- 'Trying Not to Think About It'
is a time capsule of my deep depression
that I was in at the end of last year.
And I found that, in opening up,
and talking to people that are close to me,
that I was so not alone in that feeling.
I found that, in writing through it,
I was able to get some of my confidence back.
I've shed those feelings for now,
but it doesn't mean that this experience isn't cyclical.
Like, I found that it comes back.
I have personified my depression and I call her Burlinda.
And Burlinda's gonna try to take the driver's seat again,
and I'm gonna have to be like,
"Bitch, stay in the back seat, I don't need you.
I've got this under control."
I'm not here to say that I've arrived
and that, now that I've written it, everything's cool.
But it is really great to have this body of work
that feels like a weighted blanket on me
that felt like, you know, comforting.
Hey, MTV News, this is JoJo.
and these are my top five musical influences.
My first musical influence
is probably the person who made the greatest impact on me
when I was a little girl because of her voice,
because of her conviction, her passion,
her talent, her songwriting:
Aretha Franklin.
I don't even remember the first time I heard her voice,
but I remember being so in awe of the power, the grace,
the fluidity, the truth that I felt,
and I listened to a biography of hers and learned so much
about what it was that went into the pain
and the storytelling that we could hear in her music.
My next musical influence is
M.C., Mariah Carey.
She is so brilliant.
Like, not only one of the most phenomenal singers
from her range to her flexibility,
just chops, chops, chops, chops in general.
But songwriting?
Ooh, this woman gave us new vocabulary words
that we didn't - she just expanded my mind as a child.
Her visuals, like, I think of the "Honey" video
where she's taking off her little swim thing
and then diving in and getting on a jet ski
and she just looks so happy and free.
And the way that she combined R&B and pop with hip-hop
and really brought some acts that were more underground
at a certain time to a very big mainstream place,
I just think that's so, so dope.
She really is the blueprint for so many artists today
and I'm just forever inspired by her.
And also her resilience, how people counted her out,
were like, "It's over for you."
And then she came back with 'The Emancipation of Mimi.'
And like, you can never count anybody out,
particularly anybody as talented as that.
So I just, I love the story.
Her energy's amazing. I'm so grateful that she exists.
My third musical influence that I'm gonna highlight is
Solange.
And I'm bringing her up because,
think about being Beyoncé's sister,
think about that for a second.
And then to be as much of an individual
and as ill and as artist-driven
and as transformative as she is
and the intersectionality of art and history and music
and different genres
and the fact that she's been a mother
through this whole thing, a young mother,
and brought so many different, really cool musicians
into the fold to create a sound that is all her own
and that really set a tone and, like, changed things.
I just have so much respect and admiration for her.
I just love how uncompromising she is with her art.
And I think that to set yourself apart from a family member,
who, of course, you probably, you love, you respect,
you look up to, but she has carved her own path.
It's so important and I just, I stan.
My fourth musical influence is
D'Angelo.
D'Angelo's 'Voodoo' is probably my most listened-to
album of all time.
And I love the musicality and the immersive experience
that it is.
I mean, I've been listening to this album
since I was a young teenager.
And I remember a boyfriend I was dating at the time
being like, "What are you listening to?"
And I was like, "Oh my God, you don't get this?"
And I had to break up with him.
Like, it just wasn't gonna work out.
[Laughs]
Because that's how meaningful this music is to me.
To read the lyrics, to understand the context
and all the thought and heart that he put into this project
is just so inspiring.
But from 'Brown Sugar' to 'Black Messiah,'
all his offerings have been extraordinary
in my opinion.
Every time I listen to his music,
I get something new from it,
and that's really a big feat.
The last musical influence I'm going to highlight is
Yebba.
And I wanna bring her up because I just think,
I'm just so grateful that she exists
and that she is putting out music that we can cry to,
be inspired by,
and that I think pushes all of us as artists forward.
She is such an amazing synthesis of inspirations.
And as a vocalist, I'm so taken by her freedom,
by the freedom that I hear in her voice
and the playfulness, and the fact that, at a live show,
I've never heard her do the same thing twice.
And that just speaks to the fact that
she's a channel of inspiration and creativity.
And I think her songwriting is so beautiful.
The combination of folk and soul and jazz and blues,
you can hear the Memphis all through her,
and then you can also hear some Appalachia
and some influence that is maybe otherworldly.
It's quite extraordinary,
and I'm so grateful that an artist like her
exists right now.