Jahaan Sweet’s first “oh my god” moment as a producer happened while working with Drake. “I used to listen to Drake in high school and looked up to everybody around him,” Sweet says. “When we finally went to Miami to work on Scorpion, I was like, ‘Wow, I’m really about to meet one of my favorite rappers.’”
Sweet co-produced a trio of tracks on the 2018 album, including “8 Out of 10,” “Ratchet Happy Birthday,” and “Final Fantasy” alongside Boi-1da, who brought him into the fold. Today, Sweet is a Grammy-winning producer with a growing list of production credits for artists such as Lana Del Rey, Jon Batiste (Sweet won his first Grammy, for album of the year, working on Batiste’s We Are), Kodak Black and Kali Uchis. “I feel like the majority of things that have happened for me with music have strictly been relationship based,” says Sweet. “The people that you’re around trusting in you, and you trusting in them.”
Having played piano since he was 6, Sweet aspired to become a jazz instrumentalist. By 13, he tried his hand at GarageBand and quickly fell in love with beatmaking. He always knew he would have a career in music, but it wasn’t until attending The Juilliard School that he found clarity on what his path would look like. “I realized the jazz route wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to do. I was rapping too, but realized I’m not the best at rapping — but I did love to create music. So I put all my energy towards that.”
After graduating, the Florida-born producer was pulled to Los Angeles by early collaborator Kehlani, who invited him on tour in support of her 2015 mixtape You Should Be Here. Sweet never looked back, laying down roots in L.A. and building his resume — and this year landing on some of 2022’s biggest releases from Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Giveon. Looking ahead, Sweet will join Lamar and his pgLang signee Baby Keem on tour to work on new music. “I’m definitely trying to focus on crafting a God given ability and cultivating relationships,” he says, “which is the base of my success.”
Kendrick Lamar
Through the height of the pandemic, Sweet says he and Lamar were cooking up music every day. The pair, along with Baby Keem, developed a strong bond, playing basketball during downtime and comparing Apple watch stats from their workouts. “We always cracking jokes and stuff like that,” Sweet says. “They are a lot more competitive than me.” From that time, Sweet landed three songs on Lamar’s Billboard 200 chart-topper Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers: Lead single “N95,” “Silent Hill” and “Rich Spirit.” Sweet is also credited on seven songs from Keem’s debut studio album, The Melodic Blue. “It’s deeper than music. The bond that has developed between us and everybody at pgLang around Kendrick and Keem has been great over the last almost three years now.”
Beyoncé
Boi1da continues to look out for Sweet, recently welcoming him into the recording process for Beyoncé’s Renaissance. The pair were in Miami working on different song ideas, along with frequent collaborator Sevn Thomas, when they started creating a beat that became “Heated,” which features Drake as a co-writer. Sweet admits to not knowing exactly what happened behind the scenes that led to the song becoming Bey’s but says, “I couldn’t even believe it. When I produce with 1da, we just in our own world making ideas. Things get sent to one person, then the next person. Next thing you know, boom, something happens.”
Giveon
Sweet describes working with R&B breakout Giveon as “an effortless collaboration.” Sweet first worked on Giveon’s pair of 2020 EPs When It’s All Said And Done and Take Time, linking up again for the artist’s 2022 debut studio album Give or Take, which hit No. 11 on the Billboard 200. Sweet worked on four tracks: “Remind Me,” “Another Heartbreak,” “For Tonight” and “Tryna Be.” He says of the lattermost, “‘Tryna Be’ was something I made at home with two of my friends from Juilliard, Enrique Sanchez and Braxton Cook. Giveon hears it and he’s like, ‘Oh, this is dope,’ and he writes a crazy song.”
