Woman To Watch: Abby Jasmine

Self progression and discovery are important for everyone’s personal journey, but those words hit differently for musical artist Abby Jasmine. 

Born and raised in Staten Island, the New York native has done everything in her power not to become a stagnant product of her environment. Making the conscious effort to elevate past the restrictions around her and her own insecurities, Abby Jasmine has molded herself into an artist and most importantly, a woman to watch.

There were many aspects of childhood that Jasmine wasn’t able to participate in due to the strictness of her religious parents. With her family being involved so heavily in the church, she developed a love for music and creativity as a dance team and youth choir member. The true work began when she stepped into the realm of secular music. Since writing her first song in Pre-K about not talking to strangers, music has been an integral part of Abby Jasmine’s life; everything connected to creativity has become second nature to her. “It’s rare to find things in life that bring you joy and that you’re good at,” said Jasmine.

Since getting her first taste of fame on the formerly popular short video app, Vine, Jasmine is very intentional about her relationship with social media. Although the point of social media is to be able to connect to people outside of your normal scope, she makes a conscious effort to keep from oversharing and making the same mistakes she did as a teenager. Being a bit of a loner in school, she used social media to form and maintain friendships which caused her to be an open book on the platforms. Learning soon after the importance of keeping personal life private, Jasmine has developed a balanced relationship with her social media persona. Her lack of divulging private information doesn’t take away from her presence or her ability to connect with her fans.

During her rise in the Vine era, Jasmine was about 16 years old and had no real knowledge of monetizing the comedic content that she created so she decided to stop. After moving away from home at the tender age of 18, she realized quickly that she had to decide her direction. Since music was always around her and her most popular Vine videos were those centered around her doing different freestyles, she decided to take it more seriously and give herself a chance. 

With nothing left to lose and a whole career to gain, Abby Jasmine proved that investing in your dream and your team will set you up for success. After about a year of working with her manager Vice, she was contacted by a Cinematic representative, Stokes, who saw something in the two songs that she had recently recorded at that time. This was about four years ago and she’s still learning what works for her. One of the hardest things in life to give up is control and it takes a certain kind of strength to be vulnerable and trust yourself to be okay in someone else’s hands, and that’s a lesson that Abby Jasmine learned fairly quickly once introduced into the industry. Understanding the importance of a team and allowing herself to sit in the passenger seat was difficult since she’s always been used to a certain level of independence.

Every project gets a different side of Abby Jasmine and as she learns more about herself, her creative processes change. Being honest and growing her abilities as a writer and artist have altered the way that she makes her music. Before her most recent release, Who Cares?, she did a lot of introspective thinking regarding where she was artistically compared to where she wanted to be.

“I felt like I was reaching this point where I [realized] I think I can articulate myself a little bit better than this… I always try to one-up myself… My biggest competition in everything is me because I always want to outdo what I’ve done last.”

When it came time to begin working on Who Cares?, there were a lot of personal issues she was dealing with. Like every other 23-year-old in the world, her focus became getting basic life needs in order. However, imposter syndrome started to settle in, and the struggle of comparison to her peers began to steal her joy. Feeling like the producers she was working with didn’t really understand her or her sound, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. After sitting down with her boyfriend and engineer, they collectively decided to stop working from other people’s beats and make everything together without any outside opinions, so that’s exactly what they did. 

“It’s really easy to get caught up in [people saying] ‘you should do this or that’ and then you start to doubt yourself… I wanted to take away that sense of doubt and feel like what we’re doing here is dope and if people appreciate it, they appreciate it.”

The authenticity of Abby Jasmines’ music and brand is something that has connected her to her fans. With a title like Who Cares? some may make the mistake of taking it to be nonchalant when it’s exactly the opposite. Wanting to title such a charged project properly, Jasmine was looking for something that would embody the whole process of making the music without the pressure of too many outside opinions. The title Who Cares? derives from that place of overthinking and she realized if the music is good, who cares what it’s titled? When listening to a few of her favorites on Who Cares? like “On God” and “Coneheads,” listeners can hear how organic the whole project is; this wasn’t forced – it was made with care and intention charged with her love for music.

Looking through her discography, anyone can see that her features are few and far between, though not for lack of trying. Abby Jasmine, like many artists, has a process she likes to follow when generating music for a release and sometimes other artists’ timelines may not always mesh, but this didn’t keep Guapdad 4000, Smoke DZA and Kash Juliano from giving their guest appearances. “It’s worth it to wait sometimes because I love hearing other people take to a beat that I’m on,” said Jasmine when speaking on the mindset behind her features. There are a few big-name artists that she thinks are definitely worth the wait like Melii, Victoria Monet, Summer Walker, and Chloe x Halle. “I really just want to get back to that real good R&B, get in your feelings type of music.” 

With sights to tap into her childhood love for piano, gaining more musical background knowledge and songwriting for other artists, Jasmine also hopes to extend her talents past music in the next few years by writing treatments or directing for shows and movies. Since her song “Groovy” featuring Guapdad 4000 made it on the screen of the popular show Shameless, her TV and movie sights might be closer than we think.

Being a woman in a still male-dominated industry can be daunting, especially for someone so young. Abby Jasmine holds the power to take what some may see as weakness and use it to her advantage. As she works towards becoming the best version of herself openly, she’s brave enough to put that journey in the music so that fans can follow along. Making music is a vulnerable process, and Abby Jasmine has left her heart on her sleeve.

“My biggest thing is vulnerability – say how you feel…If you let your feelings fester it’s not really productive.”