I used to watch H2O.
The kids show?
Yeah, with mermaids.
I really wanted to be a mermaid.
She's the 21 year old British singer that Drake and Kendrick Lamar want to work with.
So, just what is it that makes Jorja Smith so special?
When we'd walk to school when I was little, I used to like, we'd like graffiti off walls and just talk.
And I used to write stories when I was little.
And then when I was 11 I wrote a song, my first one that was called 'Life is a path worth taking'.
Which was about your actions and what consequences they have.
That's very deep for an 11 year old.
I know, I don't know what I was actually going through.
When you were in school, I think your A-Level dissertation was on whether
post-colonialism is still present in grime music, is that right?
No my media course work.
Yeah, what did you discover, is it?
Ah yeah it was.
I went round asking kids at school, mainly black kids like 'what do you think of the place?'
And this group of 11 year old's they were like 'I hate the place.'
'You know they're always after us.'
I was like 'what have you done?'
They were like 'Nothing but they're always onto us.'
I was like 'interesting'.
So it kind of like, I went home and I was writing this coursework out
and just had all this stuff in my head about what I heard from people at school
and then another thing I'd watch the news
and another black man in America's been killed by the police, again.
Basically 'Blue Lights' is about these two boys
and I based it off my two friends, cos' one of them came to my house one day
and he left his bag at mine.
And he was always a bit sketchy, whenever cars went past, he'd always like,
sharking them and looking back.
He left his pouch at mine, and it was really light and I'm really nosy
so I look in it and their was a knife in there.
And I got it out stupidly and I couldn't put it back
I was like, I'm not gonna do it I'm gonna tell my dad.
Cos' it was like a flicky knife and I didn't know how to close it.
I googled it and I managed to close it, I cleaned it, washed my hands, put it back in the bag.
-You wiped it down in cased it'd done something. -Oh my god.
So I gave him the bag back, I never told him but that's what I wrote 'Blue Lights' about
these two boys and I was imaging if he did something with that knife.
When you write a song that is sparked by a person
how and at what stage do you let them know?
Cos' it's obviously you've sprung your imagination out of that moment-
I don't really tell them.
Right, but they work it out at some point right?
Not really.
I told him but he didn't know. I only told him this year.
Cos' I was speaking to him when I went back to Walsall.
I said oh I wrote that song about him, he was really touched.
What lyric are you most proud of?
Well one of my favourite songs is 'Teenage Fantasy', I wrote it when I was 16.
I like getting lost in songs, sometimes I find it hard to be in the moment sometimes.
Why?
Sometimes with so much stuff going on, I start thinking about all that when I'm on stage sometimes.
Only recently and I realise that's cos' I'm doing quite a lot
and I've never done so much before.
I've had this before.
What is it?
I don't know what it is. This texture inside...
I have had this too. My mum's from Singapore so they all the Asian sweets but
she'd never tell you what the hell they were she'd just be like 'eat this'
and I'm like 'okay.'
Jorja Smith,
congratulations on a incredible career so far.
Thank you.
-Thank you so much for making the time to chat to us. -Thank you for having me.