Introducing The Viral Sensation JUFU
20-year-old TikTok star JUFU is an emerging artist that needs to be on your radar. Growing up, the Brooklyn native found himself drawn to the idea of being a meteorologist. His passions soon shifted to music – after taking up guitar lessons at the age of nine. JUFU continued to hone his craft throughout his high school years by attending Edward R. Murrow High School and joining the ‘Music x Technology’ program.
While developing his unique artistry, the rising talent also shifted his focus to social media. After a few years, a change in platforms, and a bigger following JUFU landed on his viral TikTok hit ‘Who R U’. Since that fateful day the MC has signed to Island Records and released his debut mixtape ‘Get Used To Me’. With new music on the way and his continued efforts to give back to the community, JUFU is shaping up to be an incredible artist on the rise.
We were able to chat with him about everything including his debut mixtape, TikTok, the importance of optimism and so much more…
Let’s bring it back a bit – when did your passion for music first start?
I was born with a passion for music but I definitely discovered it over time through the music that my parents played in the car. Like Michael Jackson and Kanye West and a lot of other music that would pop in the old days. And then also playing the guitar. It was something that I was kind of forced into, but I fell in love with. But then also eventually through recording music in my school’s technology program. I mean even today, I’m still discovering my passions for music, especially with live instruments. That’s a whole different ball game now for me.
Were you interested in any other career paths before music?
Yes! I always talk about the whole meteorologist thing back in elementary school when I happen to be obsessed with tornadoes. Then, I wanted to be a guitarist when I started playing the guitar. There was one point I wanted to be just an “e-commerce-store-business-entrepreneur” and that was like at age 17 when I took that year gap off when I was learning how to trade stocks and cryptocurrency. I wanted to do that full time at one point. Now I’m pretty solid on not necessarily music, but my job to fix the world, as in making a major scale change in the world and music is just one of those steps.
During your time in high school, you were part of the Music x Technology program. How did this impact your music journey and artistry as a whole?
Really it gave me the foundation of how to record myself. I had a bit of knowledge from before from Garage Band in 2008. So being back in music technology and learning the basics of how to record myself in Logic and how to use Plugins and really just learning these different skills opened multiple different doors for me in the music world.
You first started out making videos on Vine making comedy and parody content. What do you miss most about the discontinued app?
I miss the style of comedy. Vine had a style of comedy that is not really matched anywhere else. There are very few people on TikTok who kind of match that energy with short content and short comedy skits. But it’s because you get more time on TikTok, people aren’t doing that as much. But shoutout to the people who are doing that. So I really think it’s how creative those short 6.5 videos could be.
Okay, we have to talk about your track ‘Who R U’ – fantastic song! Did you make it specifically for TikTok?
I did make it specifically for TikTok. And looking back at the song today, I perceive the song very very differently than the way I perceived it when I was making it. I made it as a TikTok song just for fun. It was completely freestyled and it was just me fooling around and having fun. At the time my mom was saying “Was it inspired by Rush Hour?” Meanwhile, I hadn’t even watched Rush Hour within recent times of making the song. It was just something mentioned because it was like “Oh, that sounds like the scene in Rush Hour” so I just stuck with that. But when I look at it now, I’m literally like it’s a part of my journey because just like the ideology of “Who are you?” “I am you” and my concepts and beliefs that we are all one. I just find it really crazy that I’m just seeing it in that sense now, rather than just a funny movie line.
You just dropped your debut mixtape ‘Get Used To Me’. What was the creative process behind the record? What do you want fans to take away after listening?
The project was made completely just for fun and it was just me expressing myself creatively at different points in times. There wasn’t really any direction for it. It’s called ‘Get Used to Me’ as in get used to me in this music world because I’m here to stay. My creative process, as I mentioned, wasn’t really direction based. It was just me creating songs at different times and then putting them together in a project. Making each song on the EP very similar in which I usually record a melody or a cadence of what I’m going to say on the song. As I’m recording the songs, I freestyle and some words are gibberish but as I edit the words later, I correct up the gibberish and get a direction for the song and it ends up coming together.
What I want people to take away from it is that I’m a very versatile artist and that I do not limit my sound and I do not limit my voice. I just do whatever I want creatively and that’s something I will continue doing. There’s no genre I plan to stick to. I’m just doing me. I’m vibing. I want people to just feel happy, really.
You have such an optimistic and welcoming presence on social media. Why is it important for you to encourage fans to be positive and manifest their goals and dreams?
It is very important because that is the only way that the world would be a happier and greater place to live in. If everyone is able to love each other, but also love themselves and pursue their dreams and radiate positivity towards one another, this world would absolutely have no problems. We would all work in harmony. People just need to realize that we are not necessarily individuals, we all kind of work interconnectedly and you trying to be better than someone else and put someone down is only hurting yourself.
Looking towards the future, where do you hope you’ll be as an artist 5 years from now? What are three things you hope to accomplish by then?
I see myself owning all my music and releasing more music just because I want people to enjoy it. I see myself pretty free and happy and just being in a position where I can give back, give back, give back, not just to my family but to the world. In 5 years, by 25 basically? Hmmm. I haven’t really set any material goals in a while, but I guess the goals that are a part of my process…. I’m working on a clothing brand so I would love to have that finished but I’m pretty sure I’m going to be finished in like 2 weeks. But that’s within the five years! I would love to win a Grammy. It would be pretty cool to win a Grammy, I guess. And, I want to leave a positive impact on as many artists as possible. I feel like if I leave a positive impact on some artists, they’ll be able to leave that positive impact on their audiences and that would just be a super amplified thing.
Make sure to check out JUFU’s latest track ‘TTS’ below…
