The one named Jasmine grew up in Brooklyn in the ’94 generation. She started where a lot of great voices do, in church choirs. By her teens, she was deep in performing arts school and hitting stages like Carnegie Hall, which sounds impressive until you realize the real story is what happened next. A rough childhood pushed her to literally change her name, to shed whatever came before and start fresh.
“Jasmine turned her pain into poetry and her poetry into proof that we’re not alone.”
“Everything Is Not What It Seems” is a nine-track EP that pulls from R&B, neo-soul, hip-hop, and trap. Jasmine’s out here making music that admits she doesn’t have it all figured out. The production shifts gears throughout, sometimes atmospheric and spacey, other times hitting hard with trap-influenced beats that snap you back to attention. Jasmine’s voice can go from vulnerable to commanding in the space of a bar, and she uses that range to pull you through every emotion she’s working through.
The whole thing explores identity, relationships, mental health, and the exhausting work of just existing in a world that constantly asks you to perform a version of yourself that probably isn’t real. That’s a trick that only works when an artist is being genuinely honest rather than trying to write something “relatable.” Jasmine spends nine tracks proving that point, peeling back layers of her own life, her relationships, and the masks we all wear to get through the day. There’s anger in there, sure, but also confusion, tenderness, and some small victories.
Jasmine is making the kind of music that builds careers over time, the stuff people come back to because it actually meant something. Do yourself a favor and spend some time with these nine tracks. Chances are, you’ll find something that hits closer to home than you expected. And isn’t that what good music is supposed to do?
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