walking upstream…
Jeremih
Jeremih built his career on standalone R&B singles built around the hook and the vocal run more than the song around them - "Birthday Sex," "Down on Me," "Don't Tell 'Em" - making him one of the 2010s' most sampled and remixed voices in Chicago R&B. A self-taught multi-instrumentalist who started on drums at age three and cut his teeth in his high school's marching and Latin jazz bands, he writes and plays much of his own material rather than working purely as a topline vocalist. His run of Late Nights mixtapes and steady stream of guest hooks for rappers kept him a fixture of mainstream hip-hop and R&B well past his 2009 commercial peak.
the sound in question
2009
Birthday SexJeremih
walk the tributaries ↓
R. Kelly1990s–2000s · R&B / Contemporary R&B / Pop
Jeremih has named Kelly directly as the Chicago pioneer he grew up on: "R. Kelly is one of the pioneers that I grew up listening to. If he's classified as an R&B artist, then I want to be like that." He's also drawn the specific parallel that both are self-contained musicians who write, produce, and play their own instruments - drums, sax, piano - rather than just topline over someone else's track.
listen: upstream & heresource: Vibe — "Jeremih ↗
1994
Bump N' GrindR. Kelly
2009
Birthday SexJeremih
listen forThe plush, slow-grinding tempo and unhurried sexual candor Kelly popularized on "Bump N' Grind" - the blueprint Jeremih worked from on his own flirtation-into-bedroom singles.
Michael Jackson1980s · Pop / R&B / Dance
Jeremih has named Michael Jackson among the handful of artists - alongside Stevie Wonder and R. Kelly - he calls his "biggest influences," describing their catalogs as "timeless" and the artists themselves as "true musician-artists," a framing that lines up with his own self-taught, plays-everything background. No interview ties a specific Jeremih record to Jackson song-for-song, so treat this as a stated general influence rather than a documented sonic lift.
listen: upstream & here
1979
Off the WallMichael Jackson
2015
ouiJeremih
listen forThe bright, groove-forward falsetto and clipped rhythmic phrasing Jackson perfected on "Off the Wall" echoes in the featherweight, dance-adjacent side of Jeremih's catalog.
Stevie Wonder1970s · Soul / Funk / R&B
Wonder is the third name Jeremih lists among his "biggest influences." The connection tracks with Jeremih's own background as a self-taught multi-instrumentalist - drums at age three, later keys, saxophone, and percussion - in the mold of Wonder's own write-it-play-it-produce-it musicianship, though Jeremih hasn't pointed to a specific Wonder song or era in interviews.
listen: upstream & here
1972
SuperstitionStevie Wonder
2014
Don't Tell 'EmJeremih
listen forThe syncopated, clavinet-driven groove Wonder built "Superstition" around - a feel that surfaces in the keyboard-forward, percussive backbone of Jeremih's own productions.