At the 2025 BET Awards, Jharrel Jerome chats with THR on the carpet and teases that he's working on new music of his own. Plus, he reveals that he's excited to celebrate Mariah Carey as she receives the Ultimate Icon Award.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00Why was it important for you to be here at this beauty celebration?
00:03I'm in love with music too, you know?
00:05Like a lot of people know me as an actor, and I'm proud of that.
00:08But I've always loved music.
00:10I used to rap when I was in the Bronx growing up and stuff like that,
00:13and I make my own music.
00:14So it's just more so about putting myself in the space
00:17and shaking hands with people.
00:18I'm inspired in that realm, you know?
00:20One thing to go and see Denzhan and be like,
00:22yo, but it's something to see Dolce and be like, yo, what's up?
00:26So it's cool, yeah.
00:27Are we working on a project right now?
00:29Like a music project?
00:32I am. Yes, I am.
00:33I actually have, I can't say much, because it's a good operation going on,
00:37but it's a full album with a great producer who many people know
00:40and on a label that many people know about,
00:44and that's why I'm right here now.
00:45So it's good, it's good, it's good.
00:48How are you feeling about, I don't know if it's even fair to say transition.
00:52You're just an artist who does both.
00:54But, yeah, how are you feeling?
00:55That's fair to say.
00:57I think transition to the world, not so much for me.
00:59But, you know, I still will have to go through the mindset change of,
01:03listen, I can do it, you know, do both, but the work has to be good.
01:07If the work is good, just like that work is good, there won't be any problem.
01:10So that's why I'm real quiet and specific and waiting for the right time.
01:13I won't ask nothing else about it.
01:17No.
01:18That's all you can know.
01:19All right?
01:21I do want to ask you, and that's because we're just learning about Sly Stone and his passing,
01:25and he has meant so much to music.
01:27What should people know about him?
01:29About Sly Stone?
01:30I have to learn.
01:32I don't know if I'm 27 or what it is.
01:34Sly and the Family Stone.
01:36So Sly Stone just passed today.
01:37Okay, yeah.
01:38No, I didn't even hear him.
01:39I'm so sorry.
01:40Yeah, no.
01:40No.
01:41I'm out of whack with that one.
01:42I'm so sorry.
01:43Yeah.
01:43No problems.
01:44Who are you looking forward to and seeing in one of the icon tributes?
01:48Say it again?
01:49We have four icons that are being awarded.
01:51Actually, who has meant most?
01:54Okay.
01:54MC.
01:55You and Liam?
01:55I love Mariah Carey, man.
01:57Yeah, I love Mariah Carey.
01:59I think she's so special.
02:00I think, I don't know, her name is ingrained in not even just the music space,
02:06but in the world space, the pop space, the women's space, the fashion space.
02:11It's not a space she ain't conquered.
02:12And I know everybody else who's honored, they deserve it too,
02:16but that's personal for me.
02:18Yeah.