Jahan Sweet’s first “oh my god” moment as a producer came while working with Drake. “I used to listen to Drake in high school and look up to everyone around him,” Sweet says. “When we finally went to Miami to work on ScorpionI thought, “Wow, I’m really going to meet one of my favorite rappers.”
Sweet co-produced three tracks on the 2018 album, including “8 Out of 10”, “Ratchet Happy Birthday” and “Final Fantasy” along with Boi-1da who brought him into the ranks. Today, Sweet is a Grammy-winning producer with a growing list of production credits for artists such as Lana Del Rey, John Baptiste (Sweet won his first Grammy for Album of the Year with Batista’s We Are), Kodak Black and Kali. Uchis. “I feel like most of the things that have happened to me in music have been strictly relationship based,” Sweet says. “The people around you trust you, and you trust them.”
Playing the piano since the age of 6, Sweet aspired to be a jazz instrumentalist. By the age of 13, he tried his hand at GarageBand and quickly fell in love with beat making. He always knew he would have a career in music, but it wasn’t until Juilliard that he realized what his path would look like. “I realized that the jazz route was not necessarily what I wanted to do. I used to rap too, but I realized that I’m not the best at rap, but I loved making music. So I put all my energy into it.”
After the release, the Florida producer was invited to Los Angeles by one of Kelani’s first collaborators, who invited him to tour in support of his 2015 mixtape. You should be here. Sweet has never looked back, putting down roots in LA and building his resume – and this year he has received some of the biggest releases of 2022 from Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Given. Fast forward to date, Sweet will be joining Lamar and his pgLang signer Baby Kim on tour to work on new music. “I definitely try to focus on building God-given ability and developing relationships,” he says, “which is the foundation of my success.”
Kendrick Lamar
In the midst of the pandemic, Sweet says he and Lamar made music every day. The couple, along with Baby Kim, forged a strong bond by playing basketball in their spare time and comparing Apple Watch stats from their workouts. “We’re always joking and stuff like that,” Sweet says. “They are a lot more competitive than me.” Since that time, Sweet has had three songs at number one on the Lamar Billboard 200. Mr Moral and the big steppers: Lead single “N95”, “Silent Hill” and “Rich Spirit”. Sweet also recorded seven songs from Kim’s debut studio album. melodic blue. “It’s deeper than music. The bond that has developed between us and everyone at pgLang around Kendrick and Kim has been great for the past almost three years.”
beyoncé
Boi1da continues to keep an eye on Sweet, recently bringing him into the recording process for Beyoncé. Renaissance. The pair were in Miami working on different song ideas with frequent collaborator Sevn Thomas when they started creating the beat that became “Heated”, which Drake co-wrote. Sweet admits he didn’t know exactly what happened backstage that led to the song becoming Bey’s, but says, “I couldn’t even believe it. When I work with 1da, we just create ideas in our own world. Things are sent to one person, then to the next person. The next thing you know, boom, something’s up.
Give on
Sweet describes working with breakout R&B Giveon as “an easy collaboration”. Sweet first worked on Given’s pair of 2020 EPs When all is said and done as well as Take timeteaming up again for the artist’s 2022 debut studio album Give or take, which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200. Sweet worked on four tracks: “Remind Me”, “Another Heartbreak”, “For Tonight” and “Tryna Be”. Of the latter, he says: “I made ‘Tryna Be’ at home with two of my friends from Juilliard, Enrique Sanchez and Braxton Cooke. Gievon hears this and says, “Oh, that’s crazy” and writes a crazy song.”