Bel-Air’s Jazlyn Martin Reveals How an 'Identity Crisis' Helped Her Rediscover Her Musical Calling (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jazlyn Martin.Photo:Sumz Photos

Sumz Photos

BeforeJazlyn Martinplayed the strong, independent, street-smart hustler Jackie onBel-Air, she was a shy girl from Los Angeles too afraid to let the world know she was a songbird at heart.

“I’ve always been very closed off about the fact that I sing,” the actress tells PEOPLE, “and it’s strange, too, because I grew up singing.”

Martin, 25, made a name for herself when she joined the season two cast of her hit Peacock drama — which also starsJabari Banks,Coco Jones, Adrian Holmes, Cassandra Freeman,Akira Akbarand Olly Sholotan — last spring, taking on a modern reinterpretation of the characterTyra Banksportrayed onBel-Air’s classic ’90s predecessor,The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

A few months afterward, though, she embarked on a new journey to fulfill a long-lost dream: recording her first-ever music project, an EP titledIdentity Crisis, which dropped on Aug. 30.

Martin had already been taking trips to the studio around the same timeBel-Air’s second season was airing, but this time last summer, she finally worked up the nerve to say, “‘OK, I want to do an EP,’ and then I started just building from there.”

Jazlyn Martin.Sumz Photos

Coming up with the idea to record her first EP was easy compared to the journey it took Martin to finally face her fears and let the world in on her vocal talents. One of her first live performances was a somber, a cappella rendition of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” which she sang in front of a small room of people, per a2019 Instagram video.

In the caption, the rising star wrote, in part, “This is a very vulnerable Jaz that I really don’t like sharing with others. I have trouble unmasking that part of me.”

“Singing is that one thing where my soul is open, and anything could come out of it, and I think that’s a very scary and vulnerable place to be,” Martin reveals to PEOPLE, noting that dance was instead her “first love” because “I found so much comfort in communicating without opening my mouth.”

She adds, “Dancers were known not to be able to sing or act, so… I guess I kind of conformed to that ideology and was like, ‘All right, I’m just going to sit back and dance.'”

However, last year, Martin says she felt a wave of emotion come over her as she contemplated what to do next about her music pursuits. “It was just a feeling of, ‘What are you doing? What are you waiting for?'” the singer recalls asking herself. “There’s never going to be the right time. And it’s not that I want to sing, Imustsing.”

“God gave me this ability,” she continues, “and it’d be a disservice to me and to others if I don’t showcase it.”

Martin credits her parents, mostly her musician father, for giving her a deep appreciation of R&B, neo-soul, jazz and gospel music growing up. The soulful influence ofPrince,Michael Jackson, D’Angelo, Musiq Soulchild,Stevie Wonder,Whitney Houston,Donny Hathaway,Jennifer Hollidayand others can be heard in her raw vocals and bluesy songwriting on offerings like “Perfect,” her debut single that dropped in June.

“I feel like a lot of people have put me on this pedestal to be perfect and have called me perfect, and I never liked that,” she shares of her song’s message. “I’ve never claimed to be perfect. I’ve never claimed to have it all figured out, but I feel like that’s something that the world has placed on me. I was like, ‘I’m tired of this unrealistic expectation because it robs me the opportunity to be human.’ To fail, to fall, to mess up.”

“I feel like a lot of people and women feel like they need to be perfect in order to be loved, and it’s like, what if I’m not?” she continues. “So, yeah, it was a very vulnerable song for me to first release, and I wanted it to be kind of conflicting with [my] next single.”

“He said, ‘I think you should really think about what story you want to tell people; what you want to reveal about yourself. Most people can relate when you are vulnerable.’ And so, I sat with that and [asked], what’s something I’ve struggled with in my life? And I would say my identity,” shares the singer, whose father is Black and mom is of Mexican descent (both are also featured on her EP). “Coming from a mixed background, you don’t know if you feel enough for each side or if you belong.”

The conflicting predicament became the foundation for Martin’sIdentity Crisis, as it addresses her own feelings about love, relationships, heartbreak, belonging, insecurities and more. According to her, each of the project’s seven tracks represents “different identities and different conflicts I have in my head” — a mental tug-of-war that epitomizes her life-long struggle to understand who she really is.

“Everyone has gone through an identity crisis, no matter what age, gender or ethnicity, and it looks different on each person,” Martin notes. “So I wanted to share mine because I don’t think that conversation is talked about a lot. One day, you feel like a baddie, and then the next, you’re like, ‘Bro, I’m ugly.’ No one talks about that, so I wanted to share my story and my experience.”

“A lot has changed since last year because [being onBel-Air] was my introduction to the world and exposed me in a way that I haven’t been,” the songwriter acknowledges. “[Jackie] tells a lot of young Black and Brown girl stories that aren’t talked about a lot, and then attaching music to it, I think it’s just allowing the world to see my capacity as an actress and as a singer, so it’s really, really cool.”

Playing her strong-willed character has, in a way, empowered Martin to “see past myself and my perspective” while expanding “my empathy.” According to her, it’s also “challenged me to see the love in other people… and encourages me to love even more on broken people.”

“A lot of times, the people who we think don’t deserve love are the ones who often need it the most,” the singer remarks. “That’s what I think about Jackie, and it’s translated to my own life of letting me extend love and kindness to everyone because you don’t know what they’ve been through and you don’t know their background. She’s allowed me to be a better artist and a better human being.”

As she forges her own place in the modern-day R&B scene with herIdentity CrisisEP, Martin says she hopes to leave a light and path behind for others to be their “vulnerable, authentic, true self.” “Hopefully, this project can encourage people to be honest with themselves,” she concludes, “and to face the identity crisis they might have.”

source: people.com