Jesse Hinkelman Releases Final Project as The Last Jah

Moving on can mean many things. While the act may often be difficult, there are any number of reasons that moving on, whatever from, can be the best thing for a person.

In music, band break-ups and shake-ups happen on a regular basis. Some artists will move on with new members in tow, creating revolving doors until they get a sound just right, or they may cut all ties to move onto other endeavors or pursue a particular vision of what needs to be done for their craft.

Artists sometimes need to be willing to undergo a radical transformation to reach that higher plateau.

For Charlotte-based artist Jesse Hinkelman, aka Jahphomet, it is a slight mixture of the latter two that has closed the book on one of Jesse’s longest lasting projects, The Last Jah, releasing a curated collection of tracks under the moniker for an album titled Sacred For // Shallow Friend, which will serve as a farewell to The Last Jah as Hinkelman moves on to pursue new projects.

Hinkelman’s final turn as The Last Jah sees the artist dig into the crates to release past tracks and demos that never saw the light of day, many of which invoke pain, frustration and a road paved with indifference mixed with acceptance — the kind of feeling that comes when everything is out of control and sitting with yourself is all that’s left.

The production over the lyrics is crisp and audible enough to bring listeners into the same room with whatever ghosts haunted him during the crafting of each track.

It isn’t just in the lyrics of “Blood Anthem I” and “II” that the mental scars are apparent, it is also in the tone and grit of the vocals that add to the greater picture.

The conflicts present from verse to verse make the set of tracks incredibly personal, but in a way that invites listeners to see humanity, reality and acceptance delivered in rapid succession, especially in the first of the two.

“Wish I had the yearning/ So pick up when you call me/ I just want to press ignore/ lock the doors when you come knocking/ It’s not that I don’t love you or appreciate the sacrifices made/ the past just left a bitter taste/ The many lies I visit/ no matter how you spin it/ I’m just trying to reassemble all the pieces left…”

While the first “Blood Anthem” track held down a more beat-centric background that Jah laid the lyrics onto like bricks, the sequel changes the tone a bit by adding instrumental elements in and a bit of vocal song to the chorus.

The production is stretched in a way that adds a drawn-out quality to the track. Hinkelman explained that, while the first song in the series deals with a parent, the somberness of the second is attributed to interactions with a sibling.

“I feel like ‘Blood Anthem I’ had a much deeper meaning from the get go, whereas ‘Blood Anthem II’ was more so just about a sibling of mine, where it just seemed like, no matter how old we got, it just seemed like things just never changed,” he explained. “It can be a challenge to admit the ones you love that never change should be left outside your grip, and that’s kind of where I was at.”

Not every track was inspired by familial anecdotes. The opener, “Wanderers,” still expresses its share of stress during its short two-minute duration. Jah speaks with a fresh determination within the messaging, on one hand questioning himself in the chorus — “What is this?/ What am I to do?/ Where am I to go when I fall?” — and on the other, finding a way forward through talking himself up in a way many of us do when we feel like we’re lost or down.

“Wanderers was really kind of another turning point where I was really like, you know what, I can’t let life kind of get me down. And I love doing music. I love being creative. [It’s a] ‘I’ve got to keep going at it’ kind of thing, you know?”

The personal anecdotes sewn throughout the record paint a picture of a time in Hinkelman’s life. By his accounting, the tracks were made as far as seven years apart, with each part of the album fitting together like jigsaw pieces to tell a complete story.

Jahphomet plots his next moves

What got me interested to talk to Hinkelman about Sacred Foe // Shallow Friend was the potential that the project may be the last Charlotte audiences heard not only from The Last Jah but Hinkelman under any of his monikers.

Fortunately, he has since clarified in an Instagram post advertising the new album that he will continue to make music as Jahphomet, focusing on his production work for the near-future.

“I’m more so focusing strictly on the quality, as well as being more involved with mixing and production, rather than pushing music out as an artist,” Hinkelman told me. “I will continue to do what I did as The Last Jah, but that was more so, I’d say a personal project, and [now that] we’re now moving forward as Jahphomet, I want to be a bit more professional with it.

“I want a certain level of quality with the content that I release,” he continued, “and I just don’t think that I was at a stage in my life where I could do that as The Last Jah.”

As for what comes next, he’ll be working with close collaborator and longtime friend Lil’ Skritt, as the two are will craft a collaborative album this fall, more than three years since the release of their joint EP Once Before & Now Again.

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Jesse’s final turn as The Last Jah, Sacred Foe // Shallow Friend, is available exclusively on Bandcamp for purchase and streaming.