After winning a grammy with John Legend in 2021, holding the most appearances on NPR’s Tiny Desk, and working with the biggest names in the industry, he has his heart set on his most ambitious goal yet - establishing himself as a solo artist. Throughout this journey he credits his mother, pivotal lessons learned throughout his career, and his special moments working with Mac Miller.

Written and Photographed By Kai Matsukuma

November 14, 2024

R&B and Hip Hop’s Most In-Demand Guitarist, Justus West

As I crossed Raymond Avenue and entered Copa Vida in Pasadena on a gloomy winter day, I was greeted by one of the warmest welcomes of “Hey man! How are you?” It felt as if the weather transitioned to a flawless summer morning catching up with a friend I've known for years. 

Within five minutes, a customer in the coffee shop excitedly approached Justus and asked for a picture, mentioning how much of an inspiration Justus had been to him. We took several pictures to make sure he got the perfect shot. 

Justus West is one of the most exciting and well-respected guitarists currently in the music industry. He may not be a household name yet, but Justus is extremely admired and appreciated by prestigious producers and artists across the globe, having worked with names such as John Legend, John Mayer, Mac Miller, Beyonce, Kanye West, ThunderCat, Miguel, Future, Roddy Rich, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys, Masego, Ariana Grande, Ty Dolla $ign, Snoh Allegra, Becky G, Timbaland, DJ Mustard, 070 Shake, Terrace Martin, Mike Dean, and many more. Mayer, one the modern day guitar gods, even commented on Justus’ social post claiming he is one of his favorites on the guitar. Additionally, Justus holds the record with the most Tiny Desk appearances as a guitarist with 8 performances!

In the past three years, Justus has been on full grind mode performing as the lead guitarist in global tours and music festivals such as Coachella, Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, Hyde Park, FORMAT, and many others. 

After a couple sips of my warm matcha latte, I was curious about Justus’ life journey as someone who has accomplished so much in just 24 years of life. 

It turns out, to put it lightly, Justus West went through hell and back to get to where he is now. 

In his early teenage years, he was laying on his potential death bed for over a month after a rare spider bite reaction. Unfortunately, the perpetrator  was a brown recluse, one of three spiders in North America with extremely toxic venom. 

After ten days of unsuccessful blood transfusions and still no diagnosis of his reaction, the specialists had to use a method known as plasmapheresis. The expensive operation removes blood from your body, mixes it with artificial plasma, and then deposits it back into your body. 

Throughout the process, there were days when the doctors were sure they were going to lose Justus and had told his mom to prepare. However, Justus kept waking up each morning and miraculously came back to full health. 

Several doctors and research facilities attempted to identify the reaction but but have not been able to diagnose it even to this day. Justus feels the experience helped him reason and rationalize why he’s still here. 

Suddenly he was endowed with a new perspective on life.

Once he fully recovered after five months, Justus decided to take his passion even more seriously, taking every opportunity he could. 

The following year, at 17 years old, Justus faced an exhilarating roller coaster: winning top five finalist at a Vince Gill competition; moving to Nashville; getting kicked out of a family friend’s home while couch surfing due to his approval on Colin Kaepernick’s protest against police brutality; driving to Alabama for a gig with a wedding band; moving to Atlanta for music gigs at mega churches; and living with his godfather only to get jumped by his son due to jealousy of his music career. “A lot of couch surfing, struggles, and solo road trips,” Justus says with a chuckle of exhaustion.

With a mild concussion, Justus was driving back solo to his hometown in Kansas when he miraculously received an unexpected phone call from a hometown hero. Bernard Harv, Justin Bieber’s music director, asked Justus if he would join one of his R&B girl groups known as Escape for a tour kicking off in Atlanta. As he pulled off the highway he stared at the two signs; one sign pointed towards Kansas and the other back to Atlanta. Justus followed his gut and went back to Atlanta to take the gig. 

Justus’ independence for chasing music started at age 11. He accepted his first paid gig to perform in a nearby black church. He couldn’t believe it. Getting paid to play the guitar? Being able to purchase video games with his own, hard earned money opened up a new world to Justus West. Only a year later, he was getting snuck into Jazz nightclubs through the back doors to perform with different bands. 

Even at this early age, Justus was hooked. 

Being homeschooled by his mother was a significant element to his success. Music fluently became a part of his curriculum once he had tackled the general education requirements at an early age. However, his real skill was his ability to focus and learn new things in a short period of time. “It’s all about having a purpose to learn,” Justus says confidently after taking a sip of his golden chai latte. 

“I think that is my strongest skill. I’ll stay up however long or spend as many days as I need to learn something. When I made “House Cat”, it took me two and a half weeks to do, everyday for 16+ hours. I love to get into that zone of being hyper focused. I don’t allow myself to get burnt out either. It’s just a skill I obtained over time,” says Justus. 

His mom has been his biggest inspiration since day one; she consistently encouraged him to ensure he’s learning and reaching his full potential. “My mother was less about the victories, more about resilience. She taught me nobody is going to get everything right and do everything perfect. However, the people that stick out are the ones who do not stay down. She was also a spectacular singer and songwriter. She’s a very powerful woman,” says Justus West. 

Attending public school or college was never a thought for him, especially since he felt it was tough to acclimate to social environments. 

Since Justus spent most of his time at home when he was not performing paid gigs, he developed his own process for creating music. 

When inspired, he solely focuses on making the song; he never knows it’s going to be good until later. “Making music is never linear. You just have to do it and see where it goes,” he says. 

Right now, Justus is caring less about technicality and focusing solely on just playing. During discovery mode, he opens his brain to new production styles and instruments, while maintaining a fluid mind. Another important element is watching artist interviews and getting inspired by their approach and mindset. After learning for a comfortable period of time, he quickly applies it going straight into creative mode.

Once the song is finished, he states he is the king at “pass me the aux. Let me hear your thoughts.” Justus then pays close attention to the energy and reactions in the room. 

Quickly after, Justus played us a couple of unreleased songs as we jumped into his beautifully pristine Fighter Jet Grey Mustang Mach 1 and they were angelical. 

In the past five years, Justus has been in very high demand as a guitarist for live performances, tours, and festivals. Consequently, a lot of his time has been spent attending rehearsals and traveling throughout the world to support other big name artists. 

As someone who wants to make an impact and create his own path, spending so much time performing for others can make it difficult to do exactly that. Recently, he has promised himself to accept fewer gigs in order to develop his own personal artistry.

In December of 2022, Justus signed his first artist deal with Snafu Records. However, it hasn’t been the easiest journey taking on such a big challenge.

“Doing everything myself as an artist has been a fun challenge. I love it. Before, I was so used to attending rehearsals and being the guitarist on stage. I just had to show up on time, wear what they told me to wear, do my part, and that was that. It was easy for me. Now, as an artist, I have to think about everything. It’s also quite challenging because I'm a hyper perfectionist and I can have a lot of personal criticism,” Justus says. 

Social media and marketing is currently his biggest challenge. “The algorithm makes it tough on us. Always switching up. And creating content is not the easiest thing to do, especially when you’re shooting and editing yourself, but it’s what you have to do these days,” Justus says. 

As we arrived at Justus’ home in the valley and walked towards the studio in his backyard, my jaw dropped in disbelief. In his never-ending backyard of tall, luscious grass, there were six beautiful horses trotting into the sunset. I felt like I was on a movie set. “I’m really lucky. Jamie Foxx is letting me live here so I can give his daughter guitar lessons,” Justus says thankfully. “Don’t worry you’ll get used to that smell,” he says chucking, regarding the horse stable nearby. 

Justus’ home is the perfect definition of a bachelor pad. Immediately as you walk in there is a spacious hot tub in the corner of the room, tall ceilings, a marshmallow cloudlike couch, and a king sized bed. On the other corner of his home was a beautifully designed home music studio to create all his masterpieces. 

I couldn’t help but notice his tasteful collection of custom guitars and the glistening music award plaques on his wall. As we step into his sanctuary, Justus lays his back comfortably on the brown leather couch looking up at the pearl white ceiling. I sit down at the booth and continue on with our conversation. 

“Sometimes I feel so close but also farther than ever. Sometimes it’s hard when I’m connected to all these rich and famous artists. They tell me I’m a genius. I get all these compliments. But how genius am I really? If I have all these accolades and share stages with all these extremely famous artists, why am I still struggling (financially)?” He finishes off his thought with “it’s the mysterious process of life and I love it.” It was a beautiful moment to be able to witness someone be vulnerable and hopeful at the same time.

After sitting in silence for a short moment and appreciating the conversation, Justus grabbed his Macbook and excitedly showed me projects he’s been working on. Not only did he show me an alter ego EDM artist and the electronic music he created, but animations he’s been developing through a complicated software known as Blender. Then shortly after, he showed me a website he was developing for his new page. As I was in awe, Justus then pulled out some of his photography and videography he’s been shooting for fun. And they were all beautiful.

After poking his arm to see if he was actually human, I asked him how he had the time to do all of this. 

“Discipline and resilience,” Justus said simply. 

After spending more time with Justus, I knew exactly what he meant. We connected on so many levels, from our work ethic, to our understanding of the importance of patience for achieving success. 

However, leaving an impact is the ultimate objective. Inspiring others and being an example of what happens if you really push yourself. The ability to be yourself unapologetically. It was a conversation that gave me goosebumps.

With his extensive experience and deep passion for music, I asked Justus West for any tips or advice for people like us trying to chase a similar passion. Here is what he said: 

• Don’t allow yourself to think “writers block” is real. It really just means we are trying to force our brain to write and feel an emotion that it isn’t feeling. Don’t get frustrated, just because it’s not organically there. Try to work on the skill of noticing the moment that meets the emotion and beautiful things will happen. Realize and grab the raw emotion, bottle it up, and pour it out.

• Make sure you have your best intentions in this passion. Don’t chase fame or money. I happened to play guitar and naturally fell in love with it. I just wanted a place to play and have fun. Anywhere I could plug in my guitar, I was there. Always give your full heart to every piece of music you touch and you’ll be happy.

• If you don’t feel like an opportunity is for you, don’t force yourself to do it. You have to be the best version of yourself to get to where you’re supposed to be.

• Make sure to save your money when you can and invest it into your marketing (social media strategy/content and good PR).

• Look within and follow your passion. Have fun. The resources are endless to learn and you have to truly want to keep learning to get better. Be patient.

As I step over to his wall of memoirs, I begin to observe all these pictures of him with artists such as John Legend, Ty Dolla $ign, Thundercat, Becky G, 070 Shake, Mike Dean, John Mayer, and many others. However, one picture immediately stuck out to me; A picture of Justus and Mac Miller with their arms resting on each other's shoulders after their performance at the Hotel Cafe. 

I knew this topic was going to be tough, especially for Justus who was growing a stronger relationship with Mac just before his passing. 

“It was really special playing with Mac, especially while he started turning a pivotal corner in his artistry. Swimming was a big part of his career. He used a new sonic palette and really expanded his musicality. Being able to observe his commitment to the process and being open creatively was beautiful. Mac was open to any kind of ideas, working together, and simply having fun. I learned the most from him. He made everyone in the room feel comfortable, accepted, and welcomed in his creative space. There was no unnecessary pressure. Always so open to questions, concerns, comments, and suggestions. Something rare to come across. As an artist, he really knew what he wanted and it was really nice to work with. He was a really good friend and it was really tough for me, especially because we started getting a lot closer just before he left us,” Justus says appreciatively as we stare at the picture of them together on his wall. 

After the last intimate Hotel Cafe show in Hollywood on September 3rd, Mac Miller invited Justus to his house party in San Fernando Valley. This was the last show Mac performed before his passing. Justus was blessed to be a part of it. 

That night at Mac’s house, a stronger bond was made between the two as they joked around and talked deeply about music. “We started making beats together at his house a few more times after that. It was a sacred experience collaborating with him,” says Justus as he reminisces on his last time spent together. Shortly after, Justus received the shocking news of Mac’s passing on September 7th. 

Reminiscing about his times with Mac was a rollercoaster of emotions, however I can tell Justus was uplifted as he appreciates the short but pivotal time with the icon. 

Similar to Mac, Justus wants to leave an impact and redefine culture in a positive way throughout his music career. 

Although Justus West is a 7x Grammy nominee and 1x Grammy award winner for writing / producing the song “Always” on John Legend’s Best R&B Album “Bigger Love,” he knows he is meant for something much bigger. 

“Of course I want to be known for being a great musician. However, my ultimate goal is to create platforms and help others find their path in this world of music. There are so many talented artists out there that don’t have the resources to chase their passions. I hope I can set an example of what happens if you really push yourself and believe in your dreams.” 

@justus.west

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