Jesse Boykins III
Brooklyn, NY
By Gina Ponce
Photography by Kwaku Kufuor
The pursuit of music for this R&B/soul musician began with choir concerts and inspiration from Michael Jackson videos - and after a few years of paying his dues and working to get himself onto the market, Jesse Boykins III is finally on his way to making the tabloids, not just singing about ‘em.
Going to college at The New School in New York, which is notorious for producing innovative and artistic graduates, helped hone Jesse’s talents and shape him into the singer/songwriter he’s become.
“I’m kind of glad it wasn’t an overnight thing ‘cause you build a little more fan base like that,” Jesse explains. “Yeah, I’m just now getting noticed, but I like the process. I like to be able to tell a story.”
And stories are exactly what you hear in Jesse’s music. When you hear a song like “Think” or “Sobriety,” it may surprise you to learn the lyrics, as well as the voice, is coming from this 23-year-old who says he “writes songs to express [himself] and be on [his] artist shit.” He says, “A lot of cats don’t match the voice with the face ‘cause I’m kinda young with a baby face and everything, but I feel like it’s a good thing ‘cause I catch both markets.”
Jesse released both his first EP, Dopamine: My Life On My Back, and full-length debut, The Beauty Created, earlier this year – giving us two different sounds to relate to. Dopamine, which was titled in reference to the human endorphin (“the chemical for love” as the singer puts it), was meant to “set the mood – you put it in, you light a candle, you get it right with your girl,” Jesse explains. He gave a little more in the LP with some up-tempo beats and degrees in mood variations.
One thing setting Jesse apart from other artists is his use of live instrumentation (with his band, The Beauty Created) in his performances as well as for his album tracks. “I’m old school. I like to hear everybody’s perspective on stuff, whereas beats are the same all the time – that’s kinda boring for a performer to be playin’ the same track. Everybody inspires different things from everybody. That’s like production to me more so than making a track.”
Don’t be surprised if you see another album out soon from Jesse – he’s prepared to be around for a long time and is working his way into becoming “timeless.” In the meantime you may just be lucky enough to find yourself seeing him at his best – on stage.
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