For the latest installment of New Music Spotlight, The Bulletin chopped it up with Jay Watts — an audacious talent blending explosive pop hooks with moody R&B beats and melodies. The self-proclaimed “King of Ratchet Pop” straddles genres ranging from rock and R&B to pop and rap; he effortlessly maneuvers his way across myriad musical styles to bring his lovestruck lyrics to life. In our conversation, we dissected his vibrant debut EP, his unique relationship with music videos, and his plans for new music.

As a primarily R&B artist whose music sits at the intersection of so many different genres, what is your take on the current state of R&B?

Brent Faiyaz has the No. 1 song on Urban radio, right now. You got Giveon. Lucky Daye is doing well. I feel like once a song catches, it works, but hip-hop is so powerful right now... R&B just gets a little outshined. That's my personal opinion on it. And then it's a lot of rappers using melodic tones and it's… honestly, it seems like people don't even care if you can sing now. You know what I'm saying? I think they just care about how good the song is at this point. So, it's not even about the genres no more. It's about… how much do we love this song? How cool is this song? I'm gonna say “cool,” because a lot of stuff goes viral. How cool is this song? And then, do we like the artists? I feel like it's at that place now.

Do ever feel pressure to create a viral moment for your music?

I wouldn't say “pressure” because that's along the lines of hitting the lottery, you know? You can't make a song like, “Oh, I'm making this for to you do that.” It's not gonna go viral on TikTok. And then certain songs, I'll bet you the artists didn't even think they would go viral. It just ended up happening. Like Chris Brown's “Under the Influence.” That’s a super R&B song. When he made it, I'm pretty sure he wasn't like, “Yo, TikTok gon eat this up,” you know? So, I feel like it's one of them things you can't focus on. It's gonna happen if it's supposed to happen.

Antidote blends together a couple of different genres. Who are your biggest musical influences? What kind of musical space were you in during the creation of this project?

My biggest influences are Bobby Brown, Michael Jackson, The-Dream, and The Weeknd, My tone actually comes from The-Dream. Chris Brown, Usher, Sting, Chris Martin from Coldplay, people like that.

Just this year, The-Dream flexed his versatility across Beyoncé’s genre-bending Renaissance. You were also doing some genre-bending on Antidote with tracks like “Problemas.” Could we be hearing a Latin remix of that one soon?

Well, we're working on a few remixes now. Now that you've said that and put it in my head bro, that might be it! Especially for that record, that might be the vibe for that. Mm-hmm. For sure.

The reggaeton influence in “Problemas” made the song an easy standout, but the hook in “Fireworks” is fantastic. Tell me a bit about the writing process for “Fireworks.”

It’s crazy, right? I always feel like this… whenever you’re in the studio, whenever you have to spend hours on a record, you’re almost forcing it at a certain point, right? When I loaded that beat up, I came up with all the melodies in one take. From the first verse to the chorus was one take. Then, I started writing it mad fast just thinking about my relationship and everything. If I was to make a song for my girl, how would I write this? Once I started writing, that was quick, and then the song was recorded in an hour. That’s when you’re the furthest thing from forcing it.

When you’re in the studio and you’re recording these songs, how do you get into the right head space for the more emotional and vulnerable songs?

You think about certain times in your life. I went to college, and after college, I was just being the party guy. Now not being the party guy and reflecting on that, I’m reflecting on whose feelings I hurt in the past. Like, “Dang, that was kind of messed up the way I did that person!” When you’re making songs, it always starts with the beat for me because when you hear the beat and you'll know kinda where you wanna go with it. When I heard “Numb,” I wanted to talk about some of the stuff I used and how I used to be in the past because I'm pretty sure somebody can relate to almost feeling like you're ready for something that you're not… then you end up wasting the person's time, you know? Cause you're in such a party mode, you turned up. So, when I made “Numb,” that's what I was thinking.

Are we getting any more music videos from this project?

I did the visual EP. I wanted to give every song a look. A lot of times you can't shoot seven or eight videos. I'm like, “If I could shoot every video within a time duration of a minute and a half, that's enough to get a visual for the song you're listening to.” So any new videos are gonna be for new music.

Who are your biggest influences when it comes to creating your music videos?

My favorite videos come from A$AP Rocky and Tyler, the Creator. So with that being said, when I start shooting again, it's gonna be that vibe with my sound. I don't wanna be all extra clean, all that mess. It's over for that. I ain't gonna say it's “over for it,” but overly sexy and all that is not winning right now. It's not because it's not cool. You got Chris Brown for that, right? Nobody really cares about the next person doing what Chris Brown's doing. I just wanna make cool videos. Super cool videos, fun videos, and sometimes videos that have nothing to do with the song. “Redbone” didn’t even have a video!

You mentioned Chris Martin as one of your influences. Will you ever return to the more rock-oriented sound of your earlier music?

I would say in a few years. Only because, when you have a sound, you don't want to do one thing and then go all the way over there. I knew when I made that song (“Watch Me Walk”), it was going in movies and in a few video games. I did it with that intention. It worked well for me as far as the sync world. But, just imagine “Watch Me Walk” coming on in this project. [Laughs]. As much fun as it was recording the record, I think I’m gonna hold off. If anything, I would do a whole project like that… almost like Lil Wayne’s Rebirth.

Speaking of new music, what can you tell us about what’s on the horizon for you?

Get ready for 2023. I'm getting everything together for 2023 with the visuals, just building the right things around me in order to accomplish that. Just strategizing. Nothing more important than strategy

Are you thinking of a full album? A smaller project? A couple of singles?

I’m thinking full album. I may break it down into three or four parts, but it's gonna be a complete album. I'm not a person that loves listening to albums, it has to be like Kendrick [Lamar’s] album or J. Cole's album. I actually listen to those completely, no skips. I like Brent Faiyaz’s album a lot. It may be a full album though. I'm not sure yet.

In addition to Kendrick and J. Cole, who's been on your playlist so far this year? What's stuck with you musically?

They didn't release an album this year, but it's a group out of Australia called The Parcels. I listen to their projects fully through, I just love how they make music. They bring 60s Soul into their sound. I haven't heard Beyonce's album yet, so I think I'm gonna play that this weekend. Who else dropped? Brent Faiyaz. Breezy's album… not finished with it yet, but his album was amazing also. I also just bumped blackbear’s album. This one was very alternative, but he still did his blackbear thing on it. I was a fan.

Stream Antidote here.