Jarrel the Young Urges the World Not to ‘Tumble’ in the Face of 2020’s Adversity
The Billboard number-one producer shifts gears after enduring COVID-19 to launch “Black Alternative” genre
Not long ago, the world had no conception of a “lockdown,” no fears of mass unemployment, and the streets of Toronto were being readied for parades to celebrate the Toronto Raptors NBA championship victory. Simultaneously, Jarrel the Young was making #1 records for Fall Out Boy, club anthems with David Guetta and Neyo, and feeling miserable about the direction of pop music. Enter the catastrophic events of 2020 and the sounds of “Tumble,” the first JTY record from his new series Virtue, has never been more necessary.
After settling into a depression around the state of his beloved Pop and EDM genres, the Canadian producer looked outside of music for inspiration and purpose. One evening during the Christmas season of 2018, he stared down at his two-year-old child on his lap and had a conversation that she couldn’t understand but that would change the course of her life forever. He debated the hours he spent making formulaic electronic music for the world’s biggest DJs, relented on whether this would be his legacy and contemplated walking away from music to build a better world for the infant in his hands.
A switch flipped in his brain during that conversation which led him to his home studio and a marathon session that followed altered his path forever. 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 groupchats . Quickly, he uncovered a new hybrid of genres he would eventually dub “Black Alternative,” the soundtrack to the new Civil Rights Movement.
After spending 2019 in studios around the world testing this sound in sessions with creatives like DJ Spinall, SL, Boogie, Piers James, and more, JTY landed on a polished, inspirational vibe that perfectly suits the ambiguity of 2020. Through one of these sessions, he reworked an earlier version of “Tumble” that reflects the state of affairs in the world. After being hospitalized with COVID-19 from the same trip to London, the words in the song took on new meaning as he battled the sickness to re-focus his priorities on family.
“And we can’t afford to tumble
And we can’t afford to fall
Give it up with a smile
And we can’t afford to tumble
No time to hide
Give it all up for love”
While it serves as a dramatic stretch from the fast-paced anthems that had him winning ASCAP Pop Writer of the Year in 2016, “Tumble” forces us to question where we place our priorities in the performative existence that preceded lockdown. When the focus shifts to moments with those we hold closest, whether family and friends or the more immediate community, it makes all of the superfluous minutiae seem trivial in comparison. These are the people and things that keep us flying on the straight and narrow, dodging potholes and maintaining our pace.
As the first glimpse behind the sounds that Jarrel promised from Virtue 1, the record stands out against much of the current landscape. Instead of a protest record screaming “F**k the police,” for the 30th year in a row, the empathy woven into the song lets us see every actor in the story as a distinct human. Instead of five contributing producers, writers, and participants, the credits read exclusively as J. Young. The same mind that captured the initial spark of creativity was able to write, produce, and perform the entire record, delivering exactly what he envisioned in his head without any outside interference. And it works so, so well.
Virtue 1 is scheduled for release on Friday, August 7 through the new partnership with Warner Music Group’s ADA/LEVEL platform. With no telling what the state of the world will look like over the coming months, at a minimum we know we can count on artists like Jarrel the Young to offer a nuanced soundtrack to inspire us to put one foot in front of the other.
