St. Louis native John Wesley holds quite a few titles on his résumé: rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer. In the studio, he has written for
Akon,
will.i.am,
Britney Spears,
Chris Brown,
T-Pain,
Snoop Dogg, and more. As a solo artist, he makes pop-friendly hybrid R&B as
Jaylien. After several years as a behind-the-scenes writer and producer,
Jaylien made his debut as an artist with 2016's
Summer's Over.
Raised in a musical household -- his father was a college choir director and his mother was a choir singer -- he developed an early love of music, picking up the piano, saxophone, and clarinet. Inspired by producers like
Quincy Jones,
Kanye West,
Timbaland,
Pharrell Williams, and Max Martin, he crafted beats for local artists while he was still a high-school student. His first major production effort was for rapper
Huey's 2007 debut,
Notebook Paper.
After briefly pursuing further training at New York's SAE Institute, he headed to Atlanta, where he was introduced to
Akon. This meeting would spawn
Wesley's first hit,
Akon's track "Beautiful" featuring
Kardinal Offishall and
Colby O'Donis. After writing for a string of other stars,
Wesley decided to focus on his own music as
Jaylien. Initially expanding his fan base on the Internet, he released his debut EP in 2016.
Summer's Over contained seven hybrid tracks that blended electronic dance synths, trap beats, soul, R&B, and both his raps and singing. A blend of
Frank Ocean,
the Weeknd, and
the-Dream,
Summer's Over featured the tracks "We Fcuk" and "Hotel Costes." Following several stand-alone singles, full-length Summer's Over 2 appeared in 2018. ~ Neil Z. Yeung