At just 21 years old, Jorja Smith writes universally-adored songs — probably because, as she once humbly
put it to MTV, "I'm rather good at just writing for each person In 2016, her self-released "Blue Lights," a slinky meditation on police brutality, broke big on Soundcloud, and much less than per year later, she was waving goodbye to her sleepy hometown of Walsall, England.
A slew of singles followed, including high-profile collaborations with Drake, Stormzy, and Kendrick Lamar, who tapped her for the
Black Panther soundtrack cut "I Am." Since then, she's taken her place in the roster of R&B artists whose sounds are dominating streaming — Ella Mai, Daniel Caesar, etc. — And her debut album,
Lost & Found, arrived last year to pull off a least probable feat: delivering on the hype.