JHAMEEL Indie Pop
Musician Jhameel is an enigma. Originally, he
produces, and mixes all of his songs. The man is
was going to be an officer in the United States
ridiculously impressive. You have a young man
Army—with fluency in Arabic, Korean, Spanish,
who is a multi-linguist, a multi-instrumentalist,
and Russian, he would have been quite the asset
a producer and mixer, androgynous yet straight,
to the armed services, but after a year in UC
an intelligent feminist whose music is played
Berkeley’s ROTC program, he rescinded due to
in regular rotation at such stores like American
his beliefs on the army’s presence in the Middle
Apparel and H&M. Just saying, Jhameel would
East. After graduating summa cum laude with
make a highly effective secret agent.
a degree in Arabic, Jhameel embarked on his musical career. His first album was a quiet and insightful piece, a highly electronic album, yet
SAN FRANCISCO
with lush orchestration, eclectic sound effects, and Jhameel’s own melodic vocals. His second album, The Human Condition, was an explosion of funky sounds and frankly incredible guitar. As Jhameel’s music has progressed, it’s become more and more dance-pop oriented, like his smash hit “White Lie.” Is this a huge change from his earlier work? If you ask the artist himself, the answer is no. “It’s pop. I’m switching it up every single time, because within that pop I’m talking about a lot of different stuff. I have a lot of freedom within the structure of pop, so I don’t want to limit myself to talk about a certain type of emotion.” Both Jhameel’s music and androgynous style show inspiration from artists like Michael Jackson and Prince, and it works extremely well. For anyone who dumps on pop for being mindless drivel, one, you’re a moron, and two, you definitely haven’t heard an artist like Jhameel, who plays every instrument heard on his albums (around fifteen),
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Jhameel