Destin Conrad Goes Dancehall on “Nervous,” His First Reggae Move Yet

The Grammy-nominated R&B singer previews an upcoming reggae album with a genre-hopping new single and video.

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• A New Sound, A New Single
• From Vine To The Grammys
• A Genre-Hopping Run

Destin Conrad has added another genre to his catalog. “Nervous,” released July 1 via Above Ground/EMPIRE, is the first single from his upcoming reggae album, produced by longtime collaborator Louie Lastic and blending R&B smoothness with a syncopated, multi-layered dancehall groove.

The track pairs Conrad’s effortless vocals and wordplay with a high-energy, summer-ready riddim, and arrives alongside a visual directed by Zev York that leans into bold colors and statement prints as Conrad and a crew of friends move through the song’s rhythm. It’s a notable pivot for an artist who, over the past two years, has already jumped from glossy Y2K-inspired R&B into alt-jazz — reggae is simply the next stop.

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Conrad was born in Tampa, Florida on June 26, 2000, and raised by a single mother who immigrated from Jamaica, singing in church before amassing over a million followers on Vine, where he first connected with Kehlani. That relationship became an early break: Kehlani invited him to the writing camp for her album It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, and Conrad ended up with three or four songs on the project, which reached No. 2 on the charts.

His solo catalog built steadily from there. Conrad released Colorway in 2021, Satin in 2022, Submissive in late 2023, and Submissive 2 in 2024, alongside collaborations with artists including Ambré and Alex Isley. His proper debut album, Love on Digital, explored modern love through FaceTime calls, voice notes, and time zones with a Y2K-nostalgic sensibility, hitting No. 3 on Apple Music’s R&B/Soul chart and No. 7 on Spotify’s U.S. albums chart, and featured Kehlani, Lil Nas X, and Teezo Touchdown. The album earned Conrad his first Grammy nomination, for Best Progressive R&B Album.

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Rather than following up Love on Digital with more of the same, Conrad shifted directions entirely. His follow-up, the alt-jazz album wHIMSY, debuted at No. 3 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart and No. 1 on Apple Music’s Jazz chart, featuring collaborators Terrace Martin, James Fauntleroy, Keyon Harrold, Vanisha Gould, and Ambré.

Speaking to NME earlier this year, Conrad framed the constant genre movement as part of a bigger moment for him. He described feeling eager and hungry following the acclaim around both records, and located himself within a broader resurgence of queer R&B artists including Kehlani and Durand Bernarr, calling it a shift he feels blessed to be part of.

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With “Nervous” now out and a full reggae project on the way, Conrad is extending a pattern that’s defined his career since Love on Digital: pick a new sonic lane, commit to it fully, and let the songwriting — not the genre — be the throughline.