h.e.r.: Who is JBIII?
JBIII: Jesse Boykins III is a young focused passionate singer songwriter producer from Miami, Fl driven by simply creating.

h.e.r.: Who would you compare yourself to in your genre, who do you admire?
JBIII: I compare myself to good music.. I admire people like Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Donny Hathaway of the old and Bilal D’ Angelo, Eric Roberson of the new.

h.e.r.: Speaking of Bilal what’s the history of you and Bilal?
JBIII: (laughs) He was my voice trainer while I was in college, I met him randomly at this spot called the zinc bar and had been listening to his album, when I met him he was a little drunk so it took me meeting him 3 times for him to remember me, the 3rd time I asked him to be my teacher he said ” for sure g, that’s what’s up”. So I started goin out to Jersey City every weds to take these lessons, at first I was mad nervous because it was Bilal, but after the 1st lesson I knew it would be a dope impact our first lesson we didn’t even sing we just talked about being an artist and the people I should check out, then we did breathing exercises for an hr, and I got high on oxygen (laughs).

h.e.r.: Well you have your 2nd project finished and releasing soon, sum up your first project as opposed to this one?
JBIII: Dopamine to me was an introduction like the intro’s u read before the book even starts, and it was also so spontaneous more of a feeling, I did that album in a month and a half it help me realize focus is fuel

h.e.r.: What is the title of your album and when can it be expected?
JBIII: It’s called “The Beauty Created” gonna be out Nov 11th

h.e.r.: What’s your favorite record on the album, why?
JBIII: That’s the hardest question to answer, cuz it’s like I’ll have a favorite song until I record the next and the next and the next but when I listen to it as a whole the one that stands out is “Sunstar” and “Be All Truth”.

h.e.r.: Any reason?
JBIII: Yea, They both actually started out as freestyles, my boy Steve Wyreman (Keyshia Cole’s guitarist) who help produce those joints with me, would play changes and be like ” what u think about this fool?, can u fucks wit it” and I would just come up with words right away, like it was predestined only two songs on the album that I wrote in like 10 minutes but there the ones with the dopest message ..At least to me like I write pretty fast but I usually go back and change things… I didn’t change anything with those.

h.e.r.: You had a music video for your single “Tabloids” from your EP that was on BETJ for awhile? Do you plan to shoot a video for a record on this album?
JBIII: Yea I did.. I actually plan to shoot like 4; the first one is for the single called ” Pantyhose”.



h.e.r.: Interesting..
JBIII: (laughs) Indeed

h.e.r.: What all do you do to contribute to your music?
JBIII: I do whatever is needed, I do the writing, I record myself, the production at times, I do the editing (married to protools) and even mixing if I have to.

h.e.r.: Have you been in discussion with any record labels?
JBIII: Yea I’ve been to a couple meetings, there all very similar in the outcome. just haven’t found what I want yet, and my music is all I have so I’m not down to just giving my life away. I’m just learning that the industry is kinda like a music bully..lol. in a way.. takes ur lunch money and takes credit for alot of things they never did and you cant do anything about it because you dont want to get beat up, so as an independent artist what u do is, is build a team and fanbase so the bully has to join eventually or they’ll get jumped.. if that makes sense

h.e.r.: Who have you worked with?
JBIII: Theophilus London, Melo X, AC, Mickey Factz, Stalley, Fresh Daily, James Watts, Chin Chin, Hasan Insane, XV, Mickey Factz & the GFC team and J Shotti to name a few and i’m in the process of working wit K-Salaam and a couple other cats.

h.e.r.: Where was your most recent show and when is your next show?
JBIII: My most recent show was a show thrown by Sabor Ent. and I shared the bill with Curren$y and Cory Gunz ,pretty dope event, my next show is Oct 29th for a Rock The Vote Event at S.O.B.’s.

h.e.r.: What’s playing in your ipod lately?
JBIII: D’ Angelo Voodoo, Bilal Love for sale, Jazmine Sullivan Fearless, Lauryn hill Unplugged, and Bjork Medulla but that’s just from yesterday

h.e.r.: What’s one of your favorite quotes or sayings..
JBIII: “The Brain sees what the Heart wants it to feel”.

h.e.r.: What’s a memorable moment from one of your performances?
JBIII: I’d have to say this summer in Miami ,my mother saw me perform for the fisrt time in six yrs..

h.e.r.: Any advice for aspiring singers?
JBIII: Yes, it’s advice really for anyone wanting to pursue anything really, make sure the reasons for your doing it are positive, make sure you practice your craft and don’t take any life lesson for granted, and never let anyone discourage what you know you are truly good at

h.e.r.: Any shout outs Mr. Boykins?
JBIII: Mos def.. I wanna give a shout out to You and your movement, shout out to My Team Jay Woo, Joya, Shia, JShotti, Brooke and Haize, Sinorice Moss, shout out to everybody who took the time to check me out. Prechiate you.


Photo’s by J Shotti