‘Bel-Air’ Star Jabari Banks Debuts New Music While Dominating TV Screens

Bel-Air star Jabari Banks is set to captivate audiences once again, this time not through the lens of acting but with the rhythm of his music. Having recently made his music debut after signing with Epic Records, Jabari’s debut single, “Something Else,” promises to showcase a new sound, leaving fans eager to witness the convergence of his acting talent with the world of music.

In a conversation with EBONY, Jabari Banks opens up about drawing inspiration from the iconic sounds of Kanye West. As a rising star who made waves in “Bel-Air,” now tapping into his music journey shares insights into his creative process and how his acting background uniquely shapes his approach to crafting soul-stirring tunes. Join us as Jabari Banks navigates the intersection of his childhood influences and the dynamic synergy between acting and creating music

EBONY: Growing up, who are some artists that influenced your love for music?

Definitely Kanye West, Travis Scott. We can even go all the way back to MJ, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder—Stevie Wonder was the first concert I ever went to. I’m an old soul for real but my brothers, we all shared a room. We used to listen to College Dropout when I was younger. That was the first album I ever listened to. So definitely, Ye for sure.

Jabari Banks: What inspired the title for your new single “Something Else” and made that particular song follow up with releasing a music video?

Some of the lyrics that I was saying in the song are, “Tell me if it’s love or something else.” So that kind of inspired the title for sure. It’s just about when you’re in that space in a relationship where you’re not quite sure what it is yet before you put a title on everything, so it’s kind of that gray area of love. That’s what we’re talking about.

What inspired you to explore music as a creative outlet?

Well, I started in music from a young age. Music was my first passion and then acting. I look at them as my babies. So music is my oldest child and it’s got a lot of potential. With the acting, it’s the youngest, so it needs a little bit more attention right now as it’s growing up—as I’m growing as an actor—but I’ve been doing music forever. I’ve been writing forever. I used to write raps, to homies and YouTube beats all the time. My love for music was just my love for storytelling. 

How does your approach to creating music differ from your approach to acting?

It’s very similar actually. I do heart work, once you align your heart with your purpose and I’m saying with your goal and your task at hand, everything just falls into place. With the songs, sometimes I don’t even worry about working on a loop, or I don’t even worry about getting a beat— I just go in there, and I just sing my voice. So similar to acting…sometimes you don’t have to worry about what’s exactly on the page, you just get in there and you kind of just go. Sometimes some of your best work comes from that. So I kind of use similar approaches when it comes to that.

Speaking of music, are you in talks about possibly getting your music played on Bel-Air?

Season 3 is coming out. Next year. That’s definitely a conversation. That’s a big conversation. It just makes no sense any other way. Let’s toss it in a little love scene. I thought I heard this song before let me Shazam it. Oh, this Jabari? Cool.

 I have a really solid body of music and so I’m excited to drop it very soon.

Jabari Banks.

Signed to Epic Records, how did that record deal come about?

I was working on music and I met a man named Miguel Melendez. He works with the Smith family and is very closely with their manager. So I was going to have a meeting with Miguel and I was like “Yo, I gotta show him that I do music,” but I had no songs. I recorded a rap song the day of my meeting, drove out to Calabasas, and played it for Miguel and he was like, “Yo, this is crazy.” He got me in contact with his little brother David Savage and now he’s my music manager now. Everything just blossomed from there. David has a really good connection to Epic Records via Zeek Lewis so everything just kind of flowed from there.

Are there any specific genres or styles of music that you are particularly drawn to?

Yeah, I definitely want to do both. I definitely want to live in my world as an artist. When I think about blending genres and having a voice of my own, I think about artists like Drake or I think about artists that sort of have a singing tone to them like Don Toliver. Do you call that R&B? Do you call that hip hop, or do you call that rap? I wouldn’t put Don Toliver’s music in the same category as Drake’s music because they’re both blending R&B and Hip-Hop in their own specific way. That’s my goal as an artist: To just bring my own taste to it and blend the genres in my own specific way. So when people listen to my music, they’re like, “That’s the Jabari way.” That’s my goal.

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