PJ Morton Channels Stevie Wonder on Album, Reveals Busta Rhymes Collaboration

Young Money's multi-talented singer-songwriter-producer PJ Morton, who is also the keyboardist for the Grammy Award-winning group Maroon 5, says his upcoming debut album will be reminiscent of a legendary musical "wonder," due to its live instrumentation.

"It's very Stevie Wonder-esqe," Morton tells The BoomBox. "Just the current version of what Stevie would sound like if he came out today."

The New Orleans native joined the Young Money roster in December 2011. Now, with his album "80 percent complete," he's focused on showcasing an authentic sound.

"I think in general there's not a lot of real instruments being used in music right now; it's a lot of digital drums," he shares. "And while I had some of that going on in the last record, there's definitely some live horns, some live strings. I'm playing a lot of piano and a lot of keyboards on [this] album."

Morton also says he'll continue singing about love, relationships and life on the new project. The video for his song "Lover" featuring Lil Wayne, released last month, is a track about a war between two hearts and waving a white flag to surrender.

"I'm a lover, I'm a lover, I'm a lover/ Not a fighter, not a fighter, not a fighter," Morton sings. The song was featured on his seven-track EP, Following My First Mind, which debuted in March.

While he's building momentum with "Lover," Morton is excited about another track he worked on with labelmate Busta Rhymes, whom he calls a "genius."

"The name of the song is 'Never Get Over You,'" the crooner says. "It's kind of like old school Busta, you know Leaders of The New School days. It's very breakbeat style, old school New York style, which is why I thought of him in the beginning when I started working on the song."

As far as working under his Young Money bosses Mack Maine and Wayne, Morton has no complaints as he is given creative freedom to do as he pleases.

"Mack Maine, who is the President and who introduced me to Wayne and got me into the label, those guys, they come to me as a fan and somebody that already believes in me so it hasn't been a rule of them telling me what I should or shouldn't do," he explains.

"It's really been just full support, which is really refreshing and what I love most about being in that family."

PJ Morton's LP is expected to arrive in 2013.

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