Maroon 5’s PJ Morton discusses his emerging R&B career

theGRIO VIDEO - Growing up in the cultural melting pot of New Orleans, P.J. Morton has been surrounded by great music since a very early age...

Kyle Harvey

May 6, 2013

Growing up in the cultural melting pot of New Orleans, PJ Morton has been surrounded by great music since a very early age.

The keyboardist is one part of the musical juggernaut, Maroon 5, where he shares the stage with frontman and “The Voice” judge Adam Levine. Being a member of a Grammy award-winning pop rock band would be stressful in its own right, which is why PJ being signed as a solo R&B act to rap label Young Money Entertainment is all the more impressive.

“It’s really not that big of a difference actually,” said PJ Morton when asked about having his feet in both music genres. “Once you get past the lyrical content, all bands are a certain level of pop (music).”

As an employee underneath Young Money, his boss is rapper Lil Wayne. Anyone familiar with Weezy’s music and his marijuana friendly lifestyle can only imagine what a studio session would be like with the self-proclaimed “best rapper alive.”

“Well it’s smoky in the studio anytime you’re with Wayne,” Morton laughs. “There’s women around and its a party, but in comparison to Maroon 5 – [Maroon’s] vibe is a lot more chill. It’s more like a writing session for songwriters.”

Check out what else PJ Morton had to say in our video interview and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Click here to purchase PJ’s new album, New Orleans, on iTunes.

You can check out Kyle’s musical coverage on theGrio music page, and follow Kyle on Twitter at @HarveyWins.