From Church Keys to Chart-Topping Beats: The evolution of J Melodic

J Melodic’s journey into music production is a testament to serendipity and raw talent. Introduced to the popular Fruity Loops software during an uncertain time in college, his background in piano and drums from his church days seamlessly translated into the art of beat-making. Now, as the creative force behind Tierra Whack’s genre-defying sound projects like her debut album Whack World (which landed in Rolling Stone 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century list at 168), World Wide Whack, and the architect of his own debut project, Melodic, he’s proving his versatility. In this conversation, J Melodic reflects on his early inspirations, navigating the transition from trap music to experimental sounds, and the collaborative energy that fuels his creative process.

Abdur Rahman: Who was the friend who let you use Fruity Loops for the first time?

J Melodic: His name is Chris Nelson. We went to college together. I went to Eastern University for about a year and a half and I came over there. It was a weird time for me and I was trying to figure out if I was gonna stay in school or leave. He had fruity loops hooked up to his laptop, and I went up to his room and he was making beats. So we sat down and that’s kind of how it happened.

AR: I saw that before getting into music producing, you already knew how to play the piano and drums. Did that help with your introduction to Fruity Loops?

JM: 100%, because no one knew that I knew how to play instruments. I did not grow up wanting to be a producer or do anything with music, it was just something that I like to do with church. Nobody in my college knew that I played. They just knew that on Sunday I would go to my church in West Philly and play.

AR: Was there a beat that you made that day that made you feel like you could do this? 

JM: I can’t remember the beat that we made that day, and when I left that day, I just remembered on the drive home [thinking] that this is what I want to do.

AR: Before you started working with Tierra Whack you were very big into trap music. As a big fan of trap music, what project or projects do you feel like belong on the trap Mount Rushmore?

JM: That’s a good question. One of the albums that definitely inspired me was [Jeezy’s] The Recession.

AR: You started working with Tierra in a studio in Germantown in 2011 and you said that she started to push you out of your comfort zone from making trap music. How did do that?

JM: Just by saying it a bunch of times: “you need to get out of your comfort zone and try something new.” It was literally that simple, and you can always tell from an artist and their vibe that this music is not resonating with them. It’s good, but it’s not where she wants to go. If you want to work with someone bad enough, you’ll figure out ways to adapt to their situation. I think the more we were locked in the easier it became, because I started to get to know her and her cadence and the keys she liked to rap and sing in.

AR: Was “Color Blind” the song that started y’all’s musical journey together?

JM: Yeah, it’s a couple other ones that never were released, but “Color Blind” was the first one that was released where we were like “Cool!”

AR: What was it about “Color Blind” that made you both feel that it was the one that needed to be released?

JM: At that time she got out of the space of not doing music, so I think that because she liked it so much it made me really like it, because it was good enough for her to say that she wanted to put out music. I just think seeing her in the confidence that she had in the song and wanting to actually be back from Dizzle Dizz to Tierra Whack, she felt comfortable putting that out under her name.

AR: So from that time, 2011 to 2015, was she kinda like in a state where she wanted to take a step back from music and you guys working together made her want to get back in or was there some other stuff?

JM: So I met her when she had moved back from Atlanta and she had found an engineer that she really liked, his name was Kenny Simms. When I met those two in Germantown, they were figuring out what to do. She was consistently working and at that time it was just YouTube and Soundcloud beats. There were a lot of producers that came through the studio, but none of them ever caught on, and they saw that I was very hungry to work as much as she was. She was already getting back into music, but I think the producer-artist relationship is important and I think that is what she was looking for once she found that with me. It was just a lot easier. We all worked at the same studio together, which is crazy. The studio was separated into three parts, the room where me and Pink $weats used to work in and all the other side was where Tierra worked in. We all were just sharing ideas at figuring things out.

AR: Even with “Color Blind,” you both have “Toe Jam,” “Pretty Ugly,” and “F**k Off” off of Whack World. What do you feel that you bring to the table that brings the best out of her?

JM: I think that we both have a unique approach and understanding that the route we want to go is to create something people have never heard before. I think the approach I bring is to be as unique, expressing myself through the beat the way she is with words when expressing herself.

AR: What was more fun to work on between Whack World and World Wide Whack?

JM: Both of them are really fun. Whack World was where no one was really catching on yet and the lights were a little bit lower. So now that you have a highly anticipated album for a World Wide Whack, the lights are a bit brighter. That was a fun process too because again we’re trying to figure out what works.

AR: You’ve been putting work in this year. Not only making noise on Tierra Whack’s debut album World Wide Whack, but you also dropped your debut album Melodic. What’s the process like from working on someone else’s album from working on your own?

JM: I had no idea what to expect. My manager, Johnny Montina and his company Bread and Butter, decided to do a writing camp that basically consisted of artists they invited through an Instagram post. We had 300 submissions and the first writing camp took place in Brooklyn. We had eight people that came and I’m thinking people that are going to come on local and from Brooklyn, but there were people who flew from California and Texas to work with me. The purpose of the writing camps was to create a community of up and coming artists to vibe together, but the album was never an idea. We also did a writing camp in Philadelphia at University of Arts at the time and just went through a weekend of making songs after getting 350 submissions. After figuring out what to do with this music, the idea of putting out an album came about.

AR: Wow, because my next question was going to be if the songs on the album were joints that you had in the tuck. So would you say from those writing camps artists like Sanca, Kathryn From Mars, JAMO, Chioke, Hyde, Ari, and l.ucas were all the ones that were your favorite submissions?

JM: We love all the songs that we did. I just think that those songs kind of stood out a bit more. Also mind you this was over a weekend, so some artist processes may be a little slower than others. So those were the songs that we chose from that weekend.

AR: Was that your first time meeting Chioke?

JM: Second time, but it was my first time working with her and it was a joy.

AR: What song of the album do you feel is the fan favorite? So far for me it’s “harder” and “suzanne.”

JM: Yeah, I think those are the two favorites from when I do talk to people they mention those two songs first. “harder” was a great standalone record and I’m happy. We chose to put it first because I think it grabs the listeners attention. But I do like the versatility throughout the album like it’s seven songs of seven different artists of seven different genres.

AR: You mentioned earlier that you also worked with Pink $weat from 2009 to 2010. Have you been able to contribute to any of his albums and growth as an artist?

JM: First of all, that is one of my best friends in the world. When it comes to music, we were there for each other at a time where everyone was counting us out and had no idea what to do with us at the time. Which carried each other musically because we had no one else, so [Tierra Whack’s [“Pretty Ugly”] is actually produced by me and him. During that time he’s the writer and I’m the producer and we’re just like trying to sharpen the iron until we get something that goes. We parted ways once he went to California and I stayed here, but it wasn’t because we were no longer musically in sync, it was just time for him to do something different. But we have worked on music. We did a little camp during COVID and one of the songs that made the cut was “Carry On,” which is on the Volume 3 EP.

AR: That’s what’s up, man! Whether it was challenging or fun, what was the most interesting song to work on from those writing camps that made the project?

JM: At the second camp, l.ucas came a day late, but instantly once he got there, he was someone I knew I wanted to work with because I had heard music he did prior to that session. I had to try to be strategic in how I spaced my time with everyone else. UArts knew how to set up where they had eight production rooms and people were going in one room and so we will go with the others. But l.ucas, I believe I was there from the making of the song until the end so I got to see the entire process all the way through. I thought that was a very unique experience. With “harder” it was created in the camp in New York, but it wasn’t finished there and so what she had already I loved, but I needed her to finish it just to see what it sounded like.

AR: Would you ever see yourself doing a project that was strictly trap music?

JM: Absolutely, sign me up. That’s still my heart. If anyone is interested, let me know.

AR: What do you have planned for the world in 2025?

JM: I’m focused on artistry as a whole now, since I stepped into the lane as an artist. I don’t see myself rapping or singing, but continuing to direct the song.

J. Melodic’s debut album Melodic is out now on all streaming services. Keep tabs on him at his Linktree.