Jelly Roll Would Bring Mixtapes to Drug Deals: “It Was Like My Business Card”

You can’t say that Jelly Roll isn’t a hustler. The musician was trying to hit his big break even before he cleaned up his life and got on the straight and narrow. Jelly Roll recently confessed he used to treat his drug deals like an audition.

The rapper-turned-country singer said he would give away his mixtapes to clients, sort of like a business card. “Even my drug dealing, to me, was always a means to music,” he told CBS Sunday Morning.

Jelly Roll treated his drug deals as a way to broaden to his burgeoning rap career at the time. He said, “I’m just like, ‘Yo. Here’s a sack of weed. Here’s a gram of coke. Here’s a mixtape … I rap too.’ It was like my business card.”

Jelly Roll Reckons with His Past

However, Jelly Roll wouldn’t truly hit his stride as a musician until he decided to straighten up his life. The musician recently visited his old jail where he reckoned with his past misdeeds and sins and questioned his current path.

[See Jelly Roll in Concert: Get Tickets]

He said, “There was a time in my life where I truly thought … this was it. And then coming here, you know, just after getting nominated for two Grammys, it just hits different. … I didn’t think I’d get emotional, to be honest. Even when I left here, I didn’t have a plan. I knew that I loved music, and I knew it was the only thing I had any skill set [for].”

The musician has considered whether he truly deserves all of his newfound fame. It’s that question that keeps him up and drives him when he takes the stage. “I’m starting to, I didn’t at first,” he shares. “‘Do I really deserve this?’ I’m still a guy that’s haunted by my past. There’s a very dark hallway between my ears.”

Jelly Roll recognizes that he is in a unique position to do some good. As such, he has been using his platform as a musician to meet with others who are in a dark place. He told People (via Fox), “I always said that if I ever got in this situation, I would do everything I could to give back. The fact that just me showing up places can make people happy is such a gift, and I feel like if God gave me that gift, I should show up.”

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[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartRadio]