Chart-topping crooner Jacquees’ Sincerely For You tour arrives Oct. 14, the week before Sweetest Day.
The self-proclaimed “King of R&B” has been a Detroit fave since his 2017 platinum hit “At the Club” that featured rapper DeJ Loaf. Jacquees, a native of Decatur, Georgia, has fond memories of spending time in Detroit during those early days.
“I just remember them taking me to the shop, that’s the first time I bought some glasses from Detroit,” he says. “I feel like a lot of people was on me from Detroit because of the sauce. Of course the music, but the swag too — like, ‘Dang, you rocking the Cartiers,’ … I was making the music with DeJ Loaf, so it was all just a connection with the city.”
Over the years R&B has received heavy amounts of criticism due to homogenization, growth, and the lack of separation between its hip-hop counterpart. Jacquees believes the “death of R&B” discussions have been blown out of proportion.
“I hear R&B music on the radio everyday,” he says. “I see R&B shows every weekend. I see them every time there’s a festival. … Maybe they’re saying it’s not hitting like it was back in the day because it’s not as many R&B artists as it was and it’s not really on the forefront like hip-hop. But you still have plenty of successful R&B people.”
Jacquees also feels the younger audiences aren’t embracing love ballads like the youth of yesteryear.
“The youth control what's going on. It’s not really a lot of falling in love right now. Back in the day love was like the strongest thing. This generation kinda drugged out. So it’s faster, it’s just different. These young cats is lit,” he adds with a laugh.
Jacquees promises an “electrifying” show and assures the effort put into this tour will go above and beyond your typical concert gig.
“We put a lot more thought into the tour setting, the themes of the show, versus just coming out and performing a bunch of records everybody loves,” he says. “This is a real experience.”
For singer and rapper Nick LaVelle, the Sincerely For You tour’s Detroit stop is a much needed homingcoming. The Detroit native relocated to Atlanta in 2018 to focus on music. His 2017 single, “Motion” gained him notoriety and he’s been moving upwards since.
“That really turned me up. That was my first feature, my first song that had real traction,” he says.
However, LaVellel’s initial foray into the music business was in marketing and promotion. During his senior year at Western Michigan in 2015 he financed and promoted his first-ever concert.
“I was a fan of Jacquees at the time. He was up and coming, he was R&B, we figured out who his manager was, reached out to the venue and we put a whole play together,” LaVelle says.
Since then LaVelle has started his company True Colors Entertainment and has organized multiple tours. This past February he organized the Michigan Made tour that featured Skilla Baby, Sada Baby, YNJay, and himself. With the Sincerely For You tour LeVelle is playing dual roles again as artist and promoter, but admits he’s an R&B artist at heart first.
“I personally feel like R&B adds balance to the atmosphere, to the frequency,” he says. “And when we get to talking about all these agendas, these initiatives of what is happening in the industry, sometimes it feels like the most ratchet and negative music is being forced on us.”
LaVelle’s next major musical offering will be a song with Jacquees that he's preparing for release.
“We did the song, it’s a banger too,” he says. “He gave me a really good verse, but it hasn’t been released. I’m working on my distribution. See, when you’re dealing with a record like this, you don’t want to fumble the shit, you want to do it the right way.”
LaVelle adds he’s going to bring some much needed positive energy to his performance on Oct. 14.
“I try to put on crazy shows where the vibe is good, the energy is good,” he says. “I want them to fall in love with me and the music as well.”
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