Joy Oladokun’s Music is a Unique Blend of Novelty and Warmth – BET

October 31, 2023

Joy Oladokun doesn’t fit in any of the world’s boxes. The confinement of walls have never suited her. Through music, Joy colors outside the lines. The 31-year-old self-taught guitar-playing, queer-living, singing/songwriting savant is expansive.

Her music is light on its toes; it delicately dances from folk to country to pop and beyond. You can’t name just one thing. However, she calls it Americana to stress out racists. Joy’s talent shines bright on all four of her studio albums, but her latest, Proof Of Life, is her magnum opus–thus far. It’s clear Joy has so much more music inside of her.

And thank goodness she allows herself the space to create and share it. Initially, Joy didn’t set out to be an artist in the traditional sense, she wanted to be a songwriter, hoping that other artists would use her music. When she’d share demos, the feedback for her to be the one singing was consistent. “The voice in the music, it seems so unique to the person singing it that they should just put it out,” Joy shared. And that’s how her career as an artist ignited. With seven years in the game, Joy Oladokun is doing it her way, which sounds divine. She reflected on her career thus far, “I feel really lucky that I’ve been able to dedicate so much time to storytelling in the form of music.”

Inspired by trailblazers and incredible Black women musicians like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Odetta Holme, and Betty Davis, all of whom hang on the walls in her home, Joy hopes to continue the legacy these women have built and unapologetically own being a genre-bending Black girl in music.

She’s gotten to work with living legends she’s obsessed with, like country star Chris Stapleton and Nigerian hip-hop artist Maxo Kream. Like her features, Joy’s latest album will surprise you track by track.

BET.com: What genre is your music?

Joy Oladokun: It’s fun to call it folk or rock or Americana to stress out the white people. [laughs] The easiest way to describe my music is singer/songwriter because everything is through the lens of my life, like I write about my life and release it. That’ll probably be the pattern until I’m in my 90s. Calling it folk and owning those influences is really important to me to remind people of the space that people like me have taken up in our contributions.

BET.com: What do you consider your musical foundation?

Joy Oladokun: A common thread is honestly the guitar. Guitars are really popular instruments in Nigeria. There’s an incredible guitar player, King Sunny Adé, who my dad would play all of his CDs in the car growing up, so some of my first memories of music are just like really beautiful, light on vocals, but like intricate guitar music.

When I saw the video of Tracy Chapman playing at Wembley, the one that we all love. The guitar continued to be a bridge in my brain. It was a way that I could communicate not just lyrical ideas but musical ones. And I think that a lot of my music is bridge-building in that sense of it may start with a simple guitar part. The guitar has been this sort of connective tissue in all of my music. I’ve been able to use it to break through certain genres or ideas, barriers, especially as a Black artist.

BET.com: When did you discover that you even had a music talent, especially playing guitar?

Joy Oladokun: When I was 10, I saw this video of Tracy Chapman and I begged my parents to get me a guitar so I could learn how to play and I just taught myself. I think I’ve taken a total of five lessons; just from people that I admire. I’ll call them up and be like, ‘Hey, will you just teach me things or can we play together for an hour?’ I don’t really do it to be a virtuoso, I do it because I really love it. And I think, especially as a Black woman, as a Black person in this world, to really hold on to things that you just enjoy doing, even after they become monetized, feels really important.

BET.com: It’s shocking to hear about Nigerian parents buying their kid a guitar and supporting their dreams to do music…

Joy Oladokun: [laughs] My parents are hilarious. They were very much expecting it to be a hobby. I was a really quiet kid. I had a lot of anxiety and emotional issues. My parents were very, very supportive throughout my childhood and going through high school of all those things. They weren’t like, ‘Go be a musician!’ But they were like, ‘If this helps you deal with your feelings, you can do that while you learn how to be a doctor.’ [laughs] I think we all were shocked, are shocked.

I was not anticipating this trajectory with or for my life. But I think that their dedication to me being the healthiest version of myself, I think that’s the energy I bring to music. I’m probably not going to be the biggest star on the planet, but I think there’s a heartfelt energy and a hard-working spirit behind what I do and I think that those who come in contact with it, do appreciate it. I think that comes from my mom and dad just saying, ‘If this helps you, do it.’

BET.com: What five songs from your catalog define who you are as an artist?

Joy Oladokun: ‘Changes’ on my new record; it’s a folky, Paul Simon-type thing. It talks about me being a child during the LA riots and the slowness with which I’ve seen the world change. It’s a really good intro track in a different way.

There’s a song called ‘If You Got A Problem’ on my last record, In Defense Of My Own Happiness, and it’s just this soulful, Bill Withers-esque sort of anthem about the feeling that we get when people we love are going through something and the hope that I have that people will start to see other people’s problems as their problems too. You can’t prioritize one type of person over another. ‘If You Got A Problem’ is one of those songs that sticks to the heart of that on a personal, communal, relational, and then also a worldwide scale.

Again, back to Proof Of Life. ‘Revolution’ is a collaboration with Maxo Kream, and I think everybody is like, ‘How did you even find out about Maxo?’ Honestly, thanks, Maxo for hopping on. I really love hip-hop and I think that it should be more of a discussion when we talk about folk music. Folk music is the music of the people. You can’t ignore the lived experiences of Black Americans as documented in hip-hop. And I think we don’t want to go there because of white supremacy. I think hip-hop is folk music.

There’s a song called ‘Sunday’ that I wrote around the time I decided to come out of the closet. Religion was a big part of my family and bridging that gap between what people told me was divine and what I felt in my chest. That’s what ‘Sunday’ is about, being able to say, ‘I need help, and I need care. And I need love too.’

‘Animals and Angels’ from my very first record, Carry and I wrote it on the floor of my absolutely tiny studio apartment in LA when I lived there. I had no furniture, it was just me and my guitar. I was writing about the process of having a conversation with someone and all the hidden things that we say and all the fears and anxieties that we lay out and the way that we relate to each other. I recorded it with this beautiful gospel group called The McCrary Sisters, these four gorgeous, beautiful Black women who bring this colorful energy into the studio and [they] are so accepting. We prayed before we recorded. They reminded me of Sundays growing up and I wanted to bring that energy to the record. They are folk legends, like they’ve recorded with Bob Dylan. So many people have songs with The McCrary Sisters sitting on their record shelves and they don’t even know it.

BET.com: You have said that this album— Proof Of Life, is evidence of how you live…how do you live?

Joy Oladokun: I’m a pretty simple creature. I don’t live in Nashville because I’m a Republican. [laughs] I live in Nashville because I like it. Environmentally, it’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever lived. I’ll go fishing before I go write with people. I’ve just always craved normalcy. Conservatives be damned. I feel like most queer and marginalized people just really want to be able to hang out with their friends and their partners and their families in safe neighborhoods. And that’s the life I try to live. And so much of my work is inspired by relationships and the people I know, and my relationship with myself. If I’m not taking time out, to see people or be with myself, then all the demos start to sound really bad. I’ve made art that I really believe in.

BET.com: What’s next for you?

Joy Oladokun: I’m touring for a little bit in November. I’m always working on new music. I do write as a form of self-care and it just works out that it’s my job. So there is there’s always that and I just, Tour has been a really fun way to, especially as someone who creatively is moving forward a lot, to be able to sit in this record Proof Of Life and to play the songs, reimagine the songs and pair them with covers, you know, trying different things; I’m really excited to be in that world. I have a really good band and crew of people around me and I really like my fans. I feel really lucky to be sharing space with them for a little bit longer. And then in 2024, we’ll see what happens.

You can stream Joy’s album here.

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