By Ahmari Cameron
PJ has spent years creating poetry for others to voice. Now, she’s learning what happens when she keeps some for herself. Rooted in Greensboro, North Carolina, with Lauryn Hill and Nas playing through the house, and generations of women exhibiting enough Southern confidence to always have something to say, she has never felt music is separate from who she is. But this chapter feels different.
After years of writing behind the scenes, PJ is standing in arenas, hearing people sing her words back to her, sharing a stage with fellow North Carolina native J. Cole, and building a sound she’s becoming increasingly protective of. Somewhere between Hating Marcus Johnson, Legacy and what comes next, she’s letting go of an old instinct: thinking her way through everything. “I’m trying to feel more and overthink less,” she says. Maybe that’s what this moment is really about. Not becoming someone new, but finally giving herself enough room to hear who she already was.