Jay Sean on Fame, Rejection and the Brother Who Watched It All
The pop star who sat in his car crying and told no one
Jay Sean grew up in a full house: his parents, his grandparents and his younger brother Naroop. At school he was both the class joker and a straight A student. He was studying medicine when a record deal came along, and he walked away from his degree without a second thought.
Before any of that he was MC Nikki J, a teenager writing his own raps and passing mixtapes from school to school. A demo reached producer Rishi Rich, and Dance With You changed his life, Rishi’s and Juggy D’s. Three top ten singles with Virgin Records followed. Then he left the label, the phone stopped ringing, and for a long time he told nobody how bad things had got.
He rebuilt from a garden shed studio in Slough, later signed with Cash Money and went to number one in America with Down. He now lives in the US with his wife Tara and their children, Ava and Ari.
On The Dad Project, Jay is interviewed by his brother, host Naroop Jhooti, and talks more openly than he has on other podcasts.
Quotes
“Call it crazy, call it delusional. I have always believed and I will always believe that I was meant to do this.”
This Episode Is About
Jay Sean has told his story many times, but on The Dad Project the questions come from his younger brother, host Naroop Jhooti. They go back over quitting medicine for music, leaving Virgin and hiding the fallout from everyone, and 2013, the year Jay nearly gave up before his daughter Ava arrived.
Then the conversation turns to the two of them: what it was like for Naroop to grow up in his brother’s shadow, the night in LA he told Jay he wasn’t a charity case, and why he never resented him.
Who This Episode Is For
- Men who have hidden a low point from the people closest to them
- Brothers who grew up in a sibling’s shadow
- British South Asian men weighing family expectations against their own path
- Fathers whose sense of worth has been tied up in their work
- Men who have had to back themselves after being knocked down
What You'll Takeaway
- Pinning your self-worth on things you can’t control leaves you exposed
- Shame stops men telling anyone they’re struggling
- Praise doesn’t land when part of you doesn’t believe it
- A brother’s kindness can still cost the other brother his independence
- A sibling’s success can be a mirror rather than something to resent
- Becoming a father can matter more than any setback at work
- Not everyone has earned the most honest version of your story
