Jakeya Limitless

Melissa Simpson: What do you do, and what’s your instrument of choice?

Jakeya Limitless: I am a Philadelphia native. I'm a vocalist, a vocal mentor. I am a performing artist as well as an entertainer. My instrument of choice—if I could, I would play drums full time—but all of that breaking down with the equipment... I'm a little bit more dainty than that. So I use my voice.

Melissa Simpson: But you can hop on a kit and get busy?

Jakeya Limitless: Just played the drums this morning.

Melissa Simpson: Oh, snap. Okay. I did not know that. Love that. All right. So tell me your earliest memory of learning music, even if it wasn't super structural. How do you remember coming to it—realizing, “Oh, I could do this,” or “Somebody's teaching me how to do it this way”?

Jakeya Limitless: Earliest memory, seven years old. With my dad. My dad is an instrumentalist. He plays the bass. But he also went to Settlement Music School here in Philadelphia. Him, his brothers, his sister, they all went there. My granddad sent them there. And we grew up in church. They were the musicians in church. So sitting with my dad in the house, he would just plug up his bass and say, “Kia, sit there, listen,” and play the Commodores, Earth, Wind & Fire, and just play different tunes. And I'm like, “Okay, Dad, I get it. This is great. I guess you're good,” because at the time, I'm just like, “My dad's playing the bass in front of me.” But it was the structure of me connecting to the sonic sounds of music that made me think, “Oh, I think I'm interested in this.”

And then in school, we had choir, and I always was drawn to how the songs were taught by my music instructors—how the songs were taught, why they chose certain selections for us to sing. And then when I learned the National Black Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the changes in that song stuck out to me. And I'm like, this doesn't sound ordinary. The music is changing here. It's changing in the chorus, it's changing in the verses. It doesn't sound like structure—like major or minor. It's actually a mixture. That's when I was very, very, very, very interested in diving more into this world of music.

Melissa Simpson: Okay. And around what age was that?

Jakeya Limitless: Yeah, seven. Still seven.

Melissa Simpson: Wow. Okay. So, boom—take me through how you got from there to here. I know that’s a long jump, but did you go to any music schools? How did you further your education?

Jakeya Limitless: Further along—so my mother took me out of public schools and put me into more performing arts-focused schools. I went to William Meredith in South Philly, on Fifth and Fitzwater. That is an elementary performing arts school. I was there under the direction of Ms. Carol Frazier, who later taught at Girls High. That was when it became more of a performative and educational mindset for me. That was my first insight into how to read sheet music. That was my first insight into how to sing classical music.

Then in high school, I went to the Creative and Performing Arts High School here—Kappa. We received first- and second-year college theory in music education under the leadership of Mr. Cormier and Ms. Morrow. Ms. Morrow is a Grammy-nominated vocal teacher who's taught all around the world. And she really was important to my growth as a vocal mentor, vocal coach.

So just gaining all of that knowledge, I started to feel more confident as a singer. And having the education with it, I'm like, “Oh, wow. I know what theory is. I know what I'm singing. I know what intervals are happening. I know what's happening in the music as it's being played.”

In 2008, I had a little sister that came to me from church. I grew a relationship with her and her mother. First, it was just like, “Watch over her, be her big sister,” because she needed somebody to look up to. And then she vocalized her interest in wanting to sing. So from there, I was like, “Why don't I just coach her or assist her how I've been coached?” And I started my vocal mentoring business in 2008. That was my first vocal student.

Melissa Simpson: So tell me more about your vocal coaching and that business.

Jakeya Limitless: Vocal coaching has been very, very enjoyable. Vocal coaching has been like my saving grace when I'm not performing or singing. Since 2008, starting with that one student, I've taught over 900 students. I was blessed to teach students in different states, different countries. I started off with private lessons and then went to public schools. They would have me come in and do some workshops with their choirs, or even form choirs in public schools that didn’t have them. I worked in some summer camps and summer programs and recreational centers, teaching children and adults. I teach from six years of age all the way up.

I was fortunate to be able to teach Jazmine Sullivan. She was my vocal student right before she did Essence Fest and did the Aretha Franklin tribute. And that was so gracious—to be able to work with her, especially seeing her and growing up with her. She was eight years old. So yeah, vocal coaching has been my way of remaining a student. I always tell my students, “I learn from you. I'm the mentor, but I'm also the mentee as well.” It's very important that whatever craft you're in, whatever art you're doing, to always know that there's always room to grow.

Melissa Simpson: What has been your biggest—like, you said you taught over 900 students, right? What’s been your biggest takeaway? What are some of the lessons that you've learned that really stood out to you?

Jakeya Limitless: To never, ever compare. Never compare yourself to anyone. Always know that if you do your best, then that is the best. A lot of times, we are compared to other people. We see successes of others, and we're like, “I want to do that. I want to be this. This is supposed to be mine.” But it’s like, whatever’s meant for you won’t miss you.

So yeah, I've definitely learned to always just believe in myself and know that the power's within me to continue to be. A lot of people don’t know that I had to be retaught how to use my voice because I had a health condition where my esophagus closed up. And it would close up so often that I would have to go under a procedure every few months to get my esophagus dilated. It’s called achalasia—a rare condition. It's like one out of every 100,000 people has this condition.

I developed this condition in 2015. One day, I was at work, I was eating lunch, and I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe or swallow my food. I went to a gastroenterologist, and they were like, “Yeah, you have this condition called achalasia, and we need you to come in and do a procedure every five to six months under sedation.”

So that was very, very scary. But that also put me in the mindset, like, you have to relearn how to use your instrument now. You have to be focused on what your instrument can do now, and manipulate it in a way where you can still perform, because singing is my living.

So teaching, like I said, I was still blessed to teach. I still had vocal students. While I was teaching them, I was also learning where I was as well, vocally. Yeah. It’s been a journey.

Melissa Simpson: Sounds like it. Wow. And I'm assuming you're still managing that the way you described. So it’s been 10 years. Do you feel like you've—like, where are you at with your vocal practice now? You said you had to relearn. Do you feel like you're back to where you were, or is it completely different?

Jakeya Limitless: It is different, but familiar, all in the same breath. I feel like—as a musician, or as a vocalist—I am my worst critic. So I feel like I give myself more grace now. The goal or the challenge in my own mind—I set this bar that I was like, “Just right now, Jakeya, you're not capable of doing it physically.” So come out of that. Give yourself grace. And then just keep going and keep reaching for the stride.

A blessing is that I don’t have that condition anymore. They see no signs of the achalasia. But there are still some effects with my muscular motility in my esophagus, where I have to do different regimens. I have to wake up now and gargle, or I have to warm up, or I have to have a little bit of food.

Where I would just leave the house—say if I had a morning gig—I would just go sing. Now I have to eat something to kind of break up the dry mucus that’s around my vocal cords to be able to mobilize even better.

Melissa Simpson: Dedication is impressive, and thank you for sharing that as well. I do want to ask—you mentioned learning from your father, him playing records for you, him going to Settlement Music School, and you eventually getting pulled out to go to private performing arts and music schools, and Kappa. But also, people learn casually. Not necessarily passively, but just not in an institution, for sure.

What are your thoughts on the different places people can learn music? Would you put one over the other? Just general thoughts about institutions or learning through peers, life, and experience?

Jakeya Limitless: Yeah. So passively, but intentionally, I learned music—like I said—through church. Very, very musical family. That was my first initiation of singing, choir, performance, all those things. Black church teaches you how to stand before an audience, have posture, and be able to entertain. Pretty much, if you look at it in that way. Yeah, it’s ministry, but there's a certain stance, there's a certain mindset. You have to put away your nervousness, put away your fears, and just present your art and your gifts.

Passively, I have a community of amazing singers, amazing vocalists that are my friends, locals that I met through the years. Being in atmospheres like open mics, certain concerts, lounges, local workshops—even just getting around and singing in a friend's house. A lot of my musician friends—we would just have gatherings at our homes, and it would turn into a sing-off. We would just start singing together and harmonizing together. That also was very influential in the structure of building.

My favorite thing growing up was listening to the radio and hearing my favorite artist. “Oh, okay, I'm connected to this artist right now.” Brandy, Whitney.

Sometimes, if you know how to direct your instrument and affect versatility—if you can match the sound and texture of something else—then you're versatile. I don't want to be boxed in to have one sound. That also strengthened my vocabulary as far as genres. I've seen different genres.

It really is a thing. Social media influences you. There's a whole lot of things on TikTok now, and a lot of videos that people can pull from on YouTube. And just being around—whatever environment you want to create, you have to be in. That’s it. Whatever environment you want to create, you have to be in. So put yourself out there. You're a painter? Go where the painters are. You're a dancer? Go dance.

Melissa Simpson: So thinking about more formal institutions and the idea of schools, right? When I was coming up—I’m not a musician—but we had a weekly music class, like how you have gym every week. But then I also had the opportunity to take violin and clarinet as an extracurricular. Obviously, that's not as common now in public schools. Can you speak to why it would be important to keep music in schools and the benefits you've seen as an instructor?

Jakeya Limitless: Yeah. So I just had a discussion with a couple of my friends that are in my age group. We were talking about how we don’t have the courses in school anymore that teach life skills. We had culinary. We had workshop. It's like non-existent now. The essential thing—just knowing how to turn on the oven, use it, cook a meal—was very, very beneficial for our lives. We didn’t need to order food or order out. If something came down to it and we didn’t have money, some food is in the house—we know how to cook.

Music is very influential and very essential for me because music is the universal language. Music breaks through all language barriers, all walks of life. If I don’t know your language, the music will speak to me, because music uses frequency. It uses emotion to touch and connect—even with children.

I still remember my timetables because my math teacher played a record that used songs to teach us timetables. “One times one is one, two times this...” I remember those jingles in my mind because they speak to the part of our brain where we imagine, where we see, where we taste, and we create in our brain. It speaks to that, and then we retain it.

I think about shows like Sesame Street and Barney and Mr. Rogers. We remember the songs. We remember the songs. Singing is a way of bringing unity, especially among our children today. There's a lot of dis-ease that happens within our children's minds, especially after COVID. A lot of structure for children has been dismantled.

And I believe that singing—everyone wants to do music. Sing, rap, poetry. That’s all intertwined with the art of music. I feel like it's healing, and it's definitely needed as a message for this time.

Melissa Simpson: For sure. So my last question—I always like to leave it open-ended. Is there something related to your work or music education that you feel like we didn’t touch on, that you want to put out?

Jakeya Limitless: Yes. I actually do want to do more workshops with children. I touched on it, but not really. More so teaching children to teach other children. Have the children be the leaders, because children follow other children. You know what I mean? When you see this one child here doing something, another child is interested—like, “Mom, my friend over here is doing...” So yeah, I actually want to build workshops where we teach children how to—at least on a small scale—teach or mentor some kind of music course where they can pass it on. Start bands.

I know that Girls Rock Philly—I was able to work with them. They do that on a beautiful scale. But I want the children to be able to stand up, be leaders, and lead other children.