Close your eyes. Now imagine if Bryson Tiller had the voice of The Weeknd with similar trap/RnB production. Now open them and you have Judgement of Yesterday (J.O.Y). Well…I guess you didn’t have to close your eyes for any of that but the point is, this kids incredibly talented.
I actually stumbled upon this artist because someone rearranged his EP, Awaken and uploaded it to youtube as a new The Weeknd mixtape called Awakening. And to the untrained ear, one really might mistaken him for the King of Dark RnB himself. The project’s dark undertones contrasted against J.O.Y’s clear falsetto are extremely reminiscent of The Weeknd’s earlier mixtapes but with less of the drug filled nihilistic content brought to the mainstream by the latter. According to the skits on Awaken, it’s apparent that he is aware of this similarity as the project narrative appears to be him catfishing some girl as a ‘certain artist’ with the song “The Answer” at the end of the project being the awkward part on the show where they reveal their true identities and (spoiler alert) their cry for help (almost always) falls on deaf disappointed ears.
The most info that could be dug up on him is that he’s an undiscovered artist from Germany with a small Soundcloud following and has been releasing music for around two years.
It doesn’t yet seem like he’s completely finished developing his own sound yet but his talent is undeniable. And in today’s industry you can make the argument that a lot of artist get their start from imitating an already successful artist sound (see: Desiigner – Panda).
If you’re looking for someone you can follow and say ‘I was a fan before he blew up’ (and annoy all your friends) this is an artist definitely worth checking out. Or if you need some new tracks for your “adult activities” playlist since you’ve been spinning The Trilogy and Channel Orange for like 4 years straight, put on Awaken and see if that doesn’t provide some inspiration. Overall I’m definitely excited to see where his career goes.
Songs Worth a Listen:
“All About It”
“Something You Want”
“Outside My City”
Jams Only 
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