Jorja Smith: If you don't know, now you know.

British singer-songwriter Jorja Smith is a powerhouse, yet she’s still one of those artists that is so underrated.

Whether you’ve been following Jorja since her 2016 SoundCloud EP, Blue Light, or you’re new to her fanclub, you’ve probably noticed her name popping up a lot recently.

Before her first EP, Jorja was just a kid growing up in Walsall, a manufacturing town in Britain, that messed around making YouTube covers with her friends. Now she’s 23 years old, and in my opinion, a living legend of jazz, soul, and R&B sounds.

Her career was kickstarted when she was featured not once, but twice on More Life, Drake’s 2017 mixtape. 

Jorja’s superpower is her voice. Songs, like “On My Mind”, are so masterfully written and sung, it feels like your ears just sunk their teeth into an incredible-tasting meal with crazy amounts of texture and flavor.

The range of her voice and raw talent is showcased perfectly in her 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Concert, following the release of her debut album Lost and Found.  

Features have made Jorja a recognized name in the States. After working with Drake, she collaborated with Kendrick Lamar on “I Am,” a track featured on the Black Panther soundtrack.

Her feature on Kali Uchis’s song “Tyrant” created a dynamic musical duo, and the two toured together in 2019. Their co-headlining tour positioned Jorja as the new voice of soul, and later that year, Jorja released a radio hit “Be Honest” with Burna Boy.  

Last week, Jorja released a video to accompany her new song “By Any Means”. The song functions to keep the Black Lives Matter movement alive and inspire her listeners to continue having the necessary conversations to end institutionalized racism around the world.

This song is a part of Roc Nation’s project Reprise, a curated collection of music that's proceeds are going towards ending racial injustice.

The song’s lyrics like “Go ahead and stand your ground, we're on the long road to freedom,” and “Side by side in the revolution, won't stay silent for things that I love,” demonstrate the song's purpose as an anthem for this year’s protests.  

More severe and somber in melody, “By Any Means” still shows a masterful guile of her falsetto and rich chest voice, while providing a mantra for supporters of the movement.

Written by Nati Hazday, Edited by Emma Barsky