Toronto recording artist, songwriter and multi-platinum producer Jarrel the Young recently kicked off a highly anticipated new solo campaign with the release of his single, “Tumble.”
The Billboard number-one producer has already been behind hits for artists like Fallout Boy, Jessie Reyez, David Guetta and other notables, and is now putting a deeper focus on his own series of releases.
“Tumble” is the first song off his forthcoming release, Virtue 1, which is the first in a series of project as as a solo artist. Best known for his role in multi-platinum music production duo Young Wolf Hatchlings, Jarrel the Young (JTY) recently inked a partnership with Warner Music Group’s ADA/LEVEL platform for distribution.
Jarrel the Young (Photo: Keita Juma/Supplied)
Last week, Still Crew published a great piece which looks at how “Tumble” is not only a preview to the Virtue 1 project JTY has coming, but the debut of a new genre he’s dubbed as “black alternative.”
“Instead of making the music based on briefs from every executive in the game, he made songs more similar to those that he loved sharing to friends in group chats. Quickly, he uncovered a new hybrid of genres he would eventually dub ‘Black Alternative,’ the soundtrack to the new Civil Rights Movement.”
A recent press release has JTY explaining it as representing “the weight and struggle that comes with being a Black man – a new age Negro spiritual.”
JTY created Virtue 1 to capture and convey a particular message around his experience with the Black Lives Matter movement and recovery from a COVID-19 hospitalization. Each single on the project, “Tumble,” “One Step,” “Whoa,” and “Feels,” has a common thread and will remind listeners of artists that put honesty and real conversations into their craft. JTY’s inspiration for this project came from watching the “world fall down around him” once COVID started.
“I was in London when countries were closing, people were getting disconnected from their families and were starting to panic. Then the Civil Rights movement started. On the back of tragedy and loss of life, people around the world came together to fight for what’s right,” says JTY.
“All that raw emotion was the perfect backdrop for me to write about my own experiences with struggle and internal calamity. At the same time, I wanted to deliver a message of hope, because I know what happens if you only focus on the negative. I write, produce and perform the entire project so there are no filters or dilution from the idea in my brain to the sounds you get to enjoy.”
JTY describes the sound of “Tumble” and the EP alternately as Black Alternative or Alternative R&B because the “Alternative” coefficient allows for influence from all genres.
You can stream the new single below or find it now on various digital streaming platforms including Apple Music, Spotify, and TIDAL.
You can follow @JarrelTheYoung on Instagram.
