After nine years in label limbo, JoJo returns
%{[ data-embed-type=”image” data-embed-id=”” data-embed-element=”aside” ]}%
%{[ data-embed-type=”image” data-embed-id=”” data-embed-element=”aside” ]}%
Up to this point, JoJo’s musical career has read like a cautionary tale.
In 2004, at 13 years old, she became the youngest solo recording artist in the country to have a No. 1 single, with the R&B hit “Leave (Get Out).” She followed up a strong debut album with The High Road in 2006, and then — just when things were getting good — she and her label, Blackground Records, fell out. She had signed a seven-album deal, and the label refused to release any subsequent material. Thus began a lengthy, potentially career-killing legal quagmire.
Relief finally came in 2014, when JoJo announced that she had won a lawsuit against the label and had signed to Atlantic Records. New music was imminent, she promised her fans. Then, finally, came the three-song, show-stopping III.
Ahead of her Tuesday-night show at RecordBar, I chatted with her about the
c-word: comeback.
The Pitch: The media have changed so much in the decade since you’ve been in the public eye. What are some of the biggest adjustments you’ve had to make?
JoJo: As a person, it hasn’t been that big of an adjustment because all my friends are embracing social media and because I’m a young American living in the sun. But as an artist, there is an expectation that comes with social media that wasn’t there before. Where people want every single tweet to be responded to and they want to DM you and have access to you at all times. It’s just not something that’s even possible sometimes. It’s a struggle because I do want to be close with people and I want to have a relationship with the people that support me, but you can’t be best friends with everybody.
You were essentially held hostage by Blackground Records for a decade. How do you feel about being stuck for all those years, writing material without having an outlet?
I had a few years of being bitter, but now I’m on the other side of it. You spend so much time and money to fight and be free. I didn’t want to come out from the other side of it with anger and resentment and “what if.” I just wanted to move forward and be as positive as I can.
Would I be in a different position? Of course. Had we not done something in a certain way… But I can’t live my life that way. I need to have the victory. I can’t be unhappy. I was for a long time, but I’m in this situation right now, and it’s pretty good.
I was a little surprised by your decision to sign with Atlantic — another major label — after departing from Universal.
I love music more than I hate how weird this industry is. I love what I get to do every day. While going independent is a great option, and you can achieve incredible success on that route, I had seen the way that having major-label distribution can work. And after fighting for so long, I just wanted to have the support of all the different departments that a major label has versus having to do it all ourselves, which is the way I had been doing it, essentially, for the past few years while I was in limbo.
So III just came out, and you’ve got a new full-length record coming out next year. What can you tell me about it?
I’m just keeping my head down and working right now. I felt like I was done with this album, but it’s like I’m never actually done. I always want to go back into the studio. I never want to stop being creative. I feel like I’m better at expressing myself in the studio or live than talking, even. And I just want to continue opening up my heart and my mind, so it [the new album] sounds like a girl in her 20s trying to figure it out. I want to show strength and vulnerability. I want to show that you can be powerful but you can be a little bit fucked-up, and that can exist in one person.
The reception has been really fantastic. I just feel like I need to be as authentic to myself as possible because people are smart. People can tell if you’re coming from a real place. I’m not going to try to be who I was at 15. It wouldn’t be natural. I feel like when my
career was on pause, I was put on pause within myself. I just want to get into the flow of it all again and finding out who I am. I want to dig deeper and have fun.
