Jada Arnell Grew Up Alongside Her Own Music

Five years ago, Jada Arnell’s debut album, Down for Me, had a completely different title and track list. While she enjoyed the songs individually, Arnell wasn’t satisfied with the body of work. Having worked on the album since she was 19, she’s spent all this time fine-tuning the sound, writing and rewriting and gaining more experiences to write about. Now 24, Arnell finally can set the album free for listeners, and Down for Me was released last month.

The album is equal parts sexy, romantic and nostalgic R&B, with Arnell bringing a modern touch to the sounds with which she was raised. Arnell grew up watching her mother perform in a jazz band. At home, Arnell would mimic her mother and put on shows for her family.

“I have so many VHS home videos,” Arnell says. “My mom always kept the camera with her and recorded me and my sister. I’ve always wanted to have a mic in my hand and just to not necessarily be the center of attention, but I just wanted to be a performer. My mom saw that. She also made sure that I really wanted to do it, and that I wasn’t just doing it for fun.”

Her mother would later enter her in singing competitions and enroll her in The Black Academy of Arts and Letters. Other than her mother, Arnell’s inspirations include BeyonceÌ, Jazmine Sullivan and Stevie Wonder, whom she calls “one of the best writers that this world has ever seen.”

“I just think that his music is completely timeless,” Arnell says. “He’s so talented, and such a genuine soul. I get in the car and listen to him all the time.”

Over the course of five years, Arnell worked on Down for Me with production collective SoufWest Music and writer Meetchie. In the time she was working on the album, she released several one-off singles that helped her build a decent following on Instagram. Arnell says the album’s title is not only “an ode” to those who have remained “down” for her by way of social media, but also to the team of producers that has been working with her since the beginning of her career.

The album tells the story of a relationship, from the “talking stage” to realizing two people may not be right for each other.

“In this instance, there’s a little tussle between the self, the heart and the mind,” Arnell says. “And sometimes it doesn’t end up the way we want it to.”

When Arnell first started recording the album, she says she couldn’t relate to the lyrics and messages of some of the songs. Oftentimes, her songwriters and producers would have her provide vocals for reference tracks they were writing for other artists.

She rerecorded some of the original versions of the songs but kept some of the original versions as is to reflect where she was at the time she recorded them.

Some of the more sexual songs, such as “Rain Dance,” almost didn’t make the album. The slow, bedroom banger, which contains sounds of rain and thunderstorms, features Arnell singing “Boy, you make the rain come down,” on the chorus. These are perhaps the cleanest lyrics of the song.

“I actually wasn’t with [producer Gumbo, one-half of SoufWest Music] when he wrote it,” Arnell says. “He just wanted to use my vocals as a reference. I came into the studio, and he was like, ‘Can you sing for me?’ And I loved it, but at that time, I didn’t even necessarily know what I was singing about. Over time, I’ve kept it in my pocket. He was eventually going to give it to someone else, but I was just like, ‘Please let me keep this because I just know there’s going to come a point in my life where I’m going to relate to this so much.'”

Other songs, such as “Can’t Choose,” see Arnell trying to decide whether to stay in a relationship in which she’s comfortable or to leave it and enjoy being single. While Arnell says the song is relatable, she knows she would choose herself in any instance. “I don’t associate with anything toxic,” she says.

She touches on this on “Open Flame,” on which she reflects on the highs and lows of a relationship with her lover. “I don’t play with fire, but this love feels like an open flame,” she sings on the song’s chorus.

Arnell co-wrote the song with Meetchie, who has written with the likes of D.A. Doman and Eric Bellinger, during a FaceTime session, feeling the highs until the early hours of the morning.

“I don’t think it was hard to write, but we had that adrenaline rush that you get when you write a song, especially with someone else and you’re both on the same page, and might end up saying the same thing at the same time,” Arnell says. “I know we were both really trying to make it a great song.”

A perfectionist by nature, Arnell is excited to put out the project she’s spent the past half-decade working on. She finally feels satisfied with Down for You, and while she’s not sure how the project will be received, Arnell says it’s out of her hands.

“Even if nobody cares if it’s out there, I’m proud of it,” Arnell says. “As long as I’m satisfied, that’s all that matters. Once I put it out, it no longer belongs to me, it’s a gift for everybody else. If one person likes the whole album, or if another person just picks one song, that’s good enough for me.”