Jharrel Jerome Rocks The Mic
“I’ve always been in love with hip-hop,” he states. “Since I was a kid, I’ve been tracking it, watching it, and now I’m a part of it.”
Photo Courtesy of Uwakokunre (Kokie) Imasogie
Jharrel Jerome is an anomaly by today's artistic standards—he cares.
If you didn't know, Jerome is a critically acclaimed actor. You may have seen him in Barry Jenkins' Moonlight. Or maybe you caught him in Ava Duvernay's harrowing Netflix film When They See Us—in which he won an Emmy award. Could it have been Amazon's I'm a Virgo? HBO's Full Circle? Maybe you heard him in Marvel and Sony's record-breaking Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse?
However, you’ll find that delivering dramatic narratives is just one of his many talents. It turns out the young thespian is also a formidable emcee. And it was his lauded acting track record that gave him an uneasiness about going "all in" on his rap aspirations. Yet, Jharrel knew something had to give—and he’s ready to rock the mic.
"I went quiet and I got back in the studio and I started really... Some days were great, where I'm like, 'All right, I'm getting better, my flows are getting sharper, my lyrics are getting more sound, I'm understanding how to make a song.,'" he told In Search Of Magazine. "But then at the same time, I'm getting deeper in my head, man. I'm getting more afraid to drop the music because the acting is so solid, why tip that off? 'Why ruin something great?,' is what I keep yelling at myself as I'm trying to record a verse. And so, it's like this little battle I'm having in my head. But bro, passion is passion. I know the feeling. When you're passionate about something, nothing's going to stop you from doing it."
The celebrated actor and aspiring rapper sat down with In Search Of Magazine to discuss his Rap Pack EP. We're honored to have spoken to the young king.
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In Search Of Magazine: So when did you fall in love with Hip-Hop?
Jharrel Jerome: Oh man, I can't even pinpoint the age at this point. It was probably one of the first few things I ever fell in love with in general. My mom had me at a young age and she raised me in the BX. So I think that all just came with the territory.
When I was waking up at four years old, five years old, and I heard a broom hitting my door because my mom was cleaning the living room. She was playing Slick Rick. She was playing A Tribe Called Quest. She was playing LL Cool J. just before I could remember anything, I thought that rap was about what Slick Rick was doing. It was about storytelling, it was about imagery because my mom was obsessed with that at the time. It's like, what, 2003 or four? So, 50 Cent is out, Eminem is out, Jay-Z is out. Kanye West is coming out. But she was stuck on the 90s, and she refused to listen to anything new (laughs). So, growing up, that was just what I was introduced to. And the first song I ever fell in love with was Mona Lisa by Slick Rick. And I learned that word for word by the time I was eight. And yeah, that's my first earliest memories of Hip-Hop. And then from there it just transformed.
ISO: What age would you say that transformation happened and inspired you to write your own raps?
JJ: I think there was two different points for me. One, I would say was 11, because 11 was when I started to branch out away from what my mom was playing and listening to whatever I wanted to listen to. So that was the first time I was going to look for 50 Cent. That's the first time I was trying to look for Eminem CDs. First time I was like, what does West Coast sound like? Now I'm picking up Snoop Dogg, and I'm picking up NWA for the first time. So I think 11 and 12 is when I started to fall in love with everything beyond New York hip hop that was originally said to me. And then it was, I'd say when I was 15, when I decided to just call myself a rapper and walk around everywhere saying, I rap, I rap, because between 11 and 15 I would just write rhymes. It was level one type things. And I just kept a journal.
I remember, actually, this is a funny story. I got in trouble one time. My mom opened up my rap journal when I was like 13, and she found me cursing in all my lyrics and I was like saying, f**k you, f**k this. And she made me stop listening to Eminem entirely because she thought it was Eminem inspiring that, which it was true (laughs). And so I remember those years in terms of me keeping it to myself and writing and rhyming and writing like it was poetry.
It wasn't until I was in high school, when I was 15, that I connected with one of my homegirl's father, a DJ in my area. And I would pull up to his crib, and he had this little studio set up in his room. I would record rhymes off of beats on YouTube. And that was my introduction to allowing myself to get inside a space and focus on rhyming and recording my rhymes. And again, very surface-level music and sh*t that I would listen to now. But it was me excited. I even packaged up a little mix tape at the time and sold it in my high school out of little CDs.
ISO: Wait, what was that project like?
All right, just hear me out. I called it FML. At the time, FML, everybody was writing that out on Facebook, remember? They put it under their status, 'Oh FML, I got to go to school. FML, I got to go to work. F**k my life. F**k my life. And so I called it FML, but I meant it as 'Feel My Lyrics.' Which is... Exactly, what a 15 year old would do right there (laughs). 15 years old, I was saying, 'Look, we all got this problem with FML, I could help you feel like you don't want your life to be f**ked. Come feel my lyrics instead of talking about FML.' I thought it was very creative at the time.
ISO: I peep the vision, I peep the vision (laughs)!
JJ: You feel me? It was like a little concept and everything. I'm proud of it now, but it definitely was just a process that ingrained the idea of music into my head. When I came out in Moonlight and my acting career shifted in a way that I didn't know what to do with it. I had an option of either leaving the music as a hobby and I just go ahead and rap to my friends, rap to myself, or take it with me. And it was moments like selling CDs in high school that kind of ingrained this idea that if I could have the chance to do it, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to try to do it. So, by the time I was 18, which is why I answered that age question in three parts, 11, 15, and then 18 is when I really made the choice that I wanted it as a career to go alongside what I'm doing as an actor.
ISO: And now you have that budding career as a rapper. Your latest project, the Rap Pack EP, is out now. Talk to me about that project.
JJ: So, I let out the first pack, the Rap Pack, and I'm going to be letting out three packs afterward. The same experience you just experienced where you listen to four records, I'm going to do that three more times. It'll be a total of 16 songs coming out in the next two months, and out of nowhere, there you go, I got a ton of songs out. But I'm excited because each pack sounds very different and it will not be what you expect. And I want that to emulate how I am as an actor, where I'm doing roles that are not what you expect.
The first pack is called the Rap Pack, which is all about my bars—strictly Hip-Hop. Strictly reminding you, I'm from the BX and the type of music I grew up listening to. And then the next pack that's coming out is going to be called the Trip Pack, where it's just very left-field music, where it's very experimental. And I leave that rap box that you think I will have you in. And then the next pack is called the Love Pack, where I'm talking to the ladies, and I'm trying to open up the audience beyond just the fans that listen to strictly rap. And then the last pack, I have fun, and I call it Trap Pack, where I'm having fun over beats that bang. And so, saying this all to you can sound confusing, but hopefully, when it all comes out, you call me again and we talk about it and you'll see what the vision was.
ISO: And with each project you're going to include a short file. Talk to me about that.
JJ: Shomi Patwary directed each short film and the first you saw for pack one is just the beginning of a longer story that I've planned. So when pack two comes out, you'll see another short film, but it'll be in continuation of the last one. This first pack that came out is the longest pack. I think it rounded about seven and a half minutes. The next few packs will all come out to about four and a half minutes. And then each pack, just like this first one, you'll hear about a minute-long snippet of the four records that I'm putting out throughout the packs. But there's really this beginning, middle, end story that I wrote, how I would describe it it's a heightened version of my lifestyle and the choices that I want to avoid making.
Yeah, that's been my whole mantra, this last year and a half. There's a song I have called "Someone I'm Not," and I put out that record early because I hope to gain more fans over time. And they go back and listen to my old stuff and that's one of the first songs I ever put out. That song word for word is exactly how I feel in terms of the blessings and the changes that my life has taken. I feel honored to be here, but at the same time, there's a lot of imposter syndrome that I'm dealing with now. And so I came up with this title called "Someone I'm Not," the abbreviation to that is SIN, S-I-N. And yeah, when you're someone you're not, that's when you'll probably lean into your vices, into your sins the most.
Courtesy of Kevin Winter/Getty Images
ISO: Do you have any features across these 16 songs or across these projects?
JJ: So, if I do have a feature, it'll be from somebody personal to me. I don't have any major names or anybody who has a ton of credits on. That goes for producers as well. The biggest producer on my project is Kosine, and I give a big shout-out to him. He has a cool record on there with me, and he's done a couple, he did "Anaconda" by Nicki Minaj, worked with Big Sean. So, he's the man. I got to plug in with him, but I think we only got one on there. The rest, bro, is just people that I've been plugged with on a personal level in the last three years of my life and I've trusted more than anyone. So, over a course of 16 songs, you'll probably only see about four different producer names.
Then, as for a feature, I feature with my homie Carter Ace, who is a great singer. He's up and coming right now. Again, that was just a personal connection in the studio. Then my homegirl Delilah, who I've known since high school. It's just one of those personal projects for me. I'm not trying to be flashy. I'm not trying to be like, 'Hey, Chris Brown, jump on my record because you saw my show and talked.' You know what I'm saying?
That would be awesome, and getting features from a major artist like that is a dream of mine. But I'm not in a rush to do it. I want respect first and people to know that I'm coming in here by myself independently ready to let it rock.
ISO: Speaking of wanting that respect, how do you feel about Hip-Hop right now?
JJ: There is a very, very silent, quiet air inside of the Hip-Hop space right now. Things are very questionable. If you are a true lover of Hip-Hop, you wake up and think about the genre and culture. You think about the fact that rap is at a quiet spot, and it's at a place that it's never been before, where you're wondering who can grab the torch and keep it moving forward.
That being said, I will be the one to grab the torch and move it forward. And I'm confident in moving that way. But I'm not saying it to say that it's going to be just me, I'm saying it's going to be me and about three, four other people. I want to make sure that my music can open the door for those other artists to get different, get weird, and get on top with me, so we can do it all together.
It's what we need. And I can't be alone in that journey. So, I'm not sitting here, like, 'Yeah, I'm about to be the one, the only one to bring Hip-Hop back," but I damn sure can say I'm going to be the one to keep Hip-Hop going.
There's always two different sides of a coin. Hip-Hop has always had two different sides of the coin. At the same time NWA existed, Tribe was out there talking about love, and was out there talking about what it meant to be family. NWA was a little more rough. So, you can lean on whatever side of the coin you want to lean on, but it has nothing to do with confidence, in terms of the outcome that you choose to have with it. So, my confidence, I'm going to move without a gun ever in my pocket. That's all I know.
ISO: Yo man, we love how passionate you are about this, honestly and truthfully. We genuinely f**k with that.
JJ: I really appreciate that. I'm holding onto it. I really think it could carry me further than I think if I keep on like this.
Plus I just care about it, dog. I care about Hip-Hop. We in the 50th year now. You know what I'm saying? It's an old man, we got to take care of this old thing.
