In a relatively short amount of time, local hip-hop artist Jakhari Smith has become an essential figure in the Sacramento music scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smith got his start in 2021, performing at open mics and has been part of the long-running jam series, \u201cSunday Sessions,\u201d hosted by jazz fusion group LabRats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through that experience, he honed his craft, weaving personal narratives and propulsive flows on top of jazz inspired beats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He can now be seen performing all over the city with his full band and has submitted entries for NPR\u2019s Tiny Desk Contest four times over the years.<\/p>\n
He joined us for a live performance at CapRadio for this month\u2019s Insight Studio Session.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
Interview highlights<\/p>\n
You started five years ago this summer, take us back to summer of 2021.<\/p>\n
Oh, man. [laughs] I started writing a few months before that, you know, just journaling and really just piecing together words and just getting my thoughts out on paper. Before that, I never thought about making music, writing wasn’t even on my mind, but it was just something I decided to try out.<\/p>\n
I had nothing else to do so I was like let me see what writing is like, if that can change my perspective on things. So I just started writing different poems and putting things together and then in July of 2021, I decided to release my first song.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I recorded it in Audacity, a free program. I didn’t know about DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) or mixing\/mastering. I was just like, here’s this beat, I have these words. Let me just load it up and record myself. It was a dedication to my mom, my dad, called \u201cYours to Keep<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n I was just like putting different tracks out and slowly but surely I kept writing and eventually I had a full project. My first project that I put out in October. And then not too long after that \u2014 started performing at open mics at Golden Bear every week and from there it’s been non-stop, a domino effect.<\/p>\n I love that, a formative force in your creativity and your journey is your grandfather, Charles Tillman Jr. How did he shape you as the artist you are today?\u00a0<\/p>\n He never saw any of this, you know, he never got the chance. I didn’t start writing until after he passed, but just the way I grew up, he was there every morning. As soon as I would get up for school, he would be the first person I would see. And just the things that he told me growing up, [he] told me to follow my dreams. Because my grandfather, before he passed, he had a lot of health issues.<\/p>\n And he always would tell me about things that he wish he would have done. Not regrets necessarily, but like a dream of his, like [a] bucket list thing. And there was a lot of stuff that he never had the chance to do before he passed away. So that that stuff kind of carried me. He told me to live my life. If you think you want to do something, just do it. Don’t even think twice about it. And I took that and just ran with it. You never know when it’s over.<\/p>\n I’m incredibly close to my grandparents. All of them have passed away, but they still are part of me to this day and a big part of who I am, so I can totally relate to that.\u00a0<\/p>\n The next track you\u2019re going to play for us is \u201cFly Me to the Moon\u201d and it’s from your project Reflections Volume 2<\/a>. Before we begin, what inspired this song?\u00a0<\/p>\n So, this one is really about looking at life from a different perspective. There was a lot of times where I personally was looking at what I was going through and I was like, it’s bad right now. I’m down bad and I was like, \u2018there’s no way out.\u2019 I’m just looking at it [with] tunnel vision. But then I just started to think about everybody else. We all have our own individual lives and there’s people who don’t have clothes on their back. There’s people who don’t have a roof over their heads. There’s people who, their families are gone. Like they’re alone.<\/p>\n I wrote this song basically about when you get into that tunnel vision of like \u2018oh my life, life is bad.\u2019 It may be that temporarily but there’s always like, a darker side. And sometimes you have to step back and look and be grateful for who you are and who you got around you and what you have.<\/p>\n \u2018Fly Me to the Moon\u2019 is about stepping away from your current position, and looking back on your life and reflecting on that, but also being grateful for who you are and who you have.\u00a0<\/p>\n