KidSuper, Giggs & Quavo's Big in Da Game

Left: jacket WALES BONNER, jersey HERON PRESTON, shorts WILLY CHAVARRIA, headband NIKE.

Aside from growing up in the Black church, Ward also says he was heavily involved in the dance community in St. Louis from an early age. At 9, his mother placed him in a musical theater program where he learned tap, jazz, ballet and hip-hop. He acted, sang, and danced for years, due to his excellent dancing skills and involvement in competitions, he was constantly traveling. Jordan’s aspirations to move to Los Angeles guided him and by 18 he moved there to pursue professional dancing. 

After some time there, he landed a gig touring as a backup dancer for Becky G. While on the road, he found himself drawn to creating music while cooped up in his hotels – Becky G. encouraged him too. Though it felt foreign for him at first, he began doing what felt natural for him: writing and singing about his life as a dancer on the road. By the time 2015 came, he was hired as a backup dancer for Justin Bieber as a part of the singer’s Purpose tour. This led to Ward striking up a friendship with a talented artist and dancer who pushed him to start freestyling and recording, he stayed consistent and within a year and a half he released his first EP, A Peak At The Summit.  

FORWARD released on Interscope Records has so many layers and that’s what lands Ward in the lexicon of rising alt acts who once were inspired by distinct eras of hip-hop: think the blog era where artists like Wiz Khalifa and J. Cole got their footing (Jordan looks up to both of these acts). In conversation, the artist-rapper expresses that FORWARD paints a picture of where he’s at right now as a music-maker. But, it also does more than that, it introduces him to new listeners by way of fleshed-out arrangements by Lido, the album’s executive producer and Ward’s honest lyricism. These notions when paired with hip-hop, gospel and rhythm and blues influences create a fusion sound that culminates with Ward ushering in a reflective chapter of his artistry. 

office caught up with Jordan Ward following his first headlining tour to speak about his influences, his creative childhood and his background in St. Louis, and more.

What were some of your earliest music memories?

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was just one of those CDs that I just remember always being in my house since I was a kid. And I would always pick it up and listen to it, and it followed me into my adulthood. Other than that, I mean, I grew up around a lot of gospel music.

Left: jacket WALES BONNER, jersey HERON PRESTON, shorts WILLY CHAVARRIA, boots TIMBERLAND, headband NIKE.

Right: jacket HERON PRESTON, sunglasses STYLIST'S OWN.

How old were you when you started getting involved with creative activities like musical theater, dancing and more?

I remember being drawn to singing and dancing and rapping ever since I was a kid, ever since I can remember. But the first time I actually got involved was when I was eight or nine and I started doing musical theater. My mom had noticed I was getting in trouble for singing and dancing in class. So basically she was just like, "Let me just switch you with some singing and dancing." So she sent me to some musical theater auditions.

I started doing community theater, professional theater. And then when I was nine, I started dancing, started taking tap, and then when I was 10, I joined my dance studio and I was like a competition kid. I was a convention kid. As a kid, I always just wrote raps, had rhyme books, battled people at the YMCA lock-ins and around neighborhood and stuff. I had a big community in the musical theater realm. And then within the dance studio culture in St. Louis, I knew a lof of kids from competing. 

What other types of music were you listening to as you were growing up?

Other than gospel, I mean, coming up as a kid, I was big on 50 Cent. And then right before middle school, I got more into 2Pac’s Me Against the World and Nas’ Illmatic. I like All Eyez On Me too. Biggie’s Ready to Die, JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt. I was on my real hip-hop shit as a kid. I started listening to all that when I was like 10.

Were you creating music as a part of the SoundCloud era in middle school or high school?

I never made music as a kid. I used to just rap, write raps. I recorded one demo in my friend's basement because her dad was a church musician and he had a studio. By the time I got to high school, I was way more focused on dance.

In high school, I wasn't thinking about being an artist at all. I was just focused on being ready to move to LA when I was 18, to start my career and shit. But I definitely was super into music though. If anything, I thought I was going to go from dance to the music industry, but just in a different way. I came up on the Lil Wayne No Ceilings era, the Wiz Khalifa “Taylor Gang” era, coming home, watching Wiz Khalifa YouTube videos “DayToday” every day, watching Mac Miller, watching just even early Tyler, The Creator and Drake.

I was traveling a lot for dance. Every weekend I would fly to these different workshops around the country and try to get on scholarships so I can train more throughout the year. And I would be flying by myself a ton. So I always just had music with me. And I feel like that combination inspired my view on the world a lot.

Jacket, pants and shoes GUCCI, top HERMES, sunglasses FLATLIST, rings MIANSAI.

Do you think you’ve taken anything from the blog era and used it as a part of your artistry?

For sure. I mean, I feel like the blog era artists lay it like a new blueprint for artists. As far as putting yourself on the internet, branding yourself. My YouTube series “PlantainGo!” is definitely inspired by Wiz Khalifa’s “DayToday.” I'm trying to carry that era with me – everything from the merch to just the community recognition. 

What inspires me from that era and what I try to bring with me is that the internet allowed people with different personalities. It allowed for a different set of representation. When I saw these artists on the internet that maybe came from a similar community that I came from, but was different from a lot of the people they came up around inspired me. 

People like Wiz Khalifa and J Cole, they made me feel I could identify with them as a young Black kid growing up in the inner city that didn't talk like everybody, or didn't necessarily dress like everybody. I was doing contemporary dance and doing ballet and getting music from what I would be doing with that, studying at my studio and stuff. And I would see them be tapped into the same music too. So I feel like it's just inspiring.

How did you transition from dancing to creating music? Especially since you initially moved to Los Angeles to chase your dreams of being a professional dancer.

By the time I actually started working professionally as a dancer, the last thing I wanted to do was become an artist. I feel like there's an unspoken code you assume as a dancer when it's just, you just become more ninja like. You're only there when you need to. You not asked. At least the way I was thinking about, I'm not asking for extra attention. The only thing I want to speak for me is did I do my fucking job. I was touring with Becky G for a year. Becky would just hear me sing, playing around sometimes, and she’d be like, “Just sing a little something for me.” And I’d be like, “What are you talking about?” Then maybe a year and a half after that is when I started fucking around with the music. 

I was on tour with Justin Bieber in 2016 with my friend, he was another dancer and performer. We just had a lot of free time in the hotel rooms, and he's an amazing artist. So he would be making music on his laptop, and then I would just be free styling for fun next to him. And then he was like, "Bro, you should fuck around with that." And then I started writing raps, and then pretty much all my free time on tour became me just getting recording equipment and recording demos in my hotel room.

I spent the next year and a half being in my hotel room, hooking up my mic, instead of going out and drinking with everybody all the time, I would just be pulling beats off YouTube and just seeing what I could do living in my own little world before I touched down back in LA. And by the time I came off tour, I had a tape and I started going to the studio on my breaks in between booking studio time in LA. By the end of 2017, I had a tape and I put an EP out, and then yeah, it just started from there.

Jacket and pants ALEXANDER McQUEEN, shirt ACNE STUDIOS, shoes CAMPER, sunglasses FLATLIST, rings MIANSAI.

With your debut album FORWARD do you have any lessons or themes that you took from your first project?
 

I feel like I'm just always trying to evolve. I'm never trying to do the same thing twice. So on that first tape, I feel like I was describing where I was in life. It was called A Peak At The Summit, which is basically me describing being at one peak of dance and then looking over at the next peak or the next summit of music and being like, "Damn, I got to go through that journey to go up and down." And I feel like, so on that tape, I was talking about my current life being a dancer and my current relationships. And I feel like on FORWARD, I tried to go a little bit before that and talk about my childhood and my family. And I mean, it's music at the end of the day. It's not a tell all or anything, but I feel like I just tried to show a little bit, give a little more context behind it.

What were the biggest themes you were hoping to get across on FORWARD?

I was just trying to illustrate what I was feeling on the inside. At the most basic level, I was just trying to show my evolution as a human being, try to give more context as to why I choose to express myself the way I do, why I have the humor that I do, why I have the emotion that I do, why I have the passion that I do, because of everything that's led me up until this point. And I'm not sure why, but I was just trying to paint the picture as to what led up here.

Left: jacket, pants and shoes GUCCI, top HERMES, sunglasses FLATLIST, rings MIANSAI. Right: jacket and pants GUCCI, sunglasses FLATLIST.

What was the process of creating FORWARD?

Everything was recorded in LA except “IDC” with me and Joony. We made that in New York. We were both in New York at the same time, and that was our first time meeting. But everything else was made in LA. We worked a lot in Lido’s studio. Lido has a home studio, so I was at Lido's crib a lot. There are a lot of the producers on the album, I would just be at their crib. The intro “BUSSDOWN,” produced by my homie, Eli Heisler, I was at his crib when we made that. 

All of us came together, myself and the producers, and we rented some houses out throughout the year. One in Malibu, one in Topanga, one in Venice. And just spent four or five days at a time, just locked in, making different ideas, taking mushrooms, going to the beach in between, coming back, trying something else. There was definitely a sense of camaraderie.

I’m curious about the fusion sound you landed on, on the album too. I don't want to say that it's R&B or anything, because I'm not sure what you want to define yourself as, but I'm just curious. Was that a decision that you came up with Lido you executive producer, that you just didn't want to confine yourself to any genre?

I'm not the first to do any of this shit. You know what I'm saying? I'm inspired by mad people. But yeah, I guess, I mean, I don't know if we was sitting in there like, “I don't want to be confined to one genre.” I don't think we stay in one genre. Going back to what I was talking about earlier as far as what I was so inspired by on the blog era, is that you could really hear all these artists' influence. 

I don't really mind what genre people put it in. I feel like that's not my job. I like to consider myself a hip-hop artist. I'm not going to call myself a rapper, but I like to consider myself a hip-hop artist. But ultimately, most things are just rhythm and blues derivatives. Rhythm and blues is the ultimate genre after blues and gospel and jazz and all that.

I never want to pigeonhole black artists. What if the artist actually doesn't want to be canonized and placed definitively in a lane?

Since you said that, I'm going to just go ahead and insert that right there. I mean, Chuck Barry, father of rock ‘n’ roll from St. Louis. Tina Turner, queen of rock ‘n’ roll, also from St. Louis.

Jacket and pants HERON PRESTON, shoes JORDAN BRAND, bag LOUIS VUITTON.

What was it like collaborating with your friend and stylist Angelo as you were piecing together the album?

I’ve known Angelo since like 2014. We both came up in a similar dance circuit as kids to adults and ended up on similar career paths. But me and him have been friends before I ever started making music, before he started pursuing fashion professionally. We both have gone through financial ups and downs together, real life ups and downs, relationships, all that. I've slept on his couch. 

He's seen how my tastes and everything have shaped over the years, why they've shaped that way, how everything has influenced what I do. And I've also seen him evolve as just a fashion creative, and I think we just both have a trust in each other. And now he knows where I'm at with the music. I know where he's at with the fashion, and we both want to take each other to the next level.

How would you describe this chapter of your life?

This chapter is about reaching the fullest potential. I don't even just mean that in just music because my journey with music isn't about becoming as big as I can. It's about being the best artist that I can be genuinely. Of course, I would love to travel the world, and I would love to create financial freedom and create a freedom for me and my loved ones. So I feel like you have to create something sizeable naturally to do that. But to me, it's just about really bringing to life everything that God or the Spirit has put on my heart.