer working with the likes of Akon -- for whom he wrote the smash hit "Beautiful" -- Chris Brown, Cheryl Cole, Cody Simpson, LL Cool J, T.I., Quincy Jones and will.i.am. Most recently JAYLIEN released his debut album, Summer's Over, featuring cuts like "Hotel Costes" and "We Fcuk." Next up is JAYLIEN's impending EP. - Billboard
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Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
St. Louis native John Jaylien Wesley holds quite a few titles on his résumé: rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer. In the studio, he has written for Akon, will.i.am, Britney Spears, Chris Brown, T-Pain, Snoop Dogg, and more. Raised in a musical household -- his father was a college choir director and his mother was a choir singer -- he developed an early love of music, picking up the piano, saxophone, and clarinet. Inspired by producers like Quincy Jones, Kanye West, Timbaland, Pharrell Williams, and Max Martin, he crafted beats for local artists while he was still a high-school student. His first major production effort was for rapper Huey's 2007 debut, Notebook Paper.
After briefly pursuing further training at New York's SAE Institute, he headed to Atlanta, where he was introduced to Akon. This meeting would spawn Wesley's first hit, Akon's track "Beautiful" featuring Kardinal Offishall and Colby O'Donis. After writing for a string of other stars, Wesley decided to focus on his own music as Jaylien. Initially expanding his fan base on the Internet, he released his debut EP in 2016. Summer's Over contained seven hybrid tracks that blended electronic dance synths, trap beats, soul, R&B, and both his raps and singing. A blend of Frank Ocean, the Weeknd, and the-Dream, Summer's Over featured the tracks "We Fcuk" and "Hotel Costes." ~ Neil Z. Yeung
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