Earl Simmons (December 18, 1970 – April 9, 2021), known professionally as DMX, was an American rapper, songwriter, and actor. His accolades included an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award, and six Grammy Award nominations. Regarded as an influential figure in the late 1990s and early 2000s and one of the greats of hip-hop, his music is characterized by his "aggressive" rapping style, with lyrical content varying from hardcore themes to prayers. His violent lyricism helped popularize the horrorcore genre.

DMX began rapping in the late 1990s. After an unsuccessful tenure on Columbia Records, he signed with Ruff Ryders Entertainment in a joint venture with Def Jam Recordings to release his debut studio album, It's Dark and Hell Is Hot (1998), which was met with critical and commercial success—selling 251,000 copies in its first week and spawning the Billboard Hot 100-top 20 single, "Ruff Ryders' Anthem". His second album, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (1998), was followed by his third, ... And Then There Was X (1999), which became his best-selling release and was supported by his second top 40 single, "Party Up (Up in Here)". His fourth album, The Great Depression (2001), was followed by his fifth, Grand Champ (2003), which was led by the single "Where the Hood At?" and included the international bonus track "X Gon' Give It to Ya". DMX became the first artist to have their first five albums consecutively debut atop the Billboard 200, and by his death on April 9, 2021, he had sold over 75 million records worldwide.

DMX acted in commercially successful films such as Belly (1998), alongside rapper Nas, Romeo Must Die (2000) and Cradle 2 the Grave (2003), alongside Jet Li, and Exit Wounds (2001), alongside Steven Seagal. In 2006, he starred in the reality television series DMX: Soul of a Man, which was primarily aired on the BET cable television network. In 2003, he published a book of his memoirs titled E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX.

Early life

Earl Simmons was born on December 18, 1970, in Mount Vernon, New York. He was the son of 19-year-old Arnett Simmons and 18-year-old Joe Barker. Simmons was the middle child of the family; his mother had given birth to a daughter, Bonita, two years prior, and later gave birth to a second daughter, Shayla, and two stillborn sons. His father, Barker, painted watercolor paintings of street scenes to sell at local fairs, having moved to Philadelphia to fulfill his career.

In his childhood years, Simmons first suffered from physical violence at the hands of his mother and was diagnosed with bronchial asthma. He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. He disassociated himself from the spirituality after he was injured in an accident by a driver. At the age of five, his mother sent him to live with relatives in Yonkers' School Street housing apartments. After suffering from his mother's abuse, he was expelled from a middle school at the age of ten, having been sent to a group home. He then returned to Yonkers at age fifteen, sleeping in empty storage bins and befriending stray dogs. Due to poor grades at Yonkers Middle High School, Simmons was unable to finish his track and field team schedule. Broke, he robbed several students to find food and clothing for himself, as well as a leather collar and harness for his pet dog. He then began carjacking.

Musical career

1985–1995: Career beginnings

His career began in 1985, when he beatboxed for a local rapper named Ready Ron. They would do small shows together where Ron would perform as a rapper, and DMX would beatbox and provide adlibs. After some time, he realized Ron was becoming more prominent on the scene, so he decided to start rapping himself under the name "DMX" inspired by the Oberheim DMX drum machine—he made it an initialism for "Divine Master Of the Unknown" and later "Darkman X". After serving a two-year prison sentence, he began writing his own lyrics and performing at the local recreation center for younger children. In 1988, while in prison for carjacking, he began dedicating more of his free time to writing lyrics and battling other inmates. During this time, he had created a style called "Spellbound" where he spelled each word out letter by letter. He and future rival, K-Solo, engaged in battles. The initial Ruff Ryders group started with a preteen Jadakiss, Swizz Beatz as a child, and DMX. In 1988, Irv Gotti was roommates with producer Chad Elliott who later introduced him in the Schlobohm housing projects in Yonkers to DMX and brothers Joaquin "Waah" and Darrin "Dee" Dean, who had mentioned they were creating a company called Ruff Ryders together. Gotti convinced Waah to buy him a drum machine to produce records for DMX. Elliott and Gotti produced a beat in 1989 called Born Loser which became one of DMX's first music demos.

He later made an appearance on The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show in January 1991, where he provided a freestyle. The Source praised DMX in its Unsigned Hype column that highlighted unsigned hip-hop artists. In 1991, DMX signed a management deal with the then-unknown record label Ruff Ryders Entertainment. Later that year, Columbia Records signed DMX to its subsidiary labels Chaos Records and Ruffhouse Records, which released his major debut single "Born Loser" in 1993. Failing to meet commercial projections and not reaching any music charts, he was then terminated from his contract with Ruffhouse and became an independent artist. In January 1994, Death Row Records attempted to sign the rapper in a joint venture with Ruff Ryders, although this never materialized.

1996–1997: Building hype and signing to Def Jam

After two years of struggling in the industry, his friend and associate, Irv Gotti, became the president of A&R at Def Jam Recordings. After showcasing for then-president Lyor Cohen, DMX was signed to Def Jam Recordings in May 1997.

1998–2000: Debut album and commercial success

DMX recorded tracks from April 1997 to January 1998 for his debut album. During this time, his guest appearances on Mase's singles "24 Hrs. to Live" and "Take What's Yours", The Lox's single "Money, Power & Respect", and Def Jam labelmate LL Cool J's single "4, 3, 2, 1" created a strong buzz for his upcoming album. In February 1998, he released his debut major-label single "Get at Me Dog" on Def Jam Recordings. The single received an RIAA certification of gold. His first major-label album It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, which included the single "Ruff Ryders' Anthem", was then released in May 1998. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S. and sold over six million copies. In December 1998, he released his album Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and went multi-platinum. DMX became the only rapper alive to have his first two consecutive number-one Billboard 200 albums within a one-year period (seven months by calculation) and the first since Tupac Shakur; DMX's record would later be surpassed two different times in 2020 by YoungBoy Never Broke Again, who made the number one position with two albums in six months (a month down by proxy, making it the fastest) and also had three number one albums in ten months between 2019 and 2020, also beating another Billboard record by DMX involving a quantity of number one rap albums within a year.

He released his third album ... And Then There Was X, on December 21, 1999. It was his third album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200. Its most popular single, "Party Up (Up in Here)", became his first top ten hit on the R&B charts, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. The album was certified six-times Platinum, and was also nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2001 Grammy Awards. In 2000, DMX also made a cameo appearance in the Sum 41 music video for "Makes No Difference".

In late 2000, he joined other Hip Hop and Nu Metal artists on the Anger Management Tour. Appearing alongside Limp Bizkit, Godsmack and Sinnistar for the second half of the tour from November 24 to December 19, 2000.

2001–2004: Return to music

After improving his legal situation, DMX returned to the studio to complete his fourth album, The Great Depression. With its release on October 23, 2001, it was his fourth album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, featuring the singles "Who We Be", "We Right Here", and "I Miss You". Despite the album's triple platinum certification, its commercial and critical success was lower than his previous album. His fifth album, Grand Champ, released in September 2003, once again debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming his final album in his lifetime to do so. It sold over four million in the U.S., including the singles "Where the Hood At?" and "Get It on the Floor". After its release, he informed the public that he planned to retire, intending for Grand Champ to be his final album.

2005–2011: Year of the Dog... Again and The Definition of X

After conflict with Def Jam, DMX signed to Columbia Records, Def Jam's former parent company, in January 2006, returning to the label since 1992. He recorded his sixth album, Year of the Dog... Again, while switching between the two labels, which caused numerous delays. It was released on August 1, 2006, and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. He released two more singles, "Lord Give Me a Sign" and "We in Here". The album received mixed reviews from critics. On June 12, 2007, Def Jam released his greatest hits album, The Definition of X: The Pick of the Litter.

In 2009, DMX claimed he would pursue preaching in Jersey City, New Jersey as well as continue to produce music. He completed a Gospel music album prior to his incarceration. According to MTV, he had semi-retired to study the Bible in an effort to give messages behind the pulpit. Def Jam released another compilation album in 2010 titled The Best of DMX, which features hit singles including "Where the Hood At?" and "X Gon' Give It To Ya".

2011–2013: Undisputed

On October 11, 2011, DMX performed at the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards. He stated that he has been working "nonstop, every day" on his seventh album, which was titled Undisputed. A video for a new track titled "Last Hope" was released via the Internet on September 24, 2011, and was later included on The Weigh In EP released digitally on May 5, 2012. In late February 2012, Seven Arts Pictures acquired the catalog of DMX's music and signed DMX to a two-album deal. During a performance at New York's Santos Party House on December 25, 2011, DMX stated that the new album would be titled Undisputed and would be released on March 26, 2012. After numerous delays, the album was eventually released on September 11, 2012, and featured production from Swizz Beatz and J.R. Rotem with a guest appearance by MGK.

2013–2021: Def Jam reunion and Exodus

In 2013, DMX announced he had begun working on his eighth studio album. He collaborated with producers Swizz Beatz and Dame Grease. In December, after regaining his passport, he embarked on a world tour with performances in Bulgaria and Kosovo. On January 7, 2015, Seven Arts Music announced that DMX would be releasing Redemption of the Beast the following week; however, close personal friend and recurring collaborator producer/rapper/entrepreneur Swizz Beatz and DMX's management confirmed that this was false. On January 13, 2015, Seven Arts Music released Redemption of the Beast, without acquiring a legal artist contract. On January 15, 2015, it was announced by DMX's brother/manager Montana that DMX was no longer signed to Seven Arts Music and that they would be taking legal action against Seven Arts Music for the unauthorized release of Redemption of the Beast.

Long-time collaborator Swizz Beatz stated that two of the collaborators on the album would be Kanye West and Dr. Dre. His 2003 song "X Gon' Give It to Ya" was featured in the 2016 film Deadpool and in its trailers. On June 28, 2016, DMX released a new song titled "Blood Red" and produced by Divine Bars. On January 11, 2017, DMX released a new song produced by Swizz Beats titled "Bain Iz Back". On September 20, 2019, DMX signed a new record deal with Def Jam Recordings, reuniting with the label for the first time since his 2003 album Grand Champ. He joined fellow labelmate, LL Cool J, in the reunion with the label.

DMX's eighth and posthumous studio album, Exodus, was released through Def Jam on May 28, 2021.

Personal life

Religion

DMX was a born-again Christian, and stated that he read the Bible every day. While in jail, DMX stated that he had a purpose for being there:

"I came here to meet somebody...Don't know who it was, but I'll know when I see him. And I came here to give him a message. And that message is Jesus loves them."

DMX was a transitional deacon and aspired to become ordained as a pastor, stating that he received this call in 2009. In 2016, he gave a sermon at a church in Phoenix, Arizona.

On January 10, 2026 Foster Memorial AME Zion Church posthumously ordained DMX as a minister.

Relationships and children

DMX was the father of 15 children from 9 different women. He married his childhood friend Tashera Simmons in 1999. They had four children together: Xavier (born 1992), Tacoma (born 1999), Sean (born 2002), and Praise Mary Ella (born 2005). In July 2010, after his first of three incarcerations that year, Tashera announced their separation. They divorced in 2014 and remained friends, although in 2016, Tashera accused DMX of missing his $10,000/month child support payment.

DMX had a daughter, Sasha (born 2002), with Patricia Trejo. In 2012, Trejo sued DMX for $1 million in unpaid child support. The case was settled in 2013.

DMX and Monique Wayne, a Maryland resident, fought over her claim that he was the father of her son born in 2004. She sued him for defamation and for child support. After genetic testing proved that DMX was the father, in January 2008, DMX was ordered to pay Wayne $1.5 million, but a judge vacated the judgment in May 2008.

DMX also fathered a son and a daughter with Yadira Borrego. The son was 11 years old at the time of DMX's death, while the daughter's age was not known by the general public. He fathered another child with his fiancée Desiree Lindstrom on August 16, 2016.

DMX's final two children, twin boys, were born on December 5, 2019. Their mother is Pebbles Junell.

DMX did not have a will. As a result, legal battles ensued in probate courts following his death.

Finances and bankruptcies

DMX filed for bankruptcy three times. His first filing was on July 30, 2013, citing his child support obligations as his priority claim. The filing was challenged by the United States Trustee Program and was dismissed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on November 11, 2013.

Feud with Ja Rule

During the 1990s, DMX formed a close bond with fellow up-and-coming rappers Jay-Z and Ja Rule. The three collaborated many times and formed a group known as Murder Inc. The group was short-lived due to internal issues between DMX and Jay-Z. After the breakup of the group DMX disparaged Ja Rule, accusing him of being a copycat and drawing comparisons between himself and what he saw as Ja Rule stealing his signature "gruff" style of delivery. DMX would then release his second album Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood which contained the diss track "We Don't Give a Fuck" that was directed towards Ja Rule and produced by Irv Gotti. Ja Rule would then respond in the song "We Different" from the compilation album Irv Gotti Presents: The Murderers. DMX would also go on to throw shots at Ja Rule in his song "Do You" from Funkmaster Flex's mixtape The Mix Tape, Vol. IV.

In 2002, DMX released his diss track "They Want War" on DJ Kay Slay's mixtape Streetsweepers Presents The Regulator Pt. 5 The Final Chapter. Ja Rule never responded directly but he went on to diss DMX in his songs "Fuck With Us" and "Connected" from his album The Last Temptation. The next year DMX would take shots at Ja Rule in the song "Go To Sleep" with Eminem and Obie Trice from the Cradle 2 The Grave soundtrack. DMX would also release another diss track titled "Ruled Out" and he would also diss Ja Rule again in his song "Where the Hood At?". Ja Rule then dissed DMX in Caddillac Tah's song "Duck" and his own songs "Clap Back" and "Blood In My Eye" from his album of the same name. However, as time passed and the feud faded into obscurity, DMX said that he wanted to officially bring it to an end when he was released from prison in 2005: "Gotti came to me in jail and said I want to make peace with you and him. I was like, 'Alright Gotti, let's do it." Despite this, DMX and Ja Rule did not officially end their feud until 2009, at VH1's Hip Hop Honors.

Feud with Jay-Z

When DMX partnered with Jay-Z and Ja Rule in Murder Inc., there was a feud between the two, which also contributed to the failure of the group and working together. According to reports, the feud started in the early 1990s after a rap battle between the two, which led to DMX's disdain for Jay-Z. Prior to DMX's death, the feud, although it fizzled out over the years, it somewhat continued when DMX said in an Instagram video that he wanted to rap battle Jay-Z on Verzuz.

Legal issues

DMX was in jail more than 30 times throughout his lifetime for various offenses, including criminal possession of a weapon, robbery, assault, carjacking, animal cruelty, reckless driving, driving under the influence, unlicensed driving, drug possession, probation violation, failure to pay child support, pretending to be a federal agent, and tax evasion.

1986–1988

DMX was first sent to prison in 1986 after stealing a dog from a junkyard. He served a few months in the juvenile unit of Woodfield Prison in Valhalla, New York. Later that year, he was sentenced to two years for another crime and sent to Industry Institution in upstate New York. However, in December 1986, just a few days after starting his sentence, he and his cellmate successfully escaped the prison and DMX returned home until his mother forced him to turn himself in and finish his sentence, which he did at the MacCormick Secure Center, in Brooktondale, New York. Simmons was sent to prison again in 1988 for carjacking, and was later moved to a higher security prison after attempting to extort a fellow inmate for drugs. He was released in the summer of 1988.

1998–1999

• When officers of the Fort Lee Police Department executed a search of his home in 1999, DMX promptly surrendered himself on weapons possession charges.
• DMX faced a 1999 animal cruelty charge in Teaneck, New Jersey, after a dozen pit bulls were found at his home there; the charge was dismissed after the performer agreed to accept responsibility and record public service announcements for an animal rights group.

2000–2005: Metro NY

• In 2000, DMX served a 15-day jail sentence for possession of marijuana.
• DMX served another jail sentence in 2001 for driving without a license and possession of marijuana. His appeal to reduce the sentence was denied; rather, he was charged with assault for throwing objects at prison guards.
• In January 2002, DMX pleaded guilty in New Jersey to 13 counts of animal cruelty, two counts of maintaining a nuisance, and one count each of disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia. He eventually plea-bargained down to fines, probation, and community service and starred in public service announcements against the dangers of guns and animal abuse.
• In June 2004, DMX was arrested at the John F. Kennedy International Airport, on charges of cocaine possession, criminal impersonation, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal mischief, menacing, and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, while claiming to be a federal agent and attempting to carjack a vehicle. He was given a conditional discharge on December 8, 2004, but pleaded guilty on October 25, 2005, to violating parole.
• On November 18, 2005, DMX was sentenced to 70 days in jail at Rikers Island for violating parole; the lateness charge added a 10-day extension to the original 60-day sentence. DMX was released early (for "good behavior") on December 30, 2005.

2007

• In 2007, DMX's home in Arizona was raided on reports of animal cruelty to his 12 pitbulls on the property. Simmons maintained that any neglect was the result of a caretaker who was not taking proper supervision of the dogs.

2008–2011: Arizona and California

• On May 9, 2008, DMX was arrested on drug and animal cruelty charges after attempting to barricade himself inside his home in Cave Creek, Arizona.
• DMX pleaded guilty to charges of drug possession, theft, and animal cruelty stemming from an August 2007 drug raid as well as the May 2008 arrest, at a hearing on December 30, 2008; he was sentenced to 90 days in jail on January 31, 2009.
• On May 22, 2009, DMX entered a plea agreement/change of plea and pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated assault in jail.
• After serving four out of six months for violating drug probation, DMX was released from jail on July 6, 2010. That day, a television pilot was filmed to portray his road to recovery; however, DMX was arrested three weeks later and the pilot did not evolve into a series.
• On July 27, 2010, DMX turned himself in to Los Angeles Metropolitan Court for a reckless driving charge he received in 2002. He was sentenced to serve ninety days in jail.
• On November 19, 2010, DMX was arrested in Maricopa County, Arizona, on charges of violating probation for a February 24, 2009, aggravated assault on an officer while he was incarcerated. On December 20, 2010, DMX was moved to the Mental Health Unit of the Arizona Alhambra State Prison, and released on July 18, 2011.
• On August 24, 2011, DMX was arrested for the tenth time in Maricopa County, this time for speeding, recorded at 102 miles per hour (164 km/h) in a 65-mile-per-hour (105 km/h) zone, reckless driving, and driving with a suspended license. While DMX admitted to speeding, he claimed he was driving 85 miles per hour (137 km/h).

2013: South Carolina

• On February 13, 2013, DMX was arrested in Spartanburg, South Carolina, for driving without a driver's license.
• On July 26, 2013, DMX was arrested again in Greenville County, South Carolina, and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol as well as driving without a license.
• On August 20, 2013, DMX was arrested again in Greer, South Carolina, during a traffic stop after a car he was a passenger in made an improper u-turn. He was arrested due to an outstanding warrant for driving under suspension. Four packages of marijuana were also found in the vehicle, and he along with the driver were cited for them.
• On November 4, 2013, DMX was again arrested by the Greenville–Spartanburg International Airport police near Greer, South Carolina, after police, who were familiar with his prior arrests, noticed DMX behind the wheel of a vehicle at the terminal. DMX was booked on charges of driving with a suspended license, having an uninsured vehicle, and driving an unlicensed vehicle. He was subsequently released after spending three hours in jail.

2015: New York

• On April 5, 2015, a man accused DMX of robbing him.
• On June 26, 2015, DMX was arrested in New York and charged in Newark, New Jersey, with robbery and failure to pay child support.
• On July 14, 2015, DMX was sentenced to six months in jail for failure to pay $400,000 in child support.
• On December 14, 2015, an arrest warrant was issued for DMX after he missed a court hearing to address child support issues with his ex-wife Tashera Simmons and their four children.

2017–2019: Tax fraud conviction

In July 2017, DMX was charged with 14 federal counts of tax fraud. Federal prosecutors charged him with failing to file income tax returns from 2010 to 2015 (a period when he earned at least $2.3 million). DMX pleaded guilty to a single count of tax fraud in November 2017. DMX was originally free pending sentencing but was remanded to jail in January 2018 after leaving a drug treatment program ordered by the court and relapsing with cocaine and oxycodone. In March 2018, Judge Jed S. Rakoff sentenced DMX to one year in prison followed by three years of supervised release. The court also ordered DMX to pay $2.29 million in restitution to the government. He was released from prison on January 25, 2019.

Health problems and death

Simmons claimed he became addicted to crack cocaine when he was 14 years old, after Ready Ron tricked him into smoking a marijuana cigarette laced with the drug. Ready Ron denied this claim in a social media post after Simmons's death.

Simmons entered drug rehabilitation several times including in 2002, 2017, and 2019, when he canceled concerts.

On February 10, 2016, Simmons was found unresponsive in a parking lot at a Ramada Inn in Yonkers, New York. He was resuscitated by first responders and intravenously given Narcan, an opioid-reversal drug; he responded quickly and became semi-conscious. Simmons was subsequently rushed to the hospital. A witness said he ingested a powdered substance before collapsing, but police found no illegal substances on the property. Simmons stated that it was from an asthma attack.

On April 2, 2021, at approximately 11:00pm, Simmons was rushed to White Plains Hospital, where he was reported to be in critical condition following a heart attack at his home possibly resulting from a drug overdose. Simmons suffered cerebral hypoxia as paramedics attempted to resuscitate him for 30 minutes. The next day, his attorney Murray Richman confirmed Simmons was on life support. Simmons's former manager, Nakia Walker, said he was in a "vegetative state" with "lung and brain failure and no current brain activity". His manager, SRC and Loud Records founder Steve Rifkind, stated Simmons was comatose and that he was set to undergo tests to determine his brain's functionality and his family will "determine what's best from there".

On the morning of April 9, 2021, Simmons lost functionality in multiple essential organs, reportedly his liver, kidneys, and lungs, and was pronounced dead shortly after, at age 50. It was revealed on July 8 by the Westchester County Medical Examiner's Office that Simmons's official cause of death was a heart attack.

Legacy

Various celebrities paid tribute through outlets like social media including former NFL player Torrey Smith, LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal, Eminem, Gabrielle Union (who co-starred with DMX in the 2003 film Cradle 2 the Grave, along with Jet Li (who also paid tribute)), Backstreet Boys member AJ McLean, Wyclef Jean, Swizz Beatz (who DMX collaborated with including on the hit single, "Ruff Ryders' Anthem"), Eve and Missy Elliott. Other tributors included Kelly Rowland, Chris Brown, Lil Durk, Big Sean, Polo G, Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, T.I., Jim Jones, Busta Rhymes, Viola Davis, Mary J. Blige, Al Sharpton, Angie Martinez, Ciara, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and various others.

A "Celebration of Life" took place on April 24, 2021, led by Kanye West's Sunday Service Choir. They performed several songs in honor of DMX. The memorial took place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn with a limited capacity of 1,900. It was livestreamed on DMX's YouTube and Instagram accounts. On the way to Barclays, DMX's casket was carried by a black monster truck with "Long live DMX" painted on the side. A procession of hundreds of motorcyclists, in homage to the hip-hop collective Ruff Ryders, rode from DMX's birthplace of Yonkers, New York to Barclays Center. In between performances, people gave speeches including Eve, Nas, Swizz Beatz and Ruff Ryders founders Joaquin "Waah" Dean & Darin "Dee" Dean.

DMX's funeral ("DMX's Homegoing Celebration") took place in Brooklyn at the Christian Cultural Center on April 25, 2021. It was livestreamed on the BET Network and its YouTube channel. It lasted around five hours to a limited capacity of 2,000 people. DMX's casket was in the color red and featured the word "FAITH" in large printing. It was featured in the front of the room. People who were in attendance included Nas, Lil Kim, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz as well as the pastor of the church, Reverend A.R. Bernard. Louis Farrakhan, a leader of the Nation of Islam, joined the service via Zoom. With the exception of Alicia Keys, Nas and Lil Kim, they all gave speeches. DMX's former wife, Tashera Simmons and Ruff Ryders founders Waah & Dee also gave a speech. There was some controversial testimonies like former Def Jam chief Lyor Cohen, when his video featured an overhead view of a beach and explained how Earl Simmons was a wonderful man while DMX was a gremlin. Additionally, Def Jam cofounder Russell Simmons compared his own issues with drug abuse to DMX via video. The homegoing ended with DMX's obituary read on stage and a virtual performance from Faith Evans.

At the funeral, New York City community leader and peacemaker Erica Ford presented DMX's family several citations and proclamations from the New York governor's and Senate's office, including a proclamation from the New York state Senate declaring December 18—DMX's birthday—"Earl 'DMX' Simmons Day." Additional citations came from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Mike Spano of Yonkers (the hometown of DMX). Cuomo had the flag flying over the state capitol on the day of DMX's death presented to his family.

On June 28, 2021, his music was represented by former Def Jam labelmate Method Man, close friend Swizz Beatz, Busta Rhymes and actor Michael K. Williams (who himself would pass away five months later) at the BET Awards 2021.

Impact

DMX had a significant impact on hip hop music and is considered a "legend" in the genre. He's credited for having "defined 2000s rap" and for being "among the most prolific rappers of his era". He broke and set numerous records. His early work was vastly different from most mainstream hip hop music at the time; while Puff Daddy and other artists of the Bad Boy Records label were at the height of popularity, characterized by their "big-budget videos, lavish party-throwing, and dancefloor-ready music", DMX achieved success with a more dark, aggressive, "rugged", less "marketable" style.

According to an Apple Music radio host: "It was a complete 180...Puff was controlling the clubs; you were watching Bad Boy Records pop bottles, wear Rolexes, Jesus pieces, Coogi sweaters. Then here comes this crazy energetic figure from Yonkers with the Timbs and the bandanas, running around with pitbulls, giving a perspective on the streets that a lot of people weren't familiar with and taking command of what hip-hop didn't look like." DMX's commercially successful violent lyricism helped popularize the horrorcore genre.

Discography

Studio albums

• It's Dark and Hell Is Hot (1998)
• Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (1998)
• ... And Then There Was X (1999)
• The Great Depression (2001)
• Grand Champ (2003)
• Year of the Dog... Again (2006)
• Undisputed (2012)
• Exodus (2021)

Awards and nominations

Grammy Award

American Music Award

MTV Video Music Award

Billboard Music Award

Filmography

Films

Video games

Television

See also

• Ruff Ryders
• Murder Inc.

Notes

References

External links

• DMX discography at Discogs
• DMX at IMDb

Oakley Neil Caesar-Su (born 4 June 1998), known professionally as Central Cee, is a British rapper from Shepherd's Bush, London. Regarded as a leading figure in UK rap, he rose to prominence in 2020 with the release of his drill singles "Day in the Life" and "Loading". His first mixtape, Wild West (2021), debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, while his second, 23 (2022), debuted atop the chart.

Central Cee achieved further success with his 2022 single "Doja", which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and became the then-most-streamed UK rap song on Spotify. In June 2023, he released the single "Sprinter" (with Dave), which became his first UK number-one single and preceded their collaborative EP, Split Decision (2023). The song also became the longest-running number-one rap song in the UK, holding the position for 10 weeks. In April 2024, it became the most streamed UK rap song ever, surpassing "Doja". That May, Central Cee released the single "Band4Band" with Lil Baby, which became the highest charting UK rap single in Billboard Hot 100 history, reaching number 18, as well as reaching number 3 in his home country.

His debut studio album, Can't Rush Greatness, was released in 2025 through Columbia Records and became his second number-one on the UK Albums Chart. It also debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200, becoming the first top-ten UK rap album in America.

Early life

Oakley Neil Caesar-Su was born on 4 June 1998 in Ladbroke Grove, London to an English mother and a father of Guyanese and Chinese ancestry. His mother Rachel Caesar met his father at age 15 and began dating him against her parents' wishes, subsequently getting cut off financially. When he was seven, his parents separated and he began living with his mother and two younger brothers in Shepherd's Bush. He has an additional half-brother. One of his brothers is Juke Caesar, who appeared on the 23 mixtape under the name "Lil Bro". As a child, Central Cee would write poetry and raps, which he would then show to his mother, a social worker.

When Central Cee visited his father, he would be shown American hip-hop. He would also be exposed to reggae and dancehall when he attended Notting Hill Carnival. Central Cee has stated that he kept to himself in school, but would occasionally misbehave and lose his temper. He went to the same school as rapper Digga D, being 2 years his senior. Central Cee left school at age 16.

Central Cee became enamoured with pursuing music as a career after a friend took him to a music studio near Wandsworth Bridge at age 14. During his teenage years, he worked at a shoe store for three weeks before finding out his wage and quitting. He eventually turned to selling drugs to earn money, stating, "When you're coming from where I'm coming from, everybody from all walks of life, nine times out of 10, they had to do that. It's like learning to ride a bike."

Career

2014–2019: Career beginnings

Initially inspired by Chip, Bow Wow, and Fugative, who gained fame as teenagers, Central Cee made an early public appearance on a now-deleted episode of Charlie Sloth's Fire in the Streets series in 2014, where he adopted the rapper name "Central Cee" (first listed as Central C). His first song appearance was on the "Ain't On Nuttin Remix" alongside J Hus and more in January 2015. He released his "StreetHeat Freestyle" in February of the same year. In 2015, Central Cee appeared on music platform BL@CKBOX and performed verses to Tupac instrumentals alongside MoWest. At the age of 17, he threw his first headline show at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, renting the venue for £500 and making £2,500 in profit. Six months later, he performed at the venue once again, describing it as "just the same as the first time", leading to a lack of motivation in his career. In February 2016, he was featured alongside Dave and others on the remix to the song "Spirit Bomb" by AJ Tracey. He later released the single "Pull Up" in August 2016. Central Cee released his first projects, the EP 17, and the now-deleted EPs Nostalgia and CS Vol. 1 in 2017. His "Next Up?" freestyle was released in October 2019, following a number of singles that released that year.

2020–2023: Wild West, 23, and Split Decision

Central Cee met his future manager YBeeez in 2019, who encouraged him to pursue music further. After switching from auto-tuned hip-hop to a style similar to UK drill, he released his breakout single "Day in the Life" on 14 June 2020. He followed it up with "Molly" in July, and achieved further success with the single "Loading", released on 22 October 2020. The music videos for the three tracks were released by GRM Daily. "Loading" and February 2021's "Commitment Issues" both reached the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart. Central Cee self-released his debut mixtape Wild West in March 2021, which debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart and number one on the UK R&B Albums Chart.

In September 2021, the single "Obsessed with You" reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, and would become the lead single to his second mixtape, 23, announced in November 2021. Central Cee's Daily Duppy was released on Christmas of 2021. The second and third singles from the mixtape, "Retail Therapy" and "Cold Shoulder", were released on 6 and 27 January 2022. On 25 February 2022, 23 was released and became his first number one on the UK Albums Chart.

Following previews at concerts and on social media, his single "Doja" released on 21 July 2022 alongside a music video directed by Cole Bennett. It became his highest charting song of his career, debuting at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also reached number 12 on the US Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. On 14 October 2022, Central Cee surprise released his EP No More Leaks, which was supported by the single "One Up" which released the day before. On 16 December 2022, he released the single "Let Go", which samples the Passenger single "Let Her Go" and peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart. In 2022, Central Cee became the first UK rapper to achieve 1 billion Spotify streams in a single year. On 9 February 2023, he released the single "Me & You".

On 1 June 2023, Central Cee and Dave released the joint single "Sprinter". It was the lead single to their collaborative EP Split Decision, which was surprise-released on 4 June. "Sprinter" became his first number-one single, and broke the record for the biggest streaming week for a rap song in UK history. The single also broke the record for the longest running number-one rap single in the UK. In late June, Central Cee appeared on XXL magazine's 2023 Freshman Class. Days later, it was announced that he had signed to Columbia Records. On 21 July, Central Cee released his "On the Radar Freestyle" with Drake. The track debuted at number 80 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his first song to reach the chart. On 20 October, he was featured on the song "Too Much" alongside Australian rapper The Kid Laroi and Korean pop star Jungkook. On 21 December 2023, Central Cee released the single "Entrapreneur".

2024–present: Can't Rush Greatness

On 11 February 2024, Central Cee released the single "I Will". On 5 April 2024, he appeared on J. Cole's surprise mixtape Might Delete Later on the track "H.Y.B" alongside Bas. In May 2024, he released a grime song on YouTube titled "CC Freestyle". On 23 May, he released the track "Band4Band" alongside Lil Baby. The track debuted at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart and number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his highest entry on the latter. Two weeks later, the track reached number 18 on the Hot 100. On 20 June 2024, he appeared on the joint track "Wave" with Nigerian singer Asake.

On 11 July 2024, Central Cee featured on Ice Spice's single "Did It First". The track's rollout sparked controversy and unsound dating rumors between the two. he followed this up with the single "Gen Z Luv" on 26 July. In the song's music video, his forthcoming album Can’t Rush Greatness was announced. On 22 August 2024, Central Cee released two singles, "Bolide Noir" with French rapper JRK 19 and "Billion Streams Freestyle". On 29 October 2024, he released the single "One By One" alongside a ColorsxStudios performance of the song.

On 16 January 2025, Central Cee released the single "GBP" with 21 Savage, with a music video directed by Cole Bennett. A week later, on 24 January, Can't Rush Greatness was released to positive reviews, and became his second number one on the UK Albums Chart, with over 42,000 units sold. It also reached number nine on the Billboard 200, becoming the first UK rap album to reach the top ten. On 28 January, he announced his second headlining tour, the Can't Rush Greatness World Tour.

His EP All Roads Lead Home is scheduled to release on March 19, 2026.

Fashion

Central Cee is known for his style of fashion which usually features tracksuits, puffer jackets, and skull caps, items commonly associated with British streetwear culture.

In 2023, Central Cee launched the streetwear brand Syna World. The brand's guerrilla marketing techniques have been compared to fellow UK brands such as Corteiz and Trapstar. He collaborated with the football club Paris Saint-Germain to make a custom kit in September 2024. In October 2024, Central Cee and Syna World collaborated with Nike to release a Tech Fleece tracksuit and Air Max 95's. It was put on sale on JD Sports and the Nike website.

Central Cee made his modeling debut for Drake's Nike X Nocta collection on 6 April 2021. He fronted Jaquemus' "Neve World" campaign in November 2022.

Artistry

Musical style

Beginning his career performing British hip-hop, Central Cee switched to the trapwave genre in 2016, a style of British hip-hop which utilizes auto-tuned singing. In 2020, he moved to a style similar to UK drill with the release of the single "Day in the Life", and has mostly stuck to that style since then, stating that the auto-tune style was oversaturated. His current style of music has been described as a melodic and upbeat approach to UK drill.

Influences

Central Cee studied rappers such as Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Jay-Z as a young adult and named YoungBoy Never Broke Again as one of his influences, comparing his approach to the rapper.

There's a lot of people that will testify that he's shit because there's no science to his thing, musically. What I think sells is his personality and his vulnerability in the music. Actually, that probably influenced me a lot.

He has also stated that fellow British rapper Skepta is the "main reason" he started making music.

Personal life

Central Cee dated Madeline Argy, a TikTok creator and host of the Pretty Lonesome podcast, for over two years. Their relationship ended in July 2024.

On February 6, 2026, during a livestream with PlaqueBoyMax, Central Cee announced that he converted to Islam and changed his name to Akhil.

Discography

Albums

• Can't Rush Greatness (2025)

Mixtapes

• Wild West (2021)
• 23 (2022)

Tours

Headlining

• Still Loading World Tour (2022)
• Can't Rush Greatness World Tour (2025)

Awards and nominations

Listicles

External links

• Official website
• Central Cee discography at Discogs
• Central Cee at AllMusic
• Central Cee on MusicBrainz

References

Keenon Dequan Ray Jackson (born March 9, 1990), better known by his stage name YG (short for Young Gangsta), is an American rapper. He released his debut mixtape 4Fingaz in 2008, and its follow-up, The Real 4Fingaz, the following year. The latter gained recognition for its local hit song "Toot It and Boot It", which entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 67 and received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). He signed a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings in October 2009, which entered joint-venture with Atlanta-based rapper Jeezy's record label, CTE World, in 2013.

His 2013 single, "My Nigga" (featuring Jeezy and Rich Homie Quan), peaked at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song and its follow-ups, "Left, Right" (featuring DJ Mustard) and "Who Do You Love?" (featuring Drake), preceded the release of his debut studio album, My Krazy Life (2014), which peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and saw positive critical reception. Also in 2014, he guest appeared on Jeremih's single "Don't Tell 'Em", which peaked at number six on the Hot 100 and remains his highest-charting song. His second album, Still Brazy (2016), was met with critical acclaim despite less commercial orientation, as it explored political and social issues for its subject matter.

His next three studio albums — Stay Dangerous (2018), 4Real 4Real (2019), and My Life 4Hunnid (2020) — each debuted within the Billboard 200's top ten; the former spawned the single "Big Bank" (featuring 2 Chainz, Big Sean and Nicki Minaj), which peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains his highest-charting song as a lead artist. His sixth album, I Got Issues (2022) moderately entered the chart and served as his final release on Def Jam; Just Re'd Up 3 (2025), narrowly entered the Billboard 200. His collaborative albums, Kommunity Service (2021) with Mozzy and Hit Me When U Leave the Klub: The Playlist (2023) with Tyga, were both released independently and met with critical praise.

Early life

Keenon Dequan Ray Jackson was born on March 9, 1990, in Compton, California. He grew up on the 400 block of West Spruce Street in Compton, California. The 400 block name would inspire his "4hunnid" tag, along with the names of his record label and streetwear brands. His stage name "YG" stands for "Young Gangsta." YG joined the Pirus in 2006 at age 16. His father served time in jail for tax fraud.

Career

2008–2012: Beginnings

YG created the "Pu$haz Ink" record label and group with DJ Mustard in 2008. After releasing several songs that garnered him a large following on the internet, such as "She A Model" and "Aim Me" YG signed to Def Jam in 2009. According to Max Gousse, the senior VP of A&R at Island/Def Jam who inked the rapper, the signing stemmed from a newfound emphasis on West Coast artists by label president/CEO L.A. Reid, as well as, YG's technical ability and stage presence. However, just as he was getting his buzz up in mid-2009, he was arrested on a parole violation, stemming from a previous charge of residential burglary. Following this, he worked on mixtapes, touring, and a clothing line based on his brand, 4Hunnid. Def Jam re-released "Toot It and Boot It," which features singer Ty Dolla Sign in June 2010, and became the rapper's first hit song. He was also included as part of XXL's 2011 Freshmen Class. Beginning with YG's mixtape The Real 4 Fingaz, Mustard began further producing on YG's projects. Their work resulted in songs such as "I'm Good", "Bitches Ain't Shit" featuring Tyga and Nipsey Hussle, and "You Broke", also featuring Nipsey Hussle. The singles were met with moderate success, but not near as much as his debut single.

2012–2014: Signing with CTE World and My Krazy Life

In 2012, he announced his debut album, then titled “I'm 4rm Bompton”. Later in June 2013, he revealed that Jeezy's record label CTE World would release the album. He was then featured on Yo Gotti's "Act Right" also featuring Jeezy. It would peak at number 100 on the Billboard Hot 100. He was then prominently featured on the CTE World mixtape, Boss Yo Life Up Gang in August 2013.

On September 4, 2013, YG revealed that his debut album would be released on November 19, 2013, via Def Jam Recordings and that he has changed the album title to My Krazy Life. He also revealed that Drake would be featured on a song titled "Who Do You Love?", produced by DJ Mustard. Shortly thereafter he released the album's lead single "My Nigga" featuring Rich Homie Quan and Jeezy, also produced by DJ Mustard. The song has since peaked at number 19 on the US Billboard Hot 100. On December 10, 2013, YG released the DJ Mustard-produced "Left, Right" as the album's second single. The following day, Def Jam announced that My Krazy Life would be released on March 18, 2014 and that "Who Do You Love?" featuring Drake would be the album's next single. On February 18, 2014, YG revealed the cover artwork for his debut album My Krazy Life. The artwork features YG posing for a mugshot, with his name and album title detailed in the placard around his neck. It was released on March 18, 2014.

2015–2019: Still Brazy, Stay Dangerous and 4Real 4Real

On June 24, 2015, in an interview with Billboard, YG revealed that his second studio album would be called Still Krazy and it would be released in 2015 On July 15, 2015, YG teased the first single for the album, "Twist My Fingaz" on Instagram. The same day, YG released the single, "Cash Money" featuring Krayzie Bone. The full version of "Twist My Fingaz" was released July 17, 2015. On December 12, 2015, he released the second single, titled "I Want a Benz" featuring rappers Nipsey Hussle and 50 Cent.

Still Brazy was released on June 17, 2016. The third single "Why You Always Hatin?" premiered on OVO Sound Radio on May 21, 2016, featuring rappers Drake and Kamaiyah. On November 25, 2016, he digitally released the Black Friday inspired Red Friday, containing 8 new tracks.

YG announced through social media Just Re'd Up 3: Know Your Worth on December 17, 2016, and again on March 16, 2017. The project was to be executively produced DJ Mustard. It has yet to release, with no comment from YG or DJ Mustard.

On February 3, 2017, the song "I Don't", by American singer Mariah Carey was released, featuring YG. Carey and YG performed "I Don't" live on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on February 15, 2017. On March 24, 2017, a remix featuring Remy Ma and YG was released.

On February 19, 2018, YG announced his third studio album would be Stay Dangerous on his Instagram page and would be released this summer. It was released in 2018.

On April 3, 2019, YG announced a "surprise album" titled 4Real 4Real via Twitter originally due for release on April 12, being delayed to May 24 due to the death of his close friend Nipsey Hussle. It was released to positive reviews. The album includes the single "Go Loko" and the diss track aimed at 6ix9ine, "Stop Snitchin".

2020–present: My Life 4Hunnid, I Got Issues, Just Re'd Up 3

As of 2020, YG has released a number of songs, including the protest track, "FTP (Fuck the Police)", with the video shot at a Black Lives Matter protest in Hollywood, following the murder of George Floyd. He also joined Public Enemy, alongside Nas, Questlove, and Rapsody, among others, at the 2020 BET Awards for a performance of Public Enemy's classic track "Fight the Power". On July 10, YG released the single "War", with a video where he is dressed as footballer Colin Kaepernick.

On September 15, 2020, YG took to his social media to announce his new album My Life 4Hunnid, which was released on October 2, 2020. The album was entirely recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic and was "highly influenced" by 2Pac. The same week, he released the single "Money Mouf", with Saweetie and Tyga. On September 23, 2020, YG released the single, "Out on Bail", inspired by 2Pac's song of the same name.

YG's 2014 song "Meet the Flockers" has sparked accusations of racism against the Asian American community, especially Chinese Americans, since 2016. In the song, YG raps "First, you find a house and scope it out / Find a Chinese neighborhood, cause they don't believe in bank accounts." In the succeeding lyrics, YG describes a home invasion and burglary. Receiving little controversy when first released, over the years the song accumulated media attention, scrutiny, and protest. By 2021, community members, politicians such as San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim, and YouTube employees demanded that the song be removed from YouTube. YouTube stated that the song's lyrics did violate its hate speech policies, but refused to remove the song on artistic grounds. YG has described "Meet the Flockers" as being representative of the culture he grew up in, and alluded to past experiences committing crimes. By 2021, the song was reuploaded to streaming platforms with the controversial lyrics edited out.

On May 3, 2021, YG announced his first collaborative album, with Sacramento rapper Mozzy. It was announced under the working title Perfect Timing, but was later changed to Kommunity Service and released on May 21, 2021. The cover art serves as a tribute to late rapper DMX and the film Belly, in which he starred in. The album was supported by two singles: "Bompton to Oak Park" and "Perfect Timing" featuring Blxst.

Since his collaboration with Mozzy, YG has released two more projects: his sixth studio album, 2022's I Got Issues and 2024's Just Re'd Up 3. YG also performed at The Pop Out: Ken and Friends, a 2024 Kendrick Lamar concert occurring in the wake of the Lamar-Drake feud.

4Hunnid Records

When YG originally came up with the idea for a label (originally titled Pushaz Ink, stylized as Pu$haz Ink), he later attempted to co-found it with DJ Mustard and Ty Dolla $ign. Originally the "label" was used as a promotional tool and a brand for YG and DJ Mustard's group of rap collaborators they had grown up with. But as they moved forward in laying the groundwork for the label and its roster, plans for the label were scrapped when their meeting with Capitol failed and the three artists decided to go their separate ways.

There were rumors throughout 2016 that YG would be launching a new label under the name 4Hunnid. They originally begun when YG released a fashion line prominently featuring the 4Hunnid logo. This was confirmed to be true on August 17, 2016, when Billboard magazine reported that YG signed a distribution deal for the label under the 4Hunnid name with Interscope Records and Empire Distribution. The name is a reference to the 400 block of West Spruce Street in Compton, CA, where he grew up.

Personal life

YG has two daughters from a previous relationship named Harmony and Vibe, born May 2015 and May 2019, respectively. YG is a member of the Compton-based Westside Tree Top Piru gang. On January 25, 2012, shots were fired during the filming of YG's music video "I'm a Thug". The police shut down and closed the set.

On June 12, 2015, YG was shot in the hip at a recording studio in Studio City, California, resulting in three separate wounds in his hip. Authorities said that YG was "very uncooperative" when asked about the incident. His manager later revealed that his injuries were not life-threatening and said he was "fine" and recovering. He returned to the studio the next day.

A 2018 robbery case against YG was dismissed in 2022 after he settled with a man who alleged that the rapper stole a chain from him in a Las Vegas casino. The chain was worth between $3,000-$9,000.

In 2019, a Cadillac Escalade owned by YG was involved in a shooting and police chase from Compton to Inglewood, California.

On September 6, 2019, it was confirmed that he and singer Kehlani were dating. As of 2023, YG was dating rapper Saweetie.

In January 2020, YG was arrested at his Southern California home on robbery charges. He was set to perform a Nipsey Hussle tribute at the Grammys several days before the arrest. He was held on $250,000 bail at the Men's Central Jail for arraignment on January 28, 2020. Charges against YG were ultimately not filed.

YG is a notable fan of the Los Angeles Rams NFL team, and was known to have befriended then-running back Todd Gurley. He was frequently spotted wearing a Rams home jersey in several video shoots and at several Rams’ home games, including one instance during the 2017 season against the Houston Texans in which Rams’ receiver Robert Woods caught a touchdown and jumped onto the table in the back of the endzone to celebrate alongside YG.

In October 2024, YG was arrested for driving under the influence.

On March 28, 2025, YG released a single called "2004" featuring Buddy and The Gang, in which he opened up about having been raped and taken advantage of sexually by an older woman when he was a minor.

Discography

Studio albums

• My Krazy Life (2014)
• Still Brazy (2016)
• Stay Dangerous (2018)
• 4Real 4Real (2019)
• My Life 4Hunnid (2020)
• I Got Issues (2022)

Collaborative albums

• Kommunity Service (with Mozzy) (2021)
• Hit Me When U Leave the Klub: The Playlist (with Tyga) (2023)

Filmography

Tours

Headlining

• Fuck Donald Trump Tour (2016)
• Stay Dangerous Tour (2019)

Supporting

• Drake vs. Lil Wayne (with Drake & Lil Wayne) (2014)
• Forest Hills Drive Tour (with J.Cole) (2015)
• Endless Summer Tour (with G-Eazy & Logic) (2016)
• The Damn Tour (with Kendrick Lamar) (2017)
• Legendary Nights Tour (with Meek Mill & Future) (2019)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• YG at AllMusic
• YG at IMDb 

Jermaine Lamarr Cole (born January 28, 1985) is an American rapper and record producer. Born in a military base in Germany and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Cole initially gained attention as a rapper following the release of his debut mixtape, The Come Up, in early 2007. Intent on further pursuing a musical career, he signed with Jay-Z's Roc Nation in 2009 and released two additional mixtapes: The Warm Up (2009) and Friday Night Lights (2010) to further critical acclaim as he garnered a wider following.

Each of Cole's studio albums have peaked atop the US Billboard 200, beginning with his debut, Cole World: The Sideline Story (2011), and its follow-up, Born Sinner (2013). Both met with critical acclaim, the albums spawned the Billboard Hot 100-top 40 singles "Work Out", "Power Trip" (featuring Miguel), and "Crooked Smile" (featuring TLC). Despite commercial success, Cole departed from the pop-oriented sound of the albums in favor of conscious subject matter for his subsequent projects; themes of nostalgia, racial inequality, and materialism were explored respectively in his following releases: 2014 Forest Hills Drive (2014), 4 Your Eyez Only (2016) and KOD (2018). 4 Your Eyez Only yielded his furthest commercial success—selling an estimated 500,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, while the latter featured a then-record six simultaneous top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100—the first time a musical act achieved this feat since English rock band the Beatles in 1964. His sixth album, The Off-Season (2021), was met with continued success and spawned the single "My Life" (with 21 Savage and Morray), which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Its chart success was matched by his guest appearance on the 2023 single "All My Life" by Lil Durk, and succeeded by his first song to top the chart, "First Person Shooter" by Drake that same year. His seventh and final album, The Fall-Off was released in 2026.

Self-taught on piano, Cole also acts as a producer alongside his recording career—having largely handled the production of his own projects—with credits on material for other artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Janet Jackson, Young Thug, Wale, and Mac Miller, among others. Cole's side ventures include his record label Dreamville Records, as well as its namesake media company and non-profit. The label, having signed artists including JID, Ari Lennox, Bas, and EarthGang, has released four compilation albums; their third, Revenge of the Dreamers III (2019), debuted atop the Billboard 200 and was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. In January 2015, Cole began housing single mothers rent-free at his childhood home in Fayetteville.

Cole has won two Grammy Awards from seventeen nominations, a Billboard Music Award for Top Rap Album, three Soul Train Music Awards, and eight BET Hip Hop Awards. Each of his albums—including Revenge of the Dreamers III—have received platinum certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). He is a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets.

Early life

Jermaine Lamarr Cole was born on January 28, 1985, at an American military base in Frankfurt, West Germany. His father, James Cole, is an African American veteran, who served in the US Army, and his mother, Kay, born in Michigan, is a white American who was a postal worker for the United States Postal Service. Cole's father later abandoned the family during his youth. At the age of eight months his mother moved with him and his older brother Zach to the United States, to Fayetteville, North Carolina. Cole grew up in a multi-ethnic environment, and when asked about how closely his ethnicity impacts him, Cole commented, "I can identify with white people, because I know my mother, her side of the family, who I love. But at the end of the day, [I've] never felt white. I can identify [with white people] but never have I felt like I'm one of them. I identify more with what I look like, because that's how I got treated [but] not necessarily in a negative way." During his youth, Cole expressed an affinity for basketball and music, and served as a first-chair violinist for the Terry Sanford Orchestra until 2003.

Cole began rapping at the age of twelve, and saw it as an ideal profession in 2000, when his mother purchased an ASR-X musical sampler as a Christmas gift. During this period, Cole heightened emphasis on improving his production skills, later beginning initial production under the pseudonym Therapist. Cole later collaborated with local group Bomm Sheltuh, rapping and producing as a member of the group. Cole can be seen in the crowd of the 2006 documentary Dave Chappelle's Block Party.

Upon graduating high school with a 4.2 GPA, Cole decided that his chances of securing a recording contract would be better in New York City. He moved there and accepted a scholarship to St. John's University. Initially majoring in computer science, Cole later switched to communications after witnessing the life of a lonely computer science professor. At the college, Cole was the president of Haraya, a pan-African student coalition. He graduated magna cum laude in 2007, with a 3.8 GPA. Despite graduating, Cole would officially receive his degree during a homecoming concert in 2015, revealing that he had owed money for a library book, causing the university to hold back from granting him his degree.

Cole later worked in various part-time jobs in Fayetteville, including a working ad salesman for a newspaper, a bill collector, a file clerk, and a kangaroo mascot at a skate rink.

His mother struggled with addiction after his stepfather left.

Musical career

1999–2008: Beginnings and early work

After becoming musically inspired by Canibus, Nas, Tupac, and Eminem, Cole and his cousin worked on developing their basic understanding of rhyming and wordplay. As well as this, they began to learn how to interpolate storytelling within their lyrics. By 14, Cole had various notebooks filled with song ideas, however, was unable to produce beats further than sampling. Cole's mother later purchased him the Roland TR-808 drum machine in order to further Cole's understanding of production. Over the next three years, he began posting songs on various internet forums under the moniker Blaza, but later switched to the name Therapist.

Cole later expanded his production to create an entire CD's worth of instrumentals, and traveled to Roc the Mic Studio, hoping to play it for Jay Z while he was in recording sessions for American Gangster. Cole waited for over three hours, before being dismissed by Jay Z. Cole later used the CD as the backdrop for his debut mixtape, The Come Up.

2009–2010: Mixtapes and Roc Nation signing

J. Cole released his second mixtape, The Warm Up, on June 15, 2009, to positive reviews. Cole appeared on Jay Z's album The Blueprint 3 (2009), on the track "A Star Is Born". He is featured on both Wale's debut album, Attention Deficit (2009) and mixtape Back to the Feature (2009), respectively. In January 2010, Cole, along with label mate Jay Electronica and Mos Def appeared on Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek's single, "Just Begun" for the follow-up of Reflection Eternal's album Train of Thought (2000), titled Revolutions Per Minute (2010). Cole also appeared on B.o.B's mixtape May 25 (2010), on the song "Gladiators", produced by The Alchemist.

In early 2010, Cole was chosen as one of Beyond Race magazine's "50 Great Breakthrough Artists". He ranked 49, resulting in the cover story of the publication's #11 issue, as well as a Q&A for the magazine's site. He was also featured in XXL Magazine's 2010 version of the Top Ten Freshmen, a yearly publication focusing on new rappers. Cole began a college tour from March 19 to April 30, concluding in New Brunswick, NJ at Rutgers University's annual Rutgersfest. The tour also featured a stop at Syracuse University for a show with fellow rapper, Wiz Khalifa. On March 31, he performed a new song titled "Who Dat", and released the song as a single on April 30. Cole was also featured on Young Chris' song "Still The Hottest" as well as Miguel's debut single "All I Want Is You". Additionally, Cole was featured on a track titled "We On", a song that failed to make the final track list for DJ Khaled's Victory LP.

To celebrate the anniversary of the release of The Warm Up mixtape, J. Cole released a freestyle entitled "The Last Stretch" on June 15. Six days later, J. Cole premiered the music video to his first single "Who Dat" on the BET program 106 & Park. In August, Cole was awarded the UMA Male Artist of the Year thanks to his heralded The Warm Up mixtape and a high-profile deal with Jay Z's label Roc Nation at the 2010 Underground Music Awards. In a July interview, J. Cole revealed three songs that would appear on his debut album: "Dreams", "Won't Be Long", and "Never Told", which was produced by No I.D. On October 30, a demo titled "I'm Coming Home" was leaked onto the Internet. Cole recorded the song as a reference track for Diddy, which later became "Coming Home" off Last Train to Paris (2010). On November 12 J. Cole released his third official mixtape titled Friday Night Lights. The tape included features from Drake, Wale, and Omen with most of the production being handled by Cole himself.

2011–2012: Cole World: The Sideline Story

Cole served as a supporting act for Drake on the Light Dreams and Nightmares UK Tour, from January 5 to 21, 2011. In April, "HiiiPoWeR", a song Cole produced for Kendrick Lamar's Section.80 (2011), was released, being the first of many collaborations to come from the two. On May 22, Cole released a song entitled "Return of Simba", the third in the "Simba" series of songs, following "Simba" and "Grown Simba". Cole purposely avoided releasing his debut album's title for fear of inconsistency, only announcing that Jay-Z would be featured on his debut album. Cole then released his follow-up single to "Who Dat", the album's lead single, "Work Out" on June 15, in honor of the second anniversary of his highly acclaimed mixtape The Warm Up. The song, produced by Cole himself, samples "The New Workout Plan" by Kanye West and interpolates "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul. The song later became a hit single, topping several music charts.

On July 31, Cole took to Twitter to announce Any Given Sunday, reminiscent of Kanye West's GOOD Fridays, a weekly free music giveaway. Cole wrote: "Every Sunday til the album drops I'll be back with something. Maybe just 1 song, maybe a video, depending on how I'm feeling." For the 3rd installment of the series, Cole took to Ustream to update fans about the album and play a select few tracks that didn't make the final track list. On August 15, the music video for "Work Out" premiered on YouTube, Vevo, and 106 & Park. On August 22, Cole released his debut album's cover art, designed by Alex Haldi for Bestest Asbestos, whom Cole recorded a song for, titled "Killers", for Haldi's mixtape The Glorification of Gangster. For the fourth installment on August 29, he released his debut album's track list, once again through Twitter.

On August 30, after an unfinished version had previously leaked, "Can't Get Enough" featuring R&B singer Trey Songz was released as the album's second single. While in Barbados for his last performance as the official opening act for Rihanna's Loud Tour, Cole shot the music video for "Can't Get Enough" with Songz and Rihanna, who provided a cameo appearance. The video, directed by Clifton Bell, was released on September 14. In addition, early on September 25, two days before his album's release, Cole released the music video for the iTunes bonus track "Daddy's Little Girl".

Cole World: The Sideline Story was released on September 27, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with 218,000 copies in its first-week of sales. As of December 2, 2011, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments and sales of 500,000 copies. On February 7, 2012, the third and final single from Cole's debut album was released. The song, titled "Nobody's Perfect", features renowned female rapper Missy Elliott, marking her return to music. As of December 2016, the album had sold 855,000 copies in the United States.

On October 24, 2011, during an interview with Hot 106's Rise & Grind morning show, Cole revealed he had begun working on his second studio album, with hopes of releasing it in June 2012. He also stated that the album would consist of songs that failed to make his debut, saying "I don't know how many, but I got songs that didn't make the last album that are automatically going to make this one," he said, revealing the release date: "June. End of June, maybe June." From November 6 to 8, Cole served as the supporting act for Tinie Tempah, appearing at Bournemouth International Centre; Liverpool Echo Arena, Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales; LG Arena, Birmingham, England; SECC Arena, Glasgow, Scotland; and MEN Arena, Manchester.

2012–2013: Born Sinner and Truly Yours series

Cole was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2012 Grammy Awards. Cole played for the Eastern Team in the 2012 NBA All-Star Weekend Celebrity Game. On February 24, 2012, Cole reached two million followers on Twitter, and celebrated by releasing the song "Grew Up Fast". On March 1, Cole returned to his home town, Fayetteville, North Carolina. To celebrate his return, he released the song "Visionz of Home", and launched an event titled "Dreamville Weekend" to inspire the youth of his hometown to achieve great things. Cole performed for the first time in Africa during the Big Brother Africa 7 opening ceremony on May 6, alongside Camp Mulla, P-Square, Naeto C, Flavour N'abania, Davido, and Aemo E'Face.

On May 14, Cole announced that he was working on a collaborative album with Kendrick Lamar, saying in an interview with Bootleg Kev that "I just started working with Kendrick the other day. We got it in, finally, again. We got maybe four or five [songs] together", also saying that the project would be more focused on and eventually released once Born Sinner had been released. On July 26, he returned to Twitter after a 100-day absence and went on to reveal and release his new song, "The Cure", in which he hinted at a new album. On October 20, he announced at a live show that his second album was complete and that he was waiting until after Lamar released Good Kid, M.A.A.D City to reveal it.

On November 5, Cole revealed the title of his second album, Born Sinner, as well as a scheduled release date of January 28, 2013, via Ustream. On November 13, Cole released a promotional single for the album, titled "Miss America". Cole stated that he hoped "Miss America" would shift music in a different direction, adding that he knew it wouldn't be a big radio hit. He elaborated further, saying: "To me, 'Miss America' shifts things a little bit, it changes the conversation, it takes it in a more aggressive direction, more raw, more social commentary... Any type of commentary is good compared to what a normal single is these days. That's my aim, is to shift culture slightly, change the conversation. Nobody expects that for your first single."

On December 31, Cole revealed that Born Sinner would not be released on January 28, 2013, as previously expected. Cole said that he "needed a little more time than that to get things done". In promotion of Born Sinner, Cole released an EP titled Truly Yours on February 12. The project consisted of five tracks Cole knew would not appear on Born Sinner. On February 14, he released the artwork for the first single via Instagram. "Power Trip" was released the same day, marking Cole's second collaboration with R&B recording artist Miguel.

Cole had announced a release date of June 25, for Born Sinner. However, when it was announced that Kanye West's Yeezus would be released just one week earlier on June 18, Cole moved the release date of Born Sinner up a week in order to compete with West. He later commented, "This is art, and I can't compete against the Kanye West celebrity and the status that he's earned just from being a genius... But I can put my name in the hat and tell you that I think my album is great and you be the judge and you decide." Cole released the second installment in the Truly Yours series on April 30, the EP featured guest appearances from Bas, Young Jeezy, and 2 Chainz. Born Sinner sold 297,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, finishing approximately 30,000 copies short of Kanye West's Yeezus. He released three more singles in support of the album, "Crooked Smile" featuring TLC, "Forbidden Fruit" featuring Kendrick Lamar, and "She Knows". As of December 2016, the album had sold 796,000 copies in the US.

2014–2016: 2014 Forest Hills Drive

On August 15, 2014, Cole released "Be Free" in response to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Three days later, he visited the city in order to meet with protesters and activists who were gathered at the site of his shooting, discussing the civil unrest that was taking place within the city. He performed the track with an additional verse at the Late Show with David Letterman on December 10. On November 16, Cole released a video announcing that his third studio album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive, would be released on December 9. The video featured footage regarding the album's composition, as well as revealed that the album's name was derived from the address of Cole's childhood home. He announced that the album would include no lead singles and have little promotion, but was supported by four promotional singles; "Apparently", "Wet Dreamz", "No Role Modelz", and "Love Yourz". The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 upon release, selling 353,000 copies in its first week.

Cole announced the Forest Hills Drive Tour on February 13, 2015. The tour served as the backdrop for his first live album, Forest Hills Drive: Live. The album recorded during the Fayetteville shows of the tour, and was released on Cole's 31st birthday. On March 31, Forest Hills Drive was certified platinum. As of December 2016, the album had sold 1.24 million copies in the US. 2014 Forest Hills Drive won Top Rap Album at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards and Album of the Year at the 2015 BET Hip Hop Awards. The album was nominated at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album. The single "Apparently'" was also nominated for Best Rap Performance.

On December 15, Cole announced a documentary series titled J. Cole: Road to Homecoming, ahead of his HBO special Forest Hills Drive: Homecoming. The series included five episodes as well as featuring guest appearances from Kendrick Lamar, Wale, Rihanna, Pusha T, Big Sean, Jay Z, and Drake. All episodes were released weekly and were available for free on Vimeo until January 9, 2016. The concert film Forest Hills Drive: Homecoming aired on January 9, which was filmed during the final show of his Forest Hills Drive Tour at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina. On January 28, Cole released Forest Hills Drive: Live as well as the music video for "Love Yourz", from concert film.

2016–2017: 4 Your Eyez Only

On July 29, 2016, DJ Khaled released his ninth studio album, Major Key. Cole is featured on the track "Jermaine's Interlude". "Said all I could say, now I play with thoughts of retirement" is a direct quote from the track that caused some of Cole's fans to worry about him and his music career. In an interview with Genius, Doctur Dot of the Atlanta duo EarthGang explained that the song was originally a nine-minute posse cut, he said, "We were just trying to get Bas to fuck with the song, but Cole was like, 'I can't resist this beat,' so he hit the weed for the first time in a long time." He overthinks on weed but we were in the garage smoking a blunt, the beat was running in the background. We stacked the hook up, we all had verses on it, it was a posse record and was like, nine verses long." On November 4, Cole performed at Jay Z and Beyoncé's Hillary Clinton Rally in Cleveland, Ohio, along with Big Sean and Chance the Rapper. On November 8 Spillage Village released the official version of "Jermaine's Interlude", called "Can't Call It". The song features Cole, EarthGang, Bas, and JID.

On December 1, the artwork and a track list for Cole's fourth album, titled 4 Your Eyez Only, were shown on iTunes available for pre-order, with a release date for December 9. On December 2, Cole released a 40-minute documentary titled Eyez, on Tidal. It features behind-the-scenes footage of Cole and collaborators working on the album, including two music videos for the tracks "Everybody Dies" and "False Prophets"; neither song was included on the album. On December 5, "False Prophets" and "Everybody Dies" were released as singles to iTunes store and other streaming services. 4 Your Eyez Only debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 492,000 album-equivalent units, of which 363,000 were pure album sales, becoming Cole's fourth number one album. The track "Deja Vu" entered the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 7 without being released as a single, becoming J. Cole's highest charting song. All 10 songs from 4 Your Eyez Only debuted in the top 40 of the Hot 100, after only having four top 40 hits as a solo artist. "False Prophets" and "Everybody Dies" both charted also. Cole achieved twelve simultaneous Hot 100 entries in a single week. "Deja Vu" was released as the album's first single on January 10, 2017. On January 12, 4 Your Eyez Only was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). On April 7, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

On January 16, Cole surprisingly released a track titled, "High for Hours" via his SoundCloud. The song was produced by Elite and Cam O'Bi. The song was released on the iTunes store as a single on January 18. Cole announced the 4 Your Eyez Only World Tour on February 21, with the tour included 62 dates across North America, Europe, and Australia. On March 24, HBO announced a documentary titled, J. Cole: 4 Your Eyez Only, the film aired April 15. The film was directed by Cole and Scott Lazer, and is available on YouTube.

2018-2019: KOD and Revenge of the Dreamers III

On April 16, 2018, J. Cole announced a surprise free event for fans at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City. The event turned out to be a listening session for his forthcoming album, titled KOD, which was released on April 20. Cole held a second listening session in London the next day. The album's cover and tracklist show twelve tracks and two features, both by Cole's alter ego, Kill Edward. Cole had mentioned that KOD has 3 meanings, Kids on Drugs, King Overdosed, and Kill Our Demons. The cover art for KOD was done by a Detroit artist named Kamau Haroon who goes by the name Sixmau. The album touches on many topics including drug abuse, addiction, depression, and greed.

In the US, on the day of its release, KOD broke the previous record for Views by Drake in 2016 by receiving 64.5 million streams on Apple Music. It accumulated 36.7 million streams on Spotify in its first 24 hours as well. Additionally, the titled track also surpassed Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" by 0.4 million streams on its first day. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, earning 397,000 album-equivalent units, including 174,000 in pure sales, making it Cole's fifth number one album. J. Cole also became the first act to simultaneously debut three songs in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, with "ATM" (at 6), "Kevin's Heart" (8), and "KOD" (10). The remainder of the album also debuted in the Hot 100, totaling to twelve songs on the chart. "KOD" was released as the album's first single, on May 8, 2018. Cole released music videos for the songs "ATM" and "Kevin's Heart", both of which were directed by Cole and Scott Lazer. "ATM" impacted US rhythmic contemporary radio on July 31, as the album's second single. Songs from the album were featured in the official 2018 NBA Playoffs and the NBA Finals promotion for ESPN. On April 27, it was announced that Cole was working on another project titled The Fall Off, Cole said that he planned to release The Fall Off before he recorded KOD. Cole also confirmed that he is working on a Kill Edward album. On May 14, KOD was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 500,000 album-equivalent units in the US. The album has since been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with one million album-equivalent units in the US.

Cole announced the KOD Tour on May 8, Young Thug, Jaden Smith, EarthGang, and Kill Edward served as the supporting acts. The tour will include 34 North American dates, starting in Miami, on August 9 and concluding in Boston, on October 10. Cole performed "Intro" and "Friends" at the 2018 BET Awards on June 24. Singer Daniel Caesar performed part of "Intro" and the chorus to "Friends", rapper Wale was also part of the set.

On August 7, Cole released a single titled, "Album of the Year (Freestyle)". The single was accompanied by a music video, which premiered on WorldStarHipHop. Cole also announced a new project titled, The Off Season, which he plans to release ahead of his next studio album, The Fall Off. In the description to the video, it reads: "The Off Season coming soon... All roads lead to The Fall Off - Cole". In an interview for Billboard in September, Cole said he plans to take off 2019 from touring to finish work on The Off Season, The Fall Off, and the Kill Edward project.

On January 6, 2019, Cole took to Twitter to announce Dreamville's compilation album Revenge of the Dreamers III by uploading a gold poster-like invitation. Recording sessions took place in Atlanta beginning January 6 through January 16. Throughout the 10-days of recording, invitations were shared by the entire Dreamville roster, among other artists and producers outside of Dreamville. A total of 343 artists and producers were invited to the sessions including, Big K.R.I.T., Mike Will Made It, DJ Khaled, Swizz Beatz, Tay Keith, T.I, Rick Ross, 9th Wonder and Wale, among others. On January 23, Cole released his first lead single since 2013 titled, "Middle Child". With only one day of tracking, "Middle Child" debuted at number 26 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The following week, the song peaked at number 4, making it Cole's highest charting song. Cole performed at the 2019 NBA All-Star Game for its halftime show on February 17, in Charlotte. He performed "Middle Child", "A Lot", "ATM", "Love Yourz" and "No Role Modelz". On May 23, Cole was featured alongside American rapper and singer Travis Scott on American rapper Young Thug's single "The London", which would become the lead single from Thug's debut studio album, So Much Fun. "The London" would later reach number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

On June 12, the first of two sets of dual singles from Revenge of the Dreamers III were released: "Down Bad" featuring Cole, JID, Bas, EarthGang, and Young Nudy and "Got Me" featuring Ari Lennox, Omen, Ty Dolla Sign, and Dreezy. On July 1, the second set of dual singles from the album were released: "LamboTruck" featuring Cozz, Reason, and Childish Major and "Costa Rica" featuring Bas, JID, Guapdad 4000, Reese Laflare, Jace, Mez, Smokepurpp, Buddy, and Ski Mask the Slump God. Dreamville announced the album's release date on the same day and was selling limited merchandise on July 1, related to the album. On July 2, Dreamville Presents: REVENGE was released on the label's official YouTube account, a film documenting the album's recording sessions in Atlanta.

Revenge of the Dreamers III debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 115,000 album-equivalent units, of which 24,000 were pure album sales, earning Cole his sixth consecutive number-one album in the country. The album was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, while "Middle Child" and "Down Bad" were nominated for Best Rap Performance. Cole's collaboration with 21 Savage "A Lot" received a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song, making this his first Grammy Award win.

2020–2025: The Off-Season and Might Delete Later

On June 16, 2020, J. Cole released his first song of the year, "Snow on tha Bluff", a politically-charged track released soon after the murder of George Floyd that led to disagreements with and criticism from Noname and other rappers. On July 23, Cole released a promotional EP titled Lewis Street featuring two new songs, "The Climb Back" and "Lion King on Ice". The former later appeared on The Off-Season. On December 29, Cole took to Instagram to post a photo where he documented a list titled, "The Fall Off Era". On the list crossed out, was features and Revenge of the Dreamers III. Also listed, but not crossed out was two projects, The Off-Season and It's a Boy, which he announced would be released ahead of The Fall-Off. The caption of the post read: "I still got some goals I gotta check off for' I scram..."

On May 4, 2021, J. Cole officially revealed the release date and album artwork of The Off-Season, his sixth studio album. The album's lead single, "Interlude", was released on May 7. The Off-Season was released on May 14. The album was co-executively produced by T-Minus and featured guest appearances from Morray, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Bas, and 6LACK. It received positive reviews from critics and topped the US Billboard 200, selling 282,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, earning Cole his sixth consecutive number-one album in the country. Four songs from The Off-Season debuted in the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100, with "My Life" (at 2), "Amari" (at 5), "Pride Is the Devil" (at 7), and "95 South" (at 8). "Interlude" debuted at number eight the previous week giving the album five top ten singles.

On September 21, J. Cole released a freestyle titled "Heaven's EP", remixing the beat of "Pipe Down" from Drake's Certified Lover Boy. On March 31, 2022, the song later appeared on the Dreamville compilation D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape, with Cole also appearing on the songs "Stick" and "Freedom of Speech". On October 6, 2023, Drake's album For All The Dogs was released; on it, J. Cole was featured on the eventual single "First Person Shooter", which would debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his first song to top the chart.

On April 5, 2024, Cole released the mixtape Might Delete Later after teasing the project through a series of vlogs posted on a YouTube channel with the same name. On the song "7 Minute Drill", J. Cole retaliated Kendrick Lamar in response to his song "Like That" with Future & Metro Boomin in which Lamar raps "motherfuck the big three, nigga, it's just big me", which in itself was a response to "First Person Shooter" in which Cole raps "Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K-Dot (Lamar) is it Aubrey (Drake) or me / We the big three like we started a league", amidst the Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud. Two days after the album's release, Cole apologized for the diss track at Dreamville Festival, and the track was subsequently removed from streaming platforms.

On November 17, Cole announced the limited podcast series Inevitable, hosted by Cole himself, alongside his longtime manager Ibrahim Hamad and frequent collaborator Scott Lazer. The first season of the podcast consisted of 10 episodes, with the debut episode premiering the following day, and subsequent episodes released every two days on the Inevitable website. The podcast's release was accompanied by the release of the Cole's mixtapes, The Come Up, The Warm Up, and Friday Night Lights on streaming platforms, along with some unreleased material being played in episodes of the podcast.

2026–present: The Fall-Off

On January 14, 2026, Cole surprise-released an announcement for the release date and unveiled the cover art of his long-awaited seventh and final studio album, The Fall-Off, scheduling it for release on February 6. He also released a song named "Disc 2 Track 2" via his socials, accompanied by a music video, hinting that the album is a double album. On January 28, Cole released an EP, Birthday Blizzard '26, on his website, to celebrate his birthday. The EP, hosted by DJ Clue, contained Cole freestyling on instrumentals of songs like "Victory", "Who Shot Ya?" among others. On February 6, Cole officially released The Fall-Off, featuring guest apperences from Burna Boy, Erykah Badu, Future, Morray, Petey Pablo, PJ, and Tems. During an AMA on his website, Cole revealed that he doesn't have any plans to make an album anytime soon, and would like to return to producing music. He also confirmed the release of the mixtape, It's A Boy, which was originally supposed to release before The Fall-Off, but the idea was scrapped.

Basketball career

Cole played basketball at Terry Sanford High School in North Carolina. With an academic scholarship, he tried out as a walk-on at St. John's University and was one of 10 call-back players during his sophomore year. In 2012, Cole played for the Eastern Team during the NBA All-Star Weekend Celebrity Game. In 2013, Cole told Sports Illustrated, "Sports is where it started for me. It parallels my life. Rap is such a competitive thing. That's why I have to watch sports. I got to keep up. It's my life in just another form."

On July 20, 2020, Cole released an article for The Players' Tribune, writing about his goals after graduating college to eventually playing professional basketball saying "if I can blow up in the next three years, that means I'll only be 27. That still might give me enough time to train and pursue a professional basketball career. I'll work hard enough to go play overseas and then try to work my way to the NBA." On July 31, 2020, Cole released his debut signature shoe in collaboration with Puma called the PUMA RS-Dreamer. In August 2020, it was also reported by Master P that Cole was training to tryout for the NBA.

In September 2022, J. Cole was named as the cover athlete for NBA 2K23 on the Dreamer Edition, and was featured in the game, as well as a character in the game's "MyCareer" mode. Cole said in a press release, "NBA 2K has long been a place to discover new musical talent through their game and continues to be a gold standard for showcasing all things basketball culture. It's been an amazing journey to not only appear on a cover of this year's game, but to be part of the MyCareer storyline, soundtrack and bring the Dreamer brand into NBA 2K."

Patriots Basketball Club (2021)

On May 10, 2021, Cole signed a contract with the Rwanda-based Patriots Basketball Club in the Basketball Africa League. Cole was also featured on the cover of the American basketball magazine SLAM, for their May 2021 issue. Cole made his professional debut on May 16 against the Rivers Hoopers, finishing with three points, three rebounds and two assists in 17 minutes. In three games with the team, he scored five points, had three assists and five rebounds in 45 minutes of gameplay. He was only under contract for a minimum of three games. He left the team after playing the three games.

Scarborough Shooting Stars (2022)

On May 19, 2022, Cole signed with the Scarborough Shooting Stars of the Canadian Elite Basketball League. On June 8, 2022, in a social media interview released by the Shooting Stars, it was announced that Cole would take an indefinite leave from the team to fulfill his concert tour commitments. In 4 games with the Shooting Stars, Cole averaged 2.4 points, 0.6 rebounds, and 0.4 assists, while shooting 50% from 3-point range.

Career statistics

BAL

Artistic influences

Cole has cited several hip-hop artists as influencing his rapping style, including Tupac, Jay-Z, Eminem, Nas, and Andre 3000. He described in an interview with Steve Lobel, "Jay [Z] was a mentor before I ever signed to him." "I studied his moves that much. ... I got to go on tour with him and steal a lot of gems. That's how you supposed to do it. You're supposed to learn and take pieces from the greatest. So, Jay was my mentor before I ever signed to him. And now that I signed to him it's just a blessing to be able to hit him for advice and get that real 20 years of experience or however long he been in the game. It's priceless." "My favorite rapper was Pac," he said. "He was my favorite rapper before I even started rapping. Before I even thought of—It went from Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown as a kid and artists like that. Even Kool Moe Dee. Just the cool dude that I looked up to. And then one day my stepfather came home from—I don't know if he was back from Desert Storm. ... I remember him coming home with that first Pac album. With 'Brenda's Got a Baby'. It was 2Pacalypse Now. And since then—When I was too young to know what he was talking about, but it connected. Cause that's the thing about art. It's just truth. It's straight–Whatever you feel. So, even as a seven-year-old kid, eight-year-old kid I could hear Pac's early albums and feel the truth." Cole drew comparisons to Nas following the release of Friday Night Lights, stating that Nas served as the primary inspiration behind the creation of the mixtape. Cole later addressed their musical similarities on "Let Nas Down", a song written and composed due to his disparaging comments towards "Work Out". As a response to this record, Nas came out with the song "Made Nas Proud" shortly after.

In 2014, in an interview with Angie Martinez, Cole listed Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, and Jay-Z as his top four rappers of all time, with André 3000 and Eminem being a toss-up for fifth.

Controversies

Puff Daddy

In August 2013, Cole and Puff Daddy were reportedly involved in an altercation at a 2013 MTV Video Music Awards after party in New York City. Reports said the incident started when Puff tried to confront rapper Kendrick Lamar over the "King of New York" claim in his "Control" verse. Puff allegedly attempted to pour a drink on Lamar, and Cole intervened. The two started arguing and Cole and Puff allegedly got into an altercation, which then led to problems between their respective crews. After a brief scuffle, both crews separated. Ibrahim Hamad, a close friend of Cole's and president of Dreamville Records took to Twitter to address the rumors saying: "The Internet is a crazy place you niggaz reporting shit with no facts, Cole ain't get thrown out no party and he damn sure aint get beat up", he continued saying, "Ain't gon go into details about last night but get the facts right first before you rush to report some shit for some extra blog clicks". A few months after the incident, Cole and Puff were seen in a video promoting Revolt, joking about the incident.

Reactions to "False Prophets"

Upon the release of Eyez documentary in 2016, the songs "Everybody Dies" and "False Prophets" caused controversy within the hip-hop community, as many assumed that "Everybody Dies" contained shots aimed at fellow rappers Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Yachty. During an interview with Los Angeles' radio station Power 106, Lil Yachty responded, saying: "I don't listen to J. Cole [but] I definitely listened to it [and] people said he was talking about me. He said 'Lil.' I'm not little. My name has 'Lil' in it but there's a lot of 'Lil' rappers. [It's] either me or Uzi. Honestly, I don't give a fuck." Lil Uzi Vert acknowledged the track, responding via Twitter on December 2, 2016, by simply tweeting, "Heard some beautiful shit today @JColeNC". People also argued that the first verse on "False Prophets" consisted of direct shots at rapper Kanye West, due to Cole's referencing to West's altering public perception by the media and fans; as well as Kanye's recent hospitalization. Many also presumed that the second verse was directed at rapper Wale, with Cole saying that despite Wale's fourth album receiving fairly positive critical and commercial success, Wale remains misunderstood and slighted by some of his peers. On December 3, Wale released a track, called "Groundhog Day" as a response to "False Prophets", and the pair were spotted together in Raleigh, North Carolina at a North Carolina State University basketball game later that day. West also seemingly responded to the song on an unheard demo version of rapper Pusha T's "What Would Meek Do?" from the latter's 2018 album Daytona, which was different from the released version. Cole spoke on "False Prophets" in an interview with The New York Times, he said:

Rappers rap about other rappers all the time—subliminal insult, direct attack—but rarely from a place of love. "That speaks to the state of us as a people," he said. "For so long my mind state was, I have to show how much better than the next man I am through these bars. Who's the best? Let me prove it. And it's just like, damn, I'm really feeding into a cycle of keeping black people down, I'm really feeding into that.

Lil Pump

In April 2018, rapper Lil Pump teased a song titled "Fuck J. Cole" produced by fellow rapper Smokepurpp. Media outlets and rappers speculated that the song "1985" from KOD was a response to the two, while Cole said in a Vulture interview that "It's really a 'shoe fits' situation—several people can wear that shoe." Lil Pump reacted to the song hours after the album's release via Instagram saying, "Wow, you get so much props. You dissed a 17 year old, lame ass jit." Later that day during a concert in Atlanta, Smokepurpp, along with his fans erupted in a chant of "fuck J. Cole". According to Cole, the target of the song is more general. He said it takes aim at what he sees as the cartoon version of hip-hop, he explained: "If you exclude the top three rappers in the game, the most popping rappers all are exaggerated versions of black stereotypes; extremely tatted up, colorful hair, flamboyant, brand names. It's caricatures, and still the dominant representation of black people on the most popular entertainment format for black people, period." On May 4, 2018, as Cole was performing at JMBLYA festival in Dallas, he performed "1985", cutting off the backing track so he could rap his verse a cappella. The crowd erupted in chants of "fuck Lil Pump" and "fuck 6ix9ine". Cole immediately shut down the chants telling the crowd, "Don't do that." Cole performed "1985" during his Rolling Loud Festival performance on May 11, 2018, in Miami. During the performance Lil Pump was seen dancing to the song near the stage. On May 25, after Rolling Loud, J. Cole and Lil Pump sat down for an hour-long interview indicating that a supposed beef between the two is over. Cole asked Pump about his "fuck J. Cole" comments in his music and social media. Pump responds by claiming he had seen his fans commenting it on social media and didn't know why. "But now I kinda get it", he says. "We make different types of music, so people, like... People just like doing that shit." He continues, "It wasn't even serious... I fuck with your shit. It's hard."

In January 2026, Lil Pump, amidst a livestream hosted by DJ Akademiks, reiterated his stance on Cole, after the latter apologized for his song "7 Minute Drill" in 2024, and said, "I'ma keep it real, that's some soft-a** s**t". He then went on to reference their 2018 interview, which was held in Cole's house, further adding, "He's a f***ing p***y, bro. Dork. The first thing I did when I walked in his f***ing house was go to his refrigerator and start eating hella snacks... Ready for the interview. Got no type of respect for that man's house."

Noname

In May 2020, in the midst of the George Floyd protests, rapper Noname made a tweet panning rappers who discussed the struggles of black people in their music but had yet to publicly speak out on social media regarding the protests or Black Lives Matter. The tweet read:

"Poor black folks all over the country are putting their bodies on the line in protest for our collective safety and y’all favorite top selling rappers not even willing to put a tweet up. niggas whole discographies be about black plight and they no where to be found".

Many assumed her tweet was aimed at Cole and Kendrick Lamar, both of whom had yet to post on social media about the protests at the time of her tweet. On June 16, 2020, Cole released a song titled, "Snow on tha Bluff" addressing an unnamed woman, assumed to be Noname, while also touching on police brutality and race relations during the George Floyd protests. Shortly after the song's release, Noname tweeted "QUEEN TONE!!!!!!", referencing a lyric from the song. She later deleted the tweet. Many other artists defended Noname, including Ari Lennox, who is signed to Cole's Dreamville label. Lennox thanked Noname "for giving [a fuck] about us constantly and endlessly", saying she appreciates "everything you [Noname] put out to the world". Rapper Chance the Rapper, criticized Cole, calling the song "not constructive" and saying it "undermines all the work Noname has done". Cole eventually addressed backlash in a series of tweets, defending his statements in the song and encouraging listeners to follow Noname on social media. Two days after the release of "Snow on tha Bluff", Noname released "Song 33", in which she alluded to Cole writing about her in the wake of the protests, rapping: "I guess the ego hurt now / It's time to go to work, wow, look at him go / He really 'bout to write about me when the world is in smokes? When there's people in trees? When George was beggin' for his mother sayin' he couldn't breathe? He thought to write about me?". Cole acknowledged the track shortly after its release, sharing a link to the song on Twitter. Cole and Noname previously collaborated in 2015, on the song "Warm Enough" from Donnie Trumpet and The Social Experiment's Surf album.

Cam'ron

Cam'ron filed a lawsuit against Cole in October 2025 over their April 2024 collaboration "Ready '24". In his claim, he alleges that his guest appearance came with the agreement that Cole would return the favor, either by featuring on a song or by appearing on his podcast. The filing, which claims Cam'ron's verse was recorded in June 2022, lists several instances from 2022 to 2024 in which Cole was allegedly requested to fulfill his promise but did not.

Business ventures

Dreamville Records

During the composition of The Come Up, Cole started his own record label in early 2007 with current label president Ibrahim Hamad. Cole sought for an avenue to release his own music, while Hamad yearned to start a record label, prompting the two to team up to form Dreamville Records. The label is currently distributed by Interscope Records.

Cole, Omen, and Bas were the label's inaugural artists. The label houses artists including Cole, Omen, Bas, Cozz, Lute, Ari Lennox, JID, and duo EarthGang. In-house producers include Elite, Ron Gilmore, Cedric Brown, and Meez. Dreamville Records has released nine albums, with three certified platinum or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The Dreamville Foundation

In October 2011, Cole established The Dreamville Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Foundation says that it was "created to 'bridge the gap' between the worlds of opportunity and the urban youth" of Cole's hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina. With volunteers, the Foundation conducts philanthropic activities, such as an annual "Back To School Supply Giveaway" to provide supplies to schoolchildren. The Foundation also launched a book club for young men and sponsored "The Nobody's Perfect Writing Contest and Mother's Day Brunch" for students. It sponsors an annual weekend of Fayetteville community events called the "Dreamville Weekend" that features a discussion with the Young Men's Book Club and Appreciation Dinner and a Career Day panel of African-American professionals in a variety of fields.

In 2014, Cole purchased his childhood home in Fayetteville, North Carolina, for $120,000 through the Dreamville Foundation. The home had been repossessed from his mother years earlier, while Jermaine was attending college in New York. His plan is to turn the house into a homestead for single mothers and their children to live rent-free.

Tidal

In March 2015, Project Panther, the business of Cole's mentor Jay-Z, acquired Aspiro, the owner of the music streaming service Tidal, for a reported $56 million. J. Cole is a minor shareholder of the service, along with 15 other artist stakeholders, including Kanye West, Usher, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Madonna, Daft Punk, deadmau5, and Nicki Minaj.

Dreamville Festival

On April 27, 2018, J. Cole announced the Dreamville Festival, the festival featuring local music, culture, food and art, and also include a mix of up-and-comers and national acts. It is expected to be an annual festival. However, in the wake of Hurricane Florence, the event was postponed from its original date. The festival was rescheduled and held at the historic Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 6, 2019. The lineup included all of Dreamville's artists as well as SZA, Big Sean, Nelly, 21 Savage, 6LACK, Davido, Teyana Taylor, Saba, Rapsody, and Mez. The Dreamville Festival plans to donate proceeds to the Dorothea Dix Park Convervancy and the Dreamville Foundation.

Fashion

In February 2020, J. Cole announced a multi-year footwear and apparel partnership with Puma as an ambassador for the brand. According to the global director of Puma, Cole is involved in product creation, marketing campaigns and cultural guidance. With the announcement, Puma and Cole released a short film for the reimagined "Sky Dreamer" shoes, which debuted during the 2020 NBA All-Star Game.

On July 31, 2020, PUMA and J. Cole released their debut collaboration shoe, the PUMA RS-Dreamer. Cole commented on the signature shoe saying: "Over the years, basketball shoes have progressed greatly in their level of technology and comfort but have strayed too far away from designs stylish enough for cultural relevancy. The Dreamer hopes to change that reality. The highest level of on-court performance meets the highest level of aesthetic design for daily wear. Once again, you can hoop in the same shoes you wore outside." The launch of the shoe coincided with the restart of the 2019–20 NBA season.

Personal life

In a January 2016 interview with director Ryan Coogler, Cole revealed that he was married. His wife, Melissa Heholt, who met Cole while they were students at St. John's University, is the Executive Director of the Dreamville Foundation. Also in a May 2018 interview with radio host Angie Martinez, Cole stated that he and his wife have a son together. In 2019, he publicly spoke about his son. On July 20, 2020, Cole revealed he has two children.

Discography

Studio albums

Concert tours

Headlining

• Cole World... World Tour (2011)
• What Dreams May Come Tour (2013–14)
• Dollar & A Dream Tour (2013)
• Dollar & A Dream Tour 2014: The Warm Up (2014)
• Forest Hills Drive Tour (2015)
• Dollar & A Dream Tour III: Friday Night Lights (2015)
• 4 Your Eyez Only World Tour (2017)
• KOD Tour (2018)
• The Fall-Off Tour (2026)

Co-headlining

• The Campus Consciousness Tour (with Big K.R.I.T.) (2012)
• Revenge of the Dreamers NYC Crawl (with Dreamville) (2015)
• The Off-Season Tour (with 21 Savage) (2021)
• It's All A Blur Tour - Big As the What? (with Drake) (2024)

Supporting act

• Jay-Z Fall Tour (Jay Z) (2009)
• Attention Deficit Tour (Wale) (2009)
• Loud Tour (Rihanna) (2011)
• Club Paradise Tour (Drake) (2012)
• Rapture Tour (Eminem) (2014)

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• J. Cole at AllMusic
• J. Cole on MTV.com
• Basketball Africa League profile
• Proballers profile

In April 2018, Jackson was sentenced to 20 years in prison on drug trafficking and possession of a firearm charges. He began his prison sentence in late June, 2018. On January 8, 2023, it was announced that 03 Greedo would be released from prison after a successful parole hearing in June, 2022. He was released on January 12.

Since his release from prison, Jackson has continued his work as a recording artist - beginning with his fifth studio album Halfway There which was released 7 days after his parole.

Early life

Jason Jamal Jackson was born in West Los Angeles, California, on July 26, 1987, to Michael and Lisa Jackson. In late 1988, when Jackson was only a year old, his father was killed in a motorcycle accident. This was shortly after his parents had purchased their home in Gardena, California, where Jackson was raised along with his brother and sister. He was the youngest of the three. Prior to his father's death, he and his family lived in Los Angeles, near the Chester Washington Golf Course. As a toddler, he had a series of ear infections, which resulted in a tympanostomy tube. In 2000, after a nomadic childhood - which included stops in St. Louis, Rural Kansas, Compton, and Sacramento - Jackson moved to the Jordan Downs Housing Projects in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. After a period of delinquency, Jackson was expelled from school, prompting his mother to kick him out of the house. After this, he oscillated between periods of homelessness and time spent staying with various friends or the family of his girlfriend. At age 17, Jackson was expecting a baby with his high school girlfriend. He worked various retail jobs and sold his own beats in anticipation of supporting his child – a daughter who was born after they turned 18 – and her mother. Soon after, he began to sell drugs to support his family. When he was 19, he pled no contest to a pair of misdemeanor gun possession charges and served 10 months of a one-year sentence.

Career

Jackson initially used the alias Greedy Giddy, under which he self-produced six mixtapes, including the Bipolar series, Everybody Weak, and Money, Powder, Regrets. His early career was heavily influenced by southern rap such as Lil Boosie, Jeezy, and Gucci Mane, as well as Phil Collins. This early work is fragmented with a handful of recordings on DatPiff, YouTube, and Tumblr.

As Greedy Giddy, Jackson released numerous tracks to SoundCloud between 2014 and 2016. In 2016, Jackson changed his name to 03 Greedo and self-produced two mixtapes, Purple Summer and Purple Summer 2: Sun Don't Shine. He also started his own label, Golden Grenade Empire, in 2016. In 2017, Jackson produced three mixtapes: Purple Summer 03: Purple Hearted Soldier, First Night Out, and Money Changes Everything.

In 2017, Jackson signed with Todd Moscowitz's Alamo Records for over a million-dollar contract. His first release on the label was The Wolf of Grape Street which dropped in March 2018.

Later in March, Greedo courted controversy by making disparaging remarks about deceased rapper Tupac Shakur in an interview with Billboard Magazine. Stating, in part, "Tupac sucks [...] He's delusional. He's a great actor. Part of his music shit was acting" When asked about the comments and the ensuing controversy in a later interview with Genius, Jackson stated that while the comments were taken out of context and he does enjoy some of Shakur's music, he did not feel a need to apologize as he feels the music is "not authentic" in contrast to his own.

Before turning himself into authorities, Jackson promised to make a vault of 30 albums; he then said he had finished over 3,000 songs before beginning his 20-year sentence. The day before he turned himself in, Jackson released his debut album God Level.

On July 5, 2019, Jackson and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker released a joint EP, Meet the Drummers.

In September 2019, Jackson and Kenny Beats released a new album titled Netflix & Deal.

03 Greedo's eighth album, Load It Up Vol. 01, was released on August 14, 2020. It was preceded by the single "Drip Keep Going", featuring Key Glock.

On February 4, 2022, Jackson released a new single titled "Pourin" featuring Mike Free and BlueBucksClan on Alamo Records via Sony Music Entertainment. Almost a year later, on January 9, 2023, Jackson released the Mike Free–produced mixtape Free 03, which included the single.

After being released from prison in early 2023, he started recording lots of new songs, and on March 17, 2023, he released "Bacc Like I Never Left", the first of two singles from his fifth studio album Halfway There, which was released 7 days later.

Personal life

One of Jackson's most distinctive features is the term "Living Legend" tattooed on his face.

In 2016, Jackson was arrested in Texas on drug trafficking and possession of a firearm charges. According to a police report, Potter County Sheriff deputies forced open his car's trunk after claiming to smell cannabis and found "four pounds of methamphetamine and two stolen pistols." Jackson originally faced a sentence of 300 years for the charges. However, he eventually took a plea deal and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, though he could be released in five years with good behavior. He began his sentence in the summer of 2018 and was imprisoned at the Middleton Unit. In 2022, he was moved to the William R. Boyd Unit. He was initially set to become eligible for parole in July 2020, but this was denied in 2020 and 2021. Jackson was granted parole release in June 2022 upon completion of a prerelease program. On January 12, 2023, Jackson was released.

Discography

Studio albums

Mixtapes

• Bi-polar Disc One (2010)
• Bi-polar Disc Two (2010)
• Bi-polar 3 (2011)
• Bi-polar 4 (2011)
• Money, Powder, Regrets (2012)
• Everybody Weak (2012)
• Purple Summer (2016)
• Purple Summer 2: Sun Don't Shine (2016)
• Purple Summer 03: Purple Hearted Soldier (2017)
• First Night Out (2017)
• Money Changes Everything (2017)
• The Wolf of Grape Street (2018)
• Free 03 (with Mike Free) (2023)
• Project Tpain (with Dnyc3) (2023)
• Y'all Ni99az Owe Me Money (with Ricky Racks) (2024)
• Crip I'm Sexy (2024)
• Album Inna Day (2024)
• All I Ever Wanted Was A Bankroll (with Tyler Hooks) (2024)
• 2025 The Streetz Is Over Wiit (2025)

Extended plays

• Porter 2 Grape (with Nef the Pharaoh) (2018)
• Meet the Drummers (with Travis Barker) (2019)
• 03 Inna Key (2021)
• Feed The Wolves (2023)
• Fucc Everybody (2024)
• Ear To Ear (2024)
• Another Night Out (2025)

References

External links

• Greedy Giddy Soundcloud
• 03 Greedo Soundcloud

Donald George Ruffin (born February 21, 2002), known professionally as Duwap Kaine, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is known for his projects Underdog and Bad Kid from the 4, as well as his early collaborations with record producer Pi'erre Bourne.

Early life

Donald George Ruffin was born on February 21, 2002 in Savannah, Georgia. He grew up alongside rapper Lil Candy Paint.

Career

Duwap began making music in the early 2010s, with his first song being a single he uploaded to YouTube in 2011 under the alias Dolphin God. A song about Elmo from Sesame Street he made at this time became an internet meme in 2019. He was in the fourth grade at the time. Prior to adopting the Duwap Kaine alias, he went by DolphinGod, Retro, OfficialRetro, and Duwap. He released his debut mixtape Diffrent [sic] in 2013 under the DolphinGod alias.

One of his first singles to gain attention, specifically as Duwap Kaine, was the song "A Stove Is a Stove", which he released in 2016, with the song since reaching over a million plays. In 2017, he released the Pi'erre Bourne-produced song "Santa" which remains his most streamed song to date. In September 2017, he was co-signed by American rapper Lil Yachty as one of his favorite rappers. Kaine has many other music relationships in the music industry such as Trippie Redd. In 2017, he also worked with artists like K$upreme, Lil Wop, and Lil Tracy. He released 2 mixtapes that year, Friends Till The End & Forever Kaine.

In 2018 he released the notable mixtape Underdog. Most of the tape's instrumentals were made by Duwap's frequent collaborator Nine9, with Duwap making the beat to the mixtape's twelfth song "G-Star".

Kaine released the single "Playin Wit Da Autotune" on 11 August 2021.

Kaine released his album Faith Like Esther on 26 June 2022.

As of 2024, Kaine has released 12 albums, 29 mixtapes, 3 extended plays, and 195 singles.

Musical style

He is known as one of the pioneers of the SoundCloud rap era. His rapping style includes layered vocals and Auto-Tune.

Discography

Studio albums

Deluxe albums

Mixtapes

Extended plays

References

External links

• Duwap Kaine at AllMusic

James Clay Jones III (born August 9, 1982), better known by his stage name Boldy James, is an American rapper. He is a member of the hip hop collective Griselda. Recognized for his deep voice and laid-back delivery of vivid stories, he often explores themes of drug trade and street life. After his debut album My 1st Chemistry Set (2013), James has since released a wide discography of both studio albums as well as mixtapes and EPs, often releasing multiple projects in a year.

His reunion with the Alchemist—who also produced his debut—on The Price of Tea in China (2020) saw him gain significant recognition, along with his jazz-infused collaboration album with Sterling Toles, Manger on McNichols, released that same year. He frequently collaborates with other members of the Griselda collective, and has worked with producers such as Conductor Williams, Jay Versace, Harry Fraud, Nicholas Craven, Real Bad Man and Futurewave, among others.

Early life

Jones was born on August 9, 1982, in Atlanta, Georgia to James Clay Jones Jr. and Toni K. Broadus. In 1983, Jones and Broadus returned to their original home of Detroit, Michigan with their son after Jones was wounded in the line of duty serving as a police officer. They resided on the Eastside of Detroit with Jones' grandmother. In 1989, Jones' parents separated and his mother sent him and his younger sister to live with their father on Detroit's westside on Stahelin Hell Block near McNichols Road and the Southfield Freeway. Jones' love for music came to the forefront at the age of 12, when he performed in a middle school talent show and began writing his first raps shortly after. He attended high school at Detroit Cooley, and dropped out his freshman year. He got the name "Boldy James" from his friend, James Osely III, whom people in the neighborhood called "Boldy". Jones said, "he didn't rap, he just sold cocaine. I liked the name because his name was James too". When his friend was murdered, he decided to carry on with the name, using it to rap.

Career

In 2009, Jones's first big break on the national scene came in the form of two features on The Cool Kids and Don Cannon's mixtape Merry Christmas, on the songs "BBQ Wings" and "Tires". That was followed up by his record "Gettin Flicked" appearing on The Cool Kids's 2010 mixtape Tacklebox. Also in 2010, he was featured on the Chip tha Ripper song "Fat Raps" remix alongside Big Sean, Asher Roth, Dom Kennedy and Chuck Inglish. On May 24, 2011, Jones released his solo debut mixtape Trappers Alley Pros and Cons. The project went on to be named by Pitchfork as one of 2011's Most Overlooked Projects. On February 27, 2012, he released his follow up mixtape, Consignment. On March 5, 2013, he released an EP titled Grand Quarters. On October 15, 2013, he released his debut album, My 1st Chemistry Set, entirely produced by The Alchemist. On May 22, 2014, it was announced that Jones, Bishop Nehru, and Fashawn were the first signees to Nas's Mass Appeal Records. He left Mass Appeal in 2020 to sign with Westside Gunn's Griselda Records. With Griselda, he has released The Price of Tea in China, Manger on McNichols and Bo Jackson, among other albums.

Personal life

On January 9, 2023, Jones was involved in a car accident in Detroit, leaving him with a broken vertebrae, requiring intensive surgery.

Jones is a cousin of American rapper Chuck Inglish and is related to American rapper Snoop Dogg.

Jones has six children.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Mixtapes

Singles

Guest appearances

References

External links

• Boldy James discography at Discogs

Dominique Armani Jones (born December 3, 1994), known professionally as Lil Baby, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence following the release of his 2017 mixtapes Harder than Hard and Too Hard — the former of which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100 entry with its lead single, "My Dawg." He signed with Quality Control Music, an imprint of Motown and Capitol Records to release his debut studio album Harder Than Ever (2018), which peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and was supported by the Billboard Hot 100-top ten single "Yes Indeed" (with Drake). Later that year, he released the collaborative mixtape Drip Harder with fellow Georgia-based rapper Gunna, and his solo mixtape Street Gossip; the former spawned his second top-ten single "Drip Too Hard", while the latter peaked at number two on the Billboard 200.

Lil Baby's second studio album, My Turn (2020), peaked the Billboard 200 for five weeks, received quadruple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and became the best-selling album of that year. It spawned the hit song "We Paid" (with 42 Dugg), as well as the George Floyd protest-inspired single "The Bigger Picture"; both peaked within the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, while the latter received two nominations—Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance—at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. The following year, his collaborative album The Voice of the Heroes (2021) with Chicago rapper Lil Durk became his second project to peak the Billboard 200, while his guest appearance on Kanye West and the Weeknd's 2021 single, "Hurricane", won Best Melodic Rap Performance at the 64th Grammy Awards. His third and fourth albums, It's Only Me (2022) and WHAM (2025), both debuted atop the Billboard 200; the former spawned three Billboard Hot 100 top-ten entries: "California Breeze", "Forever" (featuring Fridayy), and "Real Spill", while the latter album spawned the top-twenty single "Dum, Dumb, and Dumber" (with Future and Young Thug).

In addition to a Grammy Award, Lil Baby has won an MTV Video Music Award, two BET Awards, and was named the all-genre Artist of the Year at the 2020 Apple Music Awards. He founded the record label Glass Window Entertainment (known previously as 4PF) as an imprint of Motown and Capitol in 2023; he has signed frequent collaborators 42 Dugg and Rylo Rodriguez.

Early life

Jones was born and raised in the Oakland City neighborhood in Southwest Atlanta, Georgia. He was two years old when his father left the family. His mother raised him and his two sisters. He dropped out of Booker T. Washington High School in ninth grade and committed to drug dealing.

In early 2012, he was charged for possession with intent to sell, among other charges. In 2013, was charged with possession of marijuana of less than an ounce. In 2014, he was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to sell, and was incarcerated for two years.

Career

2015–2018: Career beginnings and Harder Than Ever

At age seventeen, Lil Baby was a regular presence in the studio of Atlanta-based Quality Control Records as a drug dealer. Label founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee encouraged him to become a rapper, as he felt Baby had "the swag... the lingo, [and] respect around the city". Fellow rappers Young Thug and Gunna served as Baby's mentors in developing his style. He released his first mixtape, Perfect Timing, in April 2017 with appearances from Young Thug, Gunna, and Lil Yachty.

Another mixtape, Harder Than Hard, followed in August 2017. In October, he released his third mixtape in six months, 2 The Hard Way, a collaboration with friend and fellow Atlanta rapper Marlo. A fourth mixtape, Too Hard, was released in December, led by his hit single "Freestyle" and accompanying music video. It was certified gold by the RIAA in February 2020.

With his career gaining momentum, Baby released his debut studio album, Harder Than Ever, in May 2018. It debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200. The album was supported by the singles "Southside" and "Yes Indeed" (with Drake), the latter peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. "Life Goes On" featuring Gunna and Lil Uzi Vert charted at 74 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Lil Baby formed his own label, 4 Pockets Full (initialized 4PF) in 2017. Rappers 42 Dugg and Rylo Rodriguez are signed to the label. In 2023, the label was renamed to Glass Window Entertainment.

2018–2019: Drip Harder and Street Gossip

After Lil Baby released Harder Than Ever, he released the collaborative mixtape Drip Harder with Gunna on October 5, 2018. The lead single, "Drip Too Hard" went on to become certified Diamond by the RIAA and 4× Platinum by Music Canada. The song peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. The mixtape was released under the labels Quality Control, YSL Records and Motown/Capitol.

In September 2018, Baby appeared on the Adult Swim television series FishCenter Live. In November 2018, he released his mixtape Street Gossip. In December 2018, Baby collaborated with Yung Gravy on the latter's single, "Alley Oop".

He starred in the 2019 film How High 2, a sequel to the 2001 stoner film How High, which premiered in April 2019, on MTV. In June 2019, Baby and Future released a single titled "Out the Mud". In July 2019, Lil Baby appeared alongside DaBaby on the single "Baby", released on Quality Control's second studio album, Control the Streets, Volume 2. The song peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In November 2019, Baby released his single "Woah" as the lead single for his second studio album My Turn. The song peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Baby was featured on YouTuber KSI's track "Down Like That" with Rick Ross and British producer S-X, and performed it for KSI's boxing match against Logan Paul. In November 2019, Baby released a song from the film Queen & Slim titled "Catch the Sun", which subsequently appeared on My Turn.

2020–2022: My Turn, The Voice of the Heroes, and It's Only Me

In January 2020, Lil Baby released the second single ("Sum 2 Prove"), for his at-the-time upcoming album, and it reached number 16 on the Hot 100. The album, My Turn, was released in February 2020, and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. It features guest appearances from Gunna, 42 Dugg, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne, Moneybagg Yo, Young Thug and Rylo Rodriguez. My Turn produced 12 songs that appeared the Billboard Hot 100 chart, giving him a career total of 47 songs on the chart, tying him with Prince and Paul McCartney.

Following the release of the album's deluxe version on May 1, My Turn returned to the top spot on the Billboard 200. In June 2020, Lil Baby released the political track "The Bigger Picture", amid the George Floyd protests. The song debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Lil Baby's highest-charting song as a lead artist.

On June 26, 2020, Lil Baby was featured on Lil Mosey's single "Back at It"— which would appear as the lead single of Mosey's deluxe edition of Certified Hitmaker. Lil Baby’s song "We Paid" featuring 42 Dugg from the deluxe reissue of My Turn peaked within the top-ten of the Hot 100. In July 2020, Lil Baby was featured on Pop Smoke's "For the Night", from his posthumous debut album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon. The track reached number six on the Hot 100. In September 2020, My Turn became the first album of the year to be certified double platinum by the RIAA. "The Bigger Picture" received two nominations at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards: Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.

In March 2021, Lil Baby performed "The Bigger Picture" at the Grammy Awards in 2021 to mostly positive reviews. The following day, another collaboration with Drake, "Wants and Needs", debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Passing a previous peak and debut with "The Bigger Picture" for Jones, becoming his highest-charting song overall. In June 2021, Lil Baby released his collaborative studio album with Lil Durk, The Voice of the Heroes. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

In September 2021, Lil Baby was featured on the song "Girls Want Girls" from Drake's sixth studio album, Certified Lover Boy. The song debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, tying their previous collaboration "Wants and Needs" as Baby's highest-charting song overall. On December 16, 2021, Lil Baby was featured on the song “Moved to Miami” by Roddy Ricch from Ricch’s second studio album Live Life Fast— the track would later peak at number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100. In February 2022, "Do We Have a Problem?" – a collaboration with Nicki Minaj was released, along with a music video starring the two. In March 2022, Lil Baby was announced as one of the headliners for J. Cole's Dreamville 2022 Music Festival. Lil Baby is the subject of the documentary film Untrapped: The Story of Lil Baby, directed by Karam Gill, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2022 and was released on Amazon Prime Video in August 2022.

In April 2022, Lil Baby released the singles "In A Minute", and "Right On", which peaked at number 14 and 13 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100. In September, he released the promotional single "Detox". In October, he released the single "Heyy" as the second single to his forthcoming album It's Only Me. The album released four days later and became his third consecutive number one album.

2023–present: Wham and The Leaks

In January 2023, Lil Baby was featured twice on Trippe Redd's comeback album, Mansion Musik. In March, he appeared as a feature on Nardo Wick's "Hot Boy". In April, he released the previously teased single, "Go Hard", before appearing as a feature om Gucci Mane's "Bluffin" in June. In the following month, he released "Merch Madness". On August 18, 2023, Lil Baby was featured on singer Ciara's single "Forever".

Lil Baby began to roll out his fourth studio album in December with the release of "Crazy" and "350" which were met with negative critical reception and mediocre commercial performance, leading to delays.

In April 2024, Baby appeared on Future and Metro Boomin's collaborative studio album, We Still Don't Trust You on the album's twenty-first cut, "All My Life". The following month, Baby appeared alongside, "Band4Band", the lead single from UK rapper Central Cee's debut studio album, Can't Rush Greatness (2025). The track peaked at number 3 on the UK singles chart, at number 12 on the Billboard Global 200, and number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, before being certified gold by the BPI and platinum by the RIAA.

In November 2024, Baby started to roll out his fourth studio album with the release of the promotional singles, "5AM", "Insecurities", and "Touchdown" in December of that year.

On January 3, 2025, Lil Baby released his fourth studio album, WHAM featuring guest appearances from Young Thug, Future, GloRilla, Rylo Rodriguez, Rod Wave, Travis Scott, and 21 Savage. The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, moving 140,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, beating out Bad Bunny's sixth album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos by 18,000 units. Shortly after the release of WHAM, Lil Baby announced that he would be releasing Dominique as a companion album to WHAM in the following month. The album was reportedly cancelled in August 2025, with Lil Baby instead announcing an album titled The Leaks. After some revision to the track list, Lil Baby officially releases The Leaks to streaming platforms on December 3, 2025, which is also the day of Baby's birthday, where he turns 31.

Personal life

Jones has a son from a relationship with former girlfriend Ayesha. He later dated model and entrepreneur Jayda Cheaves. She appeared in the music video for his song "Close Friends". On February 18, 2019, Cheaves gave birth to their son.

In May 2021, Jones visited the White House along with the family of George Floyd on the anniversary of Floyd's murder.

On July 7, 2021, after attending Paris Fashion Week events with basketball player James Harden, Jones was arrested on a drug charge by police in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Harden was stopped but not detained, and both men were soon released. For this offense, Jones agreed to pay a fine.

On August 26, 2024, Jones was arrested in Las Vegas on a concealed weapons charge. He was detained at Clark County Detention Center, and was soon afterwards released after posting a $5,000 bond.

Discography

Studio albums

• Harder Than Ever (2018)
• My Turn (2020)
• It's Only Me (2022)
• WHAM (2025)

Collaborative albums

• The Voice of the Heroes (with Lil Durk) (2021)

Filmography

• How High 2 (2019; as himself)
• Untrapped: The Story of Lil Baby (2022; as himself)

Awards and nominations

Tours

Headlining

• The Back Outside Tour (2021)
• It's Only Us Tour (2023)

Co-headlining

• One Of Them Ones Tour (with Chris Brown) (2022)

Notes

References

External links

• Lil Baby at AllMusic
• Lil Baby at IMDb 
• Lil Baby discography at Discogs

Career

Joseph Badejo began making music as a teenager. He was inspired by rappers such as Dom Corleo and SoFaygo. His alias "wolfacejoeyy" was inspired by Tyler, the Creator.

After collaborating with the producer WhereIs22 to release their collaborative EP "22Joeyy" in September 2023, Wolfacejoeyy's track "Cake" went viral. His album Cupid had a score of 6 on RapReviews; Valentino had a score of 7.4. Badejo released a song called "Miss Me", which led to him being approached by labels for the first time. He was also featured in the "Paradise and Brighton Music Hall".

In 2024, Badejo performed at Powerhouse NYC. On February 20, Wolfacejoeyy sang at the Bentley Campus Black History Month event. "'Alexis Texas'" was surprisingly mild and slightly sexual for a song named after a pornstar", according to Alphonse Pierre of Pitchfork. Wolfacejoeyy performed a freestyle to a club-inspired WhereIs22 beat on On the Radar, later releasing the official version titled "Shake It".

Musical style

Music reviewers have characterized Badejo's music using a variety of terms, mainly being "sexy-drill".

Discography

Albums

• All Your Fault (2022)
• 22Joeyy(2023)
• Before Cupid (2024)
• Finsta / Bia (2024)
• Valentino (2024)
• Cake / Don't Be Dishonest (2024)
• Cupid (2025)
• SummerSongs (2025)

Singles

• Cake (2024)
• Nympho (2024)
• Buku (2023)
• Finsta (2024)
• Alexis Texas (2024)
• Trip (2025)
• Say Yes (2025)
• Bae (2025)
• Kanye Kim (2025)

References

Joseph Kirkland (born April 5, 1968), better known by his stage name Diamond D (or simply Diamond), is an American hip hop MC and record producer from The Bronx, New York City, and one of the founding members of the Diggin' in the Crates Crew, abbreviated as D.I.T.C.

Early years

Growing up in Forest Houses in The Bronx, Diamond D was influenced by local DJs, DJ Hutch and DJ Supreme. During his youth the two DJs would let him perform on their turntables. At the beginning of his career as a producer, Diamond spent many hours at Jazzy Jay's studio on Allerton Avenue in The Bronx. He credits Jay for inspiring him to buy a sampler and teaching him various production techniques. In a 2017 interview he said, "I learned about 95% of my production skills from him. And he was ahead of his time."

Career

In addition to Jazzy Jay's teachings, Diamond credited Brand Nubian member Grand Puba as his inspiration to start rapping. An early guest appearance on A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory track "Show Business" helped make people more aware of him as an artist.

The following year he released his debut record Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop. In a 2017 interview Diamond described the album as, "just a collection of beats and records I was just setting aside. It was more about, 'One day I want to do something with this' ideas. And about 80% of that album I got from those records."

Diamond's favorite experience from making Stunts, Blunts, and Hip Hop was recording the vocals for the song "Check One, Two." He credits producer The 45 King with clearing the samples for that beat. It took him 30 minutes to construct the beat for one of the album's best-known tracks, "Sally Got A One Track Mind".

In 1996, Diamond won a Grammy Award for his production on the title track from The Fugees' The Score album. He later described the experience as "just a bad memory" and declined to talk about it in an interview.

To promote his 1997 album Hatred, Passions and Infidelity, Mercury Records compiled a promotional vinyl called Diamond Jewels that included the Stunts, Blunts, and Hip Hop songs "Best Kept Secret', "*!*! What U Heard", and "Sally Got A One Track Mind".

Discography

Albums

As featured artist

As featured

References

Career

He has been rapping under the name Rio da Yung OG since 2017. In 2019, he was placed under house arrest due to drug trafficking charges. This period led him to great musical productivity, releasing seven projects in the space of a year, including the Dum and Dumber mixtape series in collaboration with rapper RMC Mike, which gained him notoriety within the rap scene. In 2020, he released City on My Back, a 15-track album. He then helped put other local artists on the map, including YN Jay and Louie Ray.

His career was interrupted in 2021 by a 44-month prison sentence. Just before his incarceration, he recorded "Last Day Out", a song with nostalgic tones. Despite his imprisonment, his popularity continued to grow and he continued to regularly release music recorded prior to his imprisonment. He released the Fiend Lives Matter EP in 2021, The F Tape EP in 2023 and the Rio Circa 2020 album in 2024. In May 2024, his single "Legendary", released in 2019, was certified gold. He was released in December 2024 and celebrated his release with the album Rio Free in January 2025. He released his second 2025 album, F.L.I.N.T. (Feeling Like I'm Not Through), in August 2025.

Style

He is known for his raw, direct, offhand and provocative style, mixing dry humor and unfiltered accounts of street life, which his friend RMC Mike describes as "blunt rap". His tracks are generally chorus-free. He often raps in one take, in a conversational tone, retaining imperfections such as stutters or recording flaws. In an interview, Rio da Yung OG himself declares, "I don’t think I can rap for real". He was initially inspired by Detroit rapper Peezy, who became his mentor.

The productions on which he poses are generally dominated by powerful piano and bass, in a style characteristic of Michigan hip hop.

Personal life

Rio da Yung OG was raised in Flint, Michigan. He has visible facial scarring due to deep second-degree burns on the right side of his face. In an interview, he revealed that he got the scars when he was 12, as he tried to cook French fries, but was intoxicated and forgot about them, and a grease fire began. He attempted to stop the fire with water, which is dangerous because grease has a lower density than water, causing it to go up and expand the flames upwards. The burn remains because he denied getting skin graft treatment.

Legal issues

On February 27, 2019, Rio da Yung OG and 14 co-defendants were charged for multiple federal crimes. Rio da Yung OG was sentenced to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He began serving his sentence in Summer 2021 after surrendering himself at the behest of the court.

Rio's arrest sparked the "Free Rio" movement. Rappers Trippie Redd and Louie Ray made songs dedicated to freeing Rio. The rapper Peezy also released the mixtape Free Rio. Other rappers supporting his release included 42 Dugg, BabyTron, and RMC Mike.

He was released from jail on December 11, 2024, having served 3 years and 8 months of his sentence.

Discography

Albums, EPs and mixtapes

• Testers (2019)
• Ghetto Babes (2019)
• Testers, pt. 2 (2019)
• Dumb and Dumb3r (2019) (with RMC Mike)
• Dum and Dumber Too (2019) (with RMC Mike)
• 2 Faced (2019)
• City on My Back (2020)
• Accidental Sh*t Talking (2020)
• Dum N Dumbber 3 (2021) (with RMC Mike)
• Fiend Lives Matter (2021)
• The F Tape (2023)
• Rio Circa 2020 (2024)
• Rio Free Ep (2025)
• F.L.I.N.T. (Feeling Like I'm Not Through) (2025)

References

Widely known for The Diplomats' hits "Dipset Anthem" and "I’m Ready" amongst others, the credits are a who’s who of hip-hop including Lil Wayne, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Ludacris, Fat Joe, Ghostface Killah, Jeezy, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, J. Cole, and Joey Badass. Rsonist defined the early-2000s Harlem sound, which quickly spread to all of rap music. He laid the groundwork for modern trap music almost 20 years before it happened.

History

Born in Mandeville, Jamaica, Rsonist moved to the Bronx, New York at the age of four. Talking about his childhood, Rsonist told Genius, "My parents had reggae music – that’s it. That’s all I grew up listening to. Whether it was Beres Hammond, whether it was Garnett Silk, whether it was Bob Marley – whoever it was, it was just reggae music."

After high school, Rsonist attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. While there, he also worked as a DJ and developed a friendship with Young Guru, who would go on to work with many of the top artists in hip-hop, most notably becoming Jay-Z's engineer for many years. Shortly into his tenure at the school, Rsonist was expelled from Howard University and forced to move back to The Bronx without any viable options and a newborn baby on the way.

Rsonist soon made his way into beat making as a last resort. It was at this time that the name and the team of The Heatmakerz came about. "So people understand the dynamic of The Heatmakerz and why it's still called Heatmakerz, Heatmakerz was my team growing up," he explained to The Hip-Hop Museum. "Me, Thrilla, my cousin, a bunch of people I grew up with. Me and Thrilla were the only two that physically made music."

Thrilla had bought an MPC and when he went out of town, he let Rsonist borrow it. During that time, Rsonist made two beats. Those beats eventually reached Todd Terry, a Brooklyn-based producer and DJ who was working with top artists at the time. Terry was intrigued and asked if he could purchase the tracks. "I made a joke and said, 'Give me a stack ($1,000) for each beat,'" Rsonist told Genius. "He was like 'Aight, bet,' goes in the other room, goes in his safe, brings me back $2,000." Afterward, Terry asked for more beats, to which Rsonist replied that he didn't have the equipment. Terry then sent him $20,000 worth of gear to get him started.

It was at this point that Rsonist realized hip-hop could be more than a hobby. Soon after, he was in the studio with Big Pun and his protégé Fat Joe, playing them his beats. During the session, Rsonist asked Fat Joe what new producers typically earn per track. Fat Joe replied that they could expect $5,000 or more. "When Joe said $5,000, I just realized that if I take this seriously, I could really turn this into something," he told HuffPost. "Because even then I knew it was all about relationships... From there, I knew it was always just going to be about figuring out that six degrees of separation. It was common sense. That's when I knew."

Early Career

2000–2007

The Heatmakerz first major label placement was the title "The C-Quel" which led off the Canibus album 2000 B.C. (Before Can-I-Bus) on Universal Records in 2000. That was followed up with Ghostface Killah's "Ice" off the Bulletproof Wallets and Cam'ron's "Come Home With Me" and "Boy Boy" on the Come Home with Me album released in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

In 2003, The Heatmakerz hit their stride writing and producing eleven songs on The Diplomats debut album Diplomatic Immunity which included the hit singles "Dipset Anthem" and "I'm Ready". It was this pivot album with The Heatmakerz defining the "Harlem sound" that quickly transformed into The Heatmakerz being described as the "Sound of New York". The Heatmakerz sound has been described as hip-hop mixed with rock and roll, with Rsonist describing it as: "It's aggressive soul music. It's that Crack Music."

In 2007, the music business began to change and readjust with various new trends. It was at this point that Thrilla no longer viewed the business in the same way that Rsonist did. Thrilla stepped back from making music and ventured into various businesses such as real estate, starting a trucking company and more. At that point Rsonist continued under The Heatmakerz moniker and his writing and producing became a solo endeavor.

Rsonist Solo

2007-present

After Thrilla's departure, Rsonist continued to write and produce on various projects across the hip-hop world for the next decade plus under the Heatmakerz brand. He made an album with Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana titled "I Can’t Feel My Face" which was never released. Over this time, The Heatmakerz distinct sound was heard on various records including with artists Fat Joe, Asher Roth, Slaughterhouse, Jim Jones, The Diplomats, Cam'ron, and Joell Ortiz.

In 2015, Desiigner's hit single "Panda", which went on to reach number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs, was recorded in Rsonist's Diamond District Studios in midtown Manhattan. The following year, the Fat Joe and Remy Ma single featuring French Montana's "All the Way Up", which reached number four on the US Rhythmic Billboard chart was also recorded at his studio.

Rsonist became known as the main producer of 2011 XXL Freshman class member and fellow Bronx native, Fred the Godson. The pair released critically acclaimed tapes, even teaming up with Joell Ortiz for a "Gorilla Glue" project in 2019 before Fred's untimely passing in 2020 from COVID-19.

In 2019, Rsonist was the Executive Producer, as well the producer on every song, on the Jim Jones album El Capo that went on to have over two hundred million on-demand audio streams as a completely independent release. Jones talked about the creation of the album with Revolt, saying: "I got this thing where every night before I walk out, the last 30 minutes of the session, I always record a verse. I'm like, 'Yo, pull that up. Let me record before I leave out.' This [album] is the result of all of those records I recorded before I left the studio. Rsonist called me one day like, 'You got a lot of these records with dope verses on them. You might as well finish these records. Let’s do a project.'"

The Heatmakerz are also now a mainstay on every Joell Ortiz release, including his group work with fellow Slaughterhouse founder, KXNG Crook.

In 2024, The Heatmakerz wrote for the J. Cole album Might Delete Later on the song "Ready '24" which featured Cam'ron. In 2025, The Heatmakerz were back lending the classic New York sound to the Joey Badass single "Pardon Me".

The Heatmakerz are currently continuing to collaborate with Joey Badass on upcoming releases, contributing to The Game's "Documentary 3", working with Jim Jones on "El Capo 2", some new work with Bishop Lamont, as well as a new M.O.P. project, he confirmed to Hot 97. Rsonist then went on to state: "When I made 'Dipset Anthem,' I was in my mother's basement, broke, and channeling that raw aggression into the music. Now, I'm in a different place in life, and my music reflects how I'm living and feeling in the moment. I never create tracks with a specific artist in mind; I make what feels right, and whoever connects with it, does."

Discography

References

External links

• iStandard Exclusive Audio iNterview w/ Rsonist of the Heatmakerz
• iStandardProducers.com iSitdown w/ Rsonist of The Heatmakerz
• MySpace profile
• AllHipHop interview
• nobodysmiling.com interview
• Rsonist Video Interview on JumpOff.TV

Nayvadius DeMun Cash (né Wilburn; born November 20, 1983), known professionally as Future, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Known for his mumble-style, rap-singing and prolific output, Future is credited with helping pioneer the use of Auto-Tuned delivery in trap music. He is commonly regarded as one of the most influential rappers of his generation.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Future signed a recording contract with Rocko's A1 Recordings in 2011, which entered a joint venture with Epic Records shortly after. His first two studio albums, Pluto (2012) and Honest (2014), were both met with critical and commercial success, spawning the platinum-certified singles "Turn On the Lights", "Honest", "Move That Dope" (featuring Pharrell Williams and Pusha T), and "I Won" (featuring Kanye West). His subsequent albums have each debuted atop the US Billboard 200; his third and fourth, DS2 (2015) and Evol (2016), were supported by the singles "Where Ya At" (featuring Drake) and "Low Life" (featuring the Weeknd), respectively. Future's eponymous fifth album and its follow-up, Hndrxx (both 2017) made him the first musical act to release two chart-topping projects on the Billboard 200 in consecutive weeks—the former spawned his first Billboard Hot 100-top ten single, "Mask Off."

After departing A1, Future released the albums The Wizrd (2019) and High Off Life (2020)—the latter spawned the diamond-certified single "Life Is Good" (featuring Drake). Future guest appeared alongside Young Thug on Drake's 2021 single "Way 2 Sexy," which became his first number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100 after a record-breaking 125 entries. His ninth album, I Never Liked You (2022) spawned the single "Wait for U" (featuring Drake and Tems), which became his second to peak the chart and first to do so as a lead artist. At the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, the song won Best Melodic Rap Performance, while its parent album received a nomination for Best Rap Album. His two collaborative albums with record producer Metro Boomin—We Don't Trust You and We Still Don't Trust You (both 2024)—continued his string of number-one projects on the Billboard 200; the former spawned his third Billboard Hot 100-number one single and first to remain atop the chart for several weeks: "Like That" (with Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar). Future then released Mixtape Pluto (2024), his seventeenth mixtape which caused him to become the first hip-hop artist to have three number one albums in the same year, and in less than six months.

Future has released the mixtapes Beast Mode (with Zaytoven), 56 Nights (with Southside), and What a Time to Be Alive (with Drake) in 2015—the latter spawned the single "Jumpman". He has released the full-length collaborative projects Super Slimey (2017) with Young Thug, Wrld on Drugs (2018) with Juice Wrld, Pluto x Baby Pluto (2020) with Lil Uzi Vert. Among the best-selling hip-hop musicians, Future's accolades include three Grammy Awards from a total of fifteen nominations. He also holds the record for the most albums at number one on the US Top Rap Albums chart, with 16.

Early life and career beginnings

Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn was born on November 20, 1983, in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Stephanie Jester. He attended Columbia High School in Decatur. At age sixteen (c. 1999/2000), Future describes getting shot in the hand and robbed, an event he regards as a major turning point in his life.

Future began his career under the name "Meathead", as a member of the Georgia-based musical collective Dungeon Family. He was led to join the group by his first cousin Rico Wade (1972–2024), who was part of the group's in-house production team Organized Noize and operated the East Point, Georgia "Dungeon" studio which the collective's name was based from. Future performed in a smaller hip-hop group within the collective who went by the name "Da Connect", where he would later be nicknamed "The Future" by group member G-Rock. Da Connect recorded one album, Rico Wade Presents: Da Connect which was slated for commercial release in 2003, but was ultimately shelved. Future had one solo record on the project titled "Belly of da Beast", which is considered to be his first song. He did not use autotune in his early career with Da Connect compared to later in his career. During this time, Future appeared in numerous Dungeon Family music videos, and received his first songwriting credit on the Organized Noize-produced single, "Blueberry Yum Yum" for rapper Ludacris in 2004.

Wade encouraged him to sharpen his writing skills and pursue a career as a rapper, as recording would create temporary respite from street life. Future voices his praise of Wade's musical influence and instruction, calling him the "mastermind" behind his sound. He was thereafter discovered by fellow Atlanta rapper Rocko, who took Future under his wing as a solo artist on his A1 Recordings record label.

From 2010 to early 2011, Future released a series of mixtapes including 1000, Dirty Sprite and True Story. The latter included the single "Tony Montana", in reference to the Scarface film. He gained regional popularity after his songs were played by DJ Esco at Magic City, a strip club in Atlanta deemed "largely responsible for launching the careers of artists." In April 2011, he co-performed with Atlanta rapper YC on his single "Racks", which would become his first hit song and Billboard Hot 100 entry—peaking at number 42. In July of that year, Future and rapper Gucci Mane would release a collaborative mixtape titled Free Bricks.

Career

2011–2014: Pluto and Honest

Future signed a major label recording contract with Epic Records in September 2011, days before the release of his next mixtape, Streetz Calling. The mixtape was described by XXL magazine as ranging from "simple and soundly executed boasts" to "futuristic drinking and drugging jams" to "tales of the grind". A Pitchfork review remarked that on the mixtape Future comes "as close as anyone to perfecting this thread of ringtone pop, where singing and rapping are practically the same thing, and conversing 100% through Auto-Tune doesn't mean you still can't talk about how you used to sell drugs. It would almost feel antiquated if Future weren't amassing hits, or if he weren't bringing some subtle new dimensions to the micro-genre."

Though Future had told MTV that Streetz Calling would be his final mixtape prior to the release of his debut studio album, another mixtape, Astronaut Status, was released in January 2012. In December 2011, Future was featured on the cover of Issue 77 of The FADER. XXL's Troy Mathews wrote, "While Astronaut Status is up and down and never really hits the highs like 'Racks', 'Tony Montana', and 'Magic' that fans have come to expect from Future, it's apparent that he's poised to continue the buzz of 2011 humming right along into 2012." Future was selected to the annual XXL Freshmen list in early 2012.

His debut album Pluto, originally planned for January 2012, was eventually released on April 17. Its first three singles were mastered re-recordings of pre-existing songs, "Tony Montana", "Go Harder", and "Magic", the latter contained a guest feature from high-profile hometown native, rapper T.I. According to Future, "'Magic' was the first record T.I. jumped on when he came outta jail. Like, he was out of jail a day and he jumped straight on the 'Magic' record without me even knowing about it." The track became Future's first single as a lead artist to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 69 in April 2012. In addition, the albums next singles, "Same Damn Time" and "Turn on the Lights" peaked at number 92 and 50 on the Hot 100 respectively, further ushering Future into the mainstream spotlight. The latter was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA and spawned a remix featuring Lil Wayne. Other collaborators on the album include Trae tha Truth, R. Kelly and Snoop Dogg. On October 8, 2012, Future would perform the hook for Pusha T's single "Pain", which preceded his 2013 debut studio album My Name Is My Name.

It was announced that Future would be repackaging his debut album Pluto on November 27, 2012, under the name Pluto 3D, featuring 3 new songs and 2 remix songs, including the remix for "Same Damn Time" featuring Diddy and Ludacris, as well as his single "Neva End (Remix)" featuring Kelly Rowland. In November 2012, Future wrote, produced, and co-performed with Barbadian singer Rihanna on "Loveeeeeee Song", from the singers seventh studio album, Unapologetic.

On January 15, 2013, Future released the compilation mixtape F.B.G.: The Movie which features the artists signed to his Freebandz label: Young Scooter, Slice9, Casino, Mexico Rann and Maceo. It was certified platinum for having over 250,000 downloads on popular mixtape site DatPiff. Future said of his second studio album Future Hendrix it will be a more substantive musical affair than his debut album and features R&B music along with his usual "street bangers". The album was to be released in 2013. The album featured his then-fiancée Ciara, as well as other high-profile artists including Kanye West, Drake, Kelly Rowland, Wiz Khalifa, and André 3000, among others.

The album's lead single, "Karate Chop" featuring Casino, premiered on January 25, 2013, and was sent to urban radio on January 29, 2013. The song, produced by Atlanta-based producer Metro Boomin, spawned an official remix featuring Lil Wayne, was sent radio and was released on iTunes on February 19, 2013. On August 7, 2013, Future changed the title of his second album from Future Hendrix to Honest and announced that it would be released on November 26, 2013. It was later revealed that the album would be pushed back to April 22, 2014, as it was said that Future has tour dates with Drake on Would You Like A Tour?. Along with "Karate Chop", the album was preceded by the singles "Honest", "Shit", "Move That Dope", featuring Pharrell and Pusha T and "I Won" featuring Kanye West; "Honest" peaked at number 55 on the Hot 100. Upon release, the album was received generally positively and peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200. During this time, Future also made a slew of guest appearances on hit songs including Lil Wayne's 2013 hit single "Love Me", Rocko's single "U.O.E.N.O." the same year, and DJ Khaled's 2014 single "Hold You Down". The former became his first top-10 entry on the Hot 100 and received diamond certification from the RIAA.

2015–2017: DS2, Evol, Future, and Hndrxx

Future released DS2 on July 16, 2015. On September 20, 2015, Future released a collaborative mixtape with Canadian rapper Drake, titled What a Time to Be Alive. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, Billboard R&B Charts, and Billboard Hot Rap Songs, marking the first time a rapper was able to score two number one albums in a year, in 11 years, since Jay Z back in 2004. The mixtape has sold over 334,000 copies in the U.S. On January 17, 2016, Future released another mixtape, titled Purple Reign, with executive production from Metro Boomin and DJ Esco, as well as beat credits from Southside, Zaytoven and more. On February 5, 2016, Future premiered his fourth studio album, EVOL, on DJ Khaled's debut episode of the Beats 1 radio show We The Best. In 2016, Future became the fastest artist to chart three number-one albums on the Billboard 200 since Glee soundtrack albums in 2010.

On June 29, 2016, he appeared in an issue of Rolling Stone. On Valentine's Day 2017, Future announced via Instagram that his self-titled fifth studio album would be released on February 17, 2017. Exactly one week later, he would release his sixth studio album titled Hndrxx. Both albums went number one consecutively, which made Future the first artist to debut two albums at number one at the same time on the Billboard 200 and Canadian Albums Chart. On October 20, 2017, he alongside Young Thug would drop their collaboration mixtape Called Super Slimey. He, along with Ed Sheeran, collaborated with singer-songwriter Taylor Swift on the song "End Game" from her album Reputation. The song peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Future's eighth top 20 hit.

2018–2019: Superfly, Wrld on Drugs, and The Wizrd

On January 11, 2018, Future collaborated alongside Kendrick Lamar, James Blake and Jay Rock for the song, "King's Dead", from the soundtrack album of the Marvel Studios superhero film Black Panther and Jay Rock's third studio album Redemption. At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, the song earned two Grammy nominations, for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song, marking Future's first career Grammy nominations. Future curated the soundtrack for the movie Superfly, which was released in June 2018. On October 19, 2018, Future released Wrld On Drugs, a collaborative mixtape with fellow American rapper Juice Wrld. Wrld on Drugs debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 behind A Star Is Born by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, with 98,000 album-equivalent units, which included 8,000 pure album sales. It became Future's tenth top-ten album in the United States, and Juice Wrld's second.

On January 18, 2019, Future released his seventh studio album, Future Hndrxx Presents: The Wizrd. The album consists of 20 songs and was promoted by a film titled The Wizrd, released on January 11 on Apple Music. The Wizrd received generally positive reviews from critics and became Future's sixth US number-one album, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 125,000 album-equivalent units (including 15,000 pure album sales). With the release of The Wizrd, several songs from the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100, leading to Future becoming the artist with the 10th most entries in Hot 100 history. At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards held on February 10, 2019, Future won his first Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance for his collaboration alongside Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and James Blake for the song, "King's Dead", from the soundtrack album of the Marvel Studios superhero film Black Panther. On June 7, 2019, Future released his second project of the year, his debut solo EP titled Save Me. Save Me received mixed reviews from music critics and debuted at number 5 on the US Billboard 200.

2020–2021: High Off Life and Pluto x Baby Pluto

On January 10, 2020, Future released the third single for his then upcoming seventh studio album: "Life Is Good", which features Drake; the song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and eventually was the highest charting song off the album. On February 15, 2020, Future released an official remix of his song "Life Is Good", the remix kept Drake’s feature—and added new verses from DaBaby and Lil Baby. On May 1, 2020, Future guest appeared on Drake’s sixth mixtape Dark Lane Demo Tapes; on the mixtape—Future appeared on the tracks "Desires", and "D4L" alongside Young Thug. Both tracks charted within the top-30 of the Billboard Hot 100. On April 1, 2020, Future released the fourth single for his then upcoming album, "Tycoon"—the song debuted and peaked at number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Later that month (April), Future announced his eighth studio album, at the time titled Life Is Good; The title was later changed to High Off Life and the album was released on May 15, 2020. The album became Future’s seventh consecutive number one album, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart with 153,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. The album sales week also became Future’s largest week since 2015, when his third album DS2 debuted atop the chart with 151,000 album-equivalent units. On May 26, 2020, Future released the ninth track from High Off Life as a single, becoming the albums fifth and final single—the track being "Trillionaire", which features YoungBoy Never Broke Again.

On July 21, 2020, Future and fellow rapper Lil Uzi Vert both deleted all posts on their Instagram pages respectively and proceeded to upload a visual teaser directed by Hype Williams, intending to announce an at-the-time upcoming album titled Pluto x Baby Pluto. Later that month, on July 31—which is Uzi’s birthday, Future and Uzi both released the collaborative singles "Patek" and "Over Your Head", both singles would later appear on the deluxe edition of Pluto x Baby Pluto. On November 13, 2020, after extensive promotion—Future and Lil Uzi Vert released their collaborative album Pluto x Baby Pluto, which was both artists second project of the year; the album debuted and peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200 with 105,000 album-equivalent units. The album was blocked from the number-one spot by AC/DC’s album Power Up—which debuted atop with around 12,000 more units (117,000 units).

Throughout 2020, Future guest appeared on many songs, all of which either performed well on music charts, or didn’t chart. Future was featured on "Big Drip" by Ufo361 on January 17, 2020—"Dead Man Walking" by 2 Chainz also on January 17, 2020—"1st n 3rd" alongside Lil Baby by Marlo on January 23, 2020—"Happiness Over Everything (H.O.E.)" alongside Miguel by Jhené Aiko on February 26, 2020—"What It Was" by Lil Gotit on June 26, 2020—"Rari" by Octavian on July 27, 2020—"Thrusting" alongside Swae Lee by Internet Money on August 21, 2020—"Gucci Bucket Hat" with Pap Chanel featuring Herion Young on October 20, 2020—and many other features.

On March 26, 2021, Future collaborated with rapper Moneybagg Yo to release the single "Hard for the Next", which became the second single from Moneybagg Yo's fourth studio album: A Gangsta's Pain. On May 28, 2021, Future collaborated with Hotboii to release the non-album single "Nobody Special." On September 24, 2021, Future collaborated with rapper Gunna to release the single "Too Easy", which happened to be the lead single from Gunna's at-the-time upcoming third studio album: DS4Ever; the song charted in the top-twenty of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. On December 15, 2021, Future collaborated with rapper Rvssian to release the non-album single "M&M", which also features vocals from Lil Baby. Throughout 2021, Future appeared on many songs as a featured artist, most notably—he broke the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 entries (125) until a number-one song was captured, he earned his first number-one with his feature alongside Young Thug on Drake's single "Way 2 Sexy", which debuted in the Hot 100's number one position.

2022–present: I Never Liked You, We Don't Trust You, We Still Don't Trust You, and Mixtape Pluto

On February 11, 2022, Future released his first solo single in over a year, "Worst Day", which happened to appear on the deluxe edition of his at-the-time upcoming ninth studio album. On April 20, 2022, Future was named the "best rapper alive" by GQ. Then on April 22, 2022, Future and record producer Southside released the collaborative single "Hold That Heat", which features rapper Travis Scott. On April 29, 2022, Future released his ninth studio album I Never Liked You after it was previously announced earlier that month. The album was a commercial success, becoming his eighth number one album and debuting atop the Billboard 200 chart—moving 222,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, becoming Future's largest sales week by album-equivalent units.

I Never Liked You notably spawned four simultaneous top-ten entries on the Billboard Hot 100: "Wait For U" featuring Drake and Tems (at No. 1), "Puffin On Zootiez" (at No. 4), "712PM" (at No. 8), and "I'm Dat Nigga" (at No. 10). All sixteen tracks from the album debuted on the Hot 100; as well as two additional tracks charted by Future, causing him to have 18 simultaneous entries that week. On May 3, 2022, Future released the seventh track from his ninth studio album I Never Liked You as a single, "Wait for U", which features Drake and Tems—the track previously became Future's second number one single on the Billboard Hot 100, Drake's tenth, and Tems' first. On May 6, 2022, Future released "Keep It Burnin", the third track from I Never Liked You as a single, the track features vocals from Kanye West.

Future released We Don't Trust You, a collaborative album with Metro Boomin, on March 22, 2024. The duo then released the sequel album, We Still Don't Trust You, exactly three weeks later on April 12, 2024. On September 2, 2024, he confirmed the release of his seventeenth mixtape Mixtape Pluto.

In early 2025, Future featured on the song Fxck Up the World from Alter Ego, the first studio album of the Thai rapper Lisa.

Musical style

Future's music has been characterized as trap music. Future makes prevalent use of Auto-Tune in his songs, both rapping and singing with the effect. In 2013, Pitchfork wrote that Future "miraculously shows that it's still possible for Auto-Tune to be an interesting artistic tool", stating that he "finds a multitude of ways for the software to accentuate and color emotion". The LA Times wrote in 2016 that "Future's highly processed vocals suggest a man driven to bleary desperation by drugs or love or technology", stating that his music "comes closest to conjuring the numbing overstimulation of our time". GQ stated in 2014 that he "has managed to reboot the tired auto-tune sound and mash it into something entirely new", writing that he "combines it with a bizarro croon to synthesize how he feels, then [...] stretches and deteriorates his words until they're less like words, more like raw energy and reactive emotions". Critic Simon Reynolds wrote in 2018 that "he's reinvented blues for the 21st century."

American singer and rapper T-Pain, who also uses that audio processor, criticized Future's unconventional use of it in 2014. In response, Future stated in an interview that "when I first used Auto-Tune, I never used it to sing. I wasn't using it the way T-Pain was. I used it to rap because it makes my voice sound grittier. Now everybody wants to rap in Auto-Tune. Future's not everybody." Due to the sustained contemporary popularity of his musical style, he is commonly regarded as one of the most influential rappers of his generation.

Personal life

Future is the unmarried father of seven children by his account, each with different women, although another child's paternity has been litigated. He has a son named Jakobi born in June 2002 with Jessica Smith, daughter Londyn born in 2009 with India J and adopted her son Jaiden, son Prince born in 2013 with entrepreneur and influencer Brittni Mealy, son Future Zahir born in May 2014 with Ciara, son Hendrix born in December 2018 with model Joie Chavis, daughter Paris and son Kash with unknown women. In October 2013, Future was engaged to Ciara, who is the mother of one of his sons, but she ended the engagement in August 2014 due to his infidelity.

In 2016, Future was sued by both Jessica Smith and Ciara. Smith sued him for failing to pay child support, stating their son "suffers from emotional and behavioral issues stemming from Future's neglect as a father", while Ciara sued him for defamation, slander, and libel. In October 2016, a judge said that Future's string of tweets bashing Ciara did not relate to the $15 million she was asking for. In 2019, two women from Florida and Texas respectively filed paternity suits claiming that Future was the father of their respective daughter and son. In 2020, the Texas woman dropped her paternity suit.

Discography

Studio albums

Collaborative albums

• Pluto × Baby Pluto (with Lil Uzi Vert) (2020)
• We Don't Trust You (with Metro Boomin) (2024)
• We Still Don't Trust You (with Metro Boomin) (2024)

Tours

Headlining

• Nobody Safe Tour (2017)
• Future Hndrxx Tour (2017)
• Future and Friends: One Big Party Tour (2023)

Co–headlining

• Summer Sixteen Tour (with Drake) (2016)
• Legendary Nights Tour (with Meek Mill) (2019)
• We Trust You Tour (with Metro Boomin) (2024)

Awards and nominations

References

• Media related to Future (rapper) at Wikimedia Commons

Bianca Miquela Landrau (born August 16, 1991), known professionally as Bia, is an American rapper who debuted on the Oxygen reality television series Sisterhood of Hip Hop. She signed to Pharrell's I Am Other record label, in partnership with RCA Records in 2014. Her first EP, Nice Girls Finish Last: Cuidado, was released in 2018. She is best recognized for featuring on the 2016 single "Safari" by J Balvin and "Best on Earth" by Russ in 2019. In early 2020, Bia signed a new record deal with Epic Records, releasing her second EP, For Certain, on December 11, 2020. The EP spawned the single "Whole Lotta Money", which later was released as a remix featuring Nicki Minaj and reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Early life

Landrau was born in Medford, Massachusetts. She is of Puerto Rican and Italian descent. In an interview with Oxygen's website, she spoke about wanting to become a rapper at a young age after attending studio sessions with rappers and helping them record. Landrau attended college briefly, but after realizing it did not suit her, she dropped out and began bartending to pay for studio time. She moved to Los Angeles, California, full time in 2017.

Career

2014–2015: Career beginnings and #CholaSeason

Bia was initially discovered by rapper Fam-Lay through YouTube and who later introduced her to Pharrell. Bia starred on the first two seasons of the Oxygen reality television series Sisterhood of Hip Hop. In 2014, she signed to the I Am Other music label as part of a collaboration with RCA Records and began working with T.I as well as singers Jennifer Hudson and Usher. Later that year, Bia released a mixtape entitled #CholaSeason. In an interview with radio station Hot 97's morning show Ebro in the Morning in September 2015, she revealed that she would not return for season 3 of Sisterhood of Hip Hop.

2016–2018: Touring and Nice Girls Finish Last: Cuidado

Bia served as the opening act for Pusha T's Darkest Before the Dawn Tour in March and April 2016. The next month, Bia alongside Victoria Monét, were the main support acts for the European leg of Ariana Grande's Dangerous Woman Tour. Bia also opened for select dates during the North American leg. Bia was featured on J Balvin's song "Safari", released as a single in May 2016. The track topped the charts in Mexico and Spain as well as peaking at No. 3 on the US Latin Charts.

In 2016, Bia released the singles "Whip It" and "Gucci Comin' Home". These singles were followed by "Badside" and "Fungshway", which were both released in 2017. All four singles were intended to be included on Bia's then-upcoming debut EP titled Trap Vogue, to be followed by her debut album. Bia described the project as "high energy with Latin elements mixed in". She also revealed that the song "Esta Noche" featuring Grande, which was performed during Bia's opening set for the Dangerous Woman Tour, would be included on the project. Bia eventually scrapped the project in favor of new material.

Bia was featured on the track "Miami", from Kali Uchis' debut album Isolation, which was released on April 6, 2018. Victoria Monét released a remix of her song "Freak", featuring Bia on July 10, 2018. A visual was released including a shortened version of the track just containing Bia's verse and a chorus, while the full version of the song appeared on streaming platforms. On September 21, 2018, Bia released her debut EP Nice Girls Finish Last: Cuidado, which included the single "Hollywood", as well as collaborations with Uchis and Kodak Black.

2019–present: Departure from RCA and For Certain

In 2019, Bia split from RCA Records, citing the label was preventing her from releasing music. She released her first independent song "One Minute Warning" in August. "Best on Earth", a collaboration with rapper and singer Russ, was released on October 17, 2019. Singer Rihanna posted on her social media that it was her new favorite song, which led to an internet trend #BestOnEarthChallenge and a spike in popularity to the song. The song eventually peaked at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Bia's first entry on the chart and was certified Platinum by the RIAA for selling over one million units in the United States. On September 29, the song garnered Bia her first BET Hip Hop Awards nomination for Sweet 16: Best Featured Verse.

In early 2020, Bia resigned with Sony under Epic Records and released two singles, "Free BIA (1st Day Out)" and "Cover Girl". "Cover Girl" was serviced to Urban and Rhythmic radio stations on April 14. In September 2020, Bia released the single "Same Hands" featuring American rapper Lil Durk. Another single, "Skate", was released in November 2020, alongside a music video. A reworked version of the song, entitled the "NHL Mix", was later used as the theme song for the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs. All songs are included on Bia's second EP, titled For Certain, which was released on December 11, 2020, through Epic Records. A music video for the song "Whole Lotta Money" was released on April 8, 2021. Following viral success on the social media platform TikTok, the song was serviced to Rhythmic radio on May 18, 2021, becoming the fifth single from the EP. A remix featuring Nicki Minaj was released on July 9, 2021, and caused the song to reach a peak of number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Bia's highest-charting song. On September 24, she released the single "Besito" featuring G Herbo. Alongside the release, Bia announced the deluxe edition of For Certain which will be released on October 22, 2021. Also in 2021, Bia appeared as feature on Iggy Azalea's song "Is That Right" from her final album The End of an Era.

In an interview with Ladygunn, Bia revealed she is working on an R&B project titled R&BIA.

On February 5, 2022, Bia launched her own make-up line Beauty for Certain. On April 8, 2022, Bia released a song with rapper J. Cole entitled "London". On September 9, 2022, Bia featured on the remix to Nicki Minaj's song "Super Freaky Girl" entitled the "Queen Mix" alongside JT from City Girls, Katie Got Bandz, Akbar V, and Maliibu Miitch. In September 2022, Bia also featured on German rapper Luciano's track "Bamba". On March 3, 2023, Bia released a song titled "Sixteen". On March 24, 2023, Bia released a song featuring American record producer Timbaland titled "I'm That Bitch".

In an interview on Bootleg Kev, Bia announced that she has completed her debut album. She revealed that she has decided the name of her upcoming album and the cover art is ready while also further revealing that "I'm That Bitch" and "London" will be on the tracklist of her upcoming album.

On June 1, 2024, following what appeared to be a diss aimed at Bia in the remix to GloRilla and Megan Thee Stallion’s "Wanna Be", Bia had previewed a new diss track targeting Cardi B.

Artistry

Bia has cited American rapper Jay-Z, American singer Selena, and fellow rappers Bankroll Fresh, 21 Savage, Nicki Minaj, Foxy Brown, M.I.A., and Blac Youngsta as her biggest influences, as well as Aaliyah and Rihanna as her personal muses. Bia stated that she has never connected with an artist the way she has connected with Rihanna.

Filmography

Television

Awards and nominations

Tours

Appearances

• Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday 2 World Tour (2024)

Supporting

• Pusha T – Darkest Before the Dawn Tour (2016)
• Ariana Grande – Dangerous Woman Tour (2017)
• Don Toliver – Life of a Don Tour (2021)

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Mixtapes

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Promotional singles

Guest appearances

Notes

References

External links

• Bia at IMDb