Breaking onto the scene in 2015, Jazz Cartier is another in a long line of artists working in the hip-hop and R&B genres that hail from Toronto, Canada's new music capital. Citing Drake and The Weeknd as major influences, the young rapper already has a major Canadian award under his belt from earlier this year, Fast forward to this year, taking home a Juno for Record of the Year for his 2016 mixtape, Hotel Paranoia. Since then, his star has ascended to new heights, from working with Lil Wayne and Mike Will Made It to crafting a brand-new album that could be his biggest yet. He chatted with Billboard to discuss all of this and more.
When it comes to his history with Weezy, it starts at his track entitled "Lil Wayne." When asked about his veteran emcee's response to that song, Cartier said "Oh, that was fire. I think that kind of pushed the meter a lot for me, personally. I don’t need a lot of celebrity co-signs, and I never really wanted one, but that’s the one that I wanted the most. I’m good for life." He was then prodded about potentially working with Wayne, to which Cartier replied: "Yeah, I’m working on that. I’m really working on that."
Jazz also recently collaborated with Red Bull Sound Select, which he called a long-time love affair between brand and artist. "I remember a long time ago when I first started out, Red Bull just showed a lot of love," Cartier said. "I think they came out to my first show back home. Apparently they were sitting down with Mike WiLL [Made-It] and going through a bunch of artists and Mike was like, 'Oh, I know Jazz.' Red Bull hit me up and told me they had an opportunity for me, and it was a wrap." The young rapper also spoke about his experience working with Will Made It, saying that "Mike's a cool guy. I was super nervous just based off the fact that it was my first time working with a big league producer. But I’ve learned a lot [...] It was definitely a good experience." Two songs that they did together, "Nobody’s Watching" and "Make A Mess," are out today (August 16th) and the 23rd respectively.