Jelly Roll Describes How a Local Nashville Rapper Inspired His Music Career: “Man, You’ve Got Something”

Jelly Roll may be riding a career-high, but there was a time when his success was less guaranteed. Fortunately, the singer found inspiration along the way.

In an interview with GQ, Jelly Roll described how a friend’s cousin helped him get serious about music. Up until that point, Jelly Roll had been in and out of juvie, hardened in some ways by life’s circumstances. He used these incarceration trips as breaks away from distractions. It was just him and the beats that he heard in his head.

Jelly Roll had set his sights on becoming a rapper. “Nobody knew me for writing,” he said. “But every time I got incarcerated, I would go do a year, year and a half, and I would just write.” A friend of his gave Jelly Roll is first real chance to see what being a rapper was like.

His friend’s cousin was the Nashville rapper Haystak. Jelly Roll attended the show where Haystak put him on the spot. The rapper also encouraged the youth to stay out of trouble and to hone his talent instead.

[See Jelly Roll in Concert]

“For the first time in my life, I’m in the room with somebody with a big chain, a Rolex, he’s dressed cool as s–t, everybody’s saying ‘What’s up’ to him, girls are flashing him on cars. It’s wild!” Jelly Roll said. “He was like, ‘You’re the kid who’s locked up—spit something,’ because he was incarcerated as a youth. So I spit something right there on the spot. And he was like, ‘Man, you’ve got something. You just gotta stay out of trouble.’

Jelly Roll Makes Pivot to Country

However, the singer failed to heed the advice at the time. Still, Jelly Roll started working with Haystak to hone his craft. Over time, the singer realized his high-energy tracks like “Pop Another Pill” and “Welcome to the Trap House” didn’t feel authentic. He also noticed that audiences connected with his slower, soulful songs.

Jelly Roll realized he was less interested in rapping and more interested in singing.

“My soul is to write ballads—that’s what pours out of me, dude,” he said. The singer followed this intuition and never looked back, transforming into a country artist. “It’s still precious to me. I kind of enjoy feeling that way; I’m still glad I get real palm-sweaty before interviews, get real nervous before shows. I love that. I’m still here for the right reasons.”

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[Photo by Danielle Del Valle/Getty Images)]