Jay Safari, the 23-year-old loosely defined R&B protégé out of Ocala, Florida, is well aware of his target audience. “To really hear my music, especially the new project, in the whip, just riding to it, you gotta be a smooth-ass, like, sexy person,” he tells me the day before the release of his second single “Do For Love,” leading up to the release of his upcoming third studio album Players Club.
Players Club is a project three years in the works for Jay, since the release of his first project Marathon in 2019, he has quickly emerged as a leader in the new wave of R&B artists. His first viral single, “Dance,” released in 2021, pays homage to the 2000s R&B era, drawing inspiration from Pharrell’s In My Mind. Amassing over 20 million plays, “Dance” was featured as the lead single off of his sophomore album Bad Decisions, an 8-track project exploring the 2000s, Timbaland-type rhythmic first production style.
Jay’s music, an ill-defined mix of R&B, early 2000s pop, and neo-soul, has become the subject of intense scrutiny and comparison on TikTok. His latest video for “Led Me On,” his breakout single released in late 2023, drew comparisons to everyone from YNW Melly to Lucky Daye, even prompting several snarky comments declaring, “This sounds like Jay Safari,” a reference to the constant comparisons he receives. To Jay, his music isn’t a nod to anyone; it’s an amalgamation of his life experiences.
Jay has gone largely quiet since the release of Bad Decisions, releasing a myriad of singles, three-track EPs, and scattered music videos. His newest project Players Club, coming this year, is in the works. “It’s just a compilation of songs that are genuinely telling stories from my life,” he tells me. “Stories of how I maneuver around in my early 20s, just trying to find my way, figuring it out.”
Read our full conversation below.
EH: First of all, growing up in Florida, what kind of music were you listening to? Who was introducing you to new sounds?
JAY: I’d say mostly my parents had ultimate influence over what I was listening to up until, like, middle school. I find middle school is when you really start to find your own taste in music. Everything before that is what’s being played around you. I was listening to a lot of OutKast and ’90s hip-hop from my pops—like New York hip-hop, Nas and Biggie and those types of guys. My mom had me listening to a bunch of neo-soul, but also real gritty stuff like D’Angelo, solid music, TI, and shit like that. I always listened to a lot of different types of stuff.
EH: How do you think a lot of those artists have impacted your sound and your approach to making music?
JAY: It definitely formulated my young brain into thinking about music in a certain type of way. I would argue that my parents had immaculate music taste, even just going back and listening to it now. It was definitely harder to be a bad artist back then than it is now. I feel like a lot of the things I was listening to when I was young taught me how to make music subconsciously.
EH: Tell me about how you started making music. What were you making music on? When did you first start making songs?
JAY: I think 10th grade or 11th grade in high school. I had this homie who made music, and he had the real setup—laptop, microphone, all that. But I had the iPhone 7, a pair of wired earbuds, and a dream in GarageBand. I watched this Steve Lacy interview years ago, and he was making music on his phone, and I was like, “Yo, I can do that!” I ran back and finally saw that he made it look easy.
EH: How has your production shifted from then to now? Take us into your process when you’re making music now.
JAY: Production-wise, back then, I was just hopping on straight YouTube-type beats—any type of beat I could find. And I was like, “I could probably rap or sing on this.” But now, I genuinely try to take inspiration from an era of music and then put my own spin on it. Like for my next project, it’s very neo-soul—late ’90s, love music, R&B-type music. But the stories I’m telling aren’t necessarily love stories.
EH: I feel like I hear a lot of influence from The Neptunes and Pharrell in your music. Are they one of your influences, or is that just a coincidence?
JAY: I feel like everybody was listening to Pharrell growing up—my age, at least. It was kind of just like Pharrell was running the radio. You didn’t have a choice but to listen to Pharrell. If you weren’t listening to him, you were listening to Justin Timberlake—which he produced at the time. If you weren’t listening to him, you were listening to Timbaland, which is basically the same type of vibe. So yeah, I definitely drew inspiration from that.
EH: Who are you listening to right now?
JAY: Well, there’s an artist named thirteendegrees from Clique City. I feel like the music I listen to—like leisure music—is way different than the music I would put out myself. Obviously, I’m not making thirteendegrees-type music, like underground rap melodic. But I listen to a lot of that shit, and I think he’s very talented.
EH: I was looking at some of your old projects, and I feel like you have a lack of features. Do you have any features on your upcoming project?
JAY: To speak on the lack of features, I felt like I wasn’t really in a position to add features on that shit and it be suitable to what I was trying to do. Now I’m more established, I’ve got my own sound, and I’ve been developing it the past couple of years. I’m definitely ready for features now. I don’t necessarily have any features on the next project for sure, but there are a lot of people I want to work with eventually—like Leon Thomas, BLK ODYSSY, Sasha Keable is tough. Just the people that are my mutuals, who I haven’t gotten a song with yet.
EH: Talk about your sound—how would you describe your genre, your music, like the sound you’re putting out?
JAY: I feel like it’s hard to put into words, but I feel like you have to be a certain type of person to listen to my music and really feel what I’m saying.
EH: Who’s that person? Describe that person for me.
JAY: To really hear my music, especially the new project, in the whip, just riding to it, you gotta be a smooth-ass, like, sexy person. Gotta have a little bit of aura to really feel it. Because a lot of the music is about how I pull up on a girl, so if you haven’t been in those types of situations, you’re not really gonna feel it the same way as if you have. So I just feel like you gotta be a smooth, real smooth person—whether that’s a guy or a girl.
EH: Talking about your new project, what can fans expect from you in 2025?
JAY: The next project is called Players Club. It’s a compilation of songs—an EP, I guess I would call it. It’s just a compilation of songs that are genuinely telling stories from my life. Stories of how I maneuver around in my early 20s, just trying to find my way, figuring it out.
Listen to Jay Safari below!