A Lot Can Happen in Four Years

A look at Justy’s music career and her upcoming sophomore album

As we reflect on 2025 we wanted to share one of our artist features from our spring 2025 music and entertainment magazine🧡 

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Four years after the release of her debut album, Pain With Benefits, jazz, hip-hop, and neo-soul artist, Justy, is preparing to release the sequel album, Love with Benefits. As Justy explained, she’s added a subheader to her website that reads, “A lot can happen in four years.” This statement couldn’t be more accurate, as the release of her first record in 2021 launched an exciting few years of performances and other music releases.

Justy, who began to seriously pursue music in college, connected with a manager on Clubhouse during the height of the COVID pandemic. This chance meeting led to numerous opportunities to perform, including the biggest show she’s played so far, New York City’s Capital One Summer Stage in 2023. Reminiscing about the experience, Justy explained that it was an especially impactful full-circle moment to be playing her biggest-ever show in her hometown of Staten Island to a crowd that included people she’s known since childhood.

Justy explained that at shows, what she enjoys most is the connection with audiences. “I like performing because it transforms me into something other than who I am normally. I always tell people I feel like Hannah Montana sometimes. I’ve got my normal standard life, my nine-to-five life, and then I have Justy.”

For Justy, the upcoming release of her sophomore record provide an opportunity to reflect on her growth as a person and as an artist. She’s grown in numerous ways, including amassing a following on social media. TikTok has been especially powerful in bringing in new listeners and supporters of her work. At the time of this writing, she has over 45,000 followers on that platform. While Justy has a wide range of listeners, her most significant listener base is the LGBTQ+ community.

“When I first started writing, I’d kind of just be very neutral and ambiguous about everything. And as I grew more in myself and in my identity and in my comfort, that allowed my writing to blossom because it’s a little bit more honest,” Justy said of the confidence she’s gained to sing about her queerness.

Her song Pretty has become a queer anthem of sorts which blends her signature style of singing and rap. The music video features Justy seducing a woman through her music, and the lyrics include:

“Falling hard

Super crash

Hit with femininity

Superman

Kryptonite

Taking my abilities

Know it’s childish

And it’s clumsy

I drank too much

At this party

But you’re so pretty.”

As Justy noted, vulnerability can be scary. However, as she’s become more open and honest through her music, she’s found that music is a connector for people to feel seen and represented. Especially reflecting on the queer themes ever present throughout her music, it can make so many listeners feel heard and less alone.

With her increasing comfort with vulnerability, Justy geared up for her second album. However, the first album was written in large part inspired by a breakup, and it was an adjustment to approach the album from a less broken-hearted place.

As she explained, “It’s really easy to write music when you’re heartbroken, and when you’re in a bad position, you write really good songs. And then getting out of that, I’m like, ‘okay, well, I’m fine now. So, what do I write about?’ So it took me a bit of time to figure out what to write about and figure out if that was good enough or poignant enough.”

After some time, Justy found her stride in writing music by drawing inspiration from various avenues of life and the lives of those around her. This second project has become a way to showcase then vs. now and the growth and transformation that her life has undergone in just four short years.

“I’m so ready to be done with that series, not in a fed-up way, but in a let’s get to the next stage of life,” Justy said, “I just am excited to release it and have the completion of a body of work.”