Jordan King is the Next Big Thing
She says she’s going to be on the Grammy’s one day, and frankly, we believe her. Here’s the story of Jordan King, the girl with a voice you need to hear to believe.
As Told to Katie Barner
"Erykah Badu's Live was the album that made me say okay, this is what I want to do."
I was born in Washington D.C. I was always into being creative in the entertainment realm. I started off as a ballerina. Then I started rapping, then started singing around maybe like 12. It just happened. Erykah Badu’s Live was the album that made me say okay, this is what I want to do. I definitely have to sing. I think I was in elementary school.
I’ve had so many mentors along the way. I just soaked up as much of what they had to teach me. My godfather, he was my first vocal coach. He was a professional musician most of his life. It was cool to have his input on a lot of things and from then I went to college. I have a degree in music, and had a lot of mentors from there. I was really fortunate to have a lot of cool people.
"I always have to remember to trust the process because it always comes back"
The most random things will inspire me. Sometimes I’ll get writer’s block for like a long time and then out of nowhere, I’ll get this big ball of creative energy. I always have to remember to trust the process because it always comes back. Sometimes you have to take time to live life and absorb experiences so you can have stuff to pull from. That’s a part of writing that you might not really think about, but it’s really important. When I was maybe 19 years old, I was in my mom’s house in the kitchen just writing. I think I had just listened to a Nas album or something. I started writing and it was just pages that came out of nowhere and that was crazy to me at that time. I hadn’t spent as much time working on my craft. This may be my first memory of really having that burst of energy and being able to just like get it all down.
"They don’t expect it because I’m a girl of course."
I like rapping because it’s something that people don’t expect me to be able to do well. They don’t expect it because I’m a girl of course. I like to surprise people and catch people. I could go on for days about discrimination and being in a male dominated industry. That’s a whole separate topic, but there’ve been times where I’ve done rap battles and I’ve beat all the guys in the ring and they get super mad. I like that, though. There was a time I was at a party, I won this rap battle and part of the prize from that battle was to host a party within the next couple weeks, so the guys who I went up against at the battle showed up at the party that I had to host. They wanted beef. That part is like alright, maybe this isn’t worth it, but it’s funny because I really have the power to get them in their feelings that much.
I want to put a tour together. I’m working on my EP first, though, so hopefully by the time I finish, I’ll be able to tour. I think my favorite part of being an artist is performing live. I like the energy of the crowd. I’ve always liked to be onstage, no matter what I was doing. Whether it was dancing, cheerleading, acting, it didn’t matter. Every time I perform I feel like this is what I’m meant to be doing and I think that’s what kept me going. Even if I did bad, I still felt like okay I can get better and it’s always work to get better.
The SoFar Sounds performance I did was really intimate and that was the first time I had done an acoustic show like that before. You know with SoFar Sounds, it’s like everybody’s in your face. The whole audience is right there, up personal, so it can be kind of intimidating when you think about it, but I was really connecting with them. I felt like I was holding everybody’s hand but with my voice. Honestly, we’ve done gigs where there was like one or two people in the audience and I treat it the same. I’m not going to half ass anything. If I’m going to perform, I’m going to do it because I love it.
Drummer Tommi Postley
Jordan King and The Hustlers playing the Music That Doesn't Suck Monthly live show on April 26th, 2017
Bassist Shelley Shellz
I’m looking forward to putting together some events because I really want to showcase not only my talent but the talent of a lot of people who I know who are really freakin’ dope. We should all be famous right now. I have super talented friends so I just kind of am looking forward to all of us teaming up and putting ourselves into positions where we can make money off of our own craft. The independent artist hustle is crazy.
"Every Monday on Instagram, people can request different covers and I post them"
I’m looking forward to releasing more covers. Every Monday on Instagram, people can request different covers and I post them. If you want me to sing a certain song, you’ll request it and you have to stay tuned every Monday to see when I decide to cover it. Someone picked “It’s Raining Men” and there’s no way I’m singing that. I just do the ones that I like. I did Alicia Keys “Unthinkable” and Michael Jackson “Butterflies” and the last one I did was Rihanna “Love On The Brain.” I liked that one a lot.
I see myself doing so many different, random things because I’ve just always been that way. I would never limit myself to just singer/rapper/songwriter because I also want to produce, I also want to do musical theater and act and maybe do an earring line. I love jewelry, I love hair. I did hair. That’s one of the ways I paid my way through college. That was a skill I’ve always had. It would be really natural to go into something with hair and beauty and stuff like that.
I have so many goals. I’m going to go to the Grammys. I want to open for a really huge act, like someone that I admire greatly, like an Erykah Badu or a Bruno Mars, people like that. I see myself being able to be in line with those types of artists. I really want to be able to get my name out there as much as possible. I would love to collaborate with Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Anderson Paak, I want to say Prince but he’s not here anymore, Janelle Monáe, so many people. Nicki Minaj. Beyonce. You have to say Beyonce.
