JRDN

Emerging Canadian R&B/hip-hop star Jordan Croucher is making up for a late start in his music career in a big way with the soulful songs from his forthcoming second album.

Croucher grew up in Halifax and Toronto and, even though it was evident that the youngster had an excellent voice, music took a back seat to basketball in high school and at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia — which led to a year playing professionally in France.

Croucher elected to give up on his hoop dreams and re-immersed himself in music by working with Halifax producer Trobiz and recording mix tapes with the groups N.E.P. and Triple Threat. He eventually hooked up with multi-Juno Award-nominated artist/producer Classified (Luke Boyd), who produced Croucher’s 2007 debut album, No Dress Code.

The 13-track record spawned the hit singles and videos “Selfish Times,” “Feelin’ Fine,” “So Addicted,” “Won’t Let Go” and “It’s Raining.” It also earned Croucher a CBC Galaxie Rising Star prize, an East Coast Music Award nomination and an appearance on the CBC Television special, Barenaked East Coast Music. He toured across Canada with the likes of Maestro and opened for such international stars as Ne-Yo, Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Nas and Juelz Santana.

With Croucher’s undeniable talents as a singer and lyricist, his good looks and solid citizenry, it should be no surprise that he’s now poised to take the next step up the music ladder using the name JRDN. He’s been working with Toronto’s Grammy Award-nominated Kuya Productions songwriting and production team, who’ve worked with some of the biggest names in the business, including Nelly, Mase, Ginuwine, Jesse McCartney, Nicole Scherzinger and Akon.

Croucher has spent time in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta and various Canadian outposts writing and recording songs for his sophomore album. Since he’s adopted the abbreviated stage name and surrounded himself with all new people since No Dress Code, Croucher in some ways sees his forthcoming LP as another debut effort. There’s a noticeable difference in the sonics between the old and new material, and Croucher has also turned a page lyrically.

“On the first album, I talked about family and friends and my life,” explains Croucher. “But on this one, I’m talking about the women in my life.”

The hook-filled lead single “U Can Have It All” has just arrived at radio and is garnering very positive reactions. The song’s video has a surprising twist at the end that Croucher reveals was inspired by The Jackson 5’s 1971 hit, “Sugar Daddy.”

Another new song that Croucher is particularly excited about is “High Definition,” about which he says: “I think it defines me as an R&B guy. Every R&B guy has to have that one love song that really raises a woman on a pedestal, and I think this is it.”

Croucher may not have soared as high as namesake Michael Jordan on the basketball court, but the sky’s the limit as far as JRDN’s music career is concerned. All signs indicate that he really can have it all.