J.I.D is sitting in the green room of the Universal Music Group’s offices watching a replay of a football game. He had just finished eating some takeout when I walked in. The Atlanta MC has had hundreds of performances in his career, but he’s never quite had a set like the one he performed for a small, invite-only crowd in Manhattan, where he performed a song that will never be formally released to the public.
He partnered with 5 Gum to put together a custom track for their Hip-Hop 50 celebration. The unnamed song is inspired by five classic hip-hop and R&B albums: Ludacris’ Word Of Mouf, Mary J. Blige’s What’s the 411?, Common’s Resurrection, The Roots’ Phrenology, and Timbaland’s Shock Value.
He says that “the albums that inspired the track were selected because they show and celebrate the genre’s range, with each bringing something unique to hip-hop over the past 50 years. Altogether, they celebrate the rich, diverse, and varied sounds that we hear today.” The song was performed once, and it will also be placed in five boomboxes that will only play the cassette five times before self-destructing. Fans will be able to join a sweepstakes for a chance to receive one of the boomboxes (which each have a piece of J.I.D’s chewed gum visible inside the volume knob).
J.I.D says he wrote and recorded the song the day after his tour, and was adamant about referencing the five songs in subtle, clever ways. That’s reflected in the smooth, roughly 5-minute track, where he takes a famous hook from Mary J. Blige in between verses that veer from social commentary to reflection on his career path. At one point, rapid-fire hi-hats jolt the Christo-crafted production and he delves into his signature double-time flow. He also said that baby sounds heard in the song were a consequence of him having a baby in the studio with him and deciding to pay homage to Timbaland’s penchant for using baby laughs as sound effects.
“I feel like it worked out well,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I was trying to find an authentic way to express and show gratitude to these artists that I was honoring, And giving them their markers whenever I find a place.”
Alongside the exclusive track, J.I.D is a busy man, working on two albums. He says his Forever & A Day album is a “deluxe-type vibe” that follows a similar scope to his 2022 The Forever Story album. It will be released before his highly anticipated collaboration project with Metro-Boomin, which he says they had been working on for years before fans caught wind of it. “It’s probably some of the best shit I ever did,” J.I.D contends about the duo project. “And then us blending the worlds, it’s going to cook, everybody gonna be fucked up.”
He’s also one-half of the Blakkboyz with Lil Yachty, and tells me that they have “a bunch of songs” alongside their recently released “Van Gogh” and “Half Doin’ Dope” singles. Even if most of his fans may never hear his 5 Gum collaboration, he has enough music coming to properly satiate them. J.I.D talked to Rolling Stone about his exclusive song, being fearless in his music, and what makes him want to take a collaborator off a track.
How did this idea come about?
It was set up between my team and the label. They felt like I was the right fit for trying to put this song together and build this world because it was a bunch of paint being thrown at the wall, as far as the ideas [they wanted to execute.] But when they finally came to [an agreement] of how they wanted to do it, I was down because it felt fresh and I like exclusivity. This is one of the biggest examples that I can give [with] the way music’s going today.
Like you said, being in an era where you drop an album on a DSP, and fans are so inundated with other music, that they might not give it the value that they will give a CD that they bought…how do you navigate that?
[By] moving on anybody else time. I understand it being a microwaveable fast food type-era, [in] music. So [I] try to stand on my own movement. Do something [when] you feel like your [music] is ready as opposed to trying to attack any algorithm. So that’s why it’s perfect for me because it’s not even a part of an album, it’s something that’s going to happen and therefore [if you weren’t there], you just missed it.
So it’s five artists, five albums that are the inspiration for your song. How did you go about trying to properly reference all of them?
I did a lot of studying, trying to make sure that I hit certain marks. I feel like it worked out well. I was trying to find an authentic way to express and show gratitude to these artists that I was honoring, and giving them their markers whenever I find a place. [I was] not being so blatant about [the references]. Trying to be a little bit more vague and give the feel as opposed to being direct with the approach.
How long did it take for you to craft the song?
I’ve been working on so much stuff and I’m literally just getting off tour. So when I looked up the deadline it was like the next day. [Laughs] I didn’t even have a day to chill. It was literally the next day and I sat for at least three, four hours and made the song.
You recently announced that your Forever And A Day is going to be dropping relatively soon. What more can you say to the fans about the project?
I’m literally closing the chapter on it. It’s right there. [I’m] making sure everything is sounding right, crossing my t’s, dot my i’s. I’m a perfectionist with stuff like this, so [I’m] trying to figure out is it where I want it to be? Is it what I’m trying to present myself as? So, it’s coming. It’s not going to be too much of a held-off process.
When you speak to what you want to present yourself as, is that a different angle or perspective from previous projects?
This is going to serve as an addition to, or I don’t even want to say deluxe, but deluxe-type vibe. it’s around the same scope of that album, but at the same time it’s more free because when I was working on the album, I was literally so locked in and focused on the thing that I was trying to attack, but this one is little more free because I got it off.
Fans are anticipating the Metro-Boomin collaboration, too. I was wondering what kind of update you could give on…
You want that right? [Laughs]
Hell yeah! [Laughs]
It’s the same shit, we just cooking up. Me and [Metro] been working on this for a few years without leaving people knowing. So we literally at the tail end of it, so it’s going to be relatively soon as well. It’s probably some of the best shit I ever did. And then us blending the worlds, it’s going to cook, everybody gonna be fucked up.
I saw that you said that you’ve been working with Lil Yachty recently too. What’s he’s like in the studio? Several people I’ve talked to told me about how ambitious and creative he is in the studio.
Yachty’s got a vibe, that’s my brother, every time we around each other, there’s never no forceful [energy]. We just be at it. And if we’re not, we talking about how we going to get to making something that’s going to be great. So it’s just banging brains and finding the right sound and being fearless in the studio. He’s fearless.
Do you anticipate dropping a project down the line?
We got a bunch of songs. We have enough music to the point where we could do whatever we want. That’s why I dropped those two songs like, “Hey, we got these, y’all can wait on them. Take these.”
How much do the competitive aspect fuel you when working on a project with someone?
I’m a good group worker and at the same time I’m very competitive, so I’m going to make sure I win. But it’s going to be a comfortable environment. It’s all about the best outcome for the song. Sometimes the competitive aspect can cloud the final product and you have to take that out of it and aim for the best finished point. That’s where I try to live there.
Can you speak to instances where the competitive aspect shrouded the best path for the song?
I’ve had a few situations where I’m working on a song and I’m planning for the song to be the best as it can. And then of course I’m J.I.D, everybody wanna out-rap me. So it’s been a situation where I’m like, “I’m going to take your whole verse off of this because you just want to focus on me.”
Trying to double-time.
The song’s not even asking for that..double time flows…talking about all this stuff that’s not even regarding the song. So it’s been instances I was like, “Sorry, bro, got to take your verse off. You’re doing too much or not enough.”
How does an artist take that?
At that point, it was not my concern. I’m here to serve the music, doing what’s best for the channel that’s being sent between me and the higher power. It’s not even about competition all the time. It’s literally about doing what serves the music, it’s all about service.
What were some of your favorite experiences during the tour?
Just touring period, bro. Seeing your fans. My fans are relentless. They know every single word. They’re crazy. They’re bringing merch. They’re asking me to draw on their foreheads. They want me to do everything. I’m signing babies and whatever. So my fans are all for the journey of it. I honor that. Being able to have the privilege to have people really listen to the music and cry to, sing to, and be joyful about it [is] the best thing to me.
Is there anything else that you have going on that you want the readers to know?
I’m stepping into the era of fearlessness, being an artist and not letting nothing hold me back from what I feel like I can do or what I deserve.
When you say stepping into that era of fearlessness, what do you think the prior obstacles were?
Getting into the industry and all of the new stuff that’s coming at you so fast. The fans and the money and everything. I was kind of apprehensible to it cause I had to get adjusted. I don’t trust a lot. I’ll have to see evidence and proof before somebody could just tell me something. I won’t believe it. [There were] a lot of things that I had to learn [and] unlearn about myself. Stepping into manhood and different things regarding my life [where] I had to find myself. Now I’m kind of there. I never lost myself, though. I wouldn’t say I was lost. It was just like, “Okay.”