Jahaan Akil Sweet is an American record producer, songwriter, and pianist from Jacksonville, Florida. Sweet was first credited with production work on projects by California-based singer Kehlani, who he met at Juilliard School in 2014. He co-produced her mixtapes Cloud 19 (2014) and You Should Be Here (2015), and has since worked with artists including Drake, Taylor Swift, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Eminem, the Carters, and Travis Scott. Sweet has been credited on the singles "Lavender Haze" (2023) by Swift, "Lucky You" (2018) by Eminem, and "K-pop" and "Fe!n" (both 2023) by Travis Scott, all of which have peaked within the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100.

Jahaan Sweet
Birth nameJahaan Akil Sweet
Genres
Occupations
  • Record producer
  • songwriter
Instruments
  • Keyboards
  • sampler
Labels

Sweet has won two Grammy Awards from five nominations. The Carters' Everything Is Love and Jon Batiste's We Are—two of his productions—won Best Urban Contemporary Album in 2019, and Album of the Year in 2022, respectively.

Early life

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Sweet was born and raised in North Jacksonville, Florida. He began playing piano at the age of six, and jazz piano at Lavilla School of the Arts by the age of eleven. After attending high school at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Sweet moved to New York City to attend Juilliard School's jazz studies program.[2] In 2015, he was named a Juilliard Career Advancement Fellow.[3][4]

Career

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In an interview with The Recording Academy, Sweet revealed that he met Kehlani at MBK Studios in New York while still attending school. From there, he produced two songs, "Get Away" and "How We Do Us", on Kehlani's project Cloud19. Sweet later flew back and forth between New York and Los Angeles to work with Kehlani on her subsequent mixtape, You Should Be Here, before graduating from Juilliard in 2015.[5][6]

In 2016 and 2017, Sweet produced tracks for a number of notable albums including Ty Dolla Sign's Campaign ("Zaddy" and "$"), A Boogie wit da Hoodie's The Bigger Artist ("Drowning"), Kehlani's SweetSexySavage ("Keep On" and "Personal"), Aminé's Good for You ("Veggies", "Slide", and "Heebiejeebies"), and Lana Del Rey's Lust for Life ("Summer Bummer").[7]

In 2018, Sweet worked with Boi-1da to co-produce songs for Drake (Scorpion; "8 Out of 10", "Final Fantasy", and "Ratchet Happy Birthday"),[8] The Carters (Everything Is Love; "Friends" and "Heard About Us"), and Eminem (Kamikaze; "Lucky You").[5]

Awards and nominations

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Apart from winning the Grammy Awards, Sweet has been featured in Forbes 30 under 30 2021 list.[9]

Grammy Awards

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In 2016, Sweet was nominated for his work on Kehlani's You Should Be Here for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.[10] In 2019, he was nominated thrice, winning Best Urban Contemporary Album for The Carters' Everything Is Love.[11] In 2022, he won Album of the Year for his work on Jon Batiste's We Are.[12]

Year Nominee/Work Award Result
2016 You Should Be Here (Kehlani) Best Urban Contemporary Album Nominated
2019 Everything Is Love (The Carters) Won
Scorpion (Drake) Album of the Year Nominated
"Lucky You" (Eminem ft. Joyner Lucas)[13] Best Rap Song Nominated
2022 We Are (Jon Batiste) Album of the Year Won

References

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  1. ^ "Kobalt Promotes Sam Taylor to Executive Vice President, Creative".
  2. ^ Harris, Jenese (2019-02-05). "Homegrown musician nominated for Grammy Awards". WJXT. Retrieved 2022-08-20.
  3. ^ "Helping Budding Entrepreneurs". The Juilliard School. 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  4. ^ "Producer Jahaan Sweet Speaks Black Art and the Joke that Helped Him Graduate from Juilliard". 20 February 2017.
  5. ^ a b "GRAMMY Camp Alum Producer Jahaan Sweet Shines". GRAMMY.com. 2019-03-26. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  6. ^ "Behind the Grammy: A Deeper Look at Artists, Producers and Directors that Worked on Grammy Nominated Material – Sway's Universe". Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  7. ^ Tucker, James (2017-09-07). "Jahaan Sweet is stealthily and steadily making your favorite beats". REVOLT. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  8. ^ "Behind The Board: Jahaan Sweet". GRAMMY.com. 2020-03-30. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
  9. ^ "Jahaan Sweet". Forbes. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  10. ^ "2016 Grammy Awards: Complete List of Nominations | E! Online". M.eonline.com. 7 December 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  11. ^ "Grammy Congrats in Order at The Juilliard School". www.juilliard.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  12. ^ Atkinson, Katie (3 April 2022). Here Are the 2022 Grammy Awards Winners: Full List.
  13. ^ "61st GRAMMY Awards: Full Nominees & Winners List". GRAMMY.com. 2018-12-07. Retrieved 2020-09-01.