JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jahaan Sweet, a Grammy Award-winning producer and songwriter, went from Jacksonville to The Juilliard School with a purpose to collaborate that\u2019s earned him respect from music industry megastars.<\/p>\n
Watch the full interview with Sweet below.<\/p>\n
Sweet, who began piano at 6 and studied jazz at LaVilla School of the Arts before attending Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and graduating from Juilliard, said the instrument shaped his approach to making records. <\/p>\n
\u201cPiano really is an accompanying instrument,\u201d he said. \u201cThat instrument was made to help other musicians sound good\u2026My mentality is always go in the room and help them do whatever they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that whatever they\u2019re trying to convey musically, translates to production, which is then translated to songwriting.<\/p>\n
Sweet credited his first teacher, Cynthia Blaylock, with recognizing his talent and keeping him at the piano.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe saw something in me that my parents didn\u2019t see,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t even really that into it, but she was just like, \u2018Hey, he\u2019s really good at this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
His parents wouldn\u2019t let him quit either. He wanted to play sports, though he wasn\u2019t good at them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Yo, I don\u2019t want to do this, I want to play sports, whatever I was in was the excuse,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t the most gifted in sports at that age, but my parents were like, \u2018yo you\u2019re not quitting.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He joined a jazz band program in the 6th grade and played with some older musicians and learned to love piano.<\/p>\n
Jahaan Sweet playing piano at tje Jacksonville Landing (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
\u201cThat helped shape me as a musician and that\u2019s when I fell in love with piano so when I started playing jazz and see how I could be around my friends and collaborate with them, because jazz is a collaborative music so that kind of just shaped my whole identity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He then learned that he could make money through this foundation of collaboratively creating music. That was when he took music seriously as an art form.<\/p>\n
He started playing in his church, St. Paul AME and they paid him at 12 years old to play in the band.<\/p>\n
Jahaan Sweet in church (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI got paid to do something I love to do,\u201d Sweet said. \u201cAt that point I was like, oh, I can make money now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I had to shape up\u2019: Juilliard and the grind <\/p>\n
He graduated from Douglas Anderson School of Arts and going to Juilliard was something that he said offhand as a child, not knowing that it could be a reality.<\/p>\n
Young Jahaan Sweet (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to shock people,\u201d he said of wanting to go to Juilliard. \u201cBut the idea didn\u2019t really become a reality until I fell in love with jazz…then I realized, \u2018Oh shoot, like this may really happen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he was ready to leave Jacksonville after Douglas Anderson. He felt the best move he could make to progress his career was to move to New York in Juilliard\u2019s jazz program.<\/p>\n
Jahaan Sweet at Juilliard (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
Sweet said Juilliard tested him. \u201cI was ready to drop out,\u201d he admitted, recalling a low point during his first year. He told his cousin, comedian Lil Duval, he was thinking of quitting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe called my dad and said, \u2018Yo, let me tell you what your son said,\u2019\u201d Sweet recalled. \u201cMy dad called me, cursed me out. My mom called and cursed me out\u2026you drop out, you ain\u2019t getting nothing from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young Jahaan Sweet with his cousin Roland “Lil Duval” Powell (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
The reprimand helped him refocus. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had to shape up,\u201d Sweet said. He improved his grades, completed his coursework and graduated. \u201cIt\u2019s a different level of detail that I had to give to the music, but once I got it, it was easy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Jahaan Sweet (Left) graduating from Juilliard with best friend Enrique Sanchez (Right) (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
After adjusting to Juilliard\u2019s rigorous training, he said, he found a routine that worked for him.<\/p>\n
Breakthroughs and collaborations <\/p>\n
While still a student, Sweet began getting placements and meeting collaborators. He said he met R&B singer Kehlani through local New York producers Jeff Robinson and David Harris, also known as Swagg R\u2019Celious, and worked on her \u201cCloud 19\u2033 EP, including the breakout song \u201cGet Away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c[Nick Cannon] sent [Kehlani] to work with Swagg and I met her there,\u201d he said. \u201cShe [said] \u2018I like Jahaan\u2019 and we were both young so it was just like hey let\u2019s make more music and that kept happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just one year after graduating from Juilliard, Sweet earned a Grammy nomination for his collaboration on Kehlani\u2019s acclaimed mixtape \u201cYou Should Be Here\u201d while they were on tour together.<\/p>\n
Jahaan Sweet on tour with Kehlani (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was cool. It was cool. Great moments for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
He relocated to Los Angeles to make more music with Kehlani and for the tour, but after a while, he realized he wanted to spend more time in the studio rather than the road.<\/p>\n
Jahaan Sweet making music with Kehlani (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
While in L.A., he met Matthew Jehu Samuels, professionally known as Boi-1da, whose collaborations include Drake, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna and more. Sweet credited a lot of his professional success and connections he\u2019s made to Samuels.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoi\u20111da forever is a big, big, big, big, big reason why I\u2019m successful with production,\u201d he said. \u201cHe just wanted me to be next to him. I learned a lot just watching him.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2022, he won a Grammy Award for his contributions to Jon Batiste\u2019s Album of the Year, \u201cWe Are.\u201d He received the award in the mail and shared the moment with his mother.<\/p>\n
Sweet has contributed to projects for Beyonc\u00e9 \u2014 including work on \u201cRenaissance\u201d \u2014 Jay\u2011Z and Drake, and he was part of sessions with Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Travis Scott on the song \u201cFather.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a humbling experience,\u201d he said of working with Ye and Travis. \u201cI\u2019m just here to help whatever is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n Jahaan Sweet (in black hat) in the studio with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, working on his “Bully” album (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n Jacksonville native Andr\u00e9 Troutman is also credited on Ye\u2019s album \u201cBully<\/a>.” Troutman is also sharing the stage with Ye on his international tour, providing vocals using a talkbox instrument. To have two musicians from the River City on an artist of Ye\u2019s magnitude is no small accomplishment.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo people doing things on that scale…I was like, man, this is so great and so great for the city.\u201d Sweet said of he and Troutman representing Jacksonville on the world stage.<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 Troutman performing with Ye at So-Fi Stadium in Los Angeles. (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n With all the accomplishments, credits and accolades, there\u2019s still at least one thing that Sweet desires: a No. 1 record.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always just trying to be better every day. That\u2019s just a checklist thing. It\u2019s something that I just want to be like, \u2018OK, I finally did it,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said he isn\u2019t chasing it, but he knows it will happen when it\u2019s supposed to happen.<\/p>\n \u201cJust staying diligent in the process,\u201d Sweet said.<\/p>\n Sweet said he hopes to collaborate with artists Bruno Mars, Frank Ocean and SZA.<\/p>\n \u2018It means so much\u2019: Riverfront Music Garden, giving back<\/p>\n