Jastin Martin

Houston-based contemporary R&B artist Jastin Martin specializes in understated and emotionally open ballads. Since the late 2010s she has worked as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, first releasing self-produced singles and EPs on her own before joining Def Jam. Those independent projects include the 2019 set XVIII and the 2021 collection Growing Pains, while her initial Def Jam releases consist of reworked versions of earlier tracks plus the characteristically lean “Hurt Before” (2023), all serving as precursors to a more collaborative full-length debut.

Throughout childhood Martin studied multiple instruments and performed in choirs. She began composing songs in her early teens and soon afterward posted both covers and original pieces online. After teaching herself recording engineering and production, she built a larger following while enrolled at Grambling State. Her first commercial EP, XVIII, arrived in 2019 along with the track “Again.” Roughly twenty singles followed across 2020 and 2021, closing with the Growing Pains EP whose highlight “Houston” is a spare, unsentimental acoustic ballad. Several more singles appeared in the first half of 2022. That August she issued her third EP, Mine, after which Def Jam signed her. The label promptly reissued the standout “Reassurance” from Mine, then supplied new renditions of “Growing Pains” and “Right My Wrongs” in early 2023. April 2023 brought the new trap-styled slow jam “Hurt Before.” At the same time Martin continued assembling her debut album with additional producers.