At 22, R&B/hip-hop artist Jai Kent has come a long way. Born and raised in Toronto, his family separated when he was only 9, and his teenage years were spent going back and forth between parents. Settling down was hard, and Jai attended six different high schools in just four years.

Jai turned to his music to express his hurt, his anger, and to get away from the troubles in his life.

“Not being with both parents at all times when I was young put me in a place that I didn’t wanna be,” he says. “I gave a lot of trouble when I was young, so you could say I didn’t have a good childhood. I always wanted to be alone. So when I was 12, I stared to rap. As I got older, I got better. I’m a very soft-spoken person so instead of talking a lot and being social, I would just make a song about how I was feeling for that day.

“I was told that I was no good,” he says. “Not just good in my music, but that I would just never amount to anything.”

Now, Jai’s poised to break out into the Canadian music scene with his original songs, and an album due for release in the summer of 2010. After receiving rejections from most Canadian record labels and Toronto’s Flow 93.5, Jai’s forging his own path through the music industry, distributing his music via the popular online networking site MySpace. With a popular online presence and four original songs available for streaming, Jai has managed to acquire fans all around the world.

Jai’s trademark style, a twist of R&B and hip-hop, evokes a smooth sound – R&B vocals with a bit of rap, with a hip-hop backing that blends seamlessly.

“I have R&B vocals, but at the same time I can rap. I like to do both as a mix.” he says of his music. “I feel that even if I do a hip-hop song, I still gotta put a little R&B twist to it. The music I make does not include any aggressive lyrics at all, it’s not my style. It’s the way I am. I try to keep myself clean, there’s too much negativity already in the world.”

Jai’s songwriting has evolved from a pen-and-paper process to a personal freeform session.

“The music I do is on a different level for me, I feel free whenever I get on the mic,” he says. “No pen, no paper. Just the thoughts in my mind. I no longer write my music down; I just create it all on the spot.”

Growing up with a father who was a DJ, Jai was very much into the popular music scene, keeping up with the changes in the industry while gaining an appreciation for all kinds of music. Now, for Jai, inspiration comes from other artists – 2Pac, Busta Rhymes, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony – and his personal life.

“When I make music, I get my inspiration from the feelings that come from my heart. If I’m feeling like I’m in love, I express it with music. I’m not making a love song, but just taking about how I feel about the issue.

“Also, before I get on the mic I pray. And when I pray I ask Jesus to please give me the strength to make all my emotions turn into a musical form. That way, I can express my story in full.”

With his belief in God and the past as an example, Jai has overcome a lot of adversity and seeks to turn his music into a positive force:

“What I try to achieve first and foremost is to set myself free. When I make music, it puts me in a place where nothing could ever bother me. It doesn’t matter what I’m going through in life, as long as I can create music every day, I believe I can make it through the crazy world we live in.

“I want to be able to reach out, to help others be everything they can be,” he adds. “No matter what happens in life, no matter the journey you take, you are the future. I want to be able to tell our youth that, give them hope for the future. It’s okay to be yourself, to be a leader, and to lead into the future.”

As a high school graduate, Jai plans to attend seneca for Independent music production, where he can continue on his path in music.