Although he might have dropped his first-ever album, Toxic Perfectionism, on the 24th of August 2023, he’s not at all new to the game. Uhone Luvhengo, also known as J-Smash, is a South African DJ and record producer who hails from Limpopo, and who, in a short space of time, has carved for himself an enviable catalogue with collabos with the industry’s top dogs. His journey as a producer began with the desire to know how to make beats and FruityLoops.
“I learnt everything from YouTube. I had this desire in me to know how someone could make beats and what it took, and my brother had FL Studio. So I spent time on YouTube trying to figure it out, and remixing songs that were out at the time, like “Doc Shebeleza”. But all in all, YouTube taught me all that I know,” he said about the genesis of his journey as a beatsmith.
The producer from Louis Trichardt has gone on to forge beats and musical relationships with prominent Mzansi rappers such as Emtee, Flvme, Kid Tini, and A-Reece, among others. Between 2018 to 2023, he released a chain of EPs and singles, which have eventually culminated into the climactic birth of his debut album Toxic Perfectionism. Featuring singer-songwriters Amanda Black, Lucille Slade, and Samthing Soweto and acclaimed lyricists like Kwesta, YoungstaCPT, Maglera Doe Boy, it spawned the single “Friends”.
Watch “Friends”:
With so many years sandwiched between his first official drop in 2018 and his maiden LP, he spoke about the making of the album, and how it was inspired by something the late Virgil Abloh said.
“I’ve been trying to work on this album for a while, but it eventually got to a point where I felt I had to release a debut album. I’ve been dropping EPs, so I decided that it’s time for an album. I started putting together songs and I realised as I was working on it that it’s going somewhere.”
“But as time went, I got to a point where I started to doubt myself and started to not feel good about the music and about myself. There were certain things that weren’t coming together in terms of features I was looking for and things I was trying to do with the music. Things just weren’t working. Then I tapped into an interview with Virgil in which he spoke about toxic perfectionism. That really helped me to work with what I have and to use all the resources around me and people that were willing to do the work. And that’s how the album came about,” he said.
When asked about which cuts were his personal picks from the album, he shied away from cherry-picking clear-cut favourites, citing that for each song to make the final tracklist, they would “have to be dope”. However, when it came to the crafting of beats, three particular instruments rose to the fore for Smash as personal picks, and even more producers came to mind who have been his greatest influences.
“One thing I love are keys. The feel is cool and mellow. I try to express emotion with the instruments I choose and keys help me with that. I love the synthesizer and the saxophone. Those are the instruments I love. As for producers who’ve been of influence, I’d say Kanye West, for sure. Another person is DJ Khaled as well as Metro Boomin’. Kaytranada and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League also comes to mind,” Uhone said.
While other producers place more emphasis on revising their beat-making abilities by constantly stacking new music on top of older works without giving any room for breathing, J believes that the key to any producer’s growth, or his in particular, is to be an active participant in the biome of musical intelligence exchange.
“Collaborating and working with new people and mixing those ideas with what you have. It’s what I do most of the time. I always say that producing is not always making a beat. I could produce without making a beat or touching the keys because I know how I want everything to sound. So collaboration to me is everything because new people have something you can learn from them,” said Luvhengo.
Having worked with a plethora of the biggest names in the music industry, he singled out his 2018 song “Never Fall”, with rapper Emtee from Rise of a King, as one he cherished the most.
“With “Never Fall”, I actually got the idea from Street Carnivore. I liked what I heard from him, but wanted to change the structure. So I spoke to him, and I changed it. In my mind, I knew I had to get Emtee on the beat, and I went to the studio with that one beat because I knew it was the one. He came through so well, and the process of “Never Fall” made it feel like it was meant to be,” the producer said.
Watch “Never Fall”:
Although he’s known for his exploits as a hip-hop producer, having built himself a rep as a Khaled of sorts in the local game, there is one other genre he’s been eyeing for some time in hopes of breaking new ground.
“I’d really like to do some dance music, like afrotech and Kaytranada-type vibes. I also would like to tap into different markets and places, opening up and learning more. The dance sound is what I’m trying to tap into to expand as a DJ and a producer,” he said.
Listen to Toxic Perfectionism here:
